Design for Learning

Instructor: Rebecca Hastings

Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher: 3rd/4th
Lesson Title: The Forecast is Full of Meatballs Date: April 15, 2016
Curriculum Area: Reading/Summarizing Estimated Time: 45 minutes
Standards Connection:
2.) Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures;
determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through
key details in the text. [RL.3.2]
Learning Objective(s):
When given a reading passage, students will correctly summarize the passage according
to the somebody wanted but so then graphic organizer with 80% accuracy according to
a teacher-made rubric.
Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language:
Today you will be able to summarize a passage correctly.
Evaluation of Learning Objective(s):
The teacher will give the students a reading passage titled The Closet Creature. After
reading through this passage as a class, the students will summarize the story on their
own. They will be encouraged to use the somebody wanted but so then graphic
organizer to begin their summary. After outlining their ideas, the students will write their
summary in a paragraph format. The teacher will assess the summaries according to a
teacher-made rubric.
Engagement:
The teacher will begin by telling a personal story about the worst weather she has ever
experienced. She will tell this story in a dramatic way and with a lot of details. After she
finishes telling the story, she will ask a student to retell the story by only telling the
important details and key parts. She will remind them to keep it short. If that students
provides too many details, she will ask another student to try to tell the story in a short
and sweet manner. I want to tell you about a time I experienced some extreme weather.
One day, I was riding in the car with my parents on our way to Indiana to see family. We
were cruising along, and I was games on my Gameboy. I was completely zoned in to
winning my Mario game, when all of a sudden rain came from out of nowhere. We had
driven into a storm that was one of the worst storms I have ever driven through in my
life. I look out the front window of the car, and you could not see anything in front of you.
We were on the interstate where there were a lot of cars, but you could not even see their
lights. I look at my dad who was driving, and I realized that he was extremely nervous
about the situation. My dad became tense, and my mom started to freak out. My dad
begins looking for the first exit sign he can find on the interstate. Finally, we find one,
and we pull off to get off of the interstate. We turn into a crackerbarrel parking lot, and I
tried to calm down. Once I stopped crying, we went inside to eat dinner and let the storm
pass. The storm eventually stopped being as scary as it was, and we were finally able to
continue on our trip to Indiana. The end. How did you like that story? Did it freak you
out at all or make you nervous? I know I was extremely nervous the entire time it was
taking place! I am sure all of you have some sort of story that deals with the weather.
What I would like for someone to do is to summarize my story. I want you to retell my
story, but I want you to keep it short and sweet. Pick out the key details and share the
main idea of the story. Who would like to give it a try? The teacher will call on a student
to give a summary of the weather story. If the student gives too long of a summary, she
will ask another child to try to summarize the story in an even shorter version. Once the

