CLASSROOM LESSON 7:
Character Perspective

BOOK TITLE: The Report Card
CHAPTERS: 19-22
AUTHOR: Andrew Clements
LESSON PLAN AUTHOR : Jennifer Stacy

GRADE LEVEL: 4-5
LESSON DURATION: 75-90 Minutes

OBJECTIVE

• Students will express their own feelings about grades and tests and compare them to the feelings the characters in the novel The Report Card express.

• Students will continue to identify traits of the different characters in the novel.

• The students will explain how Nora, Stephen, and Nora’s parents have changed over the course of the novel.

MATERIALS

• Chart paper

• Post-it notes

• A copy of the novel The Report Card for each child

• Discussion questions: Download PDF

• Writing journals

• Graphic organizer: Download PDF

MOTIVATION

• Have students summarize the main events of chapters 16-18 from yesterday.  Have a student record those events on chart paper.  Review the predictions they made yesterday.

• Ask the students if there has ever been a time when they faked being sick, (or wanted to fake being sick), so they wouldn’t have to come to school. Have the students tell some reasons that they may have felt this way.

• Tell the students Nora feels that way today.  Ask the students why Nora might feel like “being sick” instead of going to school.

NEW INFORMATION

• The class will read chapters 19-22 today.  The teacher will need to choose how he/she wants the class to read.  The students can take turns reading out loud with the whole class, with partners, or on their own.  If the whole class reads together, the teacher will want to use the discussion questions (step 3) during reading, not after.

• While you are reading you need to think about the following:
• Think about how Nora, Stephen, and Nora’s parents’ attitude toward school has changed over the entire story.

• Once everyone is finished, the teacher will pose discussion questions to the whole class.  (See attached discussion questions)  Discussion could also be given to the partners as a worksheet and filled out by the partners as they read.  If the students are reading on their own they could write the answers to the questions as they read as well.  Then the class could come together and discuss what they wrote.

• The students will also add any new characteristics they can think of to the character charts.

PRACTICE/APPLICATION

• Remind the students that two days ago we discussed how events cause characters to change.  Tell the students that today they are going to complete graphic organizers that tell how Nora, Stephen, and Nora’s parents’ attitude toward school have changed.  The teacher can collect this for a grade but should discuss the changes before ending the day.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING

• Informal evaluation will occur during the discussion questions.  The teacher will be able to determine if students read the story based on their answers.  If the teacher wants a more formal evaluation, the discussion questions can be passed out as a worksheet and collected and graded.

• Informal evaluation will be done during the discussion of the character charts.  The teacher will be able to determine if further instruction on character traits needs to be done based on student responses.

• Formal evaluation can be taken with the character change organizers.

• The students will write a summary of the story in their writing journals.  They need to capture the main idea of the story.  In addition, students will include a personal opinion of the story.  Remind students they need to explain why they did, or did not, like the book with details from the story.

CLOSURE

• On page 137 Nora says, “Because that’s one of those completely dependable facts:  Something always happens next.”  Tell the students they are going to write what they think will happen next in their journals.  Have the students share their ideas.

NCTE STANDARD 3

Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

NCTE STANDARD 4

Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.