Story Map Activity

First Lesson! - Agnes B. Hennessy Elementary School

    During my first lesson at Hennessy Elementary School in East Providence, RI, I was placed within a 3rd grade room. My co-teacher and I were given two students to work with and thankfully both were present for this lesson. This was our first time meeting, so we started with just some short introductions to get to know each other's names. After, we asked them to put their names on their journals and allowed them to decorate them. These are the journals we will be having them work in for each lesson. Then we gave them a Reading Attitude Survey, which was a series of 20 questions that helped to give us as teachers a better understanding as to how the students felt about reading in different scenarios. It asked questions such as "How do you feel about reading at home?" and "How do you feel about reading in school?" I noticed that our MLL learner had a more negative feeling towards reading as opposed to our other student who was not an MLL learner. This first lesson focused on comparing and contrasting different versions of a folktale and filling out a story map for one of the stories. The folktale we chose to focus on was "The Little Red Riding Hood" with the contrasting book being "Honestly, Little Red Riding Hood was ROTTEN!" After completing our beginning tasks, we did an icebreaker activity that related to our stories. The name of the activity was "What's in Your Basket?" We asked the students, if they were going on an adventure in the forest with a basket and they could only bring one thing with them, what would they bring and why? This helped us segway smoothly into the actual content of our lesson. Afterwards, we took a look at our visual agenda which was added into our lesson's slideshow. Before starting our reading, we went over some vocabulary words we felt were important or tricky that were found in the book. We made sure the students understood the definition and were able to see the words used in an example sentence. We also had them clap out the syllables to the words with us to help further build that skill. Once our vocabulary was finished, we began reading "The Little Red Riding Hood." 

    I took the lead for this portion of our lesson. While I was reading, I made sure that I was asking intentional and thought-provoking questions to 1. Keep the students engaged with the story and 2. Help the students better comprehend what is happening. This also helps to encourage dialogic reading. The students were very focused and even had some of their own commentary to add to the story. Throughout my reading, I had noticed a few words that we didn't make vocabulary words specifically but may be tricky for the students. I would ask them if they knew what the word meant first and if they did not, I explained the definition and gave them an example that they could relate to/build a connection from. By the end of our reading, the students were very familiar and comfortable with the vocabulary words that were introduced at the beginning. 

     After reading "The Little Red Riding Hood," we moved on to creating a story map together. I also took the lead for this section of the lesson. We had a handout sheet that we gave to the students with the story map elements on it, and we filled them out together. The elements our story map focused on were characters, themes, plot, conflict, point of view and setting. To help with their writing, I also had an anchor chart that I set up to write out their answers on. This was very helpful for our students because one had a hard time with spelling. This is also an example of modeling teaching, as both the students and teachers were filling out the chart together. At some points, I had to guide the students towards certain correct answers through questioning, but overall, they had a really good understanding of story elements and were able to give me ideas to write down on their own. We made sure to explain each element in depth before asking them to give us examples.

   After completing our story map, we moved on to reading our next story which was "Honestly, Little Red Riding Hood Was ROTTEN!" We were going to give the students a brain break at this time, but we had decided to move it as we were unsure if we were going to have enough time to get through our actual content activities. My co-teacher took leadership of this part of the activity. As she read to the students, she also made sure to ask deeper understanding questions to help the students with their comprehension and engagement. While she read, I began taking down our anchor charts from the previous section and setting up the new ones we needed for this section. 

After we finished reading, we began doing a compare and contrast activity with the students. In their journals on the first page, they had a Venn Diagram that we had written inside. On our anchor chart, we had a larger version of the Venn Diagram that explain what each circle meant separately, and what the section where the circles interlap meant. My co-teacher look leadership for this activity as well. She asked the students if they could think of any ideas and began filling out the chart with them. During our first activity, the story map, we explained to the students that they should be writing in their notebooks what we have on our anchor charts. By this activity, the Venn Diagram, the students were able to follow that expectations without reminders. We gave the students some short praise for this and told them they were doing a good job. 

    Once our Venn Diagram was completed, we decided that now it was important for our students to get a brain break. I could see that while one student could have easily continued, our other student was starting to get distracted and seemed like he was losing engagement. We did a charades game with them where one student stood up in front of the other, and one of us whispered a character from the story in their ear. The student then had to act out that character while the other student tried to guess who they were. We did two rounds of this as it seemed to go pretty quickly. The students loved this break and could not stop laughing at their acting skills. After this short break, I could tell that they were much more ready to learn.

