An epic!

Story Adventure

Shaianna Adkins
Kindergarten

Common Core Standards:

 RL.K.2. With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
 RL.K.3. With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
 RL.K.7. With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the
story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).
 RL.K.10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Lesson Summary:

This lesson is to ensure that students understand some basic components of a story. Students will gather around
to listen to the teacher read a story, while pausing to address some of the components throughout the text.
Afterwards, students will pick up an iPad/tablet and log-on to a digital reading platform to choose a story of
their own to evaluate. They will create booklets that summarize what they have learned. Once students are
finished assessing the stories they have chosen, they will break into groups with their peers and share what
they have discovered.

Estimated Duration:

Five 50 minute class periods.

Commentary:
To begin this lesson I will have students gather around our reading circle. We will discuss some of our favorite
class books, and I will ask students to point out their favorite character from their favorite book. Allowing
students to choose their favorites will be a great way to engage them in this activity. Once I have their attention
and can gauge that they have provided some solid examples, I will move on to ask them about where their
stories take place, and what the major events are. Once I know that they have the right idea, I will move on to
reading a brand new story for our class to evaluate together.

Instructional Procedures:

Day 1:
On the first day of our lesson, students will gather around our reading circle to begin discussing some of their
favorite books. I will ask students to shout out their favorite characters, while keeping track of them on our
notepad (as well as the following information). Next, I will ask students to tell where and when their stories
take place; this is called the setting. We will discuss the different settings that we encounter every day –
daytime at school, evenings at home, the park/playground on a warm, summer’s day, etc. Finally, I will ask
students to describe the major events that happen in their story. Was their character faced with a problem that
needed solving? How about a celebration that was occurring? What stands out to them? After our discussion I
will read the class a new story. We will pause to recognize our characters, our setting, and the major events.
We will also pay close attention to the illustrations, discussing what part of our story the illustration is
portraying. Once we have finished analyzing our book, I will have students choose a story of their own. This
will likely take up the remainder of our time. We will be using our classroom tablets to log-on to epic!, a
digital reading platform. This will give students a wide variety of stories to choose from, and they will be more
likely to enjoy the assignment if their able to pick something that interests them.

Day 2:
Students will be reminded of the task at hand and jump right in to finish selecting their story, if they haven’t
already done so. Once chosen, students will share with me to ensure that their choice will make for a good
foundation for evaluating story elements. Students will choose a spot to sit anywhere in the classroom to begin
reading. Headphones will be provided so that the students can opt to listen and read along through epic!.
Reading their stories will likely take up a good majority of the blocked time. Once students have finished their
first read-through they will be given a blank booklet that prompts each of the desired outcomes; characters,
setting, main events, illustration. Their first task will be to identify the names of all of the characters in their
story.

Day 3:
By this time, all students have chosen their story, and should be finished with their initial read-through.
Students began identifying the characters throughout their story the day prior and should have finished. Today
students will begin to describe the setting and the main events that occur. I will walk around the class,
reviewing booklets, to gauge where the class is at with their progress, and to support those who may need
additional prompting. Students will continuing referring back to their story to help assist them in completing
the assignment.

Day 4:
By now, students should have identified and filled in their booklets with their characters, setting, and main
events from their chosen story. Today they will begin to create their own illustration of one major event in
their story. The entirety of the time spent today will be to get creative. I will walk the class to ensure that
everyone is ready to move on to this step, and to assist those who may need more prompting with the story
elements.

Day 5:
Once students have completed their booklets I will break them into groups to share. They will use their
booklets to assist them in summarizing the story they chose, retelling key details, and making sure to pay
special attention to the story elements that are prompted within the booklet. Once all students have had a
chance to share with their group, I will have each group share how many different kinds of characters their
stories had, the many different settings, and to share the main events. This will help me to confirm that the
assignment was helping in building their understanding.

Pre-Assessment:

Prior to starting our project, I asked students to describe characters, settings, and the main events in their
favorite stories. These story elements are the foundation of our assignment for the week. By asking students
what they knew I was able to assess what they still need help addressing when reading on their own. We then
read a new story and evaluated the elements together as a class.

Scoring Guidelines:
When asking students to share their favorite books and to identify story elements, I am using teacher
judgement to gauge how much the class knows and understands on the subject. Once I introduce the
new story and ask students to identify the story elements, I am using a check list to ensure that all the
elements we’ve discussed are brought to attention.

When students begin reading their chosen stories and identifying story elements in their booklets, I will
walk the class to ensure students are clear about the objective.

Post-Assessment:

Student’s completed story booklet will act as a post-assessment. I will view each individual booklet and
confirm that the story elements were pulled from each book.

Scoring Guidelines:
Students who were unable to identify story elements throughout their chosen book will receive one-on-
on instruction to ensure understanding.

Differentiated Instructional Support

Describe how instruction can be differentiated (changed or altered) to meet the needs of gifted or accelerated
students:
Students who show a clear understanding of the basic story elements that are discussed can be challenged to
provide a more in-depth description of the characters, setting, and main elements than were originally required.
Focusing in on specific details of their chosen story, like perhaps the relationships between the characters.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material:
To meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the material I may partner up a few students with a
peer mentor so that the student can think critically alongside someone to offer support. They will still provide
their own completed booklet, but they may be offered friendly prompts/suggestions along the way. Then I will
assess the knowledge that was gained by doing a post-assessment, one-on-one reading check, and asking the
student to identify the reading elements.

Extension
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BVOIyUnk6s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=LhOBuYQJPEY&t=54s
These videos are a great walk-through of how to define the settings and characters in our stories. It provides
explanation and helpful visuals.

Homework Options and Home Connections

Students will be asked to share the elements of their home to their family. Who are the characters at home?
What is the setting like today? What main events have happened? This will help students to form a relationship
between what they read in text and what they experience every day.

Interdisciplinary Connections
This lesson requires students to fill in prompts within a booklet and to get creative by illustrating the main
events in their story. They will be using their writing and art skills!
 WRITING
 ART

Materials and Resources:

For teachers Notepad, marker, storybook example, computer, Word, printer, stapler

For students iPad, pencil, crayons/markers/colored pencils

Key Vocabulary
Story Elements, Character, Setting, Main Events, Illustration