Identifying Details and Authors Message

Date: April 21
Grade/Subject: 4th Grade ESOL pull-out classroom
Unit/Theme: Stories and Lessons
Standards:
Virginia SOLs:
4.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts, narrative
nonfiction texts, and poetry.
a) Explain the authors purpose.
d) Summarize supporting details.
WIDA Level 3 (Grades K-12) Linguistic Complexity for Speaking and Writing:
Students will be able to produce short and some expanded sentences with emerging
complexity.
WIDA Level 3 (Grades K-12) Vocabulary Usage for Speaking and Writing:
Students will be able to produce specific content words and expressions (including
content-specific cognates)
WIDA Level 3 (Grades K-12) Linguistic Complexity for Listening and Reading:
Students will be able to process related ideas.
WIDA Level 3 (Grades K-12) Vocabulary for Listening and Reading:
Students will be able to process words or expressions related to content area with
common collocations and idioms across content areas
WIDA Level 5 (Grades 3-5) Can-Do Descriptors
Students will be able to sequence steps in grade-level problem-solving.

Content Objectives:
Know:
1. Students will know the definition of main idea and supporting details.
Understand:
Students will understand that authors construct poetry to teach us lessons.
Do:
Students will be able to identify the main idea of a poem.
Students will be able to summarize supporting details in a poem.
Language Objectives:
Students will be able to orally produce the content-specific words authors message
and details.
Students will be able to expand their sentence structure and complexity by using a
variety of transition words and phrases to describe details in the poem.
Students will be able to use specific content words from the poem, The Lion and the
Mouse, to describe details.
Students will be able to process related ideas in the poem through drawing of details
from the poem.

Students will be able to process content-specific words and idioms in The Lion and
the Mouse.
Key Vocabulary:
Authors Message/Moral
Detail
For The Lion and the Mouse: lair, grab, adventurer, struggle, waver, favor, amused,
dreaming, hunters, nylon, proud, roaming
Transition words and phrases: First, The next thing that happens is, Then, Later, After
that, Because, In the end, Finally, Next
Learning Strategies:
Making personal connections to the text
Visualizing/Drawing the details of the poem
Lesson Sequence:
Pre-assessment:
At an earlier date, I ask students to summarize (through speech) the details of a short
text that we have read. I tell them to try to use words from the story itself and add
transition words if possible. This will allow me to see their knowledge of transition
words and their skills at summarizing details.
(Teacher talk is in italics)
MOTIVATION:
1) Introducing concept of detail
a) Defining detail
Hi everyone! So the first thing we are going to do today is talk about details.
Do you know what a detail is?
Students: No.
Okay, so a detail is a small part of something bigger. I write the word and
definition on the white board. I repeat the definition aloud.
(I pick up a pencil and hold it up) So an example of a detail would be if we
looked at this part of the pencil right here (point) there is a small blue strip
right below the eraser. This small blue strip is a detail of this pencil. If we take
a look at my necklace (point to necklace), one detail would be that I have a
small charm that looks like a star. Can you guys name some details around
you? What are some of the details in what you are wearing right now?
Possible student responses: One detail is that there is glitter on a students
shirt, one detail is that a student is wearing an earring.
Great! So those are all examples of details, or something small that is part of
something bigger. Glitter is a small part of Student Bs shirt, and the earring is
a small part of Student Cs outfit.
b) Finding details in a drawing
So now I am going to each give you a drawing which has a lot of detail in it. I
am also going to give you a magnifying glass (hand students magnifying
glasses) which will help you see the details better. I show students how to use
the magnifying glass if necessary. I would like for you to look at the details of
your picture through the magnifying glass. Then I would like you to share with
your neighbor some of the details that you see in your picture. I would like
you to use the word detail in your sentence. So for example, I might say,
One detail I see in my picture is I write the sentence frame on the board.
Students share the details in their pictures.

Great! So those are definitely some of the details of your pictures. What
happens when you take the magnifying glass away? Can you still see the
details?
Student: Yes? Maybe? Not as well.
Yea, maybe you can see the details, but not as well as you would with the
magnifying glass. The magnifying glass lets you look really carefully at
something. So just remember that it is important to look carefully and closely
at something when you are trying to see the details.
c) Artist/Authors message
Okay so now we can put our magnifying glasses aside and lets think about
how all of these details come together to make something bigger. A lot of
times someone who is an artist or a writer puts all these details together to
show something bigger, or to send us a message. What is the bigger picture
that we see here? What is the author trying to show us?
Student: He is trying to show a picture of a ____________.
Yes. And do the details help to show us what the animal is?
Student: Yes
What else is the artist trying to show about the animal?
Student: The animal is colorful?
Okay, so the colors that we see are meant to show how the animal is colorful.
That is the artists message.
Great. And so if you changed certain details, then the message may be
different. It is important to look at the details in order to figure this out.
PRESENTATION:
Building Background Knowledge
1) What is a poem?
Now we are going to put the pictures aside and we are going to look at details in
a poem. Do you know what a poem is? Students shake their heads no.
So here is the poem that we will be reading today. I hold up the book with the
page open to the poem. I then flip through the other poems of the book. All of
these are also examples of poems.
I open up a chapter book and show the students an example of prose. So what do
you notice about the difference between this poem and the words in this other
book?
Students: Uh, I dont know? It is typed?
What about the way the words look on the page and how much space they take
up? What do you notice?
Student: The poem is short and this one is bigger.
Okay good, so the poem is shorter and it often has a pattern to it. So you see how
at the end of these two lines, there are the words ____ and ___? These are words
that have the same vowel sound but they are different words. Do you know what
its called when words sound the same but they have a different beginning
sound?
Student: I dont know.
When you have words like sam, am, ham, that sound the same that means that
they rhyme. I write the word rhyme on the board.
So a poem is usually shorter and it kind of sounds like a song because it has
words that rhyme, and it has details that try to paint a picture in your mind.
Remember how we talked about senses earlier? Poems try to use words that
make you feel something in all five of your senses. So its important to think
about these type of details in a poem.
2) Looking at the Details in the Illustrations
Today we are going to read the poem, Lion and the Mouse. As I said, today we
are going to look at details of the poem. So lets first look at the details in the

