Genre Unit 1

Tall Tales
Ellen Woods
Genre Unit 2

CT: Susan Goode

Second Grade
West Ridge Academy
Genre Unit 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 TITLE PAGE

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 & 4 RATIONALE STATEMENT,

UNIT GOAL & LESSON PLAN #1

5 LESSON PLAN #1

6 LESSON PLAN #1 & 2

7 LESSON PLAN #2

8... LESSON PLAN #2 & 3

9 & 10LESSON PLAN #3

11 LESSON PLAN #3, EVALUATIVE

PLAN

12 REFLECTIVE ESSAY & RESOURCES

Genre Unit 4

13 TALL TALE ASSESSMENT (PRE &

POST)

14 & 15 MATERIALS USED

Rationale Statement

1. Introduction

The genre I chose to explore in this unit is Tall Tales. I think the
students will really love the dramatic stories with the larger than life
elements.

2. Community, school and classroom setting

My school is West Ridge Academy Charter School in West Greeley.

The community is very actively involved in school activities. I teach
the second grade class, with 25 children. The demographics of my
classroom include children of many raced and ethnicities, including,
Caucasian, Italian American, African American, Libyan, Saudi
Arabian, and Mexican American. We have four struggling readers,
below grade level, one of which is from Libya and still learning the
English language. Our classroom has a few gifted students as well
as students with ADHD. We have several strategies for these
students, which will be explained in the Adaptation and Extensions
portion of the lesson format. We dont have any technology to work
with, other than the cooperating teachers personal computer and
iPad.

3. Colorado Model Content Standards

a. Ask and answer questions (e.g., who, what, where, when,
why, how), orally or in writing, requiring literal recall and
understanding of the details and/or facts of a fiction text
read independently (RL.2.1)
b. Describe how characters in a fiction text that has been
read independently respond to major events and
challenges (RL.2.3)
Genre Unit 5

c. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in

a text read independently to demonstrate understanding of
its characters, setting, or plot (RL.2.7)
d. Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse
cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or
moral. (CCSS: RL.2.2)
e. Students will understand how to write and speak for a
variety of purposes (Colorado Reading and Writing
Standard 2)

4. WIDA standards
a. At the given level of English language proficiency, English
language learners will process, understand, produce, or use:
i. Specialized or technical language of the content
areas.
ii. A variety of sentence lengths of varying linguistic
complexity in extended oral or written discourse,
including stories, essays, or reports.
iii. Oral or written language approaching comparability
to that of English-proficient peers when presented
with grade-level material.
5. Assessing student learning through:
a. Pre-assessment
i. My pre-assessment will come in many forms
throughout the unit, including:
1. Asking students questions to gain an
understanding about their prior knowledge
2. Think-pair-share to discuss what we learned the
previous day
3. Pre-test
b. Formative assessment
i. My formative assessment will come in many forms
throughout the unit, including:
1. Tracking students thinking by asking questions
that require them to recall information from the
text and analyze details
2. KWLH chart
3. Observation
c. Summative assessment
i. My summative assessment will come in many forms
throughout the unit, including:
1. Graphic organizers that ask them to summarize
what they have learned, give examples, and
ask questions
2. Foldable organizer
3. Post test
 Genre Unit 6

4. Tall tale written by student

Unit Goal

My biggest goal for this unit is to have students conduct a genre study
and recognize the characteristics of the tall tale genre while realizing
that all genres in reading have different defining element. We will do
this by reviewing several examples of tall tales and working to identify
their characteristics. I want students to be engaged in the stories and
participate in class discussions on the genre. We will examine common
themes and elements that we notice and be able to recognize a tall
tale by comparing the story elements to what we know about the
genre. My other important goal for this unit is to have the students
apply the writing process to the genre study and produce their own tall
tales. We will accomplish this goal by going through the writing process
in a writers workshop format where students work together to revise
and edit as well as receive one on one attention from the teacher to
strengthen their writing.

Lesson #1
The Bunyans Lesson
Big understanding:
I am teaching this lesson as an introduction to the tall tales genre. I will
have students look out for characteristics of the genre as I read and be
prepared to discuss. Students will follow the narrative account, ask
questions, analyze the characters, and use the information gained to
take away an understanding of tall tales.

