Andy Teal October 5, 2011

Lesson Plan #1: Fortunately Objective: Students will recognize patterns in the book Fortunately, which tells a humorous story of opposite events. By working in pairs, the students will be tasked with emulating the patterns in the book by finishing each other’s “fortunately” events with “unfortunately” events. Georgia Performance Standards: ELA4R1(b),(f),(d): identifies and analyzes the elements of plot, character, and setting in stories read, written, viewed, or performed; makes judgments and inferences about setting, characters, and events and supports them with elaborating and convincing evidence from the text; identifies and uses knowledge of common organizational structures (e.g., chronological order, cause and effect) ELA4R3(b),(e): determines the meaning of unknown words using their context (“fortunately”); identifies meaning of and uses prefixes (“unfortunately”) ELA4W1(c): uses traditional structures for conveying information (chronological order, cause and effect)

ELA4W2(a),(b),(c): engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a point of view, and otherwise developing reader interest; establishes a plot, setting, and conflict, and/or the significance of events; creates an organizing structure

The Lesson: The students will stand up and move into pairs assigned by the teacher. (2 minutes)

The teacher will begin the lesson by asking the students what cause and effect is. The teacher will then conduct an anticipatory activity in the form of a quick write. The question the students will be tasked with answering is “write about a time you set out to do something fun, but it just didn’t go as planned.” (5 minutes)

The teacher will then read the book Fortunately aloud to the students. The teacher will model fluent oral reading, engage the students by showing the pictures from the book, and stop periodically to ask questions. (5 minutes)

The teacher will ask the students why they think we did the quick write before reading the story. The teacher will ask questions of the students related to the plot of a story. (5 minutes)

The teacher will then introduce the writing assignment to the students using a Powerpoint presentation. The presentation will have some examples, which the

students will be asked if they are appropriate and follow the structure of the book. (10 minutes)

The students will be put into pairs and each student in each pair will write a “fortunately” statement in a booklet (which was already provided to them). The statement can be about anything at all, as long as it has a positive outcome. The teacher will move around the room to offer help to any students who are a little lost. The students will also draw a picture of the situation if they finish early. (5 minutes)

Now the teacher will tell the students to hand their booklets to each other. Each student will now write an “unfortunately” statement that corresponds to his or her partner’s “fortunately” statement. Again, the teacher will move around the room to offer guidance to students and students who finish early will draw a picture to go along with their “unfortunately” statement. (5 minutes)

The students will switch back their booklets and they will now write another “fortunately” following their partners’ “unfortunately” statement. (5 minutes)

The students will write another “unfortunately” statement. (5 minutes)

The students will write their final “fortunately” statement, which will end the plot with their characters successfully completing the task they originally set out to do. (5 minutes)

The teacher will ask the students to share their “fortunately-unfortunately” booklets aloud. (10 minutes)

The teacher will debrief the lesson and assess the students’ understanding of the lesson. The purpose is to ask questions related to the lesson and listen to students’ responses to determine if lesson objectives were accomplished. Why did the students switch booklets for the second statement and have to continue their stories with their partners’ additions? (answer: to represent plot twists and strengthen creativity) What were the causes and effects in the story? (answer: debatable, as the “fortunately” and “unfortunately” could each represent causes or effects depending on how the story plays out; students should realize this interchangeability) What is plot? (answer: the direction in which the story heads) (10 minutes)

The students will stand up and get back into their regular groups for the next activity of the day. (2 minutes)

Rationale: The lesson plan involves students being read a book that follows a chronological order of opposite events. The students practice writing a narrative by creating similar stories, and gain perspective on how plots can twist by coming up with the first line and then finishing the story after their partners complete the second line. The students will

practice following a structure by completing their stories within the same structure of the book.