My Father's Dragon Business Plan
Comprehension Lesson plan for My Father’s Dragon
B. Busby-Rhinehart
Grades: K-2
Summary:
The teacher will read aloud Ruth Stiles Gannett 's book, "My Father 's Dragon" to facilitate discussion and promote reading comprehension skills.
Materials:
One for the class to share:
• My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• enlarged map from the back of the book on poster board
• small sticky note with a student drawn picture of the main character
• colored tape
Additional Resources
These books are the other titles in this series. They provide many great opportunities for students to practice listening and comprehension strategies.
Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett
Background …show more content…
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett is a short chapter book. It is an excellent choice for introducing younger readers to chapter books and helps build their comprehension skills by listening to books with longer text. While reading through each chapter, make several opportunities to stop and let students discuss predictions and questions they have while the story unfolds to verify understanding and comprehension of the text.
There is a beautiful map in the book that shows all the places the main character visits. Put this map on a poster board for use as a visual aid for tracking the main character’s adventures during read aloud activities.
Chapters are short and can be read aloud in just a few minutes. Taking a chapter a day allows time for discussion before and after reading aloud to discuss the story events for the day and move the main character on the map poster.
Intended Learning Outcomes: Increase reading comprehension by using a variety of instructional methods based on the read aloud activity with the chapter book My Father’s Dragon. Process Skills, prediction, connecting, visualizing, questioning and identification of big ideas
Instructional Procedures:
Read the short paragraphs on the back of the book introducing the plot of the story and the author.
• Ask the students if they think this will be a book about fact or fiction.
• Have students tell you why they think it is fact or fiction. (Students should be able to tell you that there are no real dragons.)
• After the class has established that this is a work of fiction, discuss with the class if they think it would be fun to visit an imaginary place called Wild Island. Explain to students that by reading the book together they will all be able to visit Wild Island by creating the story in their minds.
• Instruct students to pay attention to their visualizations of the story during the read aloud activity and be ready to share those mental pictures with the class.
Instructional Activity:
Read only one chapter each day.
After Chapter one, ask the students to listen to find out the setting and characters in the story. Prior to reading all other chapters, read the title of each chapter. Ask the students to predict what events might take place. Opportunity for prediction is offered in each chapter. Have the students try to figure out what Elmer will use from his knapsack to try to help each of the animals he meets solve their problem. After reading each chapter, ask the following types of comprehension questions to generate discussion and confirm students understand the story and plot.
1. Ask the class two or three general who, what, where, when, type of questions to make sure they are following the story line.
2. Ask students what they would do in Elmer’s situation, How they would feel if they were the baby Dragon, Would their mother let them keep a stray cat, (adapt questions to help students connect to their own experience depending on the events in each chapter)
3. Ask students to describe any pictures that came into their minds (visualizing) as they listen to the story.
4. Encourage the students to discuss any questions they have based upon what has already happened in the
story.
5. Ask students what they think the main idea is for each chapter.
After each chapter discussion, move the sticky note of Elmer Elevator on the poster board map. Let students direct where Elmer should be on the map for that chapter.
Extensions:
After reading My Father’s Dragon with the class, encourage students to select and read a chapter book with their family at home. Students may want to read the other two books in this series, Elmer and the Dragon, The Dragons of Blueland
Assessment:
Informal assessment for this read aloud activity would involve the teacher carefully listening and observing student responses in discussion and making adjustment of class discussion for each chapter.
Student should be able to ask relevant questions and make appropriate predictions about each chapter.
Student should be able to direct the proper path for the main character on the poster map.
Maintaining the enjoyment associated with a chapter book read aloud by focusing on developing the class discussion rather than formal methods of assessment since this lesson is designed to facilitate comprehension and introduce students to the longer text of chapter books. References
Ruth Stiles Gannett. (1948). My Father 's Dragon. New York: Random House.
Ellin Oliver Keene, and Zimmermann, Susan. (1997). Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader 's Workshop. Portsmouth, New Hamshire: Heinemann.
Thompkins, Gail E. (2006). Literacy for the 21st Century (Fourth ed.). New Jersey: Merrill Prencice Hall.
