Use Text Evidence

Ready-to-teach lesson

Use Text Evidence | Grade 3

• 2.Who Changes

Full lesson

TIME

35 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Work out which character changes in this book, and prove it from the pages.

STUDENT PRODUCT

Two columns of evidence, and how he got the truth out of her

FOCUS

Character change located by evidence rather than assumed from the title

Essential question

The book is called Ruby's Wish. Is Ruby the one who changes?

Materials

The book Pages 11, 16 and 18, found before the lesson One two-column sheet each Text to mark before teaching Passage 11 — one lit window in a dark house https://tumbleta.com/module-library/4135.html 2026-09-08, 7:49PM Page 9 of 24 Passage 16 — the Lantern Festival, a plain lantern beside a glowing cockerel Passage 18 — the grandfather at his desk with the poem

Lesson sequence

1

Launch · 5 min

Focus:

A question with a surprising answer

Teacher direction:

Ask the class who changes in this book. Take the first answer, which will be Ruby, and then ask what she does differently at the end from what she was doing at the beginning.

Prepared text:

Passage 11

2

Teacher model · 7 min

Teacher model:

I test it. At the start Ruby wears red, works late, and wants to keep studying. At the end she wears red, has kept studying, and is going to university. Nothing about her has turned round. Then I look at her grandfather: he watches from a window, is worried by a poem, asks questions until he gets the truth, and then does something no one in that house had done. He is the one who is different by the end.

Prepared text:

Passage 11, Passage 18

3 Who changes, and what the evidence is · 13 min

Focus:

Ruby stays the same; her grandfather does not

Teacher direction:

Using Passages 11, 16 and 18, write who changes in this book and give the evidence.

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Expected answer:

Ruby does not change. She is the only girl who keeps going to the classes, she stays up at night to manage both her lessons and her embroidery, and when she is asked what she wants she says university.

The person who changes is her grandfather. He starts by not knowing there is a problem - he had never thought about the lanterns before - and he does not a problem - he had never thought about the lanterns before - and he does not let Ruby off with a small answer: when she offers him the yolk in the moon cake he says hmmm, as if he was still waiting, and asks whether that is really so. He asks her twice more, and by the end he has arranged something for her that nobody in that house had arranged for a girl before.

Student product:

Two columns: what stays the same, what changes

Prepared text:

Passage 11, Passage 16, Passage 18

4 The question he keeps asking · 10 min

Focus:

He waits

Teacher direction:

Using Passages 16 and 18, write what Ruby's grandfather does when she gives him a small answer.

Expected answer:

He does not accept it. Ruby deliberately picks something small and unimportant - that the boys get the half of the moon cake with the yolk in it - and instead of agreeing or arguing he says hmmm, as if he was still waiting, and asks whether that is so. So Ruby tries again with the lanterns, and again, until she says the thing she had been avoiding: the boys will go to university and the girls will be married. He gets the real answer by not being satisfied with the first two, and by asking rather than telling her.

Prepared text:

Passage 16, Passage 18

Teacher guidance

Why this text works: The class will say Ruby, because her name is on the cover, and finding out that she is the constant one is the whole lesson. Test it by asking what she does differently at the end - wears red, studies, wants university, exactly as at the start. Then take the grandfather page by page.

The detail worth dwelling on is his hmmm: he has been given a small answer and he simply waits, twice, until he gets the real one. That is a technique a Grade 3 class can name and admire, and it is the reason the book has a happy ending.

Expected answer:

Ruby is the same person on the last page as on the first.

Expected answer:

Ruby is the same person on the last page as on the first.

She wears red, she keeps studying when the other girls stop, she stays up at night to manage her embroidery as well as her lessons, and when she is asked what she wants she says university. Her grandfather is the one who changes. He begins by not knowing anything is wrong - he had never thought about the lanterns - and he reads a poem that worries him. Then, instead of punishing Ruby or arguing with her, he asks how the boys were better looked after, and when she offers him something small and unimportant he says hmmm, as if he was

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still waiting. He does that until she tells him the real reason. And then he arranges something for a girl in that house that had never been arranged before.

Model: I notice that the grandfather never says he has changed his mind, and never announces what he is going to do. The next thing he says to Ruby is to go on with her lessons and make the most of them while she can - which sounds like the end of the matter, and turns out not to be.

Support and extension

Above: The grandfather gives Ruby the letter in front of the whole family, in a red packet, on New Year's Day. Explain why he might have chosen that moment.

