Compare a Narrator's Opening and Ending — Art's Supplies

Ready-to-teach lesson

TUMBLETA · GRADE 3 · VERIFIED STANDARD EDITION

Ontario Art's Supplies - Compare a Narrator's Opening and Ending

C3.2

Standard focus

Make inferences using stated and implied information and ideas to understand texts.

Why this lesson is a winner Students compare the beginning and ending, then infer what the ending reveals about Art's opening excuse.

Decision: WINNER

This edition is included only because the lesson teaches and assesses the claimed skill. No standard is assigned where the match is partial or merely topical.

The lesson that follows is the approved TumbleTA skill lesson. The standards page is additive; the lesson content remains unchanged.

That tells me a pencil said them - the storyteller would not be written by hand.

Support and extension

Above: Explain why the storyteller's words are needed and the handwritten jokes could be taken out without breaking the story.

Below: On one page, point at the handwritten words and say who is speaking.

Assessment

Look for:: Sorts lines by how they are printed, not by what they say.

Names the pointing line or the quotation marks as the clue.

Notices the opening line is speech even though it is typed.

4.The Excuse at Both Ends

Full lesson

TIME

30 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Work out what Art is really telling you by reading the first page against the last two.

page 1

STUDENT PRODUCT

Boxes for what Art says at the start and what he says at the end, with a line written underneath about the difference

FOCUS

A character whose ending gives away his own excuse

Essential question

Does Art mean the excuse he starts with?

Materials

The book The first and last pages, copied

Text to mark before teaching Passage 1 — Art in the doorway of the supply room, arms wide Passage 14 — everyone crowded into a jar of water Passage 15 — Art in front of the finished rainbow picture, grinning Passage 16 — Art's open mouth filling the page, supplies cheering

Lesson sequence

1: Hold on to the first line · 5 min
Focus:: A claim made before any of the story
Teacher model:: Read the opening page and write the excuse on the board where it can stay all lesson.
Prepared text:: Passage 1
2: What the middle shows · 8 min
Teacher direction:: Find a page where the mess is happening and say whether Art looks like somebody it is happening to.

page 2

page 3

Expected answer:: He is in the jar of water with the rest of them, laughing and joining in, and the line says we all remembered - so he is one of the party, not a victim of it.
Prepared text:: Passage 14

3 The last two pages · 12 min

Teacher direction:	Read the last two pages. Write what Art says now, and whether it agrees with the board.
Expected answer:	He says we have been too busy to clean up and are not too busy to throw another party. It does not agree: he says we instead of they and he wants to do it again.
Prepared text:	Passage 15, Passage 16
4 So what was it · 5 min
Focus:	An excuse read backwards from the ending
Teacher direction:	Ask what the first page really was, now the class has the last one.
Prepared text:	Passage 16

Teacher guidance

Why this text works: The claim and its undoing are both stated outright, one on the opening page and one on the closing pages, so the class is comparing two quotations rather than guessing at a motive.

Expected answer:: At the start Art says it is not his fault and the supplies have a mind of their own. At the end he says they have been too busy to clean up and are not too busy to throw another party. He says we, not they, and he wants another one - so he was in on it, and the excuse was not serious.

Model: On the first page Art says it is not his fault. I am going to hold on to that sentence and see whether the ending still agrees with it.

page 4

that sentence and see whether the ending still agrees with it.

Support and extension

Above: Explain why the author puts the excuse first instead of last.

Below: Read the first page and the last page, and say whether Art is sorry.

Assessment

Look for:: Quotes the excuse from the opening page.

Notices Art says we at the end rather than they.

Says whether the ending backs the excuse up.

Short version

TIME

15 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Work out what Art is really telling you by reading the first page against the last two.

STUDENT PRODUCT

Boxes for what Art says at the start and what he says at the end, with a line written underneath about the difference

FOCUS

A character whose ending gives away his own excuse

Essential question

Does Art mean the excuse he starts with?

page 5

page 6

Materials

The book The first and last pages, copied

Lesson sequence

1: Hold on to the first line · 4 min
Focus:: A claim made before any of the story
Teacher model:: Read the opening page and write the excuse on the board.
Prepared text:: Passage 1
2: The last two pages · 8 min
Teacher direction:: Read the last two pages and say whether they agree with the board.
Expected answer:: They do not. Art says we, not they, and he wants another party.
Prepared text:: Passage 15, Passage 16

3 So what was it · 3 min

Focus:: An excuse read backwards from the ending
Teacher direction:: Ask what the excuse on the first page really was.
Prepared text:: Passage 16

Teacher guidance

page 7

Expected answer:: At the start Art says it is not his fault and the supplies have a mind of their own. At the end he says they have been too busy to clean up and are not too busy to throw another party. He says we, not they, and he wants another one - so he was in on it, and the excuse was not serious.

Model: On the first page Art says it is not his fault. I am going to hold on to that sentence and see whether the ending still agrees with it.

Support and extension

Above: Explain why the author puts the excuse first instead of last.

Below: Read the first page and the last page, and say whether Art is sorry.

Assessment

Look for:: Quotes the excuse from the opening page.

Notices Art says we at the end rather than they.

Says whether the ending backs the excuse up.

page 8