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Name: Alexandra Keresztes Lesson Plan Title/Topic: A Native American Spoken Tradition: Origin StoriesGrade: 3

Grade/Content AreaGrade 3Social StudiesEnglish Language Arts

Lesson TitleA Native American Spoken Tradition: Origin Stories

StandardsCommon Core or GLE/GSE (state level)ANDNational Standards (in all areas except Math and ELA-use Common Core for those)Social Studies (Rhode Island GSEs)C&G 5 (3-4) 1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the many ways Earths people are interconnected by locating where different nations are in the world in relation to the United States.HP 5 (3-4) 1 Students demonstrate an understanding that a variety of factors affect cultural diversity within a society by comparing cultural differences and similarities between individuals, groups, or communities (e.g., customs, beliefs, language, religious faiths).HP 5 (3-4) 3 Students demonstrate an understanding that various perspectives have led individuals and/or groups to interpret events or phenomena differently and with historical consequences by comparing how people with different perspectives view events in different ways.ELA (Common Core)ELA.3.RI 9 Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two [or more] texts on the same topic.ELA.3.SL 1d Explain their understanding in a discussion.ELA.3.SL 4 - Report on a text with appropriate facts and relevant descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

Context of the Lesson As a part of the third grade social studies curriculum, students are expected to study the Cultures and Contributions of groups in North America. This lesson will discuss four different Native American groups and discuss a major point of each groups culture, more specifically to the oral tradition of storytelling. We will look at four different origin stories (Iroquois, Lakota, Cherokee, and Penobscot) and determine if certain points are addressed in the story, as outlined in a table. The Common Core State Standards expect third graders to read more informational texts and to compare texts on the same topic. It will take about 50 minutes to complete this lesson.

Opportunities to Learn Students will be able to work with their peers and individually in this lesson. Before they begin working, there will be a read-aloud of one story so students can fill out the chart without concentrating specifically on the text.* Students will have many opportunities to apply what they learned: They will teach the other groups about the story that they read.* They will identify and write a comparison between at least two stories.* They will identify and write a difference between at least two stories.* To differentiate instruction and group the class I will: Locate the region each Native American group is historically from on a map of the United States so students will be aware of what areas we are learning about.* Conduct a read-aloud where we will fill in the chart for one story as a whole group.* Allow students to read texts with their reading groups and discuss which details apply to their story.* Ask students to teach a new group about what they just read.* Regroup and make sure that we all agree about the key details in each story.* Ask students to individually determine one similarity and one difference between the stories.* To get students attention I will use one of the clap sequences.* Materials for the lesson:* One copy of the worksheet for each student Enough copies of each groups story for the students in each reading group One clipboard per student Conditions necessary for the lesson:* Access to the SmartBoard (to find each group on the map and to go through the boxes together as a class) Each of the three rugs in the room to be completely clear for groups to work

ObjectivesStudents will be able to: Identify the areas that four different Native American groups are historically located on a map. Identify the details of the origin story that are important to the culture. Summarize the details in and explain their story to a group of students who have never read the story. Determine one similarity and one difference between any of the stories.

Instructional Procedures

Opening: We will begin on the rug in front of the SmartBoard. Each student will have a clipboard, a worksheet, and a pencil. Recall information about the folklores students have been studying. Although these may be considered fictional stories, some people believe these stories to be truth. Similarly, we may have different stories that explain how the world came to be the way it is today based on what we have learned from our families. Today, we are going to look at four different Native American groups stories about why the world is the way it is. We call these origin stories. On the SmartBoard, I have a map of the United States; I want you to help me find where these four Native American groups are from. First we have the Iroquois from the Northeast, mostly in northern New York, Student will come up and circle the area (in black). Next we have the Lakota from the Great Plains, thats both Dakotas and Wyoming, Student will come up and circle the area (in red). Then we get to the Cherokee from the Southeast, from North Carolina down to Georgia, Student will come up and circle the area (in blue). And last we have the Penobscot from the Eastern Woodlands of Maine, Student will come up and circle the area (in green). We are going to read the Iroquois story as a class. While I read aloud, you are going to check off the boxes that appear in the story. Read aloud the Iroquois story and go over the boxes checked by group poll. Discuss any inconsistencies (if only a few raise their hand or if one does not make any sense to the story).Engagement: Students will split into their reading groups on one of the rugs or at the blue table. One student from each group will get their groups stories from me. The stories and worksheet are attached at the end of this lesson plan. Stories by group: Red = Lakota (North Dakota, Great Plains Region) Blue = Cherokee (Florida) Green = Penobscot (Maine) In their reading groups when reading the stories: Students will be read their assigned creation story as a group and work on filling in the worksheet. After they have all finished, they will discuss as a group and make sure everyone has the same boxes checked off. In their jigsaw groups: Students will teach the groups about their story. They will talk about what the story was about and what they found interesting and then tell the other students which details on the chart were found in the story.Closure: After the students have successfully completed their jigsaw group, I will call them back to the rug and students will guide me through what they found for their story. I will make marks on the same table they filled in so that students can refer to the board instead of flipping their sheet back and forth when they write the similarity and difference. I will give students instructions for the backside of the sheet and then send students back to their seats to complete the back. I will leave the filled in table on the SmartBoard for each student to refer to. When they are done, the will place their sheet in the box of work to be graded.

