Kindergarten ELA | Noticing Patterns in Stories

Unit Summary

In this unit, students are exposed to familiar stories with predictable patterns and illustrations. Exposure to predictable texts is incredibly important for beginning readers as they begin to explore the world of reading independently. The story patterns allow students to try and read the stories on their own, using the repetitive texts and pictures as a guide for either reading or pretending to read the story. Predictable texts are also incredibly important for exposing students to phonological awareness concepts in context, particularly rhyme, rhythm, and fluency.

For students to reap these benefits, they need to deeply engage with the stories. This means that the stories need to be read, reread, retold, and reread some more so students can build the confidence they need to pretend to read or read the text on their own. Within the context of this unit, students are only exposed to the text once; therefore, it is the responsibility of the teacher to find ways to bring the stories to life in other parts of the day so that students are able to reap the rewards of engaging with predictable texts or, if necessary, to slow down the pacing of the unit in order to include multiple readings of a text.

Students will continue to be challenged to ask and answer questions about the texts they read daily, the focus from the previous unit: Welcome to School. Students will begin to work on retelling what happens to the characters in the story, using key details from the text and illustrations. Students will learn that characters are the people, animals, and creatures in a story and that characters, just like people, can think, feel, or act. Additionally, students will explore how authors and illustrators use illustrations and repetition to help a reader understand the main events in a story. Students will learn how to closely “read” illustrations for subtle clues about character feeling or foreshadowing clues for what is going to happen next in a story.

In this unit, students continue to learn how to use discussion and oral discourse to show their understanding of texts. Students build on the work they did in the previous unit–Welcome to School–and continue to focus on the structures needed for successful academic discourse, including following agreed-upon rules and speaking audibly.

In this unit, students will continue to write daily in response to the text with a focus on using words and pictures to correctly answer the question. Students will also begin to explore opinion writing by writing about which book from the unit is their favorite.

Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Book: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle (Philomel Books, 1985) — 330L
Book: Jump, Frog, Jump! by Robert Kalan (Greenwillow Books, 1989) — NPL
Book: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury and Michael Rosen (Alladin Paperbacks, 2003) — BR280L
Book: We’re Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell (Square Fish, 2007) — BR260L
Book: Sitting Down to Eat by Bill Harley (August House, 2005)
Book: The Napping House by Audrey Wood (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2009)
Book: Rap a Tap Tap: Here’s Bojangles – Think of That! by Leo Dillon (Blue Sky Press, 2002) — AD360L
Book: Hush! A Thai Lullaby by Minfong Ho (Scholastic Inc, 2000) — AD600L
Book: Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business, by Esphyr Slobodkina (Harper Collins, 1987) — AD480L
Assessment Text: “Hot Pot Night!” by Vincent Chen and illustrated by Vincent Chen (Charlesbridge) — AD190LL

Supporting Materials

Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading

Text Selection Rationale

Purchase Books

Assessment

The following assessments accompany Unit 2.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Cold Read Assessment

The Cold Read Assessment tests students' ability to comprehend a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer standards-based questions. The Cold Read Assessment can be given in addition to the Content Assessment as a pulse point for what students can read and analyze independently, a skill often required for standardized testing.

Unit Prep

Intellectual Prep

Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit

Unit Launch

Before you teach this unit, unpack the texts, themes, and core standards through our guided intellectual preparation process. Each Unit Launch includes a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning to ensure you're prepared to support every student.

Essential Questions

The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units

What makes stories fun to read?

Reading Focus Areas

To retell stories, readers tell what happens in the beginning, middle, and end.
Characters are the people, animals, and creatures in a story. Characters can think, feel, or act.

Writing Focus Areas

Specific skills to focus on when giving feedback on writing assignments

In Unit 1, students learned the routines and procedures for daily writing about reading. In this unit, students will continue to write daily in response to the text with a focus on using a combination of drawings and words to correctly answer the question.

Opinion Writing Focus Areas

State an opinion about a book.
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to include one detail to support their opinion.

In this unit students begin to explore opinion writing by writing about which book from the unit is their favorite.

Speaking and Listening Focus Areas

Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion.
Speak audibly.

Vocabulary

Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text

Text-based

busyenoughfamefocusedhuntpleasure

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 2 , view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.