Windy Kelley 4th grade Response to Literature "A River Ran Wild" by Lynne Cherry

Writing for Understanding Instruction

Teacher Plan

Teacher__Windy Kelley__________________Class _4_________Date __July 2009____Writing genre____Response to Literature________

A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry

CENTRAL IDEAS The geography affects the culture of the people who settle in Vermont and the geography is affected by the culture of the people. Reading: When reading about cause and effect relationships, rereading, paraphrasing, and making inferences is important to building understanding. Writing: To construct a written response to literature. The focus is supported with evidence from the text.

Focusing Question	Focus (answer to focusing question)
How does the river affect the culture of the Native Americans and the European settlers and how does the culture of the settlers affect the river?	The river affects the culture of the Native Americans and European settlers and the culture of the settlers affect the river.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft This is just one lesson within the greater unit of study about Vermont and how the geography of land affects culture and how the culture of the inhabitants affects the geography. Given this information, there are other lesson’s prior to this that students will have been exposed to which have given students context about the Native Americans and Europeans who settled in Vermont. The purpose of this lesson is to guide students through a response to literature framework. This will be a teacher guided/directed lesson teaching students how to look for evidence in a text and to paraphrase the evidence, to then write a constructed response.

• vocabulary • guided reading • text mapping • paraphrasing • summarizing • visualizing/ • imaging • dramatizing • oral processing / guided conversation / think-pair- share • experience • debating • taking notes (graphic organizers, T-charts, 2 column notes, etc.) • craft lessons (intro, transitions, conclusions, etc)

· Give a topographical map of NH and MA showing the Nashua River. · Vocabulary may include: river, floodplains, watershed, migration, valley, mountain, forest, trading posts, Industrial Revolution, decomposed, descendant, petitions, protest. · Remind students of the painted essay, this is the structure we will be using for our written response. · Read and Re-read the text pointing out that the book itself has a particular structure. (The first half of the book is really answering the first part of the focus question while the 2nd half of the book reflects the 2nd part of the focus question) · Guide students to find evidence from the text that supports focus question. Use sticky notes to highlight evidence. · Oral processing: Turn and talk with a partner and paraphrase the evidence. · Use student graphic organizer (2 column notes) to write the paraphrased evidence. · Keep record of public notes of the paraphrased evidence. (May need to find pictures for a child in my classroom that needs picture supports for the evidence) · Will use graphic organizer for final literature response itself. Will have public notes with colored construction paper for each part of the painted essay. · Will create the model (painted essay) with the class a section at a time. This will be a big public note. · Students will also have their own colored construction paper painted essay template to write the model too so that they can keep this as a reference for future pieces.

Structures How will students know how to organize their ideas and construct the piece of writing?
• graphic organizers • teacher-written models • teacher-and-student written models • various types of templates or frames (ex: Painted Essay)	· Use graphic organizer (2 column notes) that they will use for paraphrasing the evidence, this will also be part of the public notes · Give a colored construction paper template for the painted essay model · Create the model of the response to literature together with the students using their paraphrased evidence.

Writing / Revising How will students draft / revise so that their final writing is clearly focused, organized, and developed to show understanding of the central ideas?
• group write, fully or in part • write section at a time • write full piece independently • revise /share full group • revise /share partners • proofreading in partners • proofread w/tubaloos	* Using the painted essay public template, write a section at a time together with the students. * Students will have their own painted essay template that they will use to copy the class model.

Lesson Sequence What steps will I follow so that students are able to effectively show their understanding in writing?

