Date: February 15, 2017 Grade/Class/Subject: 5th Grade/Mr.

Lesson Length: 50 minutes Quigley/Reading

Adapted from Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study

Content Objectives:
1. Students will be able to determine different character’s feelings and reasons for their
differing reactions to events in their books.
2. Students will be able to use details from the time the characters are living in to
support their inferences.
3. Students will be able to use details about the character’s personalities to support
their written inferences.
Language Objectives:
1. Orally engage in partner discussion about evidence of their characters feelings and
reaction to a particular event with reference to the time period they are living in.
2. Record in writing inferences about character’s feelings and reactions using evidence
about the time period the book takes place in as well as the character’s personality.

Learning Objective: Readers deepen their understanding of characters by setting into their
shoes and realizing that they are shaped by the times in which they live.

Essential Questions: How does the time period impact character and plot?

Standards Addressed:
CCSS.5.RL.1 – Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.RL.5.2- Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the

text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how
the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

Supplementary Materials:
-Baseball Saved Us read aloud book
-chart paper / markers
-Student reading journals /pencils
-21 copies of worksheet

Building Background:
Links to Student’s Background and Learning:
-Students have learned about how important it is to follow along and keep written or mental notes
of important details like the characters’ personalities; and to understand the time and
circumstances of their historical fiction books to better immerse themselves in the story. Now we
will be focusing on how the two interact – how the timeline determines how characters act.
-With the information about the characters and the time/place we will “step into the character’s
shoes” and deepen our understanding of them and the time period they live in.
-Students are already familiar with the story Baseball Saved Us because I read it as a read aloud
book last week.
Lesson Sequence:
3 minutes: Setting Standards: Teacher will post in writing on the board and verbally state the
content and language objectives as well as the purpose of the lesson.

Teacher will remind students before partner work of their roles as well as remind them to use low
voices while working together.

1 minute: Stating Purpose of Lesson: We are going to practice deepening our understanding of
characters by “stepping into their shoes” and realizing that they are shaped by the time period in
which they live.

15 minutes: Guided Practice: Teacher will ask students to remember what the book Baseball
Saved Us is about and allow a volunteer to answer. Teacher will ask students to remember a
particular scene from the book and will think aloud and share her initial reaction to the scene from
her own perspective without the historical timeline’s influence. Then, the teacher will reconsider
the scene placing herself in the character’s shoes including the historical context that shapes the
character’s thinking. Teacher will point out how important it is to pay attention to the historical
context.

Teacher will tell the class that we are going to do an activity which requires students to “step into
the shoes” of a character from Baseball Saved Us that the teacher assigns to them. The teacher will
quickly pair students up in a heterogeneous mixture based on where they are seated. She will tell
them that the partner that is sitting closer to the front of the room is one character, and the partner
sitting closer to the back of the room is the other character. Teacher will tell students to put
themselves in their assigned character’s shoes while she reads a significant passage from the read
aloud book.

Teacher tells students to turn and talk about their character’s reactions to the scene based on their
different positions toward the central issues of the book. Teacher will remind students to talk
quietly and to look back up at me when your conversation is over. (Teacher will monitor talk and
will have students come back together when it seems productive conversations have ended)

Teacher will model recoding the information on a three-column chart that students will use for
their own books when they go back to their desks. The chart will have “Event”, “First Character’s
Reaction & Why”, and “Second Character’s Reaction & Why” on it. Teacher will call on one or two
groups to share their characters’ reactions and share their thinking.

We have to always ask ourselves when reading, “Why would my character react that way?” Remind
students that a character’s timeline and the setting plays a large role in their decision-making and
we must put ourselves in their shoes to figure it out.

20 minutes: Independent Practice: Teacher will explain that students will now go read their
Historical Fiction independent reading books and will use the worksheet (with the three column
chart on it) to write about their own characters’ perspectives during a particular event.

10 minutes: Checking for Understanding: Teacher will walk around and take a formative
assessment on students based on the details they are writing on their worksheets to determine if
they are using what they know about the time period, setting and their characters’ personalities to
make inferences about each character’s reaction to a certain event.

Teacher can ask the following questions to different groups, especially to groups that are finished
early:
 What do you know about this time period?
 What is happening in the world at the time of your book?
 How would you feel if you were living in these circumstances?
 If your family lived during this time at this place, what would your life be like/look like/
what types of things would you be doing each day? (going to school?, going to work?, going
to war?, hunting?, cooking?, how do you travel?, how to you talk to your family far away?,
etc.)

Teacher will tell the students that the time is up at 10:40 and have students turn and talk to the
person at their table about their charts and why the characters reacted the way they did. At 10:45
teacher will have at least one person share their event and their characters reactions and evidence.

1 minute: Closure: Teacher will reiterate how readers deepen their understanding of characters
by stepping into their shoes and realizing that they are shaped by the times in which they live.

Assessment/s: Teacher will walk around and take a formative assessment on students based on
the details they are writing on their worksheets as well as what they share to their partner to
determine if they are using what they know about the time period, setting and their characters’
personalities to make inferences about each character’s reaction to a certain event.

Students will hand in their worksheets and be assessed based on if they are using what they know
about the time period, setting and their characters’ personalities to make inferences about each
character’s reaction to a certain event. For students who do not seem to have a good understanding
of their book’s time period, I will have them use non-fiction resources to research the setting so
they can better understand their historical fiction book.

Core Practices:
4. Uses engaging ways to begin a new unit of study or lesson, and applies sound
pedagogical practices of lesson construction.
 I will be drawing on students’ prior knowledge of the book Baseball Saved Us which will
capture the attention of my students and lead into the body of the lesson.
4. Builds on students’ prior knowledge and experience, and offers real world learning
activities that address school, community and societal issues.
 Students have learned about how important it is to follow along and keep written or mental
notes of important details like the characters’ personalities; and to understand the time and
circumstances of their historical fiction books to better immerse themselves in the story.
Now we will be focusing on how the two interact – how the timeline determines how
characters act.
 With the information about the characters and the time/place we will “step into the
character’s shoes” and deepen our understanding of them and the time period they live in.
 Students are already familiar with the story Baseball Saved Us because I read it as a read
aloud book last week.
8. Employs a variety of reading and writing strategies for addressing learning objectives.
 Teacher will hand out a worksheet that provides a scaffold for the three-column event and
character reaction chart.
 Students will be writing evidence on their worksheets that support their claims about the
characters’ reactions in their books.
 Students will be reading their books with a purpose to find an event and two characters’
differing positions toward the central issues of the book.
 Students will also be sharing their reading and writing with an audience (their peer, or the
whole class for some).