Lessons & Units :: Stone Soup 2nd Grade Unit

Read-Aloud Lesson: Stone Soup

Lesson Plan

Stone Soup | 480L

Stone Soup
Learning Goal
Identify the big question about life that is asked in this folktale and describe the most important events in the story that lead to the answer.
Duration
Part 1: Approximately 40-45 minutes
 
Part 2: Approximately 15-20 minutes
 
Part 3: Approximately 15-20 minutes
Necessary Materials

Provided:
1. Detailed lesson plan
2. Graphic organizer for guided practice
3. Independent student worksheet

Not Provided:
Stone Soup

 
  1. This lesson is a close reading of the entire text. So it’s important to engage students often, to enhance their learning. Here are two tips:

    •   When you ask the more complex questions from the lesson, ask students to “turn-and-talk” or “buddy-talk” before answering.

    •   Once you are deep into the lesson, instead of asking students every question provided, ask them to share with you what questions they should be asking themselves at that point in the text. This is also a great opportunity to use "turn-and-talk."
       
  2. Suggested teacher language is included in the lesson.

  3. We recommend you read the book once to your students, either the day or morning before teaching the lesson.

  4. This research-based, read-aloud lesson may seem long. Why do students need the lesson to be this way?
 

Part 1: Teacher Modeling & Questioning

 

Write the following student-friendly learning goal on the board, then read the learning goal out loud with the class: 

We will describe the most important events that help the characters answer an important question about life.

 
Prepare Students for the Lesson
 
Put the definition of “monk” on the board and read it with your class. “A monk is a very religious man. He does not live with anyone except other monks.”
 
Transition Students into the Text
 

Teacher says: Sometimes people travel to visit people they know. Sometimes people travel to see a place they have never seen before.

And sometimes people travel to learn something new or to find an answer to a big question they have.

Let’s read to see what this has to do with Stone Soup.

 
Read page 1 out loud, then stop. Page 1 ends with, “Let’s find out.”
1.
Teacher asks: What question does the monk named Hok ask the monk named Siew?
 
Students answer: Hok asks the question, “What makes one happy?”
2.
Teacher asks: What is Siew’s answer to Hok?
 
Students answer: Siew says, “Let’s find out.”
3.
Teacher says: So we see that there are three monks traveling in the mountains. One monk asks the question, “What makes one happy?” which is the same as asking what makes people happy, and another monk answers, “Let’s find out.”
4.
Teacher asks: Do we know if the monks are going to look for a specific village?
 
Students answer: No, we do not know if they are looking for a specific village.
5.
Teacher asks: Do we know if the monks are going to look for a relative or a person they know?
 
Students answer: No, we do not know if they are looking for a person they know.
6.
Teacher asks: Are the monks going to look for something they will be able to touch or hold?
 
Students answer: No, they are not looking for something they will be able to hold.
7.
Teacher asks: Then what are the monks looking for?
 
Students answer: They are looking for the answer to the question, "What makes one happy?"
Read more
 
This is a crucial idea of the story. You can use a familiar example to explain that people can look for answers. For example, you as the teacher may travel to the principal’s office to find out what time the school concert begins. You won’t come back with anything in your hands. But you come back with new knowledge. You searched for an answer, and you came back with an answer.
8.
Teacher says (models thinking): Since one monk asked, “What makes one happy?” and the other monk responded, “Let’s find out,” I am going to predict that the rest of the book is going to be about the monks’ search to find out the answer to that question.
9.
Teacher asks: What is the big question about people that the monks want to answer?
 
Students answer: The question is, “What makes people happy?”
 
Read pages 3-6 out loud, then stop. Page 6 ends with, “...do with one another.”
10.
Teacher says: A famine is when there is not enough food for people to eat.
11.
Teacher says: The monks find a village where the people don’t trust strangers and don’t even trust each other.
12.
Teacher asks: Do the villagers usually share with each other or spend time together?
 
Students answer: No, they do not.
13.
Teacher asks: What evidence in the story shows that the villagers usually do not share with each other or spend time together?
 
Students answer: The story says that they had little to do with one another.
 
Read pages 7-8 out loud, then stop. Page 8 ends with, “...closed their windows tight.”
14.
Teacher asks: Who closed their windows tight?
 
Students answer: The villagers closed their windows tight.
15.
Teacher asks: Why did the villagers close their windows tight?
 
