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Lesson 11: The Last Cuentista and “The Fox and the Crow”
50 min
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
Student Lesson
Lesson 11: The Last Cuentista and “The Fox and the Crow”
Student Learning Objectives
1
Content
Students will analyze how The Last Cuentista draws on the fable “The Fox and the Crow” by adapting its themes and character types, and compare the structure of both texts to explain how these differences shape meaning and style.
2
Language
Students will analyze how an author uses a fable in the novel using text-to-text connection language and evidence connectors.
3
Foundations
Students will draw connections between word relationships and distinguish among connotations of words with similar denotations.
Essential Question
How does memory help us understand who we are, and what is lost when memory disappears?
Connections to
Knowledge-Building:
Students build knowledge of how fictional writers can use traditional stories to frame and understand contemporary situations within works of modern fiction.
Enduring Understanding:
Stories shape how humans remember the past and how they understand their present.
Future Lessons:
Future Lessons: In Lesson 12, students will analyze how the Collective creates conditions that threaten memory in Chapters 14–15 of The Last Cuentista. In Lesson 13, students continue to read Chapter 16 of The Last Cuentista.
Unit Performance Task:
Unit Performance Task: Students study how a traditional fable can be reshaped inside a new context, a move they may use in their own narrative writing.
Lesson Pacing
| Lesson Flow | Purpose of Learning Experience |
|---|---|
Launch5 Minutes | Students activate prior learning from Chapter 13 by discussing how Petra recalls and uses a fable Lita told her to understand her current situation. |
Literacy Lab10 Minutes | Students analyze word relationships and distinguish connotations among words with similar denotations by analyzing the Collective’s use of the words harmony and unanimity. |
Learning in Action30 Minutes | Part A: Analyzing Traditional Stories in Modern Texts (RL.8.9) Students will analyze how the author integrates “The Fox and the Crow” into her contemporary story to show how Petra understands her current situation. Part B: Comparing Text Structures (RL.8.5) Students will analyze how the author’s choice to embed a traditional fable in her novel contributes to meaning and style. |
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Addressed in Lesson
- harmony
- peaceful agreement or order
- unanimity
- complete agreement by everyone
Material List
- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
- Unit 4 Lesson 11 Student Edition
Routines
- Turn-and-Talk
- Word Relationship
- Think-Pair-Share
Lesson Sequence
Lesson Texts
Short-Form Text
The Fox & the Crow
The Æsop for Children
Read text
