Lesson 7: Character Traits Day 2 Spinky Sulks Overview Class: There are 23 second-grade students in this classroom.

Two students are on IEPs, though neither student is on an academic IEP. Both students participate fully in all classroom activities. One of these students has a full time, one-on-one aide. There are also 3 ELL students in the class. Subject: Language Arts/Read Aloud Brief Summary: This lesson continues our examination of character traits and continues practicing identifying character traits from William Steigs books. Students have familiarity with character trait from previous units. Students will also respond to a writing prompted following a read aloud of Spinky Sulks by William Steig. Time: 55 minutes Understandings Students will understand that character traits describe a characters personality. We identify character traits by looking at what a character says and does. Good readers need to determine character traits in order to better understand the character and the story. Standards Reading Standards for Literature Grade 2: 1. Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. 3. Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. 7. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, settings, or plot. Writing Standards for Grade 2: 8. Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. Speaking and Listening Standards for Grade 2: 2. Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. Objectives SWBAT: Contribute to the class character trait poster Participate in a full class discussion of the story elements Respond non-verbally to show agreement or disagreement with traits that describe a character

Respond to a writing prompt based on the read aloud of Spink Sulks. Students will respond to either: o Group A (Problem/Solution): What was the problem in Spinky Sulks? How did the problem get solved? o Group B (Beyond the Text): Pretend you are going to write the next couple of pages in this story. What do you think will happen between Spinky and his family?

Materials needed. Spinky Sulks by William Steig Pre-made vocabulary chart for Spinky Sulks ELMO What are Character Traits mini poster Character Traits Anchor Chart Colored Markers Character Trait list Reading Response sheets (8 Group A, 15 Group B) Instructional Approach. 1. Introduction: a. Review what character traits are and how we identify them. b. Today we will be reading a William Steig book called Spinky Sulks. Make predictions about how Spinky is feeling based on the cover. What do we think the book is about? c. Scaffold vocab word sulks in the title to lead directly into the rest of the vocabulary scaffolding. 2. Vocabulary Scaffolding: a. As weve seen in his other books, William Steig uses lots of strong words in his stories. Ive listed some of the vocabulary words that are in our next book, Spinky Sulks. We will be referring to this chart as we read to help us understand the story. b. Read the words to the students. They can give a thumbs-up when they hear the word in the reading and we will stop to discuss the definitions when we get to them in the text 3. Interactive Read Aloud: a. While reading, pause to ask questions of the students to check for comprehension. b. Pause at vocabulary words to clarify meaning and link back to the vocabulary anchor chart. 4. Discuss Story Elements: a. As a class, identify the characters, setting, problem, and solution in the story. 5. Add to the character traits poster

a. Ask students what character traits they would use to describe Spink and his family. Be sure to ask they students why they think this; what evidence in the story supports this? See if students agree or disagree. Allow students to further discuss is disagreements arise b. If needed, show students the list of character traits, and read through some of them to see what words we could use to describe Spinky or his family members. 6. Read Aloud Conclusion: a. Have students summarize what we learned today. Prompt with questions such as: What are character traits? How do we identify character traits? Why is it important for readers to understand character traits? b. Remind the students we will be adding to this chart next week when we look at other books by William Steig. 7. Writing Response: a. Explain that everyone will be responding to a writing prompt about the book we just read. Be sure to clarify that people will be working on different questions, and thats perfectly ok. b. Explain both prompts and answer any questions that may arise. Hand out sheets according to predetermined groups. Group A Group B What was the problem in Spinky Sulks? Pretend you are going to write the next How did the problem get solved? couple of pages in this story. What do you think will happen between Spinky and his family? c. Groups were determined based on guided reading diagnostics. Student who need additional practice identify and articulating story problems and solutions are placed in group A. The rest of the students are given the beyond the text prompt. Students write at their own seats d. Float around the room to assist students where needed. e. When students have finished writing they may add a drawing to their response Sponge Students transition into Independent Reading when theyve finished their written response. Assessment Students will be informal assessed using whole class discussion questions during the lesson. Students written responses are collected assessed for clarity and quality of their answer.