pictures and maybe they can tell us what the poem will be about. What details do
you guys see in the pictures?
Possible student responses: There is a lion, He has a mouse in his hand, on the
other page there is a butterfly and flowers.
Okay, so those are some of the details of the pictures. Can you predict what the
story might be about based on these details?
Possible student responses: The lion catches the mouse, and the mouse catches
the lion.
So you think that the lion will catch the mouse, and the mouse will do the same
thing to the lion. Okay, this is a good prediction based upon the pictures. Lets
see if this happens. I want to you think about what happens and later well think
about what the authors message of the story is. When we read a poem, we will
think of the authors (or writers) message as the lesson of the story. (I write this
on the white board behind me: authors message = lesson of the story or poem)
What is the author trying to teach us? So I want you to keep that in mind for later
because all of the details in the story will help to show us the authors message,
just like looking at the colorful details of the picture helped us to see the artists
message in the picture.
3) Reading the Poem and Drawing the Details
Okay, now Im going to pass out these square sheets of paper and after each of
these sections of the poem called stanzas, I would like you to draw a picture that
shows the details of the poem.
I begin reading.
The title of the poem is The Lion and the Mouse. So what do you guys think the
poem will be about?
Student A: It will be about a lion and a mouse.
Yes, so now we know the main characters of the poem.
(I read with my finger following each word as I read.)
A lion was lying
Asleep in his lair
[Stop reading] Do you know what a lair is? It is basically like a place where an
animal goes to sleep. It is like a cave or tunnel or den. [I take out a picture of a
lair with the label lair on it.] Can you guys repeat the word lair?
Students: Lair.
[Continue reading]
When a little gray mouse
Ran over him there.
[I re-read the passage]
Okay, so what I want you to do is draw the details that occurred in this stanza (or
section) of the poem.
Students start drawing in the first box.
Okay then what I would like you to do is label where the LAIR is. The students do
so and I check to make sure they are accurate and understand what a lair is.
So what is going on in each of your pictures? Can you summarize, or describe,
what is happening? Try to use the word lair in your summary.
Students each take about 15 seconds to summarize.
[I continue reading]
He woke without thinking;
He grabbed, and never missed.
He caught that adventurer
Fast in his fist.
[I repeat the passage and ask the following questions:]
Who is he?
Students: The lion

What does it mean to grab something?

Students: I dont know
It is like when you take hold of something really quickly. I show a picture
exemplifying grab. I gesture an example of grabbing the pencil holder.
So he caught, or catches, that adventurer. What is an adventurer?
Students: I dont know.
Do you know what an adventure is? Like if you decide to go on an adventure?
Students: Like something fun?
Yes, so if you go on an adventure, you do something exciting or fun. So an
adventurer is someone who does something exciting or fun. It could also be
something that is dangerous, or not very safe. So who is the adventurer that
the lion is grabbing?
Student: Uh. I dont know? The mouse?
Yes! The adventurer is the mouse. The author is calling the mouse an adventurer.
[I pull out a picture of an adventurer]. Why does he call the mouse an
adventurer? What does the mouse do that makes him adventurous, or someone
that does dangerous things?
Student: He climbs over the lion?
Yes, so its pretty dangerous for a little guy like the mouse to climb over a lion,
right? Great, so that is why the author calls him an adventurer.
Student: Now we draw?
Yes, go ahead and draw the details that occur in this poem. I also want you to
clearly show the lion grabbing the mouse and label this as grab.
Students take out another box and draw.
So can you summarize what you just drew, using the words we just learned:
grab and adventurer?
Students summarize their drawings and I check that they are accurate to the
poem. If they introduce details that do not occur in the poem, then I will make
sure to remind them to try to stick to what actually happens in the poem.
[I read the third stanza]
The mouse did not struggle;
The fist did not waver.
Let me go, cried the mouse.
Ill return the big favor.
[I repeat the passage]
Okay so if the mouse does not struggle, what does that mean?
Student: He does not fight?
Yea, good. So to struggle means to fight or try really hard to get out of a
something that is holding you back. [I show a picture of struggle based upon
the Lion and Mouse story]
And if the fist does not waver, then it does not do what?
Student: I dont know.
So waver means to go back and forth. [I take out the definition of waver. I also
gesture what it would look like if the lion were wavering in his grasp.]
The lion does not waver, which means he holds on to the mouse without moving
back and forth.
What does the mouse say to the lion?
Student: Let me go.
Yes, and he also says hell return the big favor. Do you know what a favor is?
Students shake their heads no.
So a favor is when you do something nice for someone else. I take out picture
example of favor. For example, I might ask Student 1, Can you do me a favor
and let me borrow your pencil? Or you might ask your brother, Can you do me a
favor and do my chores for me today? So youre asking someone if they could

