Literature

Analysis with RL 3.7

Objective
RL 3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a texts illustrations contribute to what is
conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a
character or a setting).
Synthesize both text and illustrations to analyze a text for multiple purposes/skills.

Essential Question
How can I synthesize text and illustrations to analyze a story?

English Language Arts

3rd Grade
60 minutes

Materials

The Queen of the Falls by Chris

Van Allsburg

Questions for assessment

Stale text excerpts

Other Resources
Niagara Falls Website

Lesson Progression Overview

Teacher Input/Model (I do): Teacher introduces objective, EQ, and vocabulary.
Preview the skill and real world application. Use stale text to model how to
integrate text and illustration using think aloud.
Guided Practice (We do): Continue with text, use guiding questions to have
students create new understandings based on text and illustrations, 2-3 pages from
book
Paired Practice (Peer do): Give students copies of text and allow to partner read
closely and apply strategies for analysis using teacher posed questions to drive
partner discussion, 3x

http://www.niagarafallsstatepark.com/
About Annie Taylor
http://www.history.com/this-day-inhistory/first-barrel-ride-down-niagarafalls
Chris Van Allsburg Author Website
http://hmhbooks.com/chrisvanallsburg/

Independent Practice (You do): Using student text copies, allow independent
reading of the remainder of the text and written responses to questions in reading
journal
Closure: Students come together to share responses and observations from the text.

Differentiation
Needs support:

Small group of readers may need more guided practice with teacher
directed scaffolding and sentence stems for responses.
English Language Learners may benefit from recorded text and cloze
writing passages.

Assessment

Exit ticket: Students are given an

excerpt from a previous stale text
and must synthesize both the text
and illustration for at least two
literary elements with text evidence
and reasoning.

Extension:

Students may generate questions for later illustration/text pairs later in the
book.
Students may locate elements of the authors craft such as word choice,
structure, and style and share aloud.
Students may work on fluency with repeated reads of the text with varying
tones/inflections.

CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE FOR

DETAILED LESSON PLAN

Lesson Component
Objective/Goal

Content
RL 3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a texts illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story
(e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or a setting).
RL 3.1 (supporting standard) Ask and answer questions to demonstrate an understanding of a text, referring
explicitly to the text as the basis of answers.
Synthesize both text and illustrations to analyze a text for multiple purposes/skills. (mood, character
analysis, authors purpose, plot)

Essential Question
How can I synthesize text and illustrations to analyze a story? OR How can using many elements of
a text help me to better understand what Ive read?
Materials

The Queen of the Falls, by Chris Van Allsburg

Questions for assessment

Copies of the text

Focus and Review

Statement of Objectives
Teacher Input
(I do)

Guided Practice
(We do)
(Peer do)

Review yesterdays close reading of The Queen of the Falls.

Explain that today we will be using the same text but for a new purpose: we will be analyzing
for many specific components/skills.
Take a moment to create a student generated list of the skills that we have studied this year,
or any of the items that you analyze a book for whenever we are reading. Be sure to get
todays focus skills on the list!
Draw attention to 3 skills: mood, character analysis, and plot. These are our big 3 for the
day. Most of our questions and discussions will be related to these specific skillsbut we are
going to use more than the text to justify our answers. We will be using the text AND
illustrations together. Not one or the other, but together, to justify our reasoning and
thinking.
I can use the text and illustration to come to new understandings about a story.

Demonstrate using think aloud on page one I remember this page, this was a fast forward to where
everyone is standing there waiting for Annie to come over the falls! But looking at the illustration, now I
know why everyone was not only in awe, they were scared probably, too. By putting a huge office
building in the waterfall (not real), the author is trying to put us in the shoes of the people on the ground.
Look at their faces, also. They dont all look excited. So, the picture paired with this part of the text let
me know that people were fearful that she would be seriously hurt, lost, or worse. The authors purpose
for putting the building there was to let us connect with the time and people. (inferences, authors
purpose)

Select another page and model: This section of text was about Annies charm school and how she
taught people manners. The picture first looks like shes showing someone how to dance? That must
have been a part of it, back then. But now that I look at it, the chairs are empty except for one student.
The text here says that the numbers died down and she had to close her doors for good. If I put that text
with this illustration, I all of a sudden feel bad for Annie. Really bad. Now I know that this was the
cause of her coming up with the crazy plan to go over the falls. Im inferring that since we dont have
charm schools now, maybe this was the time they started to fade in popularity. But looking at Annie,
who in this picture is elderly already, I have immense empathy for her having to start her life over
again. (empathy, character analysis)

Stop and explain how you are not selecting just one medium (text or illustration) for
justification but rather putting them together (synthesis).

Model again on next picture/text if necessary.

Move to next selected text and illustration. Pose questions that allow for students to use both
text and illustration as justification. Practice through discussion but it may be helpful to
record some responses on a Smart Board slide or anchor chart for paired and independent
practice scaffolds.

Independent Practice

Assessment

Closure

When ready, pose a question and allow students to turn and talk to two different partners
before sharing with the group. Use these possible questions:
How do the words and illustrations on these pages help us to understand the mood?
Which words from the text are conveyed accurately in the illustration? What is implied/inferred?
How would this page be different if there were no illustrations? What might the reader misunderstand?
In what ways can we infer Annies character traits on these pages?
Why did the author choose to illustrate just this scene when so much is happening on these pages?
Using student copies of text, allow students to work independently to generate written
responses that use both text and illustration as support.
Suggestion: Provide questions on printable labels so that students may stick the label in a
reading journal and respond underneath.
Come back to the group to share responses. Note/record sentence starters that were
powerful/clear on the board for students who may need additional support on future
activities of this nature.
Listen to responses and provide feedback for use of text and matching illustrations.
Students who are citing text and illustration separately are missing the ability to synthesize
and extend. They may need further modeling and support.
Allow students to share their notes.
Reinforce goal/objective and draw attention to the students ability to closely read today as
well as the purpose for putting multiple elements together. We never want to have tunnel
vision and use only text; authors dont waste ink and we must use everything they give us to
get the information/ideas they are trying to convey.
Tomorrow: we will work on this skill again using the back half of this book before this story
will move to independent analysis (literacy stations, extension activities)