Students answer: The people saw the monks enter the village. The people didn’t trust strangers.
 
Read pages 9-10 out loud, then stop. Page 10 ends with, "...make stone soup."
16.
Teacher asks: What do the monks say the villagers do not know?
 
Students answer: The monks say the villagers do not know happiness.
17.
Teacher asks: What will the monks show the villagers?
 
Students answer: The monks will show the villagers how to make stone soup.
18.
Teacher says (models thinking): First, the monks agree that the villagers do not know happiness. Then, Siew says they will show the villagers how to make stone soup. I wonder what stone soup has to do with happiness?
 
Read pages 11-14 out loud, then stop. Page 14 ends with, "...said the girl."
19.
Teacher asks: I can see the stones in this illustration (point to page 13), but I can't see them in this illustration (point to page 14). Where are the stones in the second illustration?
 
Students answer: The stones are in the pot.
 
Read pages 15-16 out loud, then stop. Page 16 ends with, "...this stone soup was."
20.
Teacher asks: "True curiosity" means that something is interesting to the people. Why do the villagers come out one by one to see what the stone soup is?
 
Students answer: The fire and pot are a curiosity. They make the villagers want to know more.
21.
Teacher asks: Look at the illustration. How do we know that the villagers are interested in the stone soup?
 
Students answer: We know that the villagers are interested in the stone soup because we see them looking out of their windows in the illustration.
 
Read page 17 out loud, then stop. Page 17 ends with, “...a few other spices.”
 

Teacher says (models thinking):

  • The monk Hok says that the stone soup needs salt and pepper.
  • Then the monk Lok says that is true, that the soup does need salt and pepper—but that the monks don’t have any.
  • I notice that they didn’t ask anyone if they could borrow some salt and pepper. But I also see that they both were speaking out loud and were talking loudly enough so that the villagers could hear them.
  • In fact, the scholar overhears the monks, and because he is curious, he actually goes himself to get some salt and pepper. The scholar even brings additional spices.
 
Read page 18 out loud, then stop. Page 18 ends with, “...dropped them into the pot.”
22.
Teacher asks: What vegetable does Siew suggest would help make the soup broth sweet?
 
Students answer: He suggests that carrots would make it sweet.
23.
Teacher asks: Does Siew ask anyone for a carrot?
 
Students answer: No.
24.
Teacher asks: But does anyone in the village hear that carrots would make the soup broth sweet?
 
Students answer: Yes, a woman from the back hears.
25.
Teacher asks: And what does the woman from the back do?
 
Students answer: She goes to get carrots and drops them into the pot.
 
Read page 19 out loud, then stop. Page 19 ends with, “...the smell was very agreeable.”
26.
Teacher asks: What question does Hok ask out loud?
 
Students answer: Hok asks whether the soup would be better with onions.
27.
Teacher asks: Can we infer, or understand from what we’ve read, what Hok wants to happen by asking that question out loud?
 
Students answer: Yes. He wants a villager to bring onions for the soup.
28.
Teacher asks: What does happen as a result of Hok asking out loud whether onions would make the soup better?
 
Students answer: A farmer goes off to get five onions and drops them into the soup.
 
Read pages 20-22 out loud, then stop. Page 22 ends with, "...the villagers had become!"
29.
Teacher asks: What is the "magical" thing that happens among the villagers?
 
Students answer: The magical thing is the villagers become giving and generous.
30.
Teacher asks: Look at the illustration. How do we know the villagers are being giving?
 
Students answer: We know the villagers are being giving because they are carrying large plates and baskets of ingredients to put in the soup.
 
Read pages 23-24 out loud, then stop. Page 24 ends with, "...anyone could remember."
31.
Teacher asks: What do the villagers do when the soup is ready?
 
Students answer: The villagers gather together and sit down to eat. They have a feast.
 
Read pages 25-28 out loud, finishing the book.
32.
Teacher asks: When the monks thank the villagers for having them as their guests, how do the monks describe the villagers?
 
Students answer: The monks describe the villagers as generous.
 
Teacher says: The villagers thank the monks for the gifts the monks have given them.
 
Teacher asks: Did we read about any physical gifts that people could hold or touch that the monks gave the villagers?
 
Students answer: No, the monks did not give the villagers physical gifts.
 