Materials:
The Bunyans by Audrey Wood
Pre-test
321 graphic organizer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igQwfe5r5U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6MrrLKxvVc

Resources used:
Scholastic.com
Youtube.com

Colorado Model Content Standards:

Ask and answer questions (e.g., who, what, where, when, why,
how), orally or in writing, requiring literal recall and
understanding of the details and/or facts of a fiction text read
independently (RL.2.1)
Genre Unit 7

Colorado Teacher Standards:

ELEMENT A: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the
Colorado Academic Standards; their districts organized plan of
instruction; and the individual needs of their students.
ELEMENT B: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of student literacy
development in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Lesson Objectives:
a. Students will ask and answer questions in order to be fully
engaged with the read aloud text
b. Students will brainstorm the characteristics of the tall tale genre
c. Students will differentiate fact from fiction in the story.

Engagement:
I will begin by pre-assessing in order to see what my students already
know about tall tales. I will hand out a pre-test on the characteristics of
a tale tall as well as some tall tale characters that the students will
have to identify. I will ask them to raise their hands if they know what it
is and collect their ideas as a group and record them on the white
board. After this I will show students a video of a tall tale character,
Paul Bunyan, on one of his adventures.

Investigation:
During this stage of the lesson I will introduce the book, The Bunyans,
and explain to the children that it falls in the tall tale category and that
I will be reading it out loud. While I read I will remind them that they
need to be thinking about the elements of this story that make it
special and different. I will be using formative assessment by asking
the students questions and explaining to them through think aloud that
good readers ask questions to clarify their thinking.

Explain:
During this stage of the lesson I will be recording students thoughts on
the board about what a tall tale is. Then I will explain some of the
characteristics of a tall tale to them, using the story and the video as
examples. I will let the students know that we will be exploring the
genre of tall tales for the next few days and we are going to become
experts on them. Before the students leave or move on I will ask them
to complete a 3,2,1 graphic organizer for summative assessment. I will
aks them to write down 3 elements of a tall tale that we talked about,
2 examples from what they saw today, and 1 question they still have.

Adaptations and Expansions:

For ELL students this activity works really well because the book and
video provide a visual aid to explain the characteristics of the tall tales.
The ELLs can work closely with a partner for the ticket out the door if
Genre Unit 8

they need assistance with language and writing. Struggling writers can
also be paired up with some of the more advanced students to get help
organizing their ideas. For out ADHD students, we usually have them
pair up with a more gifted student in order to keep them on task. This
also allows the gifted student to stay on task and gives them the
responsibility of helping the other student. Asking students to make
connections and locate exaggerations they have seen in other texts or
in their daily lives could expand this lesson. Students could even act
out some examples of exaggeration.

Lesson closure:
I will close this lesson by telling the students that at the end of the unit
they will be writing and illustrating their own tall tale. I will explain to
them that it is important for them to be good listeners and participants
as we research the genre so that their own story can be very special to
them.

Teacher notes:
This lesson taught my students that its important to ask questions in
order to better understand the elements and details of the story or
genre they are reading. The brainstorming they did as a class showed
them how important that first step is anytime they are trying to
organize their ideas. By identifying the characteristic of a tall tale
students were also asked to analyze many elements of a story. I kept
track of my students learning by documenting their thinking and
assigning a ticket out the door that I can assess for understanding and
use to address questions and misconceptions. From here we will move
on to highlight more about how authors go about writing a tall tale and
how they use the elements we discussed to create their stories.

Lesson #2
Characteristics of a tall tale
Big understanding:
I am teaching this lesson to discuss the specific characteristics of a tall
tale in depth and help children learn to differentiate between different
genres. This lesson will move the children to the point where they can
confidently and successfully describe the elements of a story that work
together to create a tall tale.

Materials:
Chart paper for notes
Colored printer paper
Scissors
Glue
Genre Unit 9

Markers
Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg

Resources used:
Pinterest.com

Colorado Model Content Standards:

Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse
cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
(CCSS: RL.2.2)
Describe how characters in a fiction text that has been read
independently respond to major events and challenges (RL.2.3)

Colorado Teacher Standards:

ELEMENT A: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the
Colorado Academic Standards; their districts organized plan of
instruction; and the individual needs of their students.

ELEMENT B: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of student literacy

development in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Lesson objectives:
a. Students will be able to successfully and independently name the
characteristics of a tall tale.
b. Students will be able to locate the moral or lesson of the tall tale.
c. Students will be able to describe how the characters in a tall tale
respond to events in the plot as well as the setting and problem
of the tale.

