Lessons & Units :: Genre Studies: Legends 1st Grade Unit

Lesson 1: Oral Stories

Lesson Plan

The Legend of the Bluebonnet | 740L

The Legend of the Bluebonnet
Learning Goal
Explain that legends are stories that have been orally passed down through the years.
Orally retell a legend.
Duration
Approximately 50 minutes
Necessary Materials
Provided: Unit Example Chart, Independent Practice Worksheet (optional)
Not Provided: The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola, chart paper, markers

  • Teacher Modeling

    will explain to students that we are going to read a type of story called a legend. Legends are stories that have been orally passed down through the years. This means that stories are told aloud and passed down by word of mouth. I will add this to my Characteristics of Legends Chart (Example Chart is provided in Unit Teacher and Student Materials). Before society had the tools to write and copy books, stories had to be remembered and retold to children. When those children grew up, they would retell the story to their children. I will explain that we are going to read a legend and practice retelling that legend orally, or aloud. I will read The Legend of the Bluebonnet and model how to retell the events in the beginning of the story. As I read, I will take notes about the events in the story. Then, I will use those notes to orally retell the story to you in as much detail as I can remember. I will add the title of the legend to my chart to show that it is part of a tradition of retelling aloud.

  • Think Check

    Ask: "How did I retell the beginning of the legend?" Students should respond that you took notes about the events in the story as you read. Then, you used your notes to help you recall and orally retell the events and details as closely as possible.

  • Guided Practice

    will continue to read and take notes on the events in the middle of The Legend of the Bluebonnet. We will use our notes to retell the middle of the story. We will discuss how the purpose is to retell the legend as exactly as possible, but some details of the story get lost or changed as we retell them. We will discuss that over time, legends change because different people have changed the story a little bit each time they retell it.

  • Independent Practice

    will listen to the end of The Legend of the Bluebonnet and orally retell the end of the story to your neighbor. You will also listen to your neighbor’s retelling. Did you leave out any details or important events from the story? You will explain that legends are stories that have been orally told through the years. Note: An optional Independent Practice Worksheet is provided for students to take notes about the events in the story while it is read aloud. Students can then use their notes to orally retell the story to their neighbor.

Build Student Vocabulary sacrifice

Tier 2 Word: sacrifice
Contextualize the word as it is used in the story “The Great Spirit says the People must sacrifice. We must make a burnt offering of the most values possession among us.”
Explain the meaning student-friendly definition) A sacrifice is something that we give up to get something else. To sacrifice means to give something up. Often we sacrifice something for someone else, or we sacrifice something now to get something better later. In the legend, the people need to give up their most prized possession by burning it so that the Great Spirits will give them rain.
Students repeat the word Say the word sacrifice with me: sacrifice.
Teacher gives examples of the word in other contexts I have to sacrifice watching my favorite television show so I can finish my homework. I sacrificed eating candy, so that I could have ice cream after dinner.
Students provide examples What would you sacrifice to go to college? Video games? Television? Weekend mornings? Tell me about it by saying, “I would sacrifice _______ to go to college.”
Students repeat the word again. What would are we talking about? sacrifice.
Additional Vocabulary Words healing, possession

Build Student Background Knowledge

Before reading The Legend of the Bluebonnet, I will explain that this story is based on a true experience of the Native Americans from Texas, who lived through a terrible drought. A drought is when there is not enough rain to help things grow and for people to drink. In the past, there were not grocery stories where you could go to buy water, or a city that provided water for your house. People got their water from the rain or from rivers and lakes. A drought was very deadly because human beings need water to survive and prosper.

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