story has been properly summarized, the class will move on to the main part of the
lesson. We are about to read a story that has to do with some extreme weather, just like
we heard in my dramatic story! Just like we summarized my weather story, we are going
to summarize this crazy weather story we are about to read!
Learning Design:
I. Teaching:
The teacher will begin the teaching portion by reading the story Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs to the class. After reading the story, the teacher and the class will work
together to complete the story map. After completing the story map, they will put together
the summary. The students will assist the teacher with the order the pieces should go
together. After discussing what the summary of the story is, the students will write the
summary in their journals. The story we are going to read is Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs. Have any of you seen this movie before? For the longest time, I did not know
this was a book, but I was very excited when I found out it was! I am going to read this
book to you, and then we are going to work on summarizing the story. Lets pay close
attention to the story so we can know and remember what happens. The teacher will read
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to the class. I hope you enjoyed that story and
listened closely to what took place in it! Now that we know what takes place in the story
and have a bigger piece of text to work with, we are going to summarize what is to take
place. Before we begin, can anyone tell me what a summary is? Students respond. In
order to write a summary, there are several key parts that must be included. Can anyone
tell me one of these key parts? Students respond. A summary is a retelling of the story
that was read. When you retell this story, it does not need to be word for word what you
read. This summary needs to be told in your own words. A summary also needs to
includes a couple of key parts. When you write a summary, you are going to include the
main idea of the story. You are also going to include key ideas. These key ideas are gong
to be significant, or important, events that happened or important information. Do we
want to include minor details that do not contribute to the main events that happened in
the story? Why would we not want to include the small details? Students respond. If we
included small details, we would not be telling a summary. The story would be very long!
When we tell a summary. We want to only tell the important parts. When people tell you a
story, do you want them to tell you each and every detail of the story, such as what time
something occurred? There are a lot of details that take place in stories that do not have
to be shared when retold. If we listened to each and every detail, we would be listening to
some stories for a very long time! This same idea applies to when we write our
summaries. Can I have someone share with me what we just discussed a summary is and
what we need to include in this summary? Students respond. Thank you for sharing! Now
that we know what a summary is and what we need to include in our summaries, we are
going to begin summarizing Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. As we decide how to
summarize this story, we are going to fill out our story map. This story map has all of the
different elements that are needed to help you know how to summarize a story. First, we
are going to think about the main characters. Who would you say are the main
characters in this story that would be important to include in a summary? Students
respond. I would say the main characters in this story are Henry, Henrys sister,
Grandpa, and Mom. Lets write these characters on our story map! Where does this story
take place? Students respond. It does take place in several places, but I would say the
main setting takes place at the house and at Chewandswallow. Does anyone agree with
me on this thought? Lets write our setting on our story map as well! Now that we know
who and where, lets think about what happened. What is the problem that takes place in
this story? Students respond. The problem in this story is that the good food stopped
falling, and it was replaced by bad food that was too big. The people then had to leave
Chewandswallow. Can everyone see how this is the main problem that takes place in the

story? Are there other details that go into this event or idea? There are! Do we include
them in the summary? We do not need to, because they do contribute to the development
of this problem. When we summarize a story, we want to have some supporting details to
our story. We cannot simply tell who the characters are, where the story took place, and
what the problem was. We need to also include a couple of events that made the story
interesting and that supported the problem! What would you say is one funny and
important event that took place in this story? The students will respond, and the teacher
will help guide them to the answer. Those were very funny events that took place in the
story for sure, but what event would you say was most important? What event made our
problem occur or helped solve the problem? Students respond. I think we could say that
it rained food three times a day in Chewandswallow. The people ate whatever weather
was served, and they didn't have to worry about going food shopping. People just carried
their utensils with them. What would be a second event that happened that needs to be
told in our summary? Students respond. Just like Sally said, we could say that the
weather took a turn for the worse. Bad food kept falling, and then food that was too big.
People got sick trying to eat too much, and they had to close school. People then decided
to leave Chewandswallow. We need one more main event that took place in our story to
help us finish the summary of what took place! Can anyone share a good idea that should
be included? Students respond. Both of our previous events lead into one another. Our
events are not about the random that took place, such as pancakes falling from the sky.
Our events flow together, because each event influences one another. If the sky did not
rain food all of the time, the people would not have gotten sick from eating too much.
Can you see how each of these events impacted one another? What did we say our
overall problem was in the story? Our problem was about too much big food falling from
the sky and causing the citizens of the town to leave Chewandswallow. Do you see how
our events so far support that problem? What is a third event that took place that
supports our problem as well and helps the story take place. Students respond. After
listening to your thinking, we could say the townspeople made a boat out of stale bread
and sailed to a new town. They had to get used to shopping for food at the supermarket.
Lets write this down on our story map to remember what we have discussed! Finally, we
need to write down what the solution to the problem is. Can someone remind me what the
problem was? Students respond. Thats right! The problem was that the good food
stopped falling, and it was replaced by bad food that was too big. Then the people had to
leave Chewandswallow. What was the solution to this problem? Students respond. I think
we should write that the people of Chewandswallow survived in a new town, and
Grandpa's story put the children to sleep! Now that we have all of the parts to our
summary, we need to piece it together! I want you to help me decide how we should write
this summary. You are going to tell me which order these pieces of information should go
together, and I am going to number them in that order. The numbers will tell us the order
in which we should write the summary, and they will help you remember that order when
you write the summary in a minute! The students will now help the teacher order the
events in which they should be written in the summary. The class will have a group
discussion, and the teacher will write the number next to each part as the discussion
occurs. Now that we have all of our events in order, we are going to write our summary
in our journals! I know writing summaries is a scary task for you sometimes, but it does
not need to be! Each and every one of you can write a summary. You just need to
remember the steps we just went through to get to the final product. Now that we have
numbered the events and information, you are going to write that information in your
journal in the order we labeled it. Why would you want to keep it in the order we labeled
it? Students respond. We would not want to take it out of order, because it would no
longer make sense! If we keep it in order, we will be writing the events down in the order
that happened. This will allow the people listening or reading the summary to understand
what happened. Does anyone have any questions about what we are doing? The teacher

