Strategy
The strategy this demonstration will teach/model is predicting.
Outcome/Indicator
Outcome – CR2.1 Comprehend and respond to a variety of grade-level texts (including contemporary and traditional visual, oral, written, and multimedia) that address: • identity (e.g., Just Watch Me) • community (e.g., People and Places) • social responsibility (e.g., Friendship) and make connections to prior learning and experiences.
Indicator – a. View, listen to, read and respond to a variety of texts including First Nations and Metis resources that present different viewpoints and perspectives on issues and topics related to identity, community, and social responsibility and relate to own experiences.
Text Selection
“The Storybook Knight”
Written by Helen Docherty, Illustrated by Thomas Docherty
Grade Level K to 4
I chose this text because the reading level is appropriate for grade 2, but mostly because it is an enjoyable read with a great message. The rhyming and cadence create an almost musical listening experience. The illustrations are full of colour, expression and intrigue. The message fit well with the social responsibility piece of outcome CR2.1 in that it demonstrates the ability of someone with a different way of thinking to successfully conquer a big problem in their own way.
Summary
Leo is a gentle mouse who would enjoy nothing more than to be left in peace to read. But being a knight, it is expected that he take the new shield and sword gifted to him by his parents, to fight and tame a pesky dragon.
Leo sets off on his journey armed with his new gifts, a bit of food, and several books. Before reaching the dragon, Leo encounters a fearsome griffin and a hungry troll. Both creatures, intending on doing him harm, were convinced to let him on his way through Leo reading and gifting them books of interest to them.
After a long journey, Leo finally came upon a town ravaged by the dragon. Instead of pulling out his shield and sword, Leo offers to read an amazing dragon book, but insists the dragon’s mess be cleaned up first. The dragon confesses he doesn’t know how to clean up, so he and Leo do it together, followed by a reading (actually six!) of the highly anticipated dragon book. With the dragon appeased and now knowing how to clean up after himself, Leo can return a success.
When Leo arrives home, he is hailed a hero and having proven himself, is able to spend his time as he pleases…reading.
Script
Before
Ok friends, remember how for the past few days we’ve been learning about an important tool called predicting? Just to jog everyone’s memories (because I know we learn an awful lot), predicting is when we use the clues we are given to guess what will happen next. Predicting can be used to solve puzzles, when we play games, or even to figure out what is going to happen in a movie, but today I want to show you how I use predicting to figure out what will happen in a story.
The story I’m going to share with you today is called “The Story Book Knight”. It is a story about a small mouse named Leo who loves to be left in peace to read but must save a town from a dragon. As I read it to you, I’m going to pause and tell you how my brain uses the clues we are given in the story to figure out what might happen next.
During
Before I even open the book, I am given several clues. When I look at the picture, I see Leo in knight’s armour sitting on top of the dragon’s belly, and they are smiling at each other. This makes me wonder what is going on because from what I’ve seen about knight’s and dragons before, they are usually fighting each other. I also notice that instead of a sword, Leo is holding a book and he looks like he is reading to the dragon and underneath the title it says, “Even dragons love a good story.” This leads me to believe that both Leo and the dragon enjoy books.
Pages 1 and 2 – When I look at the pictures on the first page, I see Leo reading by himself in a tree with his horse nearby, carrying a bag of books. Leo looks quite happy in his tree. Behind him is a castle with lots of other small animals fighting and playing in front. The other animals look like they are having fun, but Leo doesn’t seem to notice them which leads me to think he is quite happy to be reading. I also notice that on the second page his mom and dad are clearly telling him something important, and his dad is holding a wooden sword. The word fight is capitalized and followed by an exclamation mark. Leo is holding a book with his arms outstretched on either side of him, making it look as thought his parents want him to fight and he doesn’t understand why he can’t be left to read. Using these clues, I predict that Leo is going to have to leave his reading comfort zone to do some sort of fighting.
Pages 7 and 8 – We’ve just been introduced to the griffin, which on the previous page was described as “a fearsome creature”, so when we flipped the page, I knew I’d be a little scared about what was going to happen. Looking at the picture on page 7, I see the big griffin, fists raised and eyebrows furrowed, towering over a scared looking Leo. Even Ned is so scared he spit out his grass! This makes me think that Leo isn’t feeling brave and doesn’t want to fight. On the next page we see Leo talking to the griffin, who has now come down off the big rock. Leo is smiling but showing the griffin his sword and then a book with a griffin in it. The griffin doesn’t look angry anymore. I’m guessing Leo is trying to distract the griffin from fighting with his neat griffin book.
Pages 9 and 10 – The first thing I notice on these pages is the griffin smiling. Leo is reading the griffin and story and the griffin seems very interested in it. When Leo gets back on his horse, the griffin has the book. He looks quite happy and is bowing his head to Leo, which I know to be a sign of respect from other stories I’ve read about griffins. Ned is also back to happily eating plants, so I can predict Leo and Ned will be able to continue their journey without having to fight the griffin.
Pages 13 and 14 – It looks like Leo is happy to be sitting by a stream, eating his lunch. Ned, However, looks startled because he sees a troll. The troll looks kind of scary and like he’s ready to cause trouble. We see Leo offering the troll his lunch, instead the troll picks Leo up and raises him to his mouth. It looks like Leo is in danger and might have to fight.
Pages 15 and 16 – Instead of pulling out a sword, I see Leo showing the troll a book with the troll in it. The next picture shows the two sitting happily beside each other, with Leo reading the story to the troll. When Leo gets back on Ned, the troll is hugging the book and bowing to Leo as he smiles and waves goodbye. Leo seems to be quite clever at figuring out which books certain creatures might like and using them to make friends with creatures so that he doesn’t have to fight them. I can start to see a pattern and can predict that Leo might try to use a book the next time he encounters a scary creature.
Page 21 and 22 – Here I am seeing that Leo is finally meeting the dragon. The dragon looks quite scary with flames in his nose and horns on his head. But just like the other times when Leo was in trouble, he pulls out a book. Only this time it looks like he is going to throw it in the garbage. We see the dragon looking worried, and where there were once flames coming out of his nose, there is only smoke. This leads me to believe the dragon no longer wants to fight but wants to hear the story Leo must tell him.
Pages 25 and 26 – As with the griffin and the troll, I see that Leo is making friends with the dragon. The dragon is really enjoying the story looks very happy when Leo hands him the book to keep as he and Ned get ready to go. When he left the troll, I predicted that he would use books to avoid fighting and that is just what he did with the dragon. Now that he gets to go home, I predict his mom and dad are going to be happy that he tamed the dragon.
After
Throughout this book we saw Leo encounter three scary creatures. Even though he had a sword to fight them with, he used what he knew, books, to win each of them over and avoid having to fight at all.
Through the use of our background knowledge about Leo (that he was peaceful and liked to read), and paying attention to repeated actions and visual clues, we were able to predict that Leo would use a book to make friends with the dragon and avoid having to fight him.
To help us remember where to find clues in a story, we are going to create a Listen and Look anchor chart.