    Afterwards, we moved onto our last activity which followed more of an I do, we do, you do format. For this activity they were asked to open to the second page of their journals which had two columns set up for them. The first one said, "Red Riding Hood" and the second one said, "The Wolf." Students were asked to find evidence or examples within the story to show that each book was written from a different character's perspective. I took the lead for this section of our lesson and wrote on the anchor chart, but my co-teacher and I both participated in facilitating discussion and monitoring. We also explained to them that there are different points of views in a story such as first person or third person. This explanation was brief, as we wanted them to focus more on finding their evidence/examples. They seemed to understand the points of view well, as we asked them to restate first and third person to us and they were able to do so accurately. We started by just giving them an example from us, one that they did not have to think of, to show them what we were looking for. Then, we had them come up with some ideas together and wrote them down as a group on the anchor charts. Lastly, we put both books out in front of them and asked them to come up with at least 3 more examples together. We told them that afterward, we will share them out loud and add them to the anchor chart. We gave the students room to struggle and think, while also being nearby in case they needed any help. This is a norm that we set with them as soon as they started their independent work, because we did not want them to think they could not ask us for help. They were good being independent for the most part, only needing us to help with spelling on a few words. Once they finished, we went over the answers together and recorded them on their charts.

  To wrap up our activity. We restated all that we did together and asked them if they had any final questions. After they said they did not, we moved on to our concluding activity. This was like a short brain break kind of activity. We asked them if they could be any animal in a forest, which one would they be and why. After they finished, one of the students asked us if we will be coming back. We explained that we will be coming to work with them once a week for the next few weeks, and they were very excited about this. This made me feel really good as an educator because they were so excited to see us again and learn more, and it was a heartwarming ending to our lesson with them. 

The SLO's for this activity, accounting for varying tiered levels of support, were: 

Tier 1: Universal Instruction 

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify elements of the story with differentiated core support by completing an interactive chart together and a story map independently or with a peer with 95% accuracy. 

Tier 2: Accommodated Support

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify elements of the story with targeted support by completing an interactive chart together and a story map with personalized one-on-one support from the teacher with 85-90% accuracy. 

Tier 3: Intensive Support

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to identify elements of the story with intensive support by completing an interactive chart together and a story map with concentrated one-on-one support from the teacher with 80% accuracy. 

    Our students fit more into a Tier 1 category. I would say that the objectives for this activity were definitely met. This can be shown through the completion of their story maps. The students were engaged in the activity and did not need much support from the teachers. They were able to complete it with 90-95% accuracy. 

    For our second activity, students were able to complete the Venn Diagrams fairly well and only needed minimal support from the teachers. I would say they were able to complete this activity with 90% accuracy, which meets the objective. 

   

    For our last activity, the students were able to complete their columns together, only needing help with spelling. I would say that this activity was completed with 90-95% accuracy, which shows me that the understood and met the objective. 

    

    From this experience, I learned how important it is to offer differentiated support, stay flexible with pacing, and build meaningful connections with students. I realized that each learner has different needs, especially our MLL student who benefited from more guidance with vocabulary and comprehension. I also learned that being able to pay attention to your students' nonverbal cues, like adding a brain break when engagement dropped, can make a big difference in focus and participation. Collaborating with my co-teacher also taught me how valuable leadership and clear communication are. Additionally, using intentional questioning and modeling strengthened students’ comprehension and confidence. Most importantly, I learned that taking time to build rapport through small, yet engaging activities helps create a positive learning environment where students are excited to learn and see you return.

    This experience will influence my professional identity by shaping me into a more confident and student-centered educator. Being given the opportunity to work within these settings is something that is so valuable to young, aspiring educators like me. Hands-on work allows me to practice my work in real time without as much "pressure" as a certified teacher. Seeing how engaged and motivated the students were throughout pretty much the whole lesson reminded me that effective teaching goes beyond delivering content; It’s about creating a positive, supportive environment where students feel seen, capable, and excited to learn.

  

  This experience will influence how I plan, teach, and assess by reminding me to always consider students’ individual needs and learning styles when designing lessons. I will continue to include interactive and differentiated activities that keep students engaged and provide opportunities for all learners to succeed. I also learned the value of assessments, such as story maps and group discussions, to check understanding throughout a lesson. Moving forward, I’ll plan lessons that are flexible, responsive to student engagement, and balanced between structure and creativity to promote both academic growth and enjoyment in learning.

Video Clip from Reading

Link to Visual Slideshow Students Followed: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10-HAWq9MDgsiExg6A4WdCUIH8-Rht1H_c7G2pbN0K4s/edit?usp=sharing