Ready-to-teach lesson
TUMBLETA | ELA SKILL LESSON
Stephanie's Ponytail
Because Of The Ponytail
GRADE 1 · 33 minutes FULL · 17 minutes SHORT
PRIMARY SKILL
Explain cause and effect using explicit evidence
- OBJECTIVE
- Find what causes what in this book, and say the reason in your own words.
- STUDENT PRODUCT
- Three pairs of boxes joined by 'because'
- FOCUS
- Causes and effects stated on the same page
- ESSENTIAL QUESTION
- Why did a hairstyle end up with a whole class walking into walls?
- BEFORE TEACHING
- Materials:
- The book; Passages 4, 8 and 9 marked; one cause-and-effect sheet per student.
Text to mark: Passage 4 a crowd of side ponytails. Passage 8 - Stephanie walking to school with hair over her eyes. Passage 9 - the classroom collisions.
FULL ROUTE
TIME
TEACHER MOVE
STUDENT WORK
4 min
Read what Stephanie bumps into and ask why. The reason is on the same page.
State one effect and its cause.
7 min
Model two complete because sentences: Stephanie's collision and the class's collision.
Separate what happened from why.
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| 12 min | Use Passages 4, 8 and 9 to record three supported cause-and-effect pairs. | Complete all three because bridges. |
| 10 min | Track how copying grows and what the larger number of copies ends up causing. | Explain how more copying creates more trouble. |
TEACHER GUIDANCE
Stephanie's Ponytail
Because Of The Ponytail
WHY THIS TEXT WORKS
Do not accept two events merely because they happen one after another. Start with the physical cause - hair over the eyes means Stephanie cannot see - then move to copying, which is a different kind of cause. Require 'because' in every explanation and watch for 'and then' replacing causal reasoning.
ASSESSMENT
- Says she could not see because of the ponytail in front of her nose.
- Names something she bumped into.
- Says the class bumped into things for the same reason.
- Says the children copied Stephanie's ponytail each time.
- Says more people copied as the book went on.
SHORT ROUTE
3 min launch; 5 min model; 9 min complete the three because pairs.
KEEP THE CLAIM TIGHT
Assess only the named skill. Do not turn a correct partial explanation into a broader claim the student has not shown.
| STUDENT PAGE Stephanie's Ponytail Because Of The Ponytail Name: ________________________________ Date: ______________ | |
| 1. WHAT HAPPENED | WHY |
page 2
| because | |
| 2. WHAT HAPPENED | WHY |
| because |
- 3.WHAT HAPPENED
because
WHY
MORE COPIES, MORE TROUBLE
How does the copying grow? What does that cause by the front-ponytail round?
TEACHER KEY
Stephanie's Ponytail
Because Of The Ponytail
- 1.SAMPLE ANSWER Stephanie bumps into trees, cars, houses and the principal because the
ponytail hangs in front of her eyes and she cannot see.
- 2.SAMPLE ANSWER The class bumps into desks, walls and one another because they copied
the front ponytail and cannot see either.
- 3.SAMPLE ANSWER Stephanie's hairstyles appear on other heads because the children keep
copying what she wears, even after calling it ugly.
MORE COPIES, MORE TROUBLE
The copying grows each round: first the girls, then girls and some boys, then the whole class, and finally the teacher. By the front-ponytail round, more people cannot see, so more people collide with things.
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