Design for Learning

Instructor: Aaron Conner Grade Level/Cooperating Teacher: 4th Grade

Lesson Title: The Thunder Reading Date: March 9, 2014
Curriculum Area: Close Reading Estimated Time: 45 minutes


Standards Connection: AL 4
th
Language Arts (4) Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters
found in mythology.

Learning Objective(s):.Students will participate in a close reading of The Norse Myths
and be able to determine the title, main idea, details, related topics, and ask questions
about the reading..

Learning Objective(s) stated in kid-friendly language: Today you will listen to a
passage from The Norse Myths and listen for the title, write the main idea, record any
details, list other topics it reminds you of and write additional comments or questions you
have on the passage on a graphic organizer.


Evaluation of Learning Objective(s): The students will completely fill out their graphic
organizers in every chart and be active in the conversation to receive full points on the
lesson.

Engagement: The teacher will describe to the class what mythology is.

Good morning class! Can anyone tell me what mythology is? Mythology is a collection of
myths or stories that is unique and sacred to a culture that seeks to explain how the world
came into being. There are many different kinds of myths ranging from the most famous,
Greek mythology to Egyptian mythology, Norse mythology, Native American mythology,
Chinese mythology and many, many more. Today we are going to briefly look at a few
examples from Norse mythology and will be conducting a close read of a few passages.

The teacher will draw on previous experiences and talk about the movies that students
may have scene and show a video clip of Thor.

Now I want you all to turn your attention to the screen. Some of you may have seen Thor
the movie. Now this is a little bit different from the Norse Mythology but what I am going
to show you is a clip from the movie that shows Thor and his friends travelling on the
Bifrost or Rainbow Bridge.

Learning Design:

I. Teaching: The teacher will read a section of the book and talk through the different
points of interest.

Alright class, what did you think of the passage? Interesting? Confusing? Cool? Yes it is
all of those things. Now when we read a passage we see one side of the story. It takes
multiple readings and a closer look to really see what the main idea could be. Then you
look even further and find hidden details and characters that you may have not known
about before.
Now from the reading we just read what was the title of the passage? Cosmology.
Exactly. What does that mean? Cosmology is the study of creation, origin, evolution, and
fate of the universe. Now you see how much information we can find out about what we
are going to read just by knowing what the title is and what it means? Now what would
you say was the main idea of the passage? Yes, the main idea is that there was a meeting
of fire and ice that started creation and from them came a frost giant and a cow. The cow
licked the ice and from that came the three main gods, Odin, Vili, and Ve. They kill the
frost giant and use his body to create the worlds. There are three levels to the world and
a giant tree is what holds the world together. All in all there are nine realms in the world.
Great now you see I just briefly talked about the overall idea of the passage but I left out
many details. Who can tell me some details that they heard in the passage that I did not
say in my main idea? The trees name was Yggdrasil, there is a rainbow bridge called the
Bifrost, etc.
Wow you guys have a better memory than I do! You see how much more information
there is in a story than just the main facts? Now we watched the short clip from Thor and
saw some of the different places that he went to, is there anything else that the story or
the clip reminded you of? Yes Hercules is a great example. He is from Greek Mythology
and has a lot in common with Thor and other stories from Norse mythology.
Now the last part that is important about close reading is asking questions. You can ask
any question and some you will find in the book, some you will find through inference
and others you will have to research more to find the answer.

The teacher will draw on the board different categories and will fill them in with
information from the passage that was just read.

Now you can all see how I have sorted the information into a more accessible and easy to
read format. You can find the box that is labeled Main Idea and know that the basic
principle of the story is in this box. Now I think we all have a pretty good understanding
of what we are doing today so lets move on to practice.

II. Opportunity for Practice: The students will have a paragraph given to them and will be
asked to pull out the main ideas, accompanying details, other ideas it reminds them of,
and ask a question about it.

