Sheila Rae the Brave
Written by Mathew Needleman

Grade/Level: 1-3

Subject Area(s):
 Language Arts (English)

Concept(s):
 Predicting and making connections between literature and our own lives helps us to greater appreciate literature.

We are often afraid of things which are unfamiliar.

State Academic Content Standard(s):
CA- CCTC: CSTP's (Standards for the Teaching Profession)
• Standard : Standard for Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments For Student Learning
Teachers create physical environments that engage all students in purposeful learning activities and encourage constructive interactions among students. Teachers maintain safe learning environments in which all students are treated fairly and respectfully as they assume responsibility for themselves and one another. Teachers encourage all students to participate in making decisions and in working independently and collaboratively. Expectations for student behavior are established early, clearly understood, and consistently maintained. Teachers make effective use of instructional time as they implement class procedures and routines.
• CSTP Key Element : Using instructional time effectively.
 Question: "How do I?" or "Why do I?" : redirect student behavior in the most productive and time effective way?

CA- California K-12 Academic Content Standards
• Subject : English Language Arts
• Grade : Grade One
• Area : Reading
• Sub-Strand 2.0: Reading Comprehension
Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed (e.g., generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, comparing information from several sources). The selections in Recommended Readings in Literature, Kindergarten Through Grade Eight illustrate the quality and complexity of the materials to be read by students. In addition to their regular school reading, by grade four, students read one-half million words annually, including a good representation of grade-level-appropriate narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information). In grade one, students begin to make progress toward this goal.
• Concept : Comprehension and Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text
 Standard 2.5: Confirm predictions about what will happen next in a text by identifying key words (i.e., signpost words).
Objective(s):
 After a guided reading of "Sheila Rae, The Brave" students will be able to explain their prediction about what would happen if Sheila encountered an unfamiliar place and whether or not their prediction came true with ninety percent accuracy.
Prerequisite Background Skills/ Knowledge:
 Students will need to know what making a prediction is. Students are familiar with this concept from the kindergarten Open Court program but a one or two sentence explanation the first time it is mentioned would be helpful.
Vocabulary/Language Skills:
 Bravery, fear, and being afraid. These can best be described in context i.e. brainstorm a quick list of things we are afraid of. The notion of bravery should also be discussed in regards to the characters actions.
Materials:
 Book: "Sheila Rae, the Brave"
Classroom Management:
 Keep lesson brief. Be consistent in managing the bean economy behavior management system.
Models of Instruction:
 Direct Instruction
Procedure
Open:
 Show the students the front cover of the book, "Sheila Rae, the Brave." To assess students understanding of bravery, ask them if they are brave and what bravery means. Someone may say that bravery is never being scared and then ask them if this is really true or if brave people sometimes get scared? Do we get scared when we encounter things we are not familiar with.
Input:
 Read the story to students. Stop occasionally to clarify certain potentially confusing points of the story. In the story, Sheila is a very brave person but eventually wanders off into a neighborhood she is unfamiliar with. When this happens, ask students to make a prediction about whether they think she will be afraid and to think about times they have been places that they had never been to before.
Guided Practice:
 After finding out what happens, ask students to confirm or revise their predictions. Remind them that predictions that make sense but end up being incorrect are still good predictions.
Independent Practice:
 Ask students if either of the characters in the book are really brave and see if their thinking about bravery has changed since the beginning of the book. Depending on student attention, discussion can be whole group or in peer groupings.
Close:
 Ask students to summarize their learning about being afraid and bravery. Also, have them comment on how making predictions added to their enjoyment of the story.
Assessment/ Reflection
Assessment:
 Teacher will listen to student comments and predictions to see that students are able to explain their prediction and whether or not it comes true with ninety percent accuracy.
Reflection:
 As a metacognition lesson, I think it was successful in getting students to think about characters feelings, make predictions, and connect imaginary situations from those of their own lives. Particularly effective was having students share their ideas in pairs. I heard lots of on task and relevant information.

Teaching this story at this particular time, however, was a little bit out of place. It really belongs and will fit in well with our upcoming "Being Afraid" unit. Coming in the middle of our animals unit, it seemed a little random to me and to students though it may have laid some background knowledge for later readings. Nevertheless, students were able to be flexible, were very well-behaved, and learned something about predicting and being afraid.
copyright ©2003 by Mathew Needleman