Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education (Children’s Literature) Lesson Plan

Emily Gerycz

Book Title and Author/Illustrator: The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill and illustrated by Laura Huliska Beith

LESSON RATIONALE/INJUSTICE CONFRONTED

Using literature as a lens into reality, students will explore the concept of bullying. The class will learn about bullying and
the power of kind words through reading and responding to The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill.

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s)— Students will find the central message of a story and apply it to their own life.
B. Objective(s)— After a class discussion on the central message of The Recess Queen, students will apply the
central message by writing a kindness letter to an individual in their own life.
C. Standard(s): 2.RL.2.2 Recount the beginning, middle, and ending of stories, including fables and folktales from
diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
II. Management Plan- Time per lesson element, use of space, list of materials. Describe expectations and procedures.
Time
 Anticipatory Set- 5 minutes
 Lesson Presentation- 20 minutes
 Response Activity— 15 minutes
Space
 During the anticipatory set and the lesson, the students will sit on the carpet in their assigned location.
During the assessment/response activity, students will return to their assigned desk or table in the
classroom.
Materials
 The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill
 Paper
 Envelopes
 Crayons
Behavior
 Students are expected to be active learners throughout the lesson. Students will be encouraged to provide a
natural response to the read-aloud and questions. Throughout the lesson, students are expected to respect
others, the teacher, and themselves, and follow all class rules. Students who do not follow directions will
receive a verbal warning. If the behavior continues, they will get their number written on the board. If the
behavior continues further, they will receive check marks next to their number that indicate minutes lost
from recess.

III. Anticipatory Set

 Tell story about me jumping rope.
 When I was in second grade, I loved recess! My absolute favorite activity to do at recess was jump rope. I would
practice every day at home with my striped blue princess jump rope, so when I got to recess I would be really
good at it. A lot of times, my friends would do this with me and we would sing songs and have fun. We’re going
to read a book that takes place at a recess in a school just like yours—and how something as simple jumping
rope caused something good to happen at this recess.
IV. Purpose: Today we are going to read the book Recess Queen. While I read, I want you to think about what made the
characters change their attitudes in the story.

PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION

V. Foundational Theory: Reader- response criticism is a tool of literacy theory that focuses on the reader (or
“audience”) and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention
primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.
Adaptation to Individual Differences and Diverse Learners—
 Students will share in the discussion about similar experiences they have had.
 Students who have difficulty reading on their own will have the support of the read-aloud.

VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

 Students will be asked to sit on the reading carpet.
 I will read the book Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill.

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  In order to keep the students engaged in the read-aloud, I will use different voices for each character and use
varying voice inflections.
 As I read, I will model reading with emotion, different voice inflections, and other reading strategies.
 I will encourage the students to react to the story without stopping the read-aloud.

VII. Check for understanding

 I will have a conversation with the students about The Recess Queen, asking them questions that allow for
natural response to the book, such as:
o What did you think of this story?
o What did you like about this book?
o Have you ever had an experience like the one in the book?
 On the board, draw a timeline and label the beginning, middle, and end of the line. Ask the students to raise their
hand and call on one student to answer what was happening at the beginning of the story. Repeat this with the
middle and end.

VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure

 Ask students what made the story end the way it did. Transition students to thinking about how the kind words
of Katie Sue changed the attitude of Mean Jean. “Your life is like a story, and using kind words will help you write a
good one. We’re going to write kind words to encourage someone in our life to show what we learned in The Recess
Queen.”

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

 “Kind words are powerful. In The Recess Queen, Katie Sue used the power of kind words to build up Jean. Like Katie
Sue, you are going to use kind words to encourage someone in your life.” As a class, we will brainstorm people we
could write our kindness letters to (parent, teacher, classmate…) and brainstorm some sentence starters such as
“One thing I like about…” or “Thank you for…”. Students will return to their seat to write at least one sentence of
kind words and draw a picture to go with it. When they finish, I will read over the letter. If it is ready to “send”, I
will give them an envelope to put their letter in so they can deliver it to the recipient.

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
When the students were finished, I checked all of their kindness letters. All students
wrote an effective kindness letter to someone in their life.
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
I felt like my management was a strength of mine. I tried to make my expectations clear for students and keep
them engaged throughout the whole lesson. A weakness of mine was focusing on the time. One suggestion my
teacher gave me was being comfortable with a little bit of silence. Instead of asking a question, having
someone give me an answer, and immediately move to someone else, I should have given students more time
to think and elaborate.
3. How should I alter this lesson?
One thing I wished I would have done would give them instructions for after they finished. Some students
asked me "What should I do now?" which I could have addressed. Also, I could have went deeper into the
grand conversation on the recess queen.
4. How would I pace it differently?
I thought the timing of each of the elements was okay- the fifteen minutes for the response worked out nicely.
The class varies greatly in completion times, but that seemed to be one that worked well for this specific
activity.
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
All students were participating greatly in the response activity, which is not always the case with this group in
every lesson. During the read-aloud and grand conversation, many students answered at least one question.
The ones that didn't might have needed more processing time, which I will definitely give them during the
next lesson I do.
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
I had the students move throughout the lesson, whether it was moving on the carpet or switching from carpet
to desks. Also, I reached different ability levels by telling the students they could complete another letter
when they finished their first. This way, different ability levels were able to complete the work at their own
pace.
7. Could each student identify the beginning, middle, and end of The Recess Queen?
I did not check individuals for this but multiple students from the class answered about the beginning, middle,
and end. This is something I could alter if I taught a similar lesson- individual understanding of the
components of the story; however, each student did apply the theme correctly.

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8. Could each student apply the theme to their own life by writing a kindness letter?
Yes, each student correctly applied the theme to their own life. It was nice to see them apply it in different
ways too...there was no two letters that were the same.
9. How could I have made my instructions simpler to understand for students?
I would have liked to explain to students what to do when they finished while they were still on the carpet. I
think my instructions were clear for what to do when they completed the actual response activity.