Alright class, get with your partner and work together to break this paragraph down into
workable parts. I want you to tell me the main idea, the supporting details, anything that
it reminds you of, and ask at least one question. You can write all of these down on one
piece of paper and if you finish in time, you may draw on your paper to help you visualize
what you have done. I will be walking around looking at your work and if you have any
questions for me about what we are doing you are encouraged to ask me. Now lets
begin.

III. Assessment: The teacher will give the students a graphic organizer and ask them to
fill in the sections with the required information.

Alright class, now that we have learned to look for deeper meaning behind words and
find the important information, we are going to complete an activity on our own. I am
going to give you a passage to read about the Viking gods. You will read the passage and
then fill out this graphic organizer activity sheet. Look on the board and make sure that
you use all of the categories you find there. You can put them in any square on your
activity sheet just make sure that you are thorough and are using detail in your answers.
You will have fifteen minutes to read the passage and fill out the activity sheet. Good
Luck!

IV. Closure: The teacher will talk about the use of storytelling in the past as a primary
method of keeping records.

Great job class, please pass those sheets up to me. Now what you have participated in
today dates back to the beginning of humanity. Before there were computers, and
Facebook, and email, and letters, and paper, and anything else that can be used to keep
records, people told stories to remember how things worked and how they happened. The
stories that we talked about today are one cultures explanation to how the world was
created and who did it. Many other cultures had their very own mythology that also tried
to explain how creation was formed. It is good to read and listen to these stories because
they are telling of what the culture is like.

The teacher will ask for last questions and will encourage the students to imagine stories
of their own and write them down to share with other as mythology has been done.

Now before we move on, are there any questions that you have about the activity we did
or mythology in general? (Waits for and answers questions) Great, you all are such a
smart bunch. No just because we have technology doesnt mean that we cannot still tell
stories and pass them on. In fact, the fact that we have technology enables us to share our
stories with even more people. Now its up to you to write your own stories and share
them with the world.

Materials and Resources:
Thor Video Clip - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nF84V7ysE4
Graphic Organizer -
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/sites/default/files/posts/u133/pdfs/text_featur
e_scavenger_hunt.pdf
The Norse Myth by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Information Site for Kids -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/beliefs_and_stories/


Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):
Higher Those who perform above and beyond the standard will be given sections from
the book to work with instead of the simplified versions.
Lower For those who need assistance the teacher will give the students individual
sentences and help pulling out the desired information.

Data Analysis: The class did a fairly good job in filling out the graphic organizer but the
content was too challenging for them to really grasp the idea of the lesson.

Reflection: The students enjoyed the video about Thor but were confused when reading
the rest of the passage. I should have chosen a more age appropriate topic for the lesson
because the names and places were difficult for the students to follow.






Samford University
Design for Learning



Norse gods and goddesses
Odin was the ruler of the gods, and
the god of magic, poetry and war. His
wife was the motherly Frigg, and their
son was Balder, who was kind and
gentle. Freyja was goddess of love
and fertility, and wept golden tears
when she was unhappy. She had a
twin brother Freyr, and their sacred
animal was the boar.
Red-headed Thor ruled the skies,
storms and thunder. He had iron
gloves, a magic belt and a hammer.
People loved Thor but did not trust
Loki, the mischievous 'trickster god'.
By a trick, Loki caused the death of
Balder.

Then Thor, the Son of Earth, angrily sprang into his chariot
and Thialfi leaped in beside him. It rocked beneath them. The
Charioteer bawled and at once his two goats strained at their
harnesses; the chariot rattled out of Thrudvang. The moans
path quivered and echoed. Lightning flared and flashed and
men on middle earth thought the world itself was about to
catch fire. Then hail lashed the ground; it smashed frail stooks
and flattened fields of grass and men quailed within their
walls. Headlands were shaken by such storms that gullies and
rifts and gashes and chasms opened underfoot, and rocks and
boulders cascaded into the curdling sea