Ready-to-teach lesson
WHOLE-BOOK PLAN · GRADE 1 · ISH
Whole-Book Plan
- Full lesson
- TIME
- 31 minutes
- OBJECTIVE
- Read the whole book and explain what makes Ramon stop drawing, and what makes him start again.
- STUDENT PRODUCT
- A chart of what stopped him and what started him
- FOCUS
- One laugh, many months, and one word
- ESSENTIAL
- How much does it take to stop somebody, and how much to start
- QUESTION
- them?
Materials
- The book
- Pages 1, 3, 6, 10 and 18, found before the lesson
- One chart each
Text to mark before teaching
- Passage 1 — drawing in bed at night
- Passage 3 — the vase of flowers, with Marisol watching from the doorway
- Passage 5 — alone at the table, papers on the floor
- Passage 6 — putting the pencil down
- Passage 10 — one drawing, taped up and still creased
- Passage 18 — the last page
Lesson sequence
1 Before reading · 5 min
- Focus:
- What happens to the ones that go wrong
page 1
| Teacher direction: | Ask the class what they do with a drawing that has gone wrong. Most will say screw it up. Keep that answer, because somebody in this book does something else with them. |
| Prepared text: | Passage 1 |
| 2 Teacher model · 6 min |
- Teacher model:
- I read the page where his brother laughs, and then the page months later. Nobody tells Ramon he is bad at drawing. One person laughs once and asks a four-word question, and that is enough to stop somebody who drew anytime, anything and anywhere. I say what the book says: the laughter haunted him.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 3, Passage 5
3 What stops him and what starts him · 10 min
- Focus:
- A laugh, and one word
- Teacher direction:
- Using Passages 3 and 10, write what makes Ramon stop drawing and what makes him start again.
- Expected answer:
- He stops because his brother bursts out laughing at his drawing and asks what it is, stressing both words.
Nothing else is said - there is no telling-off and no criticism - and it is enough to keep him trying to make his drawings look right for months, and then to give up. He starts again because his sister points at one of the drawings he threw away, and when he says it was supposed to be a vase of flowers and does not look like one, she says it looks vase-ish. One word, and she means it as praise.
- Student product:
- Two boxes: what stopped him, what started him
- Prepared text:
- Passage 3, Passage 10
4 Where he gets to · 10 min
- Focus:
- Two words, twice
page 2
- Teacher direction:
- Using Passages 6 and 18, write what Ramon is like at his lowest point and what he is like at the end.
- Expected answer:
- At his lowest point he has been through many months and many crumpled sheets of paper, and he puts his pencil down and says he is done. He is standing alone with the wreckage of his own work on the floor. On the last page the book says he lived ishfully ever after, and the picture has him running across the page with his sketchbook and pencil over a landscape drawn as a loose colored scribble. He is doing exactly what he did on the first page - drawing anytime - and the only thing that has changed is what he is willing to accept from himself.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 6, Passage 18
Teacher guidance
Why this text works: This book is short and its sentences are very short, so it can be read twice in a lesson - once straight through, and once stopping at the crumpled gallery. The pictures need showing: the wall of taped-up rejects is the turning point and it is entirely an illustration. Watch for a class deciding Leon is the villain. He laughs once and never appears again, and that is worth pointing at rather than smoothing over - the book is not interested in punishing him. Have paper out afterwards. The class will want to draw something ish, and they should.
- Expected answer:
- Ramon loves to draw and draws anytime, anything, anywhere - until his brother Leon leans over his shoulder, bursts out laughing and asks what it is. After that Ramon spends months trying to make his drawings look right, fails, and puts his pencil down for good. When his sister Marisol takes one of his crumpled rejects he chases her to her room, and stops: her walls are covered with the drawings he threw away. She points at one and calls it vase-ish, meaning it kindly, and the word changes what Ramon thinks he is trying to do. He draws ish-ly, loosely and without worrying, fills his journals, finds he can draw ish feelings and write poem-ish poems - and one spring morning has a feeling too good for either, and decides not to capture it at all.
Model: I notice that Marisol does not tell Ramon his drawing is good. She says it looks vase-ish, which is not the same thing - she is agreeing with him that it is not a vase. What she disagrees with is that this is a problem.
page 3
Support and extension
Above: Leon laughs once and Ramon stops for months. Explain why one laugh did so much, using what the book says about it.
Below: Fill the two boxes, then write what Ramon is like at the end.
Assessment
Look for:
- Says Ramon loved drawing at the start.
- Says his brother laughed at a drawing.
- Says Ramon gave up and put his pencil down.
- Says Marisol kept his crumpled drawings on her wall.
