This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| "We Live Here Too!: Kids Talk About Good Citizenship": Civil Perspective Social Media Post: | Students will read and discuss We Live Here Too!: Kids Talk About Good Citizenship by Nancy Loewen to explore the aspects of good citizenship and how it plays into their daily lives. After, students will determine the perspective of a character and design a social media post to spotlight their civility in this integrated lesson plan.
This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.
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| Close Reading: Determining the Theme: | In this close reading lesson, students will read Tops & Bottoms, adapted by Janet Stevens, focusing on the lessons that the characters learn as a result of their actions throughout the text. |
| Can Phineas L. MacGuire Achieve His Goal?: | This lesson is to be used with chapter 1 of Phineas L. MacGuire Gets Slimed by Frances O'Roark Dowell. It includes comprehension questions, a writing prompt, and a rubric. Students will answer comprehension questions and write a response based on a prompt that asks the students for their opinion and requires students to support their opinion with evidence from the chapter. |
| Charlotte's Web: Chapter 1: | In this reading lesson, students will determine the meaning of vocabulary words and explain the development of the main character, Fern, using Chapter 1 of E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. Students will respond to the text by writing an opinion paragraph. |
| Poppin' Themes: | Students will learn about theme by exploring classic books such as Where the Wild Things Are and A Chair for My Mother. This will be done using a popcorn and kernels as a guide to how theme works. |
| Roaring for Figurative Language: | In this lesson, students will analyze song lyrics to determine the meanings of figurative language used throughout the lyrics. Students will determine the theme of the song and explain how the examples of figurative language help develop the theme. They will complete various graphic organizers and write an opinion piece to demonstrate their understanding of the skills. |
| Determining the Theme: A Reading of Faithful Elephants: | In this reading lesson, students will work with the teacher and in cooperative groups to read and comprehend Faithful Elephants. Through multiple readings, the students will determine the meaning of words using context clues, discuss questions from the text, and explain the theme of the story by writing an expository paragraph. |
| Point of View: Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg: | During these lessons, students will delve deep into the text Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. After identifying the point of view in the story, they will answer comprehension questions about the story by playing a small group game. Students will have the opportunity to rewrite the story from a completely different point of view. |
| How to Find a Princess: A Study of The Real Princess by Hans Christian Anderson: | This short text, "The Real Princess," originally told by Hans Christian Anderson, will require students to think deeply, make inferences based on text evidence and learn several new vocabulary words. Students will discuss the components of a fairy tale, play a vocabulary game, and compose an opinion piece of writing about the theme of the story. |
| A Reading of The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco: | In this reading of Patricia Polacco's story The Junkyard Wonders, students will identify and analyze character development to help determine the theme, or underlying message, the author wants readers to understand. |
| Character Development: Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg: | In this lesson, students will delve into the text Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg. They will determine the character’s development based upon the character's traits, actions, and language, especially examining character change over the course of the text. Students will also write a narrative ending to the story based on the character’s development. |
| A Journey with Aesop: The Lion and the Mouse: | Students will listen to the teacher read aloud Aesop's fable "The Lion and the Mouse." They will define vocabulary words and discuss the causes and effects of events in the story. These lessons will culuminte with students writing an expository text about how the lion changes throughout the story by providing details and other required components. |
| Character Traits with 14 Cows for America: | The following lesson centers around the book 14 Cows for America. This story is a recount of the events on September 11 told through the eyes of a young man in his village in Kenya. Students will think deeply about the main character and his character traits in the story. A series of discussion questions are provided along with an expository writing prompt. |
| The Ballad of Mulan: A Close Reading Activity: | In this lesson, students will read and reread a classic Chinese folktale, The Ballad of Mulan. They will ask and answer text-dependent questions and will recount the events in the story using a story map. Students will determine the theme of the story and analyze Mulan's character development through her actions, thoughts, and feelings along with their contribution to the sequence of events and, ultimately, the theme of the story. |
| This is What I Think! Using Opinion Writing to Respond to the Text My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig: | For this lesson, students will read an excerpt from the text My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig. In response to a character's actions in the story, students will work to produce an opinion writing piece using character perspectives as text evidence to support their opinion. This is the second in a series of three lessons using the text My Secret Bully. |
| Exploring Theme Using the text My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig: | During this lesson students will write a summary of the text My Secret Bully by Trudy Lidwig, focusing on the details to determine the theme. Students will complete a problem/solution graphic organizer to be used in the summary. This is the first in a series of three lessons using the text My Secret Bully. |
| Figuratively Speaking: | In this lesson, students will be working with 5 types of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, and alliteration. Students will work together to create anchor charts for each type of figurative language, and then work in small groups to identify figurative language examples in poetry. They will identify the type of poem they are reading as they are hunting for figurative language. Finally, students will complete an individual assignment to gauge mastery of the figurative language skills learned. |
| Personification is Calling You - Teaching Personification and Identifying Types of Poems: | In this lesson students will read poems, see pictures, and learn about personification- the figure of speech that describes nonliving/inanimate objects by giving them human characteristics. Students will identify types of poems and create lists of characteristics, identify feelings that they evoke, and write sentences using personification. They will be writing sentences using personification to express themselves and illustrate their examples. |
| Strega Nona Plot and Summarizing: | This lesson focuses on identifying plot elements of Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola in order to explain how the character develops. Using a plot diagram and guiding questions, students will identify the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in the book. Students will then use the plot information gathered to summarize the text and explain how the character develops. |
| Identifying Character Development in Children's Literature: | Students will determine the traits, feelings, and motivations of a character based on a read aloud, Giraffes Can't Dance, written by Gildes Andreae. Students will use the character's traits, feelings, and motivations to discuss the character’s development throughout the story. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
