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Reading
Lesson 4: A Single Shard, Chapter 1
California CCSS: Focus Standards
California CCSS: Supporting Standards
ELD Standards
In this lesson
Today you will
Read Chapter 1 of A Single Shard and discuss how the characters respond to the events of the chapter and analyze how these responses connect to themes in the story.
Explain how character responses reveal traits using text evidence and action/interpretive verbs (observes, notices, responds; reveals, suggests, indicates).
Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in a text.
Essential Question
What does it take to learn something difficult?
Texts used in this lesson
Novel
A Single Shard
Linda Sue Park
Lesson Sequence
Turn and Talk
Directions: Use the Turn and Talk routine to discuss the following question with a partner before reading the first chapter of the novel:
Based on the information on the cover, dedication, acknowledgements, and Chapter 1, what do you think this novel might be about?
What prior knowledge do you have about this topic, place, or time period?
Using Context Clues
Target Words: jiggeh, kiln, gourd, eaves
Directions: Track the target words that you learn throughout Unit 2 using the Unit Vocabulary graphic organizer.
Check for Understanding |
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List the words jiggeh, kiln, gourd, and eaves in your Personal Dictionary. Write the definition and an original sentence for each word using context clues that show each word's meaning. |
Part A: Describe Characters and Make Connections to Themes
Directions: As you encounter each new character in the text, pause to fill out the Character and Traits graphic organizer. In the first column, write the character’s name. In the second, write the character traits and any text evidence showing the trait.
Work with a partner to retell or paraphrase Chapter 1 of A Single Shard. Be sure your summary includes at least three key events from the chapter in the order they appear. Include specific details from the text.
Reflection |
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Reflection: How confident do you feel with using the Retell and Paraphrase Partner Check to help you summarize the events in the chapter? Choose a number between 1 and 5, with 1 being the least confident and 5 being the most confident, to rate your confidence level. Then write a few sentences that show how you go about creating a summary of a text. |
Part B: Describe How Characters Respond to Events
Directions: Review the events in the chapter and notice how the characters respond to them. This will help you to better understand the themes of this chapter. Identify the events of the plot you shared in your Retell & Paraphrase Partner Check partnerships. Record each event in the first column of the graphic organizer and the character’s response in the second.
What is an important event at the beginning of the chapter?
What is the character’s response to this event?
What does this response tell us about the character of Tree-ear? Turn and talk with a partner.
How does Tree-ear respond as he watches Min make pottery?
What does this response tell us about the character of Tree-ear? Turn and talk with a partner.
Pulse Check |
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Which explanation best conveys why Tree-ear responds as he does to watching Min the potter work at the end of Chapter 1? A. Tree-ear is bored by the slow work and only watches because he has nothing else to do. B. Tree-ear begins to admire Min’s skill and starts to feel interested in learning a craft that requires patience and hard work. C. Tree-ear feels angry that Min throws away pots that look perfect to him. D. Tree-ear decides that making pottery would be easy since Min can do it so quickly. |
Respond to these questions about central idea and theme in relation to the connections between chapters across a novel:
Based on what we have read in Chapter 1, what might be one of the themes or central ideas in this chapter? Identify textual evidence that supports your response.
What details in Chapter 1 show how Tree-ear begins learning by observing the world around him? How do his actions and habits demonstrate the early stages of learning something difficult?
How can observation help spark a person’s interest in something? Describe a time that you became interested in something after observing?
3-2-1 Summary
Directions: For Chapter 1 of A Single Shard, use the 3-Chart Column graphic organizer to record:
3 important words or phrases
2 key details or ideas
1 sentence explaining what Chapter 1 is mostly about (gist statement)