Julie Roberts – Children’s Lit Task 1

A: The Invisible Boy By Trudy Ludwig illustrated by Patrice Barton

B1: “The Invisible Boy” represents a positive diverse representation in the

classroom by helping students understand that each person is different and
unique in their own way. At first the students don’t accept the other
students who seem “different” until a new student arrives and shows that it
is okay to be different and that they should include and accept everyone.
“Mrs. Carlotti said we can have up to three people in our group, we’re only
two. C’mon Emilio, let him work with us.” (Ludwig, 2013, pg 14)

B2: The literary theme represented in “The Invisible Boy” is kindness.

Brian, who is labeled the invisible boy, demonstrates kindness to the new
student Justin when the other students were laughing at what he had
brought for lunch. Brian had been in the same situation multiple times
where he didn’t feel included so he had written Justin a note to show him
kindness. This plot demonstrates the theme represented in the story as
Justin responds back to brian in a kind way by saying “By the way, that’s a
really cool drawing.” after thanking him for the note. (Ludwig, 2013, pg 12-
13)

B3: Quality artwork, illustrations or images are an important aspect of

children’s literature as it helps students visualize what is going on in the
story and plays into the students emotion which is what the author wants in
order to get the story across. “Illustrations, visuals, and artwork in children’s
literature enhance enjoyment and contribute to the development of the
characters, plot and setting. Chilren often make use of illustrations to
understand a story as they read.” (Galda, Liang, & Cullinan, 2017, pg 13)

B3 – A: In “The Invisible Boy” the illustratior wanted to convey kindness by

showing the invisivible boy slowly gaining color whenever someone
showed him kindness. At the beginning of the story he was completely
transparaent while all of the other characters have defined colors. By the
end of the story the invisible boy is no longer invisible as he has now has
defined colors due to the kindness he has been shown.
B4: The genre in “The Invisvile Boy” is realistic fiction. A few characteristics
of realistic fiction include a setting that could/might exist. It revolves around
the struggles of childhood and coming of age situations. It also portrays
friendship, bullying, divorce, gref or other familial and cultural identities. The
purpose of realistic fiction is to display real human emotion and
experiences from characters that are relateable. (Galda, Liang, & Cullinan,
2017, pg 13)

B4 – B: An example from the story where the characters display real life
struggles is when Brian demonstrates the feeling of being alone. In the
story, Brian doesn’t get picked to play on either kickball team and didn’t get
to go to Madisons birthday. A lot of children who experience childhood
bullying can relate to what Brian is going through and can feel invisible
themself.

Another example from the story is when Justin is introduced in the story.
This helps display the cultural diversity and helps the story feel more real
as not everyone is the exact same everyone has a different cultural identity.
This is important to have in the story as it helps make the story more
relateable.

C: LESSON PLAN
 GENERAL INFORMATION

Lesson Title & Subject(s): Character Descriptions & Sequence of Events – L.A.

Topic or Unit of Study:

 Describing characters in a story
 Explaining character actions and how they contribute to the sequence of events

Grade/Level: 3rd

Instructional Setting:
The students will be working in their everyday education classroom. The classroom is set up
with the white board located at the front of the room with bookshelves on both sides. The
teachers desk is to the left of whiteboard. There is a classroom library to the back right of the
classroom where students are able to sit and read or work independently when the teacher
allows flexibility. The students desks are grouped together in groups of 4 in cooperative learning
groups.

There are 24 students total. 13 girls and 11 boys. There is a wide range of cultutal diversity in
the classroom but English is the main language spoken. There are two ELL students who
receive assistance when needed. There is also one gifted student in the classroom who reads
on a 6th grade level. The remaining students in the classroom are on current grade level
reading.

STANDARDS AND OBJECTIVES

Your State Core Curriculum/Student Achievement Standard(s):

Reading: Literature Standard 3 – Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits,
motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of
events.

