Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education (Children’s Literature) Lesson Plan Template

CAEP 2018 K-6 Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

Julia Coston

Lesson Rationale/Injustice Confronted

It is important to confront social justice issues and discuss them in a safe environment.
Presenting it through literature is ideal because it provides the context within a safe space. This
book addresses diversity and inclusion, how it affects everyone, why sharing our stories
matters, and how someone can feel included in a simple way.

Readiness
I. Goals/Objectives/Standards
a. Goals – The students will be able to describe the book and infer what it is saying.
b. Objectives – The students will be able to describe examples in The Day You Begin
by Jacqueline Woodson that explain explicitly what the text says or infers.
c. Standards – 4.RL.2.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining
what a text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
II. Materials
a. The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
b. Box of Rulers
c. Box of small mirrors
d. Sticky paper pad with drawing of mirror
e. My handmade large ruler
f. Colorful sticky notes
III. Anticipatory Set
a. Passes around a box of rulers and a box of mirrors and tells the students to take
one. As the students are passing them out I say, I remember growing up and
having to use rulers a lot, especially in math. I always had to measure something,
or make a line straight. Rulers always seemed really important to everyone. I also
use mirrors ALL the time. I used one before I came to school today to make sure I
looked okay. Mirrors help me observe or look closely at myself every day. I
wonder how others might observe themselves and why I would want you to hold
a ruler?
IV. Purpose Statement
a. “I am going to read to you The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson. I want you
to focus on what is happening in the story, and why rulers and mirrors
(observations of yourself and others) might be important to the story.”

Plan for Instruction

I. Foundational Theory
 a. Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the
reader (or “audience”) and their experience of literary work, in contrast to other
schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or content and
form of the work.
II. Adaptation to Diverse Students
a. The students will be able to speak about their experiences feeling like someone
who does not fit in or is an outsider while putting their feelings and thoughts on
the board. All the experiences will be different because the students have all
gone through different challenges.
b. There will be lots of going movement from the board to the students seats, so
that will keep the students who need to be up and moving, active in the room.
c. For the students who aren’t struggle with comprehending others thoughts, I will
be up by the board to make sure the students understand what exactly their
classmate is talking about. I will be there to help them think up a response.
III. Lesson Presentation
a. I will have the students sit on the floor in the back of the room while I’m on one
of the teacher chairs. They will be facing me as I read the story to them. I will
read the story, using inflections and different voices when needed for characters
and their stories. I will also make facial expressions to match the characters and
how they are feeling.
IV. Check for Understanding
a. After reading the book I will ask the students these questions:
i. Did you all like the story? What did you like about it?
ii. Was there anything you didn’t like about it?
iii. What do you think was the problem that kept happening in the story?
iv. Did any of you see any rulers in the book? Why do you think they’re
there?
v. What happened in the book after you saw a ruler?
vi. Do you think that had to do with the problem in the story?
vii. How do you think the main characters were observing themselves after
they felt sad, different, or nervous?
viii. What happened when Angelina started to share her story?
ix. What do you think was the point of the story?
V. Review Learning Outcomes/Closure
a. Angelina, Rigoberto, and the other students were afraid of how others saw them
and so they saw themselves as different. The other students looked at them
funny or reacted to them differently than others. The children felt like they didn’t
measure up or like they were too different, but once they gained courage to
share their stories/differences, they didn’t feel that way, so much, anymore. They
started seeing themselves differently in their mirror and used that mindset power
to let others see that part of them as well.
Plan For Assessment
I. I will have the students go back to their seats as I put a giant, poster paper picture of a
mirror on the white board and a long brown handmade ruler on the board. I will then
hand out sticky notes to all the students, ranging in color.
II. Then I’ll tell the students: the sicky notes are for the large mirror. What I want you to do
is write down things you have noticed or observed in yourself on the sticky notes. They
can be great aspects of you/parts you love about yourself or things you have realized are
not so nice all the time or you feel make you feel sad sometimes. Both are aspects of you
that build your courage. When you have written at least two things, I want you to stick
them on the big mirror. Also please write your name on them.
III. I will then explain, once you have put your two descriptions of how you see yourself on
the mirror, I want you to come write two sentences on the ruler. Remember the ruler is
how the people around us might make us feel like we don’t measure up or belong. So I
want you to write down, how you feel people might think you won’t measure up just by
looking at you and not actually getting to know you yet.
IV. When all the students have finished I will tell them: now that you all have done that I
would like you to go learn a little about how a classmate thinks they don’t measure up
and respond to it. Use one of your sticky notes and put an answer to what they said next
to it on the ruler. Remember we are making everyone feel welcome no matter how
different they might seem because love and acceptance is the type of power we want to
build from our courage we feel.

Reflection And Post-Lesson Analysis

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?
4. How would I pace it differently?
5. Were all the students actively participating? If not, why not?
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
a. Blooms Taxonomy
b. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
7. Could each student explain what the story was saying or inferring?
8. Did each student fully reflect on themselves and how they could apply the feelings of
the children in the book to their own feelings towards themselves?
9. Did using the analogy of the mirror and rulers help them think deeply about the
inclusion and diversity issue?