Fairy Tale Character Traits

Building academic language

Word

• Provide definitions (on board or projected) of all Tier 2 words.
• Explain that students will now rotate around the room to the brainstorming sheets and add their comments and/or example sentences for each word and read about what other students have written. (Note: This can be done informally, with students choosing which words to approach and in what order, or more formally, with students divided into groups and rotating systematically from word to word.)
• Separate students into groups with a completed brainstorming sheet and have them answer questions aloud about the word. For instance, "What does the word mean?"
• Have students use sentence frames for support in their oral discussion.
• Allow students to create and share aloud their own sentences with the new vocabulary words. For example:
  • One characteristic of the Big Bad Wolf is ____.

Sentence

• Distribute the Character Traits: The Princess and the Pea worksheet.
• Read the story aloud. Have students circle new vocabulary as they read along with you.
• Read the instructions on the back and have a volunteer explain them back to you.
• Give students a few minutes to reread the passage in pairs before analyzing the first character.
• Ask for whole class' attention, then think aloud to model analyzing the first character. Ask, "Which word fits best here? How do we know?" Have students explain the clues.
• Have students work independently or in pairs to complete the rest of the worksheet.

Discourse

• Distribute the Character Reactions worksheet, read the directions to the students, and ask a volunteer to repeat the instructions back to you.
• Have students work with partners to discuss possible answers.
• Provide sentence frames for students, using Tier 2 words where possible, to share with partners as they work. For example:
  • The queen responded to ____ by ____ under the mattress.
  • The prince responded to ____ by ____.