Lesson Objective(s):
Students will be able to demonstrate understading of character descriptions and how they relay
to the sequence of events in the story using theme, setting and plot by completing a worksheet
with 100%.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Instructional Materials:
 Teacher copy of “The Invisible Boy” for modeling and guided practice
 24 Realistic fiction books students will use for independent practice, this can be teacher
provided or student provided after a trip to the library
 24 pencils for student writing
 Marker for whiteboard
 Smart whiteboard
 Student assessment worksheet
Resources:
Ludwig, T., & Barton, P. (2013). The invisible boy. First edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Common Core Standards. (2018). English Language Arts Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA
Frase, L. (Unknown). FREE Story map Worksheet.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Story-Map-Worksheet-106776

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

Sequence of Instructional Procedures/Activities/Events (provide description and

indicate approximate time for each):

1. Student Prerequisite Skills/Connections to Previous Learning:

Students will need to have an understanding of what a realistic fiction story is as that is
the main genre we will be working on.

Students will need to have an understanding of the parts of a story, theme, characters,
plot, setting, etc. We will be pulling this information out of the story and decoding it.

2. Presentation Procedures for New Information and/or Modeling:

Presentation Procedures for New Information:
The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand their characters better and be able to
determine why the actions of the characters contribute to the sequence of events.

The teacher will begin by gathering the whole class together. Students attention needs to be at
the front of the classroom. The teacher will write questions on the board that will help get
students thinking while the teacher reads the story. An example of the questions that will be
used are, what feelings does the main character have throughout the story? Do they change or
stay the same? How is kindness portrayed throughout the story? What is the main setting of the
story? After writng the questions on the board, the teacher will explain to the students that we
will be doing some investigation work on the story in order to describe the main character,
theme, setting and why the events happened in the story using the questions on the board to
assist us.

The teacher will read the story in front of the whole classroom. Once finished, the teacher will
begin guided practice by filling out the assessment worksheet with the whole class on the story
“The Invisible Boy”.

3. Guided Practice:
The students and teacher will work together in one big group to fill out the worksheet.
The worksheet will contain questions pertaining to the story “The Invisible Boy” and will
help students be able to pull out key details of the character, the theme of the story and
the sequence of events. The teacher will provide assistance by asking probing questions
when students are stuck on a question.

4. Independent Student Practice:

The students will work independently reading and filling out the provided worksheet on
the realistic fiction book they chose. The teacher will wonder and assist students when
 needed or will work one on one will the ELL students if they are struggling with the
assignment.

5. Culminating or Closing Procedure/Activity/Event:

The class will group back together as a whole and we will go around and share
descriptions of the main characters and one event that happened in each students
individual story used during individual practice. The teacher will have students complete
an exit ticket at the end of the lesson where students will write down one way they can
apply analyzing the theme in a book for a future class. The teacher will check for
understanding based on the responses of the students.

Instructional Strategy (or Strategies):

The teacher will use a direct instructional strategy approach. The teacher will first explain the
lesson and then will lead the students through the lesson using modeling. The students will then
work with the teacher to fill out the worksheet. The students will then demonstrate student
learning by working independently on their own book of choice and filling out the worksheet on
their own.

Differentiated Instruction Accommodations:

The teacher will assist ELL students by working one on one during independent practice. The
teacher can also provide a dictionary from the students native language to English that will
assist with descriptions of the character and having students be able to pull out certain words
easier.

The teacher will assist gifted students by providing a more difficult book. This will challenge the
students to pay more attention to the smaller details that could be causing the sequence of
events in their story. The teacher can also provide a worksheet that require more indepth
answers if additional work is needed.

Use of Technology:
The teacher will use a smart whiteboard to display the worksheet for the students and be able to
fill it out with them.

Student Assessment/Rubrics:
The students will demonstrate mastery by filling out the worksheet below using their individual
realistic fiction story and getting 100%. The students will all be able to get 100% as they are
able to ask questions and are able to recall the worksheet we completed together as a class
during guided instruction.