do something nice for you. So the mouse is saying if the lion does something nice
for him, then what will happen?
Student A: The mouse will do something nice for the lion.
Yea, the mouse will do something nice, or do a favor, for the lion.
Okay, so go ahead and draw the details of this latest section.
The students draw.
Can you summarize what you just drew, using some of the words we have just
learned: struggle, waver, and favor?
The students summarize using those 1-3 of those words.
The guided reading continues. I read each section and repeat the reading. I
introduce vocabulary cards for amused, nylon, dreaming, hunters,
proud, net, and roaming. I have students label the more concrete words
such as amused, nylon, hunters, proud, net, and roaming. The
students summarize each of their drawings, using the new vocabulary words.
PRACTICE AND APPLICATION:
1) Applying Transition Words
Great job Now lets put our boxes in order. Students place their boxes in order.
Now I am going to hand you some transition words that you will put in between
each box. Do you know what a transition word is?
Students: No.
A transition word is something like Then, and it helps to connect two ideas
together. But we dont want to say, Then all the time, so I have a couple of
other transition words. I hand each student transition words printed on small
sheets of paper. So now youre going to share a summary of the whole poem, and
these transition words will help to connect different events together. For example,
after you say, The mouse ran over the lion, you could then say, Afterwards, the
lion woke up an grabbed the mouse. I go through each of the transition words
and read them aloud. I say that transition words such as Finally, and Lastly,
should occur at the end. The student arrange transition words between each of
their drawings.
Now can you each provide a summary of all the details of the poem? You should
practice using these transition words between each of the pictures. I would also
like you to use some of new vocabulary words that we learned today. Remember
that a summary should only include those details that actually happened in the
poem.
The students share their summaries of their pictures. The pictures of each
vocabulary word are in view. If necessary, I ask follow-up questions to encourage
students to use the new vocabulary. (Ex. What is another word for cave that we
just learned?) and provide positive reinforcement when they use transition words
and the new words.
2) Identifying the Authors Message
Those were fantastic summaries of your drawings. I like how you used the new
words we learned today and the transition words.
Now that we have thought about the series of things that happens in the poem,
lets think about the authors message. What is the author trying to teach us by
writing this poem? A lot of poems and stories have a bunch of things that happen,
but they are also meant to send a message and teach us a lesson. (I point to the
board, where I had earlier written the definition of authors message).
So lets think about what the author might be trying to teach us. Earlier, you had
predicted that the mouse traps the lion after the lion traps the mouse. But what
actually happens?
Student B: The mouse helps the lion by biting the net.

Yea, so the mouse actually doeswhat for the lion?

Student A: A favor.
Yup, the mouse does a favor for the lion because the lion did a favor for the
mouse. And what is it about the mouse if you compare it to the lion? Is the mouse
big or small?
Students: Small.
And what about the lion? Big or small?
Students: Big
So what is the poem trying to tell us about little creatures? Little friends?
Student A: Little friends can help?
Okay great. Little friends can be helpful? So lets write on our next box, The
message of the story is little friends can be helpful Students write.
And when can they be helpful?
Student A: When you need them?
Yup, good idea. So little friends can be helpful when you need them. Would you
say that that is a lesson of the story?
Students: Yes.
REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT:
I review over the new vocabulary words with the students using the picturecards that I have already shown them. I assess them on their comprehension by
holding up a card, saying the definition, and asking them what the word might be. I
also ask them where they saw the word appear in the poem, and have them use the
word in the context of the poems story.
EXTENSION:
Students write their own story or poem using some of the vocabulary words and
transition phrases that they have just learned. The storyline might be the same but
they may change the animals. They also identify what the message of the story
might be. The vocabulary cards and transition words are on display and available for
the students to refer to as they write.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS:

Potential Pictures for Motivation Magnifying Glass Activity (Depending

on student interest):

VOCABULARY

LAIR: Place where an animal sleeps

GRAB: To quickly take hold of an object

ADVENTURER: Someone who does exciting or

dangerous things

STRUGGLE: To fight against something that is hard

WAVER: To go back and forth

FAVOR: An act of kindness

AMUSED: To think something is funny

DREAMING: Imagining something during sleep

HUNTERS: Person who tries to capture animals

NYLON: A type of STRING

PROUD: Happy with oneself

ROAMING: Walk freely

Transition Words:

First
The next thing that happens is
Next,
Then
Later
After that
In the end
Finally,
Lastly