Duration: 7 parts, including six 45-50 minute periods

Printable version: Pocahontas lesson plan 

The Double Life of Pocohantas by Jean Fritz Pilot Prompt

Imagine that Pocahontas kept a diary. Choose a particular event in her life and write about it from her point of view. Tell about the event as if you were Pocahontas writing in her own private diary.As you write your essay, think about these questions:
  did you state your main idea clearly?
  did you include details and examples to support your main idea?
  did you restate information from the story in your own words?
  did you organize your essay clearly with an introduction, body, and conclusion?
  did you use a variety of words and well-written sentences?
  did you use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation? 

Use any of the tools available to you, such as the Checklist, Spellchecker, or Graphic Organizer. 

Prompt: The Double Life of Pocahontas by Jean Fritz (pilot) 
Grade Level:   Upper Elementary (Grades 4-5) 
Category:   Literary   
Subjects:   English, Literature, History 
Lexile:   910L 

This series of lessons:
·        will teach students to better understand the text
·        will teach students to understand the MY Access!® prompt
·        will teach students point of view, story analysis and character analysis
·        will teach students to develop content
·        will help students use My Tutor feedback to revise
·        will prepare students to write a complete essay based on the prompt 
This lesson plan can be used in whole or in part.  It can also be used in conjunction with the MY Access!® Literature Discussion Guide questions about this book.  (Note: the discussion questions include suggested answers.) 

Part One: Prereading (non consecutive class periods)
1. Before reading each third of the book, help students fill in a KWL Chart. Ask students, “What do you know about Pocahontas?” and have them fill in the first row of the KWL chart.  Have a few students share their answers with the class.  (10 mins.)
2. Then ask “What do you want to know about Pocahontas?” Have students fill in the second row of the KWL chart.  Have a few students share their answers with the class. (10 mins.)
3. In the third row, have them write the name of the book, the name of the author and number and title of the chapter to state how they will learn about Pocahontas. (5 mins.)
Note: If you will be requiring additional research, students can add their sources in the third row of the KWL chart.  They can search on iSEEK to find quality sources on Pocahontas.
4. Repeat for each third of the book.
5. Use your standard methods and time frame for reading the text with the class.
 
Part Two:  Analyzing the Text and Prewriting
1. Review the questions from the MY Access!® Literature Discussion Guide with the class. (5 mins.)
2. Assign the questions as an in class writing where you check students’ responses by moving around the classroom and discussing their responses with them.  (20 mins.)
3. Review the responses as a class.  (10 mins.)
4. Have students create a timeline of Pocahontas’ life to review some of the key events in the book- listing important things that she did or that happened to her: Have students use the MY Access!® Timeline to list the events (15 mins.)

Part Three: Drafting in MY Access!® with a Graphic Organizer
1. Ask students to “Imagine you were Pocahontas.”  As a class, complete the Writer’s Focus Worksheet and ask students to “answer as if you were Pocahontas.” Here you may want to make the project more interesting by asking students to draw a picture of themselves as Pocahontas. (15-18 mins)
2. To compare Pocahontas’ life as a Native American to her life as an English person, reread aloud question 4 from the Literature Discussion Series. (2 mins.)
3. As a class, fill in a T chart on the board or with a computer and projector. Write the titles “young girl” “young woman” in each column and compile student responses to the question:  “Pocahontas, what were your experiences with the English like when you were a young girl?”  (10 mins.)
4. Ask students to think about one important event from Pocahontas’ timeline as a young girl.  As a class, discuss what makes the event important.  After a few suggestions, choose one event that the whole class will focus on.   (10 mins.)

Part Four: Drafting in MY Access!® with a Graphic Organizer
1. Print out the Plotting a Narrative chart and distribute to the whole class. as a class, discuss the single event/experience by completing the chart. Ask students to use the pronoun “I” when filling in the chart. (20 mins.)
2. In MY Access!® have students draft a description of their experience as Pocahontas. Teacher should walk around the room providing guidance. (25 mins.) Students should SAVE their writing to continue writing.

Part Five: Drafting in MY Access!® with a Graphic Organizer

Repeat Part 4 for an event from later in her life, giving the students more time to write their draft and submit the writing.

Part Six: Reviewing My Tutor Feedback to Revise
1. To use My Tutor feedback instructionally, teachers should distribute copies of My Tutor feedback for Focus, scorepoint 2, goal one, and review the feedback: (Note: the students’ scores may not be 2s.  This feedback is being used as a general example to teach revisioning.)

2. Read the goal aloud and ask students to underline the actions (verbs in the goal) and circle the objects of the verb.  This can help them understand their purpose and objective for the revision. (5 mins.)
 
