Back of the Bus

Written by Aaron Reynolds and Illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Read Aloud Lesson by Andrea Myers
Lesson Overview
1. Issue Confronted: Racial Segregation/Fairness
2. Standards:
o 3.RL.2.3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings)
and explain how their actions contribute to the plot.
o 3.RL.2.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text,
referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
3. Objectives/Assessment
o Students will have a basic knowledge of the theme of fairness due to interaction
with the book Back of the Bus.
Formative: Answers from students during the grand conversation will let
me know if they understand the concept of fairness and how African
Americans were treated unfairly. Discussions with students while they
work on their posters will also assess this.
Summative: Sticky notes written by students to answer the two follow-up
questions after read aloud will allow me to determine if they understand
fairness. This will answer the question: Why is it unfair to treat someone
badly just because they are different? & what would you do if you saw
someone being treated unfairly?
Checklist: (Correct Answers)
They used an example from the story
They used an example from the anticipatory set
They addressed the feelings of others
They explained why they felt it was wrong (didnt just state it was wrong)
They said something about the way we should treat others
4. Management
o Materials: Posters, post-it notes, markers
o Time: 45 50 minutes
o Space: Students will be at their desks during the anticipatory set, then they will
transition to the carpet area for the read aloud, then they will spread out in groups
around the room.
o Behavior: I will use the app from iTunes called Class Dojo to monitor behavior. It
allows the teacher to mark when students are displaying both good and bad
behaviors. I will inform the students that I will be monitoring their behavior this

way and let them know that if they receive less than 3 marks of bad behaviors
then they will receive a reward at the end of the lesson. (piece of candy) However
if they receive 3 or more marks of bad behavior, then they will not receive a
reward.
5. Differentiation and Culturally-Responsive Practices
o Students will be given the opportunity to share their experiences of being treated
unfairly during the anticipatory set.
o Students are given the opportunity to write, listen, display creativity, work
collaboratively with their peers, and engage in discussion to reach all learning
styles.
o Struggling learners will benefit from discussion and the read aloud in which I can
provide feedback and support. They will also work with a group which can
support them.
(Building Background Knowledge)
6. Anticipatory Set: (8 minutes)
o I will take volunteers from the class. Raise your hand if you have green (if no
green blue) eyes. Who would like to volunteer? I also need someone who doesnt
have green eyes. (Take volunteer) Okay Im going to have you guys race, but
there are rules. The person with green eyes has to race doing the crab walk and
they are not allowed to stand up. The person without green eyes may stand but
they are only allowed to skip, hop, or walk. Put them at starting line and perform
race. Repeat once more with other volunteers. (The person without green eyes
should win both times)
o Discuss. What did you notice happened both times? The person with green
lost. Do you think this was a fair race? no. Are you sure? Everybody knows that
people with green eyes just arent as fast as people without green eyes right? no.
Of course not. Why was this not a fair race? The person with green eyes was at
a disadvantage, the person without green eyes had more privileges.
(Activating Background Knowledge)
7. Bridging Past/Present Learning: (2 minutes)
o Has any one of you ever been treated like the people with green eyes were in this
scenario? (So has anyone been treated differently by someone who maybe acted
like they were better than you?) Take answers from the class, and give examples
to help them think if they struggle. Examples: Someone beat you in a sport and
made it obvious that they thought they were better than you, someone had Jordan
shoes and you didnt, someone had a better brand name shirt than you, someone
thought they were smarter than you.

8. Purpose:
o We are going to read Back of the Bus in a minute and I want you guys to
focus on how the main characters in this story were treated and the main theme
of the book and then we are going to talk about it.
o Essential Questions: Why is it unfair to treat others (African Americans) badly
just because they are different? What actions can we take to promote fairness?
(Constructing Understanding)
9. Lesson (12 minutes)
o I want all the girls to come to the carpet, now I want all the boys to come to the
carpet.
o While I am reading the story I expect there to be no talking. I also expect no
interruptions. If you have something you would like to say, I would like you to
wait until I finish reading the story and then you may raise your hand.
o Read Aloud: I will read the story to the students using different voices for
each character.
o Grand Conversation: After reading the story I will engage students in a
grand conversation about the book
Initial Response Questions:
Did you like the story? What did you like about it? What didnt
you like about it?
What was the problem in the story? Why do you think she didnt
want to give up her seat?
How would you have felt if you were Mrs. Parks? What would you
have done?
What did you think of the main characters? (Rosa, the little boy,
the bus driver)
What do you think was so meaningful about what Mrs. Parks did?
What did you think of her going to jail?
Okay so what do you think the main theme of the story is?
Did you think what happened was fair? Why or why not?
o Okay I want you to think back to the activity we did at the beginning of class. That
activity is a good way to look at how African Americans were treated in this time period.

