Laura Barnes
Lesson Topic: The Life of Mexican Artist, Frida Kahlo
Need(s) Addressed: This lesson addresses the needs of third graders to identify important facts within biographies as well as the ability to use these facts to create an authentic poem.
Rationale: As students progress in the intermediate grades, they should be able to gather and incorporate important details from informational text to create authentic pieces of writing. Found poetry is an excellent strategy that assists students with the process of merging fact with creative prose.
Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.2:
Key Ideas and Details: Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.4:
Production and Distribution of Writing: With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
CCSS.Social Studies.3.4a:
Communities Around the World: Students will examine legends, folktales, oral histories, biographies, and historical narratives to learn about the important individuals and events of each selected world community.
Objective: Students will be able to use their knowledge of the found poetry strategy and fact finding skill to demonstrate their ability to identify facts within several informational texts. Students will also be able to use these facts to create authentic poems that presents four facts learned about Frida Kahlo.
Academic Language: fact, found poetry, biography, source, Mexico, culture
Motivation or Anticipatory Set: The students will view the image of Frida Kahlo and her quote, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” on the Smart board. The students will brainstorm ideas about this quote. Students will use clues from the image as well as any prior knowledge to make predictions or connections to Frida Kahlo. (5-7 minutes)
Brief Procedure: Preceding lessons from this unit on the history, culture, traditions, and geography of Mexico will provide background and support the comprehension of the text encountered during this lesson. This lesson will be taught after the students have been explicitly instructed on to use the fact-finding graphic organizer and the found poetry strategy. Prior to this lesson, students will have had ample opportunity to use both in small groups and independently. The teacher will provide support, as needed, for any student(s) that continue to require assistance.
1. After using the image and quote to make predictions about Frida Kahlo, the teacher will tell the students that they will be using various texts to learn about the life of this famous Mexican woman. The teacher will let the students know that they will be using the fact-finding graphic organizer to record facts about Frida Kahlo. The fact-finding chart will be referenced and briefly reviewed with the class. (2-3 minutes)
2. The teacher will instruct the students that first they will be viewing the reading of a book (on the Smart board) about Frida Kahlo’s life and use their organizer to record at least 2 facts about her. The teacher will ask the students to leave the two remaining boxes empty so that they may use various texts to gather more facts. The topic for the organizer will be: Frida Kahlo. The question guiding the fact-finding will be: What are some facts I learned about Frida Kahlo? Remind students that when you study a person, important facts may include where they lived, what time period they lived in, what the person’s job was, what some of their characteristics were, what some important events in their life were, and why they were famous. Students may contribute other things to look for when studying a famous person. (2-3 minutes)
3. After the students view the book and record their facts, the teacher will ask the students to get into their (heterogeneous) reading groups to complete their organizer. Each group will use their book bin to gather additional facts about Frida Kahlo. At this time, students may assist one another with knowledge gained from the video as well as new knowledge encountered in the texts. The teacher will circulate during this activity providing support and offering gifted students the option of extending their fact finding to include other knowledge/connections. (20 minutes)
4. The teacher will ask the groups to share several facts (including the source) with the class. The teacher will refer back to earlier predictions as well as knowledge learned about Mexico so that students may be more engaged in their thinking. (5-8 minutes)
5. The students will be asked to return to their seats and directed to use their facts about Frida Kahlo to create a found poetry piece about the Mexican artist. The found poetry anchor chart will be referenced and briefly reviewed. Students will produce poems varying in length and complexity according to their ability. (20 minutes)
6. The teacher will circulate offering guidance and support as needed. Students will be encouraged to be creative with their writing, such as using repetition, shapes, and illustrations in their work.
7. Students may not complete work during this lesson. Poetry may be revisited during Writer’s Workshop blocks in upcoming days. Students will be asked edit their work. The teacher will assist students in developing their poems to produce their final draft. The students will be given the opportunity to share their work with each other and final drafts will be added to the class bulletin board.
Adaptations: Struggling readers and writers, as well students with learning disabilities, will be offered more simplified text to gather information from and will be required to incorporate fewer facts within their poems. Gifted students will be given additional fact-finding organizers so that they may include more than four facts about Frida Kahlo including, but not limited to, making connections to various facts about Mexico or other artists.
Materials Used:
· fact-finding graphic organizer
· fact-finding anchor chart
· found poetry anchor chart
· I-pad
· Smart board (with VGA adaptor)
· Frida’s World app for the I-pad
· Book bins filled with variety of different leveled texts on Frida Kahlo and Mexico
Technology Component: The app, Frida’s World will be accessed from the teacher’s I-pad which will be connected to the classroom Smart board to display the reading of the book about Frida Kahlo.
Assessment of Common Core Standards: Common Core Standards addressed in this lesson will be assessed during the completion and discussion of the fact-finding graphic organizers. Further assessment will take place during the completion of the found poetry.