Assessment

Informal Assessments: In the beginning of the lesson, we will identify on a map the locations that each Native American group is from. While students are reading and discussing, I will ask them questions about their comprehension of the story and what they notice. During the jigsaw piece, I will ask students if they are noticing and similarities/differences between the stories. Formal Assessment: Students will be expected to fill out a worksheet that has a table to compare and contrast the different Native American stories. The table will list each tribe and some of the points of the stories that I believe is important for students to note. They will check a box if it applies to the story. Underneath the table, students will be expected to write one similarity and one difference between any of the stories that they have learned about. The worksheet and stories are attached to the end of this lesson. This will be graded on a check system and given back to the students by the beginning of the next days lesson. In addition to the check system, I will write the students a short sentence about how they accomplished the task. A - will indicate that a student has made an attempt to fill in the table but has not written both the similarity and difference between their choice of stories OR that the similarity and difference were copied directly from the examples. A will indicate that a student has filled in the table and written either a similarity or a difference OR that a student has filled in the table and written a similarity and a difference that do not make sense with what they have noted in their table. A + will indicate that a student has fully completed the chart and accurately given both a similarity and a difference between their choice of stories.

Reflection on Lesson Implementation

Reflection on Class PerformanceAs a whole, I feel like this lesson was engaging and successful. Throughout the lesson, students were interested in participating in the conversations and actively reading the stories that I provided. Because they were expected to become teachers on their story, they really took their own assigned reading very seriously and asked a lot of interesting and relevant questions. Of the sixteen students who were present for the entire lesson, 75% of them achieved or exceeded proficiency on the formal assessment. Five students were in the grouping that achieved proficiency and seven students exceeded proficiency. Many of the students who exceeded proficiency also provided at least two different examples for each of the questions on the back side of the sheet showing that they fully understood what the markings on the chart meant. For the four students who did not perform well on the formal assessment, they seem to have had difficulty reading the chart and resulted to just using the example that I had provided on the sheet for them (which is the reason I will not leave examples on the sheet for them when I do this lesson in the future).When we began the lesson on the rug, three students were taken out of the room by a resource teacher; when they returned, they still wanted to participate in the lesson because they thought it was interesting. As a class, we were able to catch these three students up. Even though they had not been present for the majority of the lesson, two of them achieved proficiency on the assignment, and only one of the students did not perform as well as I would have hoped. All of the students, even the one who did not perform as well, were talking to me about what the other groups had read, so I feel that if they had been present they would have performed well on the assessment.Were the lesson objectives met?I believe that the objectives were almost completely met by the class as a whole. I believe that two of my objectives were met in their entirety and the other two were met by the majority of the class. The entire class was able to help me locate on a map where the Native American groups were from and, even though I only had one student come up to the board and circle the geographical location, I made sure that all the students agreed and understood why it was that area. They were also all able to give information on their own individual story when the reading groups were switched to jigsaw groups.Some of the students needed more clarity to have met my objectives related to the details of the story (on the chart) and to the similarity/difference between all of the stories. Even though 75% of the class met the objectives, I believe that with more guidance, those who did not perform as well would have been able to come closer to meeting all of the objectives. I noticed that the students had the most trouble with reading the chart as a whole, and some of the students who did not have the chart filled in properly had even more trouble trying to decipher the information on it. Were your assessments appropriate for your objectives?I believe that the two objectives that I assessed informally (identifying on a map and summarizing details) were properly assessed. While the class was in their jigsaw groups, I was circling the room to determine how they were doing with sharing details; while I was obviously not able to hear every single students explanations, the ones I heard were above and beyond what I had anticipated.I believe that the formal assessment worksheet thoroughly checked their comprehension of their own story and of how to tell what was similar and different across the four stories. The formal assessment also helped me determine how well students understood what they were reading and hearing about the stories, so it was appropriate for the two objectives that I had it assessing. Lastly, the worksheet showed whether or not the students were able to read the chart and find some commonalities and differences across the stories.What worked well in this lesson?I think that reading the purple groups story aloud (because they were missing half their group) and at stopping at the end of sections to see if the students had found any key details from the chart in what I had read worked really well. Conducting a text-based discussion, which the class was accustomed to, helped them understand how to go about reading the story in their groups. The quick transition from read aloud to small groups made it that the students did not forget what they needed to look for or how to find it.Even though there was some craziness switching to the jigsaw groups, the students were still able to effectively communicate the important details of their own story to their classmates. When we regrouped at the students desks and went over the details as a class, it was really good to have one student who noticed a slip-up in another groups chart speak up because this prompted some discussion with the students in the green group.The discussion that the students were having with each other, with myself, and with the other teacher in the classroom was the most successful part of this lesson. Many of the students in this class had not found a topic that they were interested in yet, and seeing them completely engaged was a clue to me that this was a really good lesson.What changes would you propose for the next time you implement this lesson?The biggest change I would make for the next time I teach this lesson is to really know how different students work in groups with one another. I believe that knowing the students personalities would help me better place them in their jigsaw groups because I really only see them interact in groups with the students The two other things that I would change are both related to the worksheet. First, I would not leave the examples on the worksheet. I noticed that the students who had difficulty reading the chart with the details just copied the examples above instead of asking for help; by not leaving the examples right in front of them, they would need to ask questions to help them learn to properly read the chart I provided them. Second, I would work more with the chart and do a talk aloud to explain how I came up with the two examples I gave. If I did not leave the examples on the sheet, I would be able to do a talk-aloud to show the class how I determined what was similar/different. Also, I would show them specifically how to read the checks in the chart. By doing this, I believe I could guarantee that more of the students meet all of the objectives.

