Rutherford County Schools – Instructional Guide

Grade Course4 ELA

Unit Focus Topic – Character Analysis

Guiding Questions:How do the character’s actions help determine and support the theme? How is the central message conveyed throughout the story? What specific details in the text lead you to that conclusion?

Big Ideas: Identifying the theme of a story helps the reader understand the message the author is trying to communicate. Readers make connections and draw inferences using details from the text to help them determine the theme.

Week of May 11th – 15th Standards

4. RL.KID.1 - Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

4.RL.KID.2 - Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in a text; summarize the text.

4.RL.KID.3 – Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details I a text, such as character’s thoughts, words, or actions.

4.RL.IKI.9 - Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes, topics, and patterns of events in stories from different cultures. 4.FL.VA.7a - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

4.FL.VA.7b.i - Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances inword meanings; Explain the meaning of simple similes and metaphors in context

ResourcesText: The Scarlet Ribbon (Source: EngageNY – pages 14-18)Text: Dancing Towards Dreams (Source: CommonLit) PDF ***Please use the PDF for your packet

Tasks*See Suggested Pacing below*Day 1 -Day 2 -Day 3 -Day 4 - Day 5 -

Choose an assignment from iReady Reading each day!Expected Outcomes

At the conclusion of the tasks outlined above, students should be able to analyze a character’s thoughts, feelings, and actions to determine the theme of a text, identify the meaning of unknown words and phrases by using context clues, and use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast important details and themes from the two texts. Students should be able to use the information in their graphic organizer to write multiple paragraphs to discuss the two texts.

Resources and Suggestions

Graphic Organizers/Anchor Charts Vocabulary

Context Clues - Student will determine the meaning of words using context clues in the text – choose words you want your students to own!

The Scarlet Ribbon

Suggested vocabulary words: insisted (p.2), surged (p.4), brolgas (p.5), trudged

(p.5) marveled (p.6), ebb (p.7) plodding (p.7)

Multiple-meaning word: steal (p.5)

Simile: “people believed she danced like moonlight shining on the running river”

(p.1)

Comprehension

Read & Annotate Text – Student will read and annotate text (teacher can provide annotation chart or marks for student to use)

Questions

The Scarlet Ribbon

Dancing Towards Dreams

Technology

-Have students watch the Point of View BrainPop Video and determine the POV of The Scarlet Ribbon using text evidence to explain how they know. -Flocabulary- “Theme in Literature,” “Summarizing,” “Context clues”

Choose supports from your favorites!

Writing Give students different prompts such as:

Come up with an alternate ending to The Scarlet Ribbon

Write the story from a different characters' perspective Which character (Misty or Kanikiya) do you most relate

to? Why? Provide evidence. Why is it important to work hard to achieve your

dreams? Provide evidence.

Extensions

The Scarlet Ribbon has several pieces of figurative language, so for the Context Clues chart, use suggested words or suggested figurative language as well. Have students write the figurative language into a new sentence of their own. (Check BrainPop, BrainPop, Jr, and Nearpod for figurative language videos and resources)

Have the students draw a comic strip to illustrate the events of The Scarlet Ribbon. (One illustration for each paragraph, or however many you wanted to complete.)

Create a description concept map/graphic organizer to list character traits (and text evidence to support) for the main characters of both texts.

Write about the primary theme of the texts. Then, write about any secondary themes that can be pulled from the texts, using evidence to support ideas.

Grammar Options

Potential Mentor Sentence Ideas –-“She moved as gracefully as the brolgas, the tall, slender cranes that courted along the riverbank.” (The Scarlet Ribbon, p.1)-“People believed she danced like moonlight shining on the running river.” (The Scarlet Ribbon, p.1)-“Glancing up, she marveled as they dipped their heads and danced a slow, mournful dance.” (The Scarlet Ribbon, p.6)-“As Kanikiya’s mother neared the water, she found dozens of wild brolgas dancing and dipping to the sound of the wind in the trees.” (The Scarlet Ribbon, p.10)-“In a note at the end of the book, Misty tells readers to follow their dreams: “No matter what that dream is,” she writes, “you have the power to make it come true with hard work and dedication.’” (Dancing Towards Dreams, p.11)

Potential Mentor Sentence Pacing –Day 1 - Document what you notice about mentor sentence. Document what makes it a great sentence.Day 2 - Label parts of speech, subject(s), predicate(s), punctuation marksDay 3 - Replace words with synonyms, add specific adjectives, add vivid verbs, etc.Day 4 – Rewrite new, creative sentence while maintaining the structure of original. Day 5 – Illustrate sentence

Additional Resources – -BrainPop Videos – Parts of Speech (could also play Sortify game), Subject and Predicate-BrainPop, Jr. also has several videos for parts of speech if you have students who need them.

Additional Grammar Ideas –Students can go through one or both texts and label different components that they know.-Underline subject, circle predicate-Color: nouns – red, verbs – orange, adjectives – yellow, adverbs – green, pronouns – blue, prepositions – purple, etc.-Draw lines to segment multisyllabic words

Collaboration IReady

Ready Reading – Printable At-Home Learning Activity Pack

Additional Reading Resources

Suggested Pacing

Day 1 - Read and annotate the passage, The Scarlet Ribbon (provide annotation bookmark), complete the summary chart, and turn the summary into a paragraph

Day 2 - Review/reread the passage, complete the theme chart. Give students 2-3 vocabulary words from the passage to put into the context theme chart, and have students come up with one unfamiliar word or phrase on their own to put into the chart.

Day 3 - Review/reread the passage, answer comprehension questions. Give students 2-3 vocabulary words from the passage to put into the context theme chart, and have students come up with one unfamiliar word or phrase on their own to put into the chart.

Day 4 - Read and annotate the non-fiction text, Dancing Towards Dreams. (Could also complete a summary chart and paragraph for this one). Have the students compare and contrast the two texts. Provide them with a compare and contrast graphic organizer, and have the students compare and contrast the: character traits of the main characters, setting, problem, etc. and provide text evidence for each similarity and difference. Give students 2-3 vocabulary words from the passage to put into the context theme chart and have them come up with one unfamiliar word or phrase on their own to put into the chart.

Day 5 - Use the compare and contrast graphic organizer from Day 4 to write 3-4 paragraphs. Give students 2-3 vocabulary words from the passage to put into the context theme chart and have them come up with one unfamiliar word or phrase on their own

to put into the chart. Choose an assignment from iReady Reading each day!