Lesson Plan (SIOP)

Topic: Grade Range: Time Frame:

Legends 3rd Grade Day 4 (45 minutes 1:45 PM-2:30
PM)

Common Core Standards:

Content Objective:
TSW read and discuss elements and important ideas in legends.

Content Objectives: (Stated in Student Friendly Language)

Good readers attend to important ideas in legends so they can understand what they read.

Language Objectives:
TSW orally explain the definition of genre, legends, elements, and important ideas.
Language Objectives: (Stated in Student Friendly Language)
I can talk about what the words legend, genre, elements, and important ideas mean.
Key Vocabulary: Materials:
Legend, genre, elements, Paul Bunyan Power Point
important, generations, heroes, Student copies of Reading Street text
culture values, and actions Whiteboard chart

Higher Order Questions:

How is Paul Bunyan a typical hero of a legend?
Where might this story take place?
Why might the author have chosen capital letters for the words huge and gigantic?
Why does the author start the story by telling us the first thing most people
noticed about Paul Bunyan was that he was big?
What details about Babe tell me that this legend is not a true story?
How is the plot of Paul Bunyan and the Great Lakes typical of a legend?
According to the legend, how were the Great Lakes made?
What is the effect of Paul Bunyans decision to dig reservoirs for drinking water?
What details support the idea that Paul Bunyan needed to dig more and more
reservoirs?
What is the theme of the story? What details support the theme of the story?
Compare and contrast Paul Bunyan and Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest.
Write an imaginative story using details from both texts.
Lesson Activities:

Introduction:
Begin by reminding students of our weekly reading skill and strategies (these are written on the focus wall).
Tell them that today we will be focusing on important ideas and how good readers pay attention to the
important ideas in titles, topic sentences, paragraphs, and photos in order to understand what a selection is
all about. It is always important as readers to stop and think about what we are reading and try to identify
the important ideas. As we read Paul Bunyan and the Great Lakes we are going to practice this strategy.
Anticipatory Set:
Show the Legends We Might Already Know, and ask students to share what they know about legends
already. How are legends different from other types of genres? Connect myths and legends (myths are not
based on facts, legends are slightly more believable than myths).

Guide students thinking and complete the What do we think we know about them slide. Ask students the
following questions:
1.) What are characters in a legend like?
2.) Where do legends take place?
3.) What kind of things happen in a legend?
4.) What type of theme, or big ideas, do legends, often have?

Modeling:
Direct students to page 80 in their Reading Street textbooks. Give them time to notice title, illustrations,
and words written in capital letters.

Tell students, when I preview the story, I see that the title mentions a real place, the Great Lakes. The
pictures show a person who is very big swinging an axe and digging a big hole. I also see that the author
put the words huge, gigantic, and big in capital letters. I think Paul Bunyan is a typical hero of a legend
because he is very big and strong, and that the setting is the Great Lakes.

Guided Practice:
Ask students to think about the chart we made about legends and the previewing we just did and predict the
plot of Paul Bunyan and the Great Lakes. Remind them to make predictions based on important ideas.

Have students read the legend with their reading partners stopping to answer the questions on the, Read!
slide throughout the legend. Remind students that stopping and thinking as we reads helps us to understand
what we are reading.

Page 81: What details about Babe tell me that this legend is not a true story?
Page 82: What is the setting of this legend?
Page 83: According to this legend, how were the Great Lakes made?
Page 83: What is the theme of the story? What details support the theme?

Modeling:
After reading, think aloud about the plotsay, I know that the plot is the series of events in a story, so to
think about how the plot is typical of a legend, I look at the things that happened in the story. Paul is
digging reservoirs, or places to hold water, the size of some of the largest lakes in the world. This plot is
typical of a legend, because it shows how Paul Bunyan uses his unusual strength.

Guided Practice:
Ask the following questions:
What was the effect of Paul Bunyans decision to dig reservoirs for drinking water?
What details support the idea that Paul needed to dig more and more reservoirs?

Independent Practice/Assessment:
Have students create a venn diagram listing the similarities and difference between the Paul Bunyan legend
and the expository text, Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest.

Next have students use the information from the venn diagram they created to write and imaginative short
story with their partner.
-Thumbs up/thumbs down
-Teacher observation
-Student discussion
-Partner work
-Venn diagrams

Intervention/Extension:
Teacher will provide individual and small group support throughout the lesson as necessary. Additional
support and extension activities will also be provided for students during small groups.

Student Activities (Check all that apply for activities throughout lesson):

Scaffolding: Modeling X Guided X Independent X

Grouping: Whole Class X Small Group X Partners X Independent X

Processes: Reading X Writing X Listening X Speaking X

Strategies: Hands-on X Meaningful X Links to Objectives X

Review and Assessment (Check all that apply):

Individual X Group X Written X Oral X

Review Key Vocabulary: plot, setting, characters, theme, important ideas, legend, generation

Review Key Content Concepts:

TSW discuss important ideas in every paragraph by looking at the topic sentence and thinking about the
main events and sequence.