Engagement:
I will begin by pre-assessing in order to see what the students retained
from the previous lesson. I will ask them to think pair share about what
we learned the previous day. I will walk around, observe, and listen as
they have discussions about what they learned. Then in order to
engage my students I will read aloud from Pecos Bill, by Steven
Kellogg. During the read aloud I will ask the students questions that
require them to recall and comprehend information from the story,
discuss with their peers, predict and infer, and discuss what makes this
literary genre different in form and substance.

Investigation:
As a class we will start to look more in depth at the characteristics of a
tall tale. We will start by filling out a KWLH chart. We will review what
we know about tall tales from the previous lesson, what we still need to
know to be experts on tall tales, and how we will learn it. This will act
Genre Unit 10

as an informal formative assessment because I will get a grasp on what

the students know already and what they still need to know.

Explain:
During this stage of the lesson I will be going over the characteristics
of a tall tale and explain to students that they will need to be an expert
on these so they can write their own tall tales. The students will be
given the materials to make their own foldable graphic organizers to
help keep track of their thinking and to use as a cheat sheet during
their writing process. Each fold will stand for a letter of the word tale.
The T stands for trickery or cleverness used by the main character.
The A is for the main characters adventures in our countrys westward
expansion. The L stands for larger than life qualities of the main
character. The E stands for exaggeration used in the story to make it
entertaining. The students will also have to think of an example they
have seen already that relates to each letter of tale. This foldable
allows the students to be creative and express their learning while also
incorporating writing. I will use this as a formal summative assessment
by reviewing the foldable organizers for content and writing skills and
conventions.

Adaptations and Expansions:

For ELL students this activity works really well because the book
provides a visual aid to explain the characteristics of the tall tales. The
ELs can work closely with a partner for the KWHL if they need help
forming the right language. I can also recast their ideas so that it
makes a complete thought. Struggling writers can also be paired up
with a partner to get help or come work one on one with the teacher
during this time in order to get help organizing their thoughts. Asking
students to make connections and locate exaggerations they have
seen in other texts or in their daily lives could expand this lesson.
Students could act out some examples of the exaggerations we have
seen in the books and videos we have viewed already. Students who
have trouble creating the foldable can get help from a peer close by or
I, as the teacher, can have some pre-made that they can use if they
are struggling.

Lesson closure:
I will close the lesson by reminding the students that tomorrow we will
be starting the process of writing our own tall tales. I will ask them to
think about what they could write about to make their own original tall
tale and what elements they could add from what we have seen to
make their tall tale accurate and entertaining.

Teacher notes:
Genre Unit 11

This lesson taught my students the characteristics of a tall tale and

allowed them to create their own organizer and write examples in
order to attach information to the concepts and elements of a story we
talked about. I kept track of my students learning by having them
document their thinking with the KWLH and a foldable organizer for me
to grade and for them to keep as a guide to the unit. From here we will
move on to highlight more about how authors go about writing a tall
tale and how they use the writing process to create their stories.

Lesson #3
Writing your own tall tale

Big understanding:
The big understanding for this lesson is for the students to understand
how authors create characters, plot, and setting in different genres.
Having the students write their own tall tale gives them ownership for
their own learning and is the perfect wrap up to the unit. It gives the
student an authentic learning experience for this topic and allows them
to take control of the unit a little bit.

Materials:
Writing paper
Drawing paper
Pencils and coloring utensils
Post test

Resources used:
Readwritethink.org

Colorado Model Content Standards:

a. Ask and answer questions (e.g., who, what, where, when,
why, how), orally or in writing, requiring literal recall and
understanding of the details and/or facts of a fiction text
read independently (RL.2.1)
b. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in
a text read independently to demonstrate understanding of
its characters, setting, or plot (RL.2.7)
c. Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse
cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or
moral. (CCSS: RL.2.2)
d. Students will understand how to write and speak for a
variety of purposes (Colorado Reading and Writing
Standard 2)

Colorado Teacher Standards:

Genre Unit 12

ELEMENT A: Teachers provide instruction that is aligned with the

Colorado Academic Standards; their districts organized plan of
instruction; and the individual needs of their students.

ELEMENT B: Teachers demonstrate knowledge of student literacy

development in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Lesson objectives:
a. Students will use the elements of a tall tale that we discussed in
their own writing.
b. Students will answer questions in their writing about their
characters, setting, and plot.
c. Students will create one central lesson they would like their
audience to take away with them after reading the story the
student has written.

Engagement:
I will begin by quickly asking the students to name the four things that
every tall tale must have (TALE). I also want to pre-assess them here
by asking what makes really good writing, and what do good writers do
when they create a story. I will then engage the students by reading
them a tall tale that I wrote.