Reflection on Student Work Samples

Student Sample 1 Approaching ProficiencyThis students work is approaching proficiency. She shows some understanding of the lesson, but failed to understand some of the more major aspects of the lesson. Despite having talked about all of the stories in both their jigsaw groups and as a whole group on the SmartBoard, she is missing some of the points that were important to the stories. Although she has the majority of the chart filled in as we talked about with the whole group, she missed a few of the points that could have also been helpful when she moved to the back side of the sheet to complete the similarity and difference. When she moved onto the back side of the worksheet, I noticed two things: first, she said that the stories were made up (before even reading the stories, I made sure to address that the stories were not fictional to the Native American groups), and second, she copied her similarity and difference directly from the examples I gave on the worksheet.When we had group discussions, this student appeared to fully understand the lesson. Yet when we moved to transferring that knowledge to writing, she appears to have really struggled. In order to improve this students understanding, I would make sure that she fully understood how to determine what was the same in some of the stories and how to tell what was different. I had noticed that she had finished fairly quickly and looked happy with how she did which led me to believe that she understood the points. With future written assignments I will make sure to walk around the classroom and checking what the students are writing and asking them questions about what they are writing and why. I will pay extra attention to those students who, like the one in this sample, know how to verbally discuss what we are talking about, but have trouble communicating in writing.

Student Sample 2 Proficient

This students work shows proficiency in the objectives that I set up for the lesson. Before even transferring the information from the charts onto the board, this student had her entire chart filled in, almost completely accurately. Only a few of her boxes were mismarked. She showed a mostly complete understanding of the lesson. On the backside of her sheet, this student showed that she was using the chart that was left on the SmartBoard (so the students did not need to continually flip back and forth) because she made two comparisons, one of which was not accurately portrayed on her own chart. In the difference section, this student did not have a clear understanding of how to explain the difference; she accurately stated that the red story had a different from the other three stories, but she did not know how to put that difference into words.When doing activities like this in the future, I want to be sure that all of the students know how to properly fill in and read this type of chart. This could help ensure that this student can accurately describe the similarities and differences between the stories. If the student were able to understand exactly what she was reading off of the chart, I believe that she would have been able to make a more accurate statement of what was different between the four stories. Conceptually, this student understood what the chart identified, but she was unable to identify exactly what the marks on the chart said.

Student Sample 3 Exceeds Proficiency

This student shows that he has exceeded what is expected of him on this assignment. All of the boxes on the chart were correctly marked and during the jigsaw groups, he was the first student to speak up and give both a summary of the story his group went and tell the groups what boxes he marked for the story and why. After his group had gone through all of the stories, this student had asked other students in the group if he could look at their stories. He sat down and read the stories and actually pointed out that the students in the green group made a mistake and checked off the wrong box which the jigsaw group discussed and the students in the green group realized that they just put a check mark in an incorrect box.On the back of the sheet, this student went above what was asked of him. He offered two different examples the similarities between the stories. In the differences section, this student even went and offered the name of the story instead of just writing the color of the group (which many of the students did instead).Because this student was so successful in this assessment, and he seemed so interested in the stories, I would work with his to find more resources available on this specific topic, or other things he would be interested in studying. Additionally, if there were a similar situation to what happened in this lesson, where some students had to meet with a resource teacher while the lesson occurred and then still wanted to complete the assignment, I would ask this student to work in a small group with them to teach them about the four different stories (since he read all of them) and help them understand what happened (with some of my assistance).References

(2009). Lakota Sioux Creation Myth - Wind Cave Story.Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Retrieved March, 2014, from http://www.sioux.org/index.php/main/inner/sioux/lakota_sioux_creation_myth_wind_cave_story.(2012). Native American Creation Stories.Celebrate American Holidays. Retrieved March, 2014, from http://www.celebrate-american-holidays.com/Native-American-Creation-Stories.html.