Some students may respond, “Yes, the monks gave the villagers soup.” That is an acceptable answer. However, emphasize that the villagers are thanking the monks for teaching them something.
33.
Teacher asks: What did the villagers learn from the monks?
 
Students answer: The villagers learned that sharing makes everyone richer.
34.
Teacher asks: So what is the gift that the monks gave the villagers?
35.
Students answer: The gift was knowledge. The monks gave the villagers the knowledge that sharing can make everyone richer.
36.
Teacher asks: At the beginning of the book, what was the big question about people that Hok asked?
 
Students answer: Hok asked, ‘What makes one happy?’
 
Reread the last sentence on page 28, “‘And to think,’ said the monks, ‘to be happy is as simple as making stone soup.’”
37.
Teacher asks: When the monks say that to be happy is as simple as making stone soup, do they mean that if someone goes off by himself and makes soup out of stones that he will be happy?
 
Students answer: No, that is not what he means.
38.
Teacher asks: When the monks started to make stone soup, what did the villagers do?
 
Students answer: The villagers shared, came together, ate together, and celebrated together.
39.
Teacher asks: Were the villagers happy because they had stone soup or because making stone soup brought them together to share and enjoy each other’s company?
 

Students answer:

  • Their happiness came from sharing and being together.
  • Their happiness came from the actual soup and sharing and being together.
40.
Teacher says: According to the folktale, being happy is as simple as making stone soup. We know that during the process of making stone soup the villagers were “generous,” and they shared what they had with each other and spent time together.
41.
Teacher asks: The monks answer their question. They asked what makes people happy, and they say that making stone soup makes people happy. What do they really mean?
 

Students answer:

  • Making stone soup makes people happy because it makes people share and come together.
  • Being together and sharing make people happy.
 

Part 2: Guided Practice & Discussion

 
Transition Students into Guided Practice
1.
Teacher says: Now that we know how to make stone soup let’s think some more about this interesting story.
2.
Teacher asks: What big question about people did the monks ask at the beginning of this folktale?
 
Students answer: ‘What makes one/people happy?’
3.
Teacher asks: Where did the monks travel to?
 
Students answer: The monks traveled to a village.
4.
Teacher asks: What were the people in the village like when the monks arrived in the village?
 

Students answer:

  • The people in the village did not trust strangers.
  • The people in the village were suspicious of their neighbors.
  • The people in the village worked hard, but only for themselves.
  • The people in the village had little to do with one another.
Read more
5.
Teacher asks: What was the most important event that took place in the story to change the way the people in the village behaved?
 
Students answer: The monks made stone soup with the villagers.
6.
Teacher asks: What did the people in the village begin to do with one another when they made the stone soup?
 

Students answer:

  • The people in the village shared with one another.
  • The people in the village came together.
  • The people in the village ate together.
  • The people in the village celebrated together.
7.
Teacher asks: What were the people in the village like at the end of the story?
 

Students answer:

  • The people in the village were thankful and happy.
  • The people in the village shared and enjoyed each other’s company.
8.
Teacher asks: What was the answer to the big question about what makes people happy?
 
Students answer: People are happy when they share, come together, and enjoy each other’s company.
 

After the answers for the graphic organizer have been completed and discussed with the class, ask the following discussion question.

 
Teacher asks: What are other positive events that bring people together in a way that helps them cooperate, work together, and enjoy each other’s company?
 
Allow students to brainstorm and write their answers on the board until there are a few answers you think are strong.
 

Students answer:

  • School concerts
  • Plays
  • Poetry readings
  • Sports
  • Weddings
  • Building a house
 

Write on the board: "To be happy is as simple as making stone soup."

Underneath that sentence write: "To be happy is as simple as ___________________."

 
Teacher says: I’m going to erase the phrase "making stone soup" in this sentence on top. Let’s see if we can replace that phrase with one of the examples we just came up with.
 
Point to a good example on the board, write it in the blank, e.g. "To be happy is as simple as being at a school concert." And ask the students if the new sentence makes sense. Do it again with another one or two examples.
 

Part 3: Student Independent Practice

 
Read each question out loud to your students and have each student complete the worksheet independently.

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

(To see all of the ReadWorks lessons aligned to your standards, click here.)

User Comments

I cannot wait to use this!

Submitted by pattymagz on 9/30/16

Thank you. Very helpful

Submitted by MMcG213_1054046 on 5/2/15