- Says the word ish made him start again.
- Short version
- TIME
- 16 minutes
- OBJECTIVE
- Read the whole book and explain what makes Ramon stop drawing, and what makes him start again.
- STUDENT PRODUCT
- A chart of what stopped him and what started him
- FOCUS
- One laugh, many months, and one word
- ESSENTIAL
- How much does it take to stop somebody, and how much to start
- QUESTION
- them?
Materials
- The book
- Pages 1, 3, 6, 10 and 18, found before the lesson
- One chart each
Text to mark before teaching
- Passage 1 — drawing in bed at night
- Passage 3 — the vase of flowers, with Marisol watching from the doorway
- Passage 5 — alone at the table, papers on the floor
- Passage 6 — putting the pencil down
page 4
- Passage 10 — one drawing, taped up and still creased
- Passage 18 — the last page
Lesson sequence
1 Before reading · 3 min
| Focus: | What happens to the ones that go wrong |
| Teacher direction: | Ask the class what they do with a drawing that has gone wrong. Most will say screw it up. Keep that answer, because somebody in this book does something else with them. |
| Prepared text: | Passage 1 |
| 2 Teacher model · 4 min |
- Teacher model:
- I read the page where his brother laughs, and then the page months later. Nobody tells Ramon he is bad at drawing. One person laughs once and asks a four-word question, and that is enough to stop somebody who drew anytime, anything and anywhere. I say what the book says: the laughter haunted him.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 3, Passage 5
3 What stops him and what starts him · 6 min
- Focus:
- A laugh, and one word
- Teacher direction:
- Using Passages 3 and 10, write what makes Ramon stop drawing and what makes him start again.
- Expected answer:
- He stops because his brother bursts out laughing at his drawing and asks what it is, stressing both words.
Nothing else is said - there is no telling-off and no criticism - and it is enough to keep him trying to make his drawings look right for months, and then to give up. He starts again because his sister points at one of the drawings he threw away, and when he says it was supposed to be a vase of flowers and does not look like one, she says it looks vase-ish. One word, and she means it as praise.
page 5
| Student product: | Two boxes: what stopped him, what started him |
| Prepared text: | Passage 3, Passage 10 |
| 4 Where he gets to · 3 min | |
| Focus: | Two words, twice |
| Teacher direction: | Using Passages 6 and 18, write what Ramon is like at his lowest point and what he is like at the end. |
| Expected answer: | At his lowest point he has been through many months and many crumpled sheets of paper, and he puts his pencil down and says he is done. He is standing alone with the wreckage of his own work on the floor. On the last page the book says he lived ishfully ever after, and the picture has him running across the page with his sketchbook and pencil over a landscape drawn as a loose colored scribble. He is doing exactly what he did on the first page - drawing anytime - and the only thing that has changed is what he is willing to accept from himself. |
| Prepared text: | Passage 6, Passage 18 |
Teacher guidance
Why this text works: This book is short and its sentences are very short, so it can be read twice in a lesson - once straight through, and once stopping at the crumpled gallery. The pictures need showing: the wall of taped-up rejects is the turning point and it is entirely an illustration. Watch for a class deciding Leon is the villain. He laughs once and never appears again, and that is worth pointing at rather than smoothing over - the book is not interested in punishing him. Have paper out afterwards. The class will want to draw something ish, and they should.
page 6
- Expected answer:
- Ramon loves to draw and draws anytime, anything, anywhere - until his brother Leon leans over his shoulder, bursts out laughing and asks what it is. After that Ramon spends months trying to make his drawings look right, fails, and puts his pencil down for good. When his sister Marisol takes one of his crumpled rejects he chases her to her room, and stops: her walls are covered with the drawings he threw away. She points at one and calls it vase-ish, meaning it kindly, and the word changes what Ramon thinks he is trying to do. He draws ish-ly, loosely and without worrying, fills his journals, finds he can draw ish feelings and write poem-ish poems - and one spring morning has a feeling too good for either, and decides not to capture it at all.
Model: I notice that Marisol does not tell Ramon his drawing is good. She says it looks vase-ish, which is not the same thing - she is agreeing with him that it is not a vase. What she disagrees with is that this is a problem.
Support and extension
Above: Leon laughs once and Ramon stops for months. Explain why one laugh did so much, using what the book says about it.
Below: Fill the two boxes, then write what Ramon is like at the end.
Assessment
Look for:
- Says Ramon loved drawing at the start.
- Says his brother laughed at a drawing.
- Says Ramon gave up and put his pencil down.
- Says Marisol kept his crumpled drawings on her wall.
- Says the word ish made him start again.
page 7