will answer any questions. I want you to get out your writing journals, and begin writing
your summaries!
II. Opportunity for Practice:
Now that you are pros at writing summaries, I want you to continue practicing your
summarizing abilities with a partner. I am going to take the chart paper off of the board,
and you are going to work with a partner at retelling this story through a summary. You
can discuss the summary with your partner first if you would like. I want to show you a
similar yet different strategy that you can use when writing a summary. This method uses
specific words to spark your thinking when creating your summary. It begins with
identifying the word somebody. Who is the somebody in the story that we want to
identify? The next word is wanted. What did the character want? The next key word is
but. This question causes you to ask the question but what was the problem? The
next word used to spark your thinking is so. You will ask yourself, so how did the
character fix the problem? Finally, you will use the word then, and you will ask
then what was the resolution to the story? After you have these questions answered,
you will have your story summarized and will be ready to write it altogether! Does
anyone have any questions? The teacher will answer any questions. Once all questions
have been answered, the students will begin summarizing Cloudy With a Chance of
Meatballs without being led by the teacher. The students will be able to work with
partners on this task.
III. Assessment
The students will read The Closet Creature by Kelly Hashway. After reading this short
story, the students will summarize the story on their own. They will be encouraged to use
the summarizing chart used at the beginning of the lesson to gather and focus their
thoughts. They will write their summary on a provided page to turn in. Now that we have
had a lot of practice with summarizing, and I want to see just how much you have
learned! I am going to place the chart paper back on the board for you to look at for a
reference during this assignment. Then I am going to pass out a new reading passage to
each of you. The passage is called The Closet Creature. First, you are going to read
the passage, and then you will summarize what you have read. I want you to remember
what we have learned about summarizing today. What key facts do you need to look for,
and what information do you do you not need to include? I encourage you to write down
the points you want to include in your summary, or fill out the story map before you write
you official summary. Does anyone have any questions about what we are going to do?
The teacher will answer any questions that the students have. After questions have been
answered, the students will receive the reading passage and will begin writing their
summaries.
IV. Closure:
The students will be placed in groups. The teacher will then give them a short passage
they must summarize. After they discuss the summary with their group, they will act out
the summary to the class. To close our lesson, you are going to act out a passage! You are
going to get into groups of 4, and then you will read your passage. After you read the
passage, you will discuss as a group what the summary of the passage is. Because the
passages are short, your summary should just be one sentence! I want you to think about
what the main idea of this passage is! After you have decided what the summary is, you
are going to figure out how to act it out. Once everyone is ready, we are going to act out
our summaries to each other, and we are going to guess what each group is acting out! Is
everyone ready to receive your passage and begin acting out? The teacher will assign the
groups and passages, and the students will begin the activity.
Materials and Resources:

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Chart paper for group story elements
Story elements organizer
Practice SWBST organizer
The Closet Creature story
The Closet Creature summary writing page
Closure summary passages
Summarizing Rubric

Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):

