Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education (Children’s Literature) Lesson Plan

Emilee Rhoton

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E.B. Lewis

LESSON RATIONALE/INJUSTICE CONFRONTED

Students often recognize racial divide, weather voiced or not. The purpose of teaching this lesson
is to not only to bring more awareness to the issue of segregation but to help my students know
how to fight against it.

READINESS
I. Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s)— Students will address the issue of segregation by engaging the text, as well as
participating in the activities
B. Objective(s)
 Students will identify the different viewpoints in the story.
 Students will answer the given questions based upon the text.
c. Standard(s):
a. 2.RL.2.1 Ask and answer questions (e.g., who was the story about; why did an
event happen; where did the story happen) to demonstrate understanding of main
idea and key details in a text.
b. 2.RL.3.2 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters and identify
dialogue as words spoken by characters, usually enclosed in quotation marks.
II. Management Plan
 Materials
i. The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
ii. Mystery bag (brown paper bag)
iii. 2 eggs, 1 brown, 1 white
iv. Viewpoint worksheet
v. Crayons, markers, and/or colored pencils
 Space
i. 30-45min for the lesson.
ii. Start off in the “living room” for the read aloud and decision
iii. Move to desks for activity and closing
 Management
i. Continue to implement classroom management plan
ii. Keep voices at a level 1
iii. No running when transitioning

III. Anticipatory Set

  “Ok, guys today I have a special surprise for you.
 “I have here in my bag 2 objects”
 “They are round, and you can eat them”
 “Sometimes they look different on the outside, but on the inside, they are the same. “
 “Can anyone guess what I have in my bag??”
 Let 3 students guess
 “let’s take a look” “drum roll please”
 “they are eggs!!!”
 “I have a brown egg and a white egg.”
 “Did you know that eggs come in many different color shells??? There are brown,
white, and even blue and green eggs.”
 “The eggs are kind of like us, they all have different color shells, like we all have
different color skin. But do you know what it SO cool???”
 Crack open the eggs
 “No matter what the eggs look like on the outside they all look the same on the
inside.”
 “just like us humans” “ our skin may look different, but on the inside we are all the
same.
 Purpose statement
 Introduce the book
 “well today we are going to be reading the book “The other side” in this story there
are two girls who are separated by this big fence.”
 “They are separated because of the color of their skin”
 “ and we will see how they react to each other.”
IV. Purpose statement
 Today, in this lesson we will examine and identify the different viewpoints of the
characters, then we will make connections from the book to our lives.
PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION
V. Adaptations:
 Learning disabilities: harder time comprehending the information, so being in
groups will help them communicate and be more open in the learning process. I
will give them the notes beforehand, so they can look them over and have a
schema about the topic.
 Physical disabilities: Make sure room is big enough for movement.
 Autism: Make sure the students know the agenda of the lesson and try to avoid
making changes to the lesson.
 Audio/visual impairments:
o Visual: larger fonts, preferential seating
o Audio: give the student a
 ADHD: For students that have a difficult time focusing, provide optional seating
and fidgets.
 Highly intuitive learners: Make sure these students are highly engaged in the
lesson. Maybe let them demonstrate a part of the lesson or provide extra practice
sheets for these students.
  Intellectual disabilities: Be sure to include these students and make sure they
understand the concept. Provide extra examples and materials for aids for the
students.

VI. Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)

 Anchor chart with terms:
o Symbols
o Power
o Racial divide
 “Sometimes people are purposefully separated from others, because of the color of their

skin, or the where they were born. In todays, book we are going to be reading about two

girls who go against the normal separation to become friends.”

 Read “The Other Side” by Jaqueline Woodson

 Allow time for students to react naturally, then guide them by asking these questions
o How do you think Annie was feeling when she asked if she could play? Clover

says that “I don’t know what I would have said. Maybe yes. Maybe no.” How do

you think you might have answered Annie?

o What do you notice about the front cover? What do you think the title means?

o What was the viewpoint in this story? Why do you think the author used this

viewpoint?

o Why did Clover’s mother warn her not to climb over the fence?

o How did the Clover and Annie work out a way around this racial barrier?

o How is the fence used as a metaphor in this story?

o Why do you think Jacqueline Woodson wrote this story? What did you learn

about this author that would help you answer this question?

 After answering the questions selected then I will ask the students one last question
o “How do you think that Clover and Annie demonstrate their power? What about

Sandra and Clover’s other friends? How about Clover’s mother? How do you

think that you are powerful?”

  As a class we will talk about the power that each person had in the story
 Next, I will send the students back to their seat
 We will then talk about if they have ever seen a racial divide, or even a socioeconomic
divide (use better terms for the students)
 After that I will ask the teachers helper and another student to help pass out paper.
 I will then instruct the students to then map out; with a story map, what they can do in
those situations.
 Under the drawing they will finish the prompt “I have the power to…”

VII. Check for understanding.

 Revisit the idea of the fence
i. Ask the students what the importance of the fence was – SYMBOLISM –
When most people see a heart, they think of 'love'. Hearts are all over Valentine's Day cards, and
they're often used to replace the word 'love' when people write 'I love you'. Why do people think of
'love' any time they see a heart? It's because of symbolism.
Symbolism is when one idea, feeling, emotion, or other concept is represented by something else,
like a:

 picture
 symbol/icon
 color
 sound
 character/person
 place
 object

Symbols reflect the figurative meaning of the picture, object, color, etc. Figurative meaning is when
a word is used to mean or represent something other than its typical definition.


 As the students are filling out the map walk around to see if there were any
misconceptions.
 If need be re-read parts of the book, have the book available for students to refer
to.
 Anchor chart with terms:
i. Symbols
ii. Power
iii. Racial divide
VIII. Review learning outcomes / Closure
 In closure we will talk about the fences that we see every day, even in our school.
 “ok, guy’s so we have talked a lot about the power that we all have, and the power
that the girls had in the book” “but before we move on to math can someone tell
me the meaning of the fence?”
 Allow time for students to answer
 Then after the conversation is over then signal for students to turn in their maps at
my desk.
  After collecting the story maps, I will then pass out the viewpoint worksheet.
 Before completing the worksheet, I will introduce the term Viewpoint, and explain
the worksheet.
 Students will complete the worksheet as a part of the summative assessment

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT

As a formative assessment I will collect the story maps that the students created
Summative assessment the student will fill out the viewpoint worksheet/quiz

REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS

1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
a. All objectives were achieved in this lesson
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
a. I feel like my anticipatory set was very strong and engaging, and the story
captivated my students. However, my response activity was not engaging at all.
I was not pleased with how that went. I think developmentally the 4 sections
was too much for them. I think If I were to do this lesson again I would cut it
down and only have the 2 sections of the worksheet.
3. How should I alter this lesson?
a. Add more instruction on what a viewpoint is. Have and anchor chart describing
viewpoint, maybe even pre-teach the term.
4. How would I pace it differently?
a. I would limit my question for the grand conversation. Also make instruction a
little more concise.
5. Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
a. No, there were some during the grand conversation who were laying down and
not paying attention. But after that all the students were engaged and
participating in the lesson.
6. What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
Include additional self-answer questions that specifically address unique lesson content,
methodology, and assessment.
During the lesson I made a few changes to match the developmental level by having the students
draw rather than just write. I could have done better in my lesson for my students with ADHD. I
think I should have broken down my instruction and made them easier to follow.
Name
Viewpoint
A viewpoint is the way an author or characters look at a topic or
the idea.

What was the viewpoint of these characters about the fence?

Clover

Annie

Sandra and Friends

Clover’s Mother