Melanie Tuma

Monday, March 28, 2016

Frindle Lesson Plan: Civic Participation
- Lesson Objectives:
Given an exit ticket, students will write down one example of how Nick civically participated
in his community after the word frindle caught on. To meet this objective, students must
use at least two details from the text to support their answer.
Given an exit ticket, students will write down three ways that they can civically participate if
Ohio makes a law that states you can no longer say the word happy.

-I Can Statements:
I can use details from the text to support my answer.
I can explain what civic participation is and give examples of how I can civically participate.

-4th Grade Ohio Social Studies Standards:

15. Individuals have a variety of opportunities to participate in and influence their state and
national government. Citizens have both rights and responsibilities in Ohio and the United
States.

-4th Grade Common Core Reading Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what
the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

-Formative Assessment:
Students will get into small groups to discuss the following: Nick spread the message about
his new word, frindle, until his school, community, and even country began using the
word. During this discussion, students will find details from the text to explain how Nick did
this. The teacher will walk around and listen in on conversations to assess how students are
doing with finding details in the text to support their answer. The teacher will also assess
their ability to find details in the text when reading the sticky notes that are placed on the
chart paper.
When students get back into their small groups to discuss how they can be civic
participants, the teacher will walk around and listen to the conversations. The teacher will
also use the sticky notes placed on the chart paper to assess how well students understand
the concept of what it means to civically participate.

-Summative Assessment:
At the end of the lesson, students will be given an exit ticket that contains two parts. The
first part is: Give an example of how Nick civically participated in his community after the
word frindle caught on. Use at least two details to support your answer. Acceptable
answers include: Nick asked the entire school to boycott school lunches until the lunch
ladies cooked better food. Details to support answer could come from pages 88-89 and 93.
The second part of the exit ticket is: If the state made a law that said you are no longer
allowed to say the word happy, what are three ways that you could become civically
involved in changing that law? Acceptable answers may include: write a letter to the state

Melanie Tuma
governor, make a petition and get it signed, get the media involved, hold a peaceful protest,
etc. The teacher will use the exit tickets to assess how much students learned from the
lesson.
-Frindle by Andrew Clements
-chart paper titled Civic Participation that contains a T chart labeled How Nick Made a
Change and How You Can Make a Change
-exit ticket
-Civic participation

Procedures:
Strategies for Instruction and
Activities to Support Comprehension & Understanding
-Before the Lesson:
Teacher creates T chart on chart paper that is titled Civic Participation.
The sides of the chart are labeled How Nick Made a Change and How You
Can Make a Change. Students should have finished reading the entire
book Frindle and bring their book to class.

-Goals and Objectives:

Teacher reads I can statements aloud to the class.

-Introduction to Lesson:
Teacher explains that we will be discussing how Nick took action to
spread the message of his new word in the book Frindle. Teacher breaks
up class into small groups of 3-4 students.

-Small Group Discussion of Nicks Actions:

Students discuss the following: Nick spread the message about his new
word, frindle, until his school, community, and even country began
using the word. Using details from the text, explain how he did this.
During the discussion, each group comes up with as many examples as
they can find in the text. Each group writes their examples on sticky
notes and places the sticky notes on the side of the T chart labeled How
Nick Made a Change.

-Whole Group Discussion of Nicks Actions:

Teacher reads sticky notes aloud to class and combines the repeat
examples. Examples may include: Nick asking for a frindle at the Penny
Pantry store (pg. 37), Nick having his friends ask for a frindle at the

Scaffolding,
Supports, &
Differentiation
-ELL
Students/Struggling
Readers: Teacher
will record herself
reading book or will
find a recording of
book so that
students can listen
to the book instead
of reading it.
- I can statements
will be written on
board for students
to refer to
throughout lesson.
- Differentiate by
assigning roles to
group members:
discussion leader,
reader, writer
- If students are
struggling coming
up with examples,
teacher tells them to
go back and search
through chapters 6,
7, 8, 11, 12, and 13
for examples.

Melanie Tuma
Penny Pantry store (pg. 37), secret agents that promised to always use
frindle instead of pen (pg. 38), Nick and Johns scene in Mrs. Grangers
class (pg. 39), the class picture with people saying frindle and holding
one up (pg. 42), every fifth grader asking Mrs. Granger for a frindle (pg.
47), the Westfield Gazette article (pg. 67), news tv interview (pg. 75),
interviews with magazines (pg. 78), factory selling frindle items (pg.
85), town sign (pg. 85), tv show interviews (pg. 87)

-Connecting Frindle to Civic Participation:

Teacher reminds class how they recently learned about the branches of
government and 1st Amendment rights. Teacher asks for examples of 1st
Amendment rights (freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and
assembly). Teacher explains that if someone is taking away those rights
or if the government is doing something that you disagree with, you
have the responsibility as a citizen to do something about it. Getting
involved in the community to make a change is called civic participation.
HOT turn and talk: Make a connection between Nicks actions in
spreading the message about frindles and civic participation. Share out
answers (Nick tried to get his community to use the word frindle
instead of pen. This is an example of civic participation because he was
involved in the community trying to make a change).

- If any examples
are not written
down on a sticky
note, teacher
scaffolds class into
thinking of those
missing examples by
either asking
questions (What
did Nick do after.)
or providing a page
number/ chapter
for students to look
through for more
examples.

-Small Group Discussion of Civic Participation:

Teacher explains that we know how Nick practiced civic participation in
his community from the examples on the sticky notes. Teacher asks
students to get back into small groups and think of ways you can
civically participate. For example, what if there was a law that said all of
the trees in the city must be chopped down? Or what if the US
government said that students must go to school from 5 am-10 pm? Or
what if the state of Ohio banned all desserts? What would you do? In
small groups, students write down their examples on sticky notes and
place them on T chart on the side labeled How You Can Make a Change.

-Whole Group Discussion of Civic Participation:

Teacher reads aloud sticky notes and combines repeat examples.

-Wrap Up:
Teacher reviews definition of civic participation and explains that class
will soon begin a project where they will be civic participants in the
community.

-ELL Students: Use

of small group work
allows students to
build language and
practice using
academic
vocabulary.
- If there arent
many sticky notes,
teacher asks
questions to get
students to think of
more examples
(How could we
spread our message
on a larger scale to
the entire
country?)

Melanie Tuma
-Exit Ticket:
Teacher gives each student an exit ticket as a summative assessment.
The exit ticket contains two parts. The first part is: Give an example of
how Nick civically participated in his community after the word frindle
caught on. Use at least two details to support your answer. The second
part is: If the state made a law that said you are no longer allowed to say
the word happy, what are three ways that you could become civically
involved in changing that law?

-ELL students:
Allow students to
draw answers
instead of writing
them out.