Lesson Topic: The Life of Mexican Artist, Frida Kahlo
Need(s) Addressed: This lesson addresses the needs of third graders to identify important facts within biographies as well as the ability to use these facts to create an authentic poem.
Rationale: As students progress in the intermediate grades, they should be able to gather and incorporate important details from informational text to create authentic pieces of writing. Found poetry is an excellent strategy that assists students with the process of merging fact with creative prose.
Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.2:
Key Ideas and Details: Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.4:
Production and Distribution of Writing: With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
CCSS.Social Studies.3.4a:
Communities Around the World: Students will examine legends, folktales, oral histories, biographies, and historical narratives to learn about the important individuals and events of each selected world community.
Objective: Students will be able to use their knowledge of the found poetry strategy and fact finding skill to demonstrate their ability to identify facts within several informational texts. Students will also be able to use these facts to create authentic poems that presents four facts learned about Frida Kahlo.
Academic Language: fact, found poetry, biography, source, Mexico, culture
Motivation or Anticipatory Set: The students will view the image of Frida Kahlo and her quote, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” on the Smart board. The students will brainstorm ideas about this quote. Students will use clues from the image as well as any prior knowledge to make predictions or connections to Frida Kahlo. (5-7 minutes)
Brief Procedure: Preceding lessons from this unit on the history, culture, traditions, and geography of Mexico will provide background and support the comprehension of the text encountered during this lesson. This lesson will be taught after the students have been explicitly instructed on to use the fact-finding graphic organizer and the found poetry strategy. Prior to this lesson, students will have had ample opportunity to use both in small groups and independently. The teacher will provide support, as needed, for any student(s) that continue to require assistance.
1. After using the image and quote to make predictions about Frida Kahlo, the teacher will tell the students that they will be using various texts to learn about the life of this famous Mexican woman. The teacher will let the students know that they will be using the fact-finding graphic organizer to record facts about Frida Kahlo. The fact-finding chart will be referenced and briefly reviewed with the class. (2-3 minutes)
2. The teacher will instruct the students that first they will be viewing the reading of a book (on the Smart board) about Frida Kahlo’s life and use their organizer to record at least 2 facts about her. The teacher will ask the students to leave the two remaining boxes empty so that they may use various texts to gather more facts. The topic for the organizer will be: Frida Kahlo. The question guiding the fact-finding will be: What are some facts I learned about Frida Kahlo? Remind students that when you study a person, important facts may include where they lived, what time period they lived in, what the person’s job was, what some of their characteristics were, what some important events in their life were, and why they were famous. Students may contribute other things to look for when studying a famous person. (2-3 minutes)
3. After the students view the book and record their facts, the teacher will ask the students to get into their (heterogeneous) reading groups to complete their organizer. Each group will use their book bin to gather additional facts about Frida Kahlo. At this time, students may assist one another with knowledge gained from the video as well as new knowledge encountered in the texts. The teacher will circulate during this activity providing support and offering gifted students the option of extending their fact finding to include other knowledge/connections. (20 minutes)
4. The teacher will ask the groups to share several facts (including the source) with the class. The teacher will refer back to earlier predictions as well as knowledge learned about Mexico so that students may be more engaged in their thinking. (5-8 minutes)
5. The students will be asked to return to their seats and directed to use their facts about Frida Kahlo to create a found poetry piece about the Mexican artist. The found poetry anchor chart will be referenced and briefly reviewed. Students will produce poems varying in length and complexity according to their ability. (20 minutes)
6. The teacher will circulate offering guidance and support as needed. Students will be encouraged to be creative with their writing, such as using repetition, shapes, and illustrations in their work.
7. Students may not complete work during this lesson. Poetry may be revisited during Writer’s Workshop blocks in upcoming days. Students will be asked edit their work. The teacher will assist students in developing their poems to produce their final draft. The students will be given the opportunity to share their work with each other and final drafts will be added to the class bulletin board.
Adaptations: Struggling readers and writers, as well students with learning disabilities, will be offered more simplified text to gather information from and will be required to incorporate fewer facts within their poems. Gifted students will be given additional fact-finding organizers so that they may include more than four facts about Frida Kahlo including, but not limited to, making connections to various facts about Mexico or other artists.
Materials Used:
· fact-finding graphic organizer
· fact-finding anchor chart
· found poetry anchor chart
· I-pad
· Smart board (with VGA adaptor)
· Frida’s World app for the I-pad
· Book bins filled with variety of different leveled texts on Frida Kahlo and Mexico
Technology Component: The app, Frida’s World will be accessed from the teacher’s I-pad which will be connected to the classroom Smart board to display the reading of the book about Frida Kahlo.
Assessment of Common Core Standards: Common Core Standards addressed in this lesson will be assessed during the completion and discussion of the fact-finding graphic organizers. Further assessment will take place during the completion of the found poetry.