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Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan
The Tale of Despereaux: Fact or Fiction?
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| Grades | 3 – 6 |
| Lesson Plan Type | Standard Lesson |
| Estimated Time | Four 50-minute sessions |
| Lesson Author |
Urbana, Illinois
Brookhaven, Mississippi |
| Publisher |
|
MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY
- The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
STUDENT INTERACTIVES
Grades 3 – 12 | Student Interactive | Organizing & Summarizing
The Compare & Contrast Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for different kinds of comparison essays.
PRINTOUTS
- Compare and Contrast Map
- Teacher Notes on Genre Characteristics
- Medieval Times Booklist for Research
- Other suggested Medieval Times Chapter Books
- Book Selections for Comparison
- Compare and Contrast Information Collection Sheet
- Compare and Contrast Map Rubric
WEBSITES
- Kate DiCamillo
The website of the author of The Tale of Despereaux, with more information about her and her other books.
- Medieval Times
Lists of kid-friendly research on medieval times and history including such topics as: castles, clothing, weapons, music, and much more.
- The Tale of Despereaux
This site is the Universal Pictures site for the movie. It contains links to activities, games, and information about the movie.
PREPARATION
- Students should have completed reading The Tale of Despereaux either individually, in groups, or as a class.
- Students should have an understanding of the various reading genres and the characteristics associated with them (from a previous lesson or prior knowledge). See the Teacher Notes on Genre Characteristics for more information.
- Have a collection of