Investigation:
After reading my tall tale I will show the children all the steps I took to
have my final draft ready to share. I will show them how I went through
the writing process with brainstorming, drafting, prewriting, revising,
and editing. We will talk about each stage just a little bit as I model
how I went about writing my own tall tale. I can show them each of my
drafts and point out how much editing and revision it took to finally
share with them my final draft. I can observe the students here and
questions them as a means of formative assessment.

Explain:
During this stage of the lesson I will explain to the students that they
are writing their own tall tale. I will have them brainstorm some ideas
of what they think makes really good writing as I take down their
thoughts on the board. I will also make sure to ask them what elements
each of their tall tales should have in it. By doing this we will be
making a checklist that the students can refer to as they write. Then
the students will have the majority of the class to get started with their
original tall tales. Later on in the unit when they finish they will also be
drawing a picture and I will compile all the works together to create a
class book. My summative assessment will be reading through each
childs story using the checklist we created as a rubric and making sure
they met all the requirements.
Genre Unit 13

Adaptations and Expansions:

For ELL students I have a few graphic organizers to help them get a
better understanding of the writing process. I can also help them by
creating sentence stems and using the workshop time to work closely
with them on the language and writing itself. For gifted students, I
would challenge them to use the 6 traits of writing. I would ask them to
go back and edit their work looking specifically for voice, organization,
sentence fluency, ideas, word choice, and conventions. These students
could also work with other children who are struggling when they finish
their own story. I also like the idea of pairing students up to edit and
revise their peers writing, this can help to make sure the ADHD
students are on task with something to do.

Lesson closure:
I will close the lesson by telling the students that at the end of the unit
we will have a whole class book of tall tales with pictures that we can
keep in our library. I will point out how cool and exciting it is that
everyone in our class will be a published author! And of course we will
get to read through everyones stories when we finish the unit. We will
also need to complete the post test to collect the data on the unit.

Teacher notes:
This lesson taught my students how to weave together everything that
weve been learning into one final product that truly reflects the
entirety of the unit. It teaches them how to go through the writing
process, make their own characters, settings, and plotlines. When they
have finished they will know everything that I set out to teach them
because they were able to go through that authentic learning
experience and really grasp that learning for themselves as they wrote.

Evaluative plan:
I will be able to collect data on my students learning by comparing the
grades from the pre-test and the post-test. I can make this data visibly
clear by creating a bar graph. My pre and posttest clearly meet my
standards, so I will be able to see whether or not I was successful in
teaching to those standards. The students tall tale can also
demonstrate student learning for the unit. During the one-on-one time
in the writers workshop, students will be able to receive feedback on
their stories that lets them know how well they understand the
content.
 Genre Unit 14

Grade
%

Pre- Post-
Reflective Essay:
test test
Overall I really like this unit. I loved learning about tall tales when I was
younger and I think I have a really good grasp on the characteristics in
tall tales as well as what makes the genre so unique. I have learned
through this project how much time and effort it takes to create a unit.
Everything has to be intentional, well thought out, and well planned. I
learned how important it is to keep your standards in your mind and
make sure your lesson is aligned with those expectations and
objectives you set up previously. I like this lesson because it is
engaging to the students. They get to see a lot of fun examples of tall
tales and engage in a lot of great discussion. My favorite part of the
unit is when students make their own book. I think this writers
workshop would be a really good experience for my students to have in
order to really dive into the process of writing, what good writing is,
and how writers use different tools to make their stories come alive. I
have a much better grasp now on what it will take to complete my
capstone!

Resources

The Bunyans by Audrey Wood

Youtube.com
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8igQwfe5r5U
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6MrrLKxvVc
Scholastic.com
Pecos Bill by Steven Kellog
Pinterest.com
Readwritethink.org
Coreknowledge.org
Kidzone.ws
Cde.state.co.us
Wida.us
Genre Unit 15

Tall Tale Assessment

What are the four main elements of a tall tale?

1. T________________________________________________
2. A________________________________________________
3. L________________________________________________
4. E________________________________________________
5. Complete the grid below

Character Plot Setting

What did their What happened Where does the

character do? to this character tall tale take
What made that made a place? How did
them special? story? What the character
kind of end up there?
adventure or
problem did
they face?

Paul Bunyan

John Henry
Genre Unit 16

Pecos Bill
Genre Unit 17
Genre Unit 18