Below: Fill the two columns, then write what he does when she gives a small answer.

Assessment

Look for:

Says Ruby does not really change.

Gives evidence that she was determined from the start.

Says her grandfather is the one who changes.

Says he asked questions instead of punishing her.

Says he was not satisfied with her first answer.

Short version

TIME

20 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Work out which character changes in this book, and prove it from the pages.

STUDENT PRODUCT

Two columns of evidence, and how he got the truth out of her

FOCUS

Character change located by evidence rather than assumed from the title

Essential question

The book is called Ruby's Wish. Is Ruby the one who changes?

Materials

The book Pages 11, 16 and 18, found before the lesson One two-column sheet each Text to mark before teaching Passage 11 — one lit window in a dark house Passage 16 — the Lantern Festival, a plain lantern beside a glowing cockerel Passage 18 — the grandfather at his desk with the poem

Lesson sequence

1

Launch · 4 min

Focus:

A question with a surprising answer

Teacher direction:

Ask the class who changes in this book. Take the first answer, which will be Ruby, and then ask what she does differently at the end from what she was doing at the beginning.

Prepared text:

Passage 11

2

Teacher model · 6 min

page 3

Teacher model:

I test it. At the start Ruby wears red, works late, and wants to keep studying. At the end she wears red, has kept studying, and is going to university. Nothing about her has turned round. Then I look at her grandfather: he watches from a window, is worried by a poem, asks questions until he gets the truth, and then does something no one in that house had done. He is the one who is different by the end.

Prepared text:

Passage 11, Passage 18

3 Who changes, and what the evidence is · 10 min

Focus:

Ruby stays the same; her grandfather does not

Teacher direction:

Using Passages 11, 16 and 18, write who changes in this book and give the evidence.

Expected answer:

Ruby does not change. She is the only girl who keeps going to the classes, she stays up at night to manage both her lessons and her embroidery, and when she is asked what she wants she says university.

The person who changes is her grandfather. He starts by not knowing there is a problem - he had never thought about the lanterns before - and he does not let Ruby off with a small answer: when she offers him the yolk in the moon cake he says hmmm, as if he was still waiting, and asks whether that is really so. He asks her twice more, and by the end he has arranged something for so. He asks her twice more, and by the end he has arranged something for her that nobody in that house had arranged for a girl before.

Student product:

Two columns: what stays the same, what changes

Prepared text:

Passage 11, Passage 16, Passage 18

Teacher guidance

Why this text works: The class will say Ruby, because her name is on the cover, and finding out that she is the constant one is the whole lesson. Test it by asking what she does differently at the end - wears red, studies, wants university, exactly as at the start. Then take the grandfather page by page.

The detail worth dwelling on is his hmmm: he has been given a small answer and he simply waits, twice, until he gets the real one. That is a technique a Grade 3 class can name and admire, and it is the reason the book has a happy ending.

Expected answer:

Ruby is the same person on the last page as on the first.

She wears red, she keeps studying when the other girls stop, she stays up at night to manage her embroidery as well as her lessons, and when she is asked what she wants she says university. Her grandfather is the one who changes. He begins by not knowing anything is wrong - he had never thought about the lanterns - and he reads a poem that worries him. Then, instead of punishing Ruby or arguing with her, he asks how the boys were better looked after, and when she offers him something small and unimportant he says hmmm, as if he was still waiting. He does that until she tells him the real reason. And then he arranges something for a girl in that house that had never been arranged before.

page 4

Model: I notice that the grandfather never says he has changed his mind, and never announces what he is going to do. The next thing he says to Ruby is to go on with her lessons and make the most of them while she can - which sounds like the end of the matter, and turns out not to be.

Support and extension

Above: The grandfather gives Ruby the letter in front of the whole family, in a Above: The grandfather gives Ruby the letter in front of the whole family, in a red packet, on New Year's Day. Explain why he might have chosen that moment.

Below: Fill the two columns, then write what he does when she gives a small answer.

Assessment

Look for:

Says Ruby does not really change.

Gives evidence that she was determined from the start.

Says her grandfather is the one who changes.

Says he asked questions instead of punishing her.

Says he was not satisfied with her first answer.

• 3.The Evidence For The Wish

Full lesson

TIME

34 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Say what this book is about and support it from the pages, including the pages that prove it is true.

STUDENT PRODUCT

A written answer with two pieces of evidence

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