Revision Goal: Clearly communicate your understanding of the essay question and the story.

3. Review the example’s assignment and draft (before revision) by asking students to explain what part of task the author still has to complete. “Ask what actions were not done?”  (5 mIns.)
 
Example:
   Katy’s Assignment:  As Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, write a letter to Aunt Em, comparing Kansas to Oz.
 
Before Revision: Dear Aunt Em,
 
I lived with you in Kansas. Everything there was gray. Farm work made you and Uncle Henry tired. Now, there is a witch out to get me, angry trees that throw apples, and monkeys who can fly! 4. Ask students how the author could improve the focus: this will be the “strategy”
 Review the Writer’s Strategy and compare it to what the students suggested. (5 mins.)
 
Katy’s Strategy: I wrote down some details about each place, but I did not really answer the essay question. I need to compare Kansas and Oz. 4. Ask students how the author could improve the focus: this will be the “strategy” Review the Writer’s Strategy and compare it to what the students suggested. (5 mins.)  5. Then review with the students the revised draft (After revision) and ask the students to listen and follow along with the as you emphasize the areas of the draft that have been revised. (5 mins.)
 
After Revision:
   Dear Aunt Em,
 
I lived with you in Kansas, where it was very quiet. Everything there was gray. The prairie is so flat that we can see for miles, but there is nothing but more prairie to see! Sometimes I wished we had just a tree to climb in. Farm work made you and Uncle Henry tired.4. Ask students how the author could improve the focus: this will be the “strategy” Review the Writer’s Strategy and compare it to what the students suggested. (5 mins.)  5. Then review with the students the revised draft (After revision) and ask the students to listen and follow along with the as you emphasize the areas of the draft that have been revised. (5 mins.) Then I took a trip to Oz. Everything is so much scarier here! Now, there is a witch out to get me, angry trees that throw apples, and monkeys who can fly!
 
As different as Oz is, it is a little bit like Kansas. Just like at home, there are a lot of nice people here who want to help me. I am traveling with three friends now.4. Ask students how the author could improve the focus: this will be the “strategy” Review the Writer’s Strategy and compare it to what the students suggested. (5 mins.)  5. Then review with the students the revised draft (After revision) and ask the students to listen and follow along with the as you emphasize the areas of the draft that have been revised. (5 mins.) 6. Ask the students to reread the revised version and underline the places where the writer improved their writing by responding the assignment. Then read the reflection to the students to check their responses. (5 mins.)
 
Katy’s Reflection: I answered the essay question by writing more details about differences and similarities between Kansas and Oz. I put the information about Oz into a new paragraph.7. Have students return to their writing in MY Access!®  Ask students, “Look again at the essay question. Did your writing really focus on the question that was asked? Highlight the section where you respond to the question in teal.”  (5 mins.)
8. Have students write down the actions (verbs in the goal) and the objects of the verb as you read the prompt out loud.  (5 minutes)
9. Students can then go back in the essay to add information that responds to the assignment.  (10 minutes)  

4. Ask students how the author could improve the focus: this will be the “strategy” Review the Writer’s Strategy and compare it to what the students suggested. (5 mins.)  5. Then review with the students the revised draft (After revision) and ask the students to listen and follow along with the as you emphasize the areas of the draft that have been revised. (5 mins.) 6. Ask the students to reread the revised version and underline the places where the writer improved their writing by responding the assignment. Then read the reflection to the students to check their responses. (5 mins.) 7. Have students return to their writing in MY Access!®  Ask students, “Look again at the essay question. Did your writing really focus on the question that was asked? Highlight the section where you respond to the question in teal.”  (5 mins.)8. Have students write down the actions (verbs in the goal) and the objects of the verb as you read the prompt out loud.  (5 minutes)9. Students can then go back in the essay to add information that responds to the assignment.  (10 minutes)  Part Seven: Developing Content
1. Have students individually fill in a Character Chart about Pocahontas, Encourage them to return to the text and use the book to find important details.  (15 mins.)
2. Review the responses as a class (5 mins.)
3. In MY Access®, have students add commentary of how Pocahontas feels about the event they described by adding her own words into the draft. (15 mins.)
4. Have students click on the Reference section, Word Bank and choose Dialogue Tags.  Review some of the tags with students and have them insert one new tag in the paragraph about her time as young girl and one about her time as an adult. (10 mins.)

Next steps:
Have students continue to draft and revise the essay in MY Access!®  Review their individual My Tutor feedback for Content and Development with them. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Because Writing Matters, Current Events, Lesson Plans, Lesson Plans: Literary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.