So the people with green eyes would be the African Americans and the people without
green eyes would be the white people. White people thought that they were better than
the African Americans because they had more privileges. Now for the activity we did was
there anything actually wrong with the people with green eyes? Absolutely not! They just
didnt have as many privileges as the people without green eyes, and they had a different
eye color. This was the same way with African Americans and whites. There wasnt
anything wrong with African Americans. The only difference between African Americans
and the white people was their skin color and the fact that white people had more
privileges.
(Using New Understanding)
10. Guided Practice (4 minutes)
o I will pick two students to put the sticky notes on everyones desk. When you
have two sticky notes on your desk, you may go sit down, get out a pencil, and
wait quietly.
o Response: (I will pose two questions on posters: Why is it unfair to treat someone
badly just because they are different? (Eye color, skin color, from a different
country) What would you do if you saw someone being treated unfairly? For
example: being bullied in school. I will review a couple of the answers.
o Remediation: If students do not grasp the objective here, then I will spend time
talking about what fairness is and giving examples of what fairness and unfairness
look like. Then we will talk about the story again and why the main theme is
unfairness.
11. Extend the Learning: (18 minutes)
o Now we are going to do an activity to promote fairness here at our own school.
Bullying is one thing that we could focus on here. What do you think are some
ideas of how we could decrease bullying? What is something that we can do
ourselves? (If needed give example we could give a skit to the entire school)
o What we are going to do to decrease bullying and promote fairness in our
school is make flyers to put up around the entire school so everyone will see
them! In a minute, we are going to break up into groups and make our own flyers.
But first, I am going to show you an example so you know what to do. Okay so
our poster must have a title - Bye Bye Bullying. Next, we need to write a sentence
or two to say why bullying is bad - Bullying hurts people with your words and
actions. Last, we need a good statement to inspire people to stop bullying - Stand
up against bullying. Be a hero. (Be nice or be iced by your friends)

o We are going to divide into your groups that we use for literacy stations. When I
say, you are going to go to your groups number (this will be given to them) which
is placed somewhere in the room. After we are done, we are going to vote on
which one we want to make into a flyer and place around the school. Remember,
your poster must have a title, a reason why bullying is bad, and a statement to
inspire people to stop bullying. If your poster is missing one of these things, it will
be taken out of the voting. And if you have extra time after you complete these
three things then you may decorate it. And everyone MUST participate in some
way.(Advice to you is dont write anything until you know what you want to say,
and if there is a disagreement take a group vote)
Hand out posters and markers.
o Voting: I will hang up the posters on one wall and read each of them and give
them a number. Each student will be given a piece of paper and will write the
number they vote for and put it in the bag/hat/thing. The results will be revealed
the next time I come to class.
Next class we will also vote on which picture we want to put on our poster. I will
bring in pictures, but if you would like to draw a picture to submit into the voting
you may also do that. But it must be done by next (fill in date).
12. Closure (2 minutes)
o (Students will go back to their desks) The last thing I would like you to do is: I
want you to think about everything we did today and I want you to think of one
thing you learned about fairness. Once you have an answer I want you to turn to
a neighbor and share.
Call on one or two people to share if time allows.

13. Reflection
o How many students achieved the objective? For those that did not, why not?
I feel that all students mastered the objective. They all agreed that the
main character was treated unfairly, and that was the theme of the book.
Almost all students were able to produce a reason that its wrong to treat
people unfairly. Only a couple of students needed help coming up with
this reason.
o What were my strengths and weaknesses?
I thought my anticipatory set and my extended learning were the strongest
aspects of my lesson. The students related very well to the anticipatory set,
and they loved making their posters to vote on. I felt that my discussion
went well with students but could have been better.
o How should I alter this lesson?

The only thing I would change about this lesson is the students response
to the book following the read aloud. The sticky notes worked well but I
felt something else could have been more beneficial to them.
How would I pace it differently?
I thought my pacing went well for this lesson. The only thing that I might
do differently is give students more time to work on their posters so that
they have time to decorate them.
Where all students actively participating? If not, why not?
I felt that all the students were actively participating. The only time not all
students were participating was during the grand conversation. Not every
student added to the discussion but they were all listening. Every student
was participating during the poster making especially.
How did I make adjustments to reach all learning styles and ability levels?
I divided the groups into groups Mrs. James had already established
because she knew that those groups worked well together and had mixed
ability. The group work allowed the higher ability students to help the
lower ability students. I tried to incorporate a variety of visual and
kinesthetic activities.
Were the students able to relate to the book that I chose?
The students were able to tell that the main character was treated unfairly
and could relate to it fairly easily. They impressed me with how much they
could relate to it and discuss it.