All-American Diva, Ruby Bridges

Before:

1.  Turn and Talk (this practice should be established as a common classroom practice for speaking and listening standards). If not, students will need to be paired off with a partner for discussion throughout the lesson.

• Turn and Talk Questions to Activate Prior Knowledge

1. How would you feel if only the boys could have ice cream for snack today?
2. How would you feel if only the girls could go to PE every day?

2.  Before moving on to tell the objective for today's lesson, be sure to discuss responses from Turn and Talk questions. Make a connection from the responses to Ruby, our character for today's learning. Today, we will read a story about a special little girl. We will talk about why the author wrote this story. This is called the author's purpose for writing the words in a story. An author writes a story for three reasons, and we can think of a P.I.E. to remind us. The author writes to Persuade a reader of a topic, to Inform the reader of a topic, or to Entertain a reader.

• Student Engagement (this should be completed after turning and talking to a partner)

3.  During your partner talk, you stated that you would feel upset, angry, sad, or that it wasn't fair. Let's introduce a few words that will be important to know and remember as we read "Ruby Bridges."

1. Segregation- when black and white children cannot go places together (have a text connection conversation using this vocabulary word...What other stories can you remember where children or people were not allowed to do things together?)

2. Marshal- a policeman (ask students why would a marshal be a character in our story; show the cover of the trade book and ask the students to identify the marshal)

3. Brave- not scared of anything (ask students to think of a time they had to be brave)

Assessment

Listen while students turn and talk 

Listen during student engagement responses

During:

4.  Describing Character Chart (this chart can simply be a big sheet of butcher paper or a sheet of chart paper)

• Student Engagement

1. The teacher should read the selected trade book on Ruby Bridges aloud, pausing at appropriate times to discuss the author's purpose and characterization. During this read-aloud time, the facilitator should do an impromptu discussion of the literacy objective of this lesson- The author's purpose. The students should understand the author wrote this story to inform readers.
2. Think Pair Share strategy will be used to complete the character chart of Ruby. This practice will be used as the teacher desires during each chunk of the text.
3. Record words to describe Ruby or any part of the story that the class considers important on the class chart as the story is read aloud in chunks. This chart should be student-generated, but the teacher may need to model to get students to respond. (examples: All-American Hero; kind; brave)

Assessment

Observe student discussions

Ensure accuracy during discussion and provide immediate feedback when necessary

After:

5.  Graphic Organizer

• Student Engagement

6.  Students will draw a picture of Ruby Bridges and write one reason the author wanted to inform us about her. Students' answers should come from adjectives used to complete the character chart posted in front of the room.

Assessment:

Collect the graphic organizers

Assess the author's purpose for writing the book