1. Tell the students that we are going to be reading a story about a river. As they listen to the story they will be learning about the importance of the river and its affect on the people (Native Americans and Europeans) who settled there and also how the people affected the river. Even though this river is in NH, it could very well be a river in Vermont. 2. Give a topographical map of NH and MA showing the Nashua River. Students will locate and color the river blue on their own map. 3. Vocabulary game: I will make up note cards with these vocabulary words on them: river, floodplains, watershed, migration, valley, mountain, forest, trading posts, Industrial Revolution, decomposed, descendant, petitions, protest. On a separate note card there will be the definitions. In groups of four, kids will try to match the words with their definitions. Once the students have tried to match the cards we’ll discuss the real answers. Tell the students to listen for these words as I read the book. 4. Remind students of the painted essay, this is the structure we will be using for our written response. 5. Share with students the focus question. How does the river affect the Native Americans and European settlers and how do the settlers affect the river? Post this focus question on the board. 6. Tell the students that the book itself has a particular structure. (The first half of the book is really answering the first part of the focus question while the 2nd half of the book reflects the 2nd part of the focus question) 7. Read the text aloud A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. This first reading should just be read through without picking out specific evidence from the text. 8. Re-read the first part of the text again so the students can now focus on finding evidence for the first part of the focus question. 9. When students find the evidence in the text that supports the first part of the focus we’ll mark the text with sticky notes labeling them NA for Native Americans, and E for Europeans. We’ll also give each sticky note a number so that we can keep track and identify the evidence on our 2 column notes. 10. After finding all the evidence for the first part of the focus question, we’ll go back to each sticky note and I’ll model how to paraphrase the information. We’ll take public notes and students will also have their 2 column note templates to take their own notes. 11. For the next piece of evidence we will do some oral processing: Students will turn and talk with a partner to paraphrase it. Then I will ask for a pair to share their paraphrase that will then be recorded on the public notes. 12. After all the oral processing, paraphrasing, and recording for the first part of the focus question is completed, we’ll go to the second focus question’s evidence and do the process again. 13. Once students have their 2 column paraphrased notes completed, students will each get a painted essay construction paper template. 14. I will have a large construction paper painted essay template which will be the big class model. Students will have their own mini versions of the construction paper template, and as we work through the piece together, students will record the writing on their templates as well. 15. Together as a class, we will construct the literature response piece. We will go section by section. 16. First we’ll start with the red paper, which is the introduction. I’ll ask that each student write a possible first line which they will share with their partner. I will then ask for volunteers to share one that they like and we’ll pick one that will be used for our class model. 17. I’ll then lead students to share other ideas which should be included in our introduction. 18. We’ll then work through the process of the painted essay section by section with the same format mentioned above. Students will be asked to write a bit on their own, turn and share with a partner, and then a few students will share out to the class. We’ll record some ideas on the public notes. 19. Once each section is finished, we’ll have a completed response to literature (painted essay) in a big class model form as well as each student will have their own mini model versions. This mini model will be put in their writing binders for future reference. Things to keep in mind: The model should show the focus with the details but the conclusion should reflect the bigger idea that the geography of the land helps to shape the culture of the people in both positive and negative ways. An example of the “so what” conclusion might be… what humans do with their resources shapes the history. In this book they use the river and surrounding land for their needs and wants, but when the Industrial Revolution comes (which is progress in some ways) there are negative impacts on the environment. Some people begin to move away from the land/river while others are moved to work together to take action.

Assessment: How are students doing? What are my next steps as a teacher?

Because this is a teacher directed lesson with student participation and input, my assessment will really be anecdotal. During the process I will be monitoring how well students are responding to my verbal prompts. I will monitor how well students can find evidence in the book. I’ll be listening, looking, and reading to see how students paraphrase the evidence. I anticipate that paraphrasing will be a hard skill for these 4th graders so I expect that I will be doing a lot of modeling as we go through the evidence in the book. As we go through each section of the painted essay, I will be noticing how well students can use the knowledge that we gained together from the story to how they can articulate it verbally first before writing. I believe that the conclusion of the piece might prove to be the most difficult for students as this is the theme, big idea, “so what” question, or why is this so important? If students can verbalize this well, I will be amazed and very pleased!

Next Steps: Gradual Release of Responsibility

The next step is for kids to work together in pairs to do a similar experience with another picture book or small article, preferably, with a similar topic. As a teacher, I would hope to give minimal support.

