Melissa B. McCarty
This unit will begin with a pre-assessment. This will be administered to the entire class prior to any instruction on the unit. Once I have the data from the pre-assessment, I will be able to group the students according to their needs. (This will be not only based on their pre-assessment score, but also with their comprehension level, which is measured by the DRA2.)
The next day, I will gather the class for a whole group lesson to introduce the unit. I will point their attention to a chart displayed in the front of the carpet. The chart will have two columns: a positive and a negative side. A positive character feeling could be excited, or thrilled. A negative character feeling could be ashamed, disrespected. I will ask for some volunteers to help me fill in my chart of character traits, feelings and emotions that they know of based on their prior knowledge. (I will have already posted an example for each.) After every trait/feeling is spoken, I will ask students what it looks like and how it feels. This will open up their minds into thinking more deeply about each one. After the list has grown, I will explain to the class that we will be searching through Arthur books for clues on how the character is feeling. What sort of trait does the character have? I will explain to them that they will be detectives working on a great case on character investigations!