Ready-to-teach lesson
Easy for Him, Hard for Him: Comparing with But Mathis Does Not Like Math - Grade 1 - Short lesson
TIME
OBJECTIVE
PRODUCT
9 minutes Compare two sides of Mathis using text evidence and the contrast word but. One oral comparison using the frame “___ is easy for Mathis, but ___ is hard for Mathis.” Essential question:
What is easy for Mathis, and what is hard for him?
Materials
- The book
- Prepared excerpts printed in this lesson
- Hard/Easy comparison card Text to mark
- Reading lesson - “He loves to read. It's easy for him.”
- Recess - Mathis is the counter and “He hates counting.”
Prepared text Mathis is delighted because it is now the reading lesson. He loves to read. It's easy for him. He has loads of books at home. He loves stories because he imagines himself as the hero, the knight or the astronaut in the stories. At recess, Mathis's friends invite him to play hide and seek.
Great, he loves this game! The one who picks the short straw is the counter. Bad luck for Mathis, he's the counter. He would have a thousand times preferred to hide. He hates counting.
Lesson sequence
1 Read what is easy for Mathis - 4 min Read the reading passage aloud. Have students find “It's easy for him” and “He loves to read,” then say: “Reading is easy for Mathis.” 2 Say the comparison out loud - 5 min Read the recess passage. Have students say: “Reading is easy for Mathis, but counting is hard,” and point to the printed words that support both halves.
Teacher key
Reading is easy for Mathis; counting is hard for him. The reading passage says “He loves to read” and “It's easy for him.” The recess passage says he would rather hide and “He hates counting.” Support & extension
- Support:
- Use two cards, EASY and HARD. Place the reading sentence under EASY and the counting sentence under HARD before joining them with but. Extension: Explain what the contrast between the two passages shows about Mathis as a learner.
Assessment
- Identifies reading as easy for Mathis
page 1
- Identifies counting as hard for Mathis
- Uses but to join the contrast
- Points to evidence from both printed passages
page 2
page 3