Model Paragraph:

Windy Kelley

Response to Literature Model

A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry

Geography plays a major role in the culture of people for it affects how people live, work, and play. People also have an affect on the geography because they altar the land and its natural resources depending on how they live, work and play. Sometimes people’s actions affect the geography in a positive way while at other times it is negatively impacted. The book we read in class was called A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry. It is a wonderful book that shows both the affects of geography on culture and how the people’s culture impacts geography. Specifically this book focuses on the Nashua River which runs through the states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, but it could just as well be a river right here in Vermont. The book sheds light on the impact that the river had on the Native American and European settlers’ culture and how the settlers affected the river over time.

The Nash-a-way river, (which it was called by the Native Americans) helped to shape the Native American culture in positive ways. In the beginning, there was a group of Native Americans who were searching for a place to settle. Coming down from a mountain, they saw a river where they could see pebbles at the bottom. They drank from this river to quench their thirst and decided because the river was so clean; it was a wonderful place to settle. One way the river helped to shape the culture of the Native American people was that the riverbank gave them an abundance of cattails. They used these cattails to thatch their houses. Because the river was so clean and beautiful, it was the home for many fish and wildlife. The Native Americans caught salmon in the Nash-a-way to eat. What is fascinating about the culture of these Native Americans is that they would only kill what they needed. They would never take more from the environment than what they needed to survive, in fact, after killing the salmon, they would ask these creatures to forgive them.

Taking from the land what was necessary to survive was not the mentality of the next group of settlers who came to make their home by this river. These people were “pale-skinned” who came down the river to trade with the Native Americans. These settlers came with lots of treasures like colored beads, tools, and cloth. Mrs. Kelley told us that these “pale-skinned people” were the European settlers. They realized that the river’s current could be useful to power sawmills. Not only did the Europeans build sawmills by the Nash-a-way, but they built dams which made mill ponds to store water. The settlers cut down trees along the river and floated the trunks to the mills where they cut the lumber which was then used to build their houses. Eventually these Europeans got greedy and took away the Native American rights to the river. No longer could Native Americans fish the Nashua. For one hundred years, the Native Americans and Europeans would fight over this land by the river because it was useful, healthy, and clean. In the end, the Europeans won and drove the Native Americans off the land. So as you can see, this river which came to be known as the Nashua, played a major role in the lives of both the Native American and European settlers culture.

The culture of the settlers also affected the river. In the 1800’s, there was a period of time called the Industrial Revolution. This was a time in history when new machines were invented to make life easier for the people. Some machines turned wood into pulp and pulp into paper. Even though this time of invention was a wonderful thing, how the settlers disposed of the waste created a real big problem. The pulp and dye was dumped directly into the Nashua River and because of this, the pulp from the paper mills clogged up the river and the decomposing pulp created a really bad smell. Inventions such as the telephone and radios were being made by plastic and the waste from this plastic were also being dump into the Nashua. Can you imagine what this pollution did to the river? Fish and other wildlife got sick and died. The migrating birds no longer stopped to drink, bathe, or play. Eventually the Nashua River died. Luckily, the book doesn’t end here; you’ll have to read the book to find out what actions were taken to help save the river. But as you can see from this small example, people and their way of life affected the river and in this particular case, their culture had a negative impact on the river.

So what is the point? Why is it important to know that geography affects the culture of people and the culture of people affects geography? Well for one thing, people need the environment in order to live. The natural resources which we have are a gift and should be considered one, for they help to shape who we are and how we live our lives. Fortunately or unfortunately what humans do with their resources shapes history either in positive or negative ways. In this book, people use the river and its surrounding land for their needs and wants, but when the Industrial Revolution arrives, their culture creates a negative impact on the environment, the river becomes so polluted that it dies. There is a give and take relationship between the environment and people and the people and the environment so it is important to consider this if we want this relationship to last.