• During the lesson, focus on drawing conclusions within and across texts, making connections between texts, and responding to text by evaluating its plot/organization and its major components. By observing each student working in the small group, you can redirect or teach individual students or a small group if they are having difficulty with drawing conclusions. As you walk among the groups, you might want to use a list of student names if the lesson is completed at the beginning of the year. You can use the list to record anecdotal notes and data regarding students’ participation, knowledge of drawing conclusions, and reading strategies (needs).
• At the end of the lesson, students will use another version of the Cinderella story to identify whether the conclusions the class wrote hold true if this new story is added to the chart; they will complete a new column on the chart for this version of the story. [IS.11 - ELL Students]
• Use the following checklist to evaluate students’ understanding:

o   The student demonstrates the ability to identify the key elements of fiction (setting, characters, conflict, and resolution).

o   The student cites appropriate quotations from the text as evidence to support the choice of the fictional elements.

o   The student includes at least three important events (from the beginning, middle, and end) in a summary of the story.

o   The student notes on the chart whether this version of the story supports the conclusions drawn about each of the elements in the other Cinderella stories.

• By observing each student working in the small groups, you can redirect or teach individual students or a small group if they are having difficulty with an element of fiction or with finding quotations from the text as evidence of the elements. Collecting the charts for the extending activity will offer the opportunity to assess each child’s needs.
• If additional practice is desired for drawing conclusions or making connections between texts, ask students if they recognize the elements of the Cinderella story in any modern stories they have read or seen in movies or television programs (even real-life stories that they know of or have read about). These could be discussed as a group or as a class, analyzed on a chart, or written about individually, identifying the key elements in the modern version. Students could also be asked to respond in writing to one of the Cinderella stories they have read, identifying what they liked or disliked, being specific, mentioning key elements, and explaining the reasons for their opinions. Students could also compose, individually or in groups, their own modern Cinderella story and explain its connections to the folklore. [IS.12 - ELL Students]

Active Engagement , Scaffolding , Explicit Instruction , Modeling

Activate prior knowledge by asking students to think about the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Tell the students that Goldilocks uses the bears’ furniture, eats their porridge, and sleeps in the bears’ beds. We know from our own experience that this behavior is not appropriate or the right thing to do. By using Goldilocks’ actions and our own experiences, we can draw the conclusion that Goldilocks probably does not have very good manners and is impolite. When students are engaged, begin the lesson on drawing conclusions.

Focus on how to draw conclusions based on information in a text. Ask students, “What does it mean to draw a conclusion?” [IS.6 - Struggling Learners] (Allow time for student responses: it’s when you use different pieces of information to come up with something new; you make a reasoned judgment about something using knowledge/evidence, personal experience, opinions, observations and facts about something different but related, etc.)

Display on the screen the class version of the Comparing Folklore Chart (L-5-1-1_Cinderella Stories Chart_teacher.xls). [IS.7 - Struggling Learners]

“Look at what we have written for the setting of the story Cendrillon: island in the Caribbean Sea.” Continue this process of reviewing the information for the setting of each of the other stories read by the class, asking students from each small group to share the setting information.

Then ask, “What conclusion can we draw about all the settings in our stories?” (One possible conclusion is that folklore usually takes place long ago or exists in the past.) Have students write down the conclusion on their charts. Model this on your teacher/class copy of the Cinderella Stories Chart by using the projected version on the screen. Tell the students that they are making connections across texts in order to draw these conclusions.

Move to the Characters section. Follow the same process of having students from each small group share one at a time about the characters for each of the stories read by the class. Then ask, “What conclusion can be drawn about the characters in the stories we have read?”

Have students work in pairs to write a conclusion about the remaining elements of fiction that are on the Comparing Folklore Chart. Have each pair share their conclusions with the group. [IS.8 - Struggling Learners]

Discuss with students how drawing conclusions can help in understanding text, and how it helps the reader understand what the author has written without him/her having to say it explicitly. Discuss with students how connections across texts can be made, whether texts are read simultaneously, [IS.9 - Struggling Learners] or if one text has been read earlier in the year or in a different grade.

Extension:

• Have students who are ready to move beyond the standard find other versions of the Cinderella story or other folklore they have read, either on the Internet or in a book. Ask them to identify whether the conclusions the class wrote hold true if this new story is added to the chart. Have students add a column to their chart for this new story and complete this new story column individually. [IS.10 - ELL Students]