B. Busby-Rhinehart
Grades: K-2
Summary:
The teacher will read aloud Ruth Stiles Gannett 's book, "My Father 's Dragon" to facilitate discussion and promote reading comprehension skills.
Materials:
One for the class to share:
• My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
• enlarged map from the back of the book on poster board
• small sticky note with a student drawn picture of the main character
• colored tape
Additional Resources
These books are the other titles in this series. They provide many great opportunities for students to practice listening and comprehension strategies.
Elmer and the Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett
Background …show more content…
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett is a short chapter book. It is an excellent choice for introducing younger readers to chapter books and helps build their comprehension skills by listening to books with longer text. While reading through each chapter, make several opportunities to stop and let students discuss predictions and questions they have while the story unfolds to verify understanding and comprehension of the text.
There is a beautiful map in the book that shows all the places the main character visits. Put this map on a poster board for use as a visual aid for tracking the main character’s adventures during read aloud activities.
Chapters are short and can be read aloud in just a few minutes. Taking a chapter a day allows time for discussion before and after reading aloud to discuss the story events for the day and move the main character on the map poster.
Intended Learning Outcomes: Increase reading comprehension by using a variety of instructional methods based on the read aloud activity with the chapter book My Father’s Dragon. Process Skills, prediction, connecting, visualizing, questioning and identification of big ideas
Instructional Procedures:
Read the short paragraphs on the back of the book introducing the plot of the story and the author.
• Ask the students if they think this will be a book about fact or fiction.
• Have students tell you why they think it is fact or fiction. (Students should be able to tell you that there are no real dragons.)
• After the class has established that this is a work of fiction, discuss with the class if they think it would be fun to visit an imaginary place called Wild Island. Explain to students that by reading the book together they will all be able to visit Wild Island by creating the story in their minds.
• Instruct students to pay attention to their visualizations of the story during the read aloud activity and be ready to share those mental pictures with the class.
Instructional Activity:
Read only one chapter each day.
After Chapter one, ask the students to listen to find out the setting and characters in the story. Prior to reading all other chapters, read the title of each chapter. Ask the students to predict what events might take place. Opportunity for prediction is offered in each chapter. Have the students try to figure out what Elmer will use from his knapsack to try to help each of the animals he meets solve their problem. After reading each chapter, ask the following types of comprehension questions to generate discussion and confirm students understand the story and plot.
1. Ask the class two or three general who, what, where, when, type of questions to make sure they are following the story line.
2. Ask students what they would do in Elmer’s situation, How they would feel if they were the baby Dragon, Would their mother let them keep a stray cat, (adapt questions to help students connect to their own experience depending on the events in each chapter)
3. Ask students to describe any pictures that came into their minds (visualizing) as they listen to the story.
4. Encourage the students to discuss any questions they have based upon what has already happened in the
story.
5. Ask students what they think the main idea is for each chapter.
After each chapter discussion, move the sticky note of Elmer Elevator on the poster board map. Let students direct where Elmer should be on the map for that chapter.
Extensions:
After reading My Father’s Dragon with the class, encourage students to select and read a chapter book with their family at home. Students may want to read the other two books in this series, Elmer and the Dragon, The Dragons of Blueland
Assessment:
Informal assessment for this read aloud activity would involve the teacher carefully listening and observing student responses in discussion and making adjustment of class discussion for each chapter.
Student should be able to ask relevant questions and make appropriate predictions about each chapter.
Student should be able to direct the proper path for the main character on the poster map.
Maintaining the enjoyment associated with a chapter book read aloud by focusing on developing the class discussion rather than formal methods of assessment since this lesson is designed to facilitate comprehension and introduce students to the longer text of chapter books. References
Ruth Stiles Gannett. (1948). My Father 's Dragon. New York: Random House.
Ellin Oliver Keene, and Zimmermann, Susan. (1997). Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader 's Workshop. Portsmouth, New Hamshire: Heinemann.
Thompkins, Gail E. (2006). Literacy for the 21st Century (Fourth ed.). New Jersey: Merrill Prencice Hall.