Extension:
Students will create their own comic strip to tell a summary of a story of choice.
Re-teaching:
For the students that need additional practice, they will be allowed to choose one book
they enjoy and are familiar with. The teacher will then sit down with the student and
review how to summarize. This will be small group teaching.
Data Analysis:
The reading strategy of summarizing is something these students struggle with. The
majority of the students were able to pick out good details to include in a summary, but
they were not able to write it in a proper paragraph form. Two students in the class are
clearly ahead of the other students in writing a summary, but they still have
improvements that can be made in the summarizing as well. Overall, this is a standard
that needs additional teaching and a lot of practice for the whole class.
Reflection:
This lesson is one that I would like to have the chance to do again. The students were not
excited about the book used during the teaching, which did not help teaching this topic.
The students already have a preconception that they do not like to summarize, which
made this lesson a challenge from the beginning. I would choose a different book that the
students would enjoy to use in my teaching. I would also make sure to have additional
time to talk to the students about how to format their summary. The somebody wanted
but so then method guided the students in what details to choose to include in their
summary, but it did not give them an understanding of how to actually write the
summaries. I wish I had the opportunity to teach another summarizing lesson that would
guide the students in actually writing the summaries. If I learned anything from this
lesson, I would say I recognized how many standards must be taught in multiple lessons.
Samford University
Design for Learning

Name: ______________________________

The Closet Creature

by Kelly Hashway

Bump! Bump! Scratch!

Adam opened his eyes and pulled the
covers up to his chin. He stared around his
room, searching the darkness for the thing
that was making those scary sounds. The
closet door moved as something banged
on it from the inside.
Whos there? Adam asked in a shaky
voice.
The closet slowly began to open. Adam
jumped out of bed and ran to the closet
door, slamming it shut with his palms. He
grabbed his desk chair and propped it
against the door handle. Then he ran out
of his room and down the hall. His
brothers door was wide open, and Adam
jumped onto Davids bed.
Adam? David asked in a groggy voice. What are you doing in here?
Adam tugged on Davids arm. Theres something in my closet!
You probably had a bad dream. Go back to bed.
Adam yanked the blankets off the bed. It wasnt a dream. I was
awake, and the closet door started opening by itself!
David sighed. Fine. But when we dont find anything, you have to
promise to leave me alone for the rest of the night.
Adam nodded. David reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a
flashlight. Then they headed to Adams room. Adam stopped in the
doorway. He could hear something scratching his closet door.
Do you hear that? Adam asked.
David nodded. He walked over to Adams bed and pulled the case off
one of the pillows. He opened the pillowcase.
You open the door very slowly, and Ill grab whatever it is.
Adam slid the chair to the side and pulled the closet door open a crack.
Something banged against the door, trying to force it open. Adam took
a deep breath and opened the door a few more inches. A small furry
creature ran right into the pillowcase.

I got it! David said, closing the pillowcase and holding it in the air.
What is it? Adam moved closer as David
peeked inside.
David put the pillowcase on the bed and an
orange cat climbed out. Adam scooped the cat
up. Apricot? How did you get trapped in my
closet?
David laughed. The poor cat. If I was locked in
your closet with your stinky shoes, Id be
banging on the door to get out, too!
Poor, Apricot, Adam said. You were probably more scared than I
was.

The Robins Nest

The robin wanted to build a nest. First, she found
some grass and straw. Then she took the grass and
straw to a tree. Next, she put the grass and straw
together to make a nest. Finally, she laid her eggs in
the nest.

The Nose Knows

When dogs meet, they sniff each other. Dogs use
their sense of smell to learn about each other. Dogs
can smell many things that people cannot smell.
They explore the world with their noses. They can
learn a lot through their sense of smell.

Mr. Tuttles Dog

Mr. Tuttle is my neighbor. He has a little black poodle
named Mack. Mack is the cutest dog in the world!
Mack can do some tricks. He can shake hands and
roll over. I think play with Mack is really fun.

Sallys Snack
Sally dashed from the elevator. She gave her
grandma a quick hug at the door. She dropped her
book bag on the table. Then Sally headed for the
kitchen. Out came the bread. Out came the jam. In
no time, Sally made a snack.

Youve Got Mail!

Suki got an email from her friend, Annie. The e-mail
made Suki happy. She went to talk to her mom. Then

she looked at the calendar. Suki wrote back to Annie.

The answer was Yes!

Story Map
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Author: _________________

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Setting:

Main Event:
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Main Event:
Summary
of: _______________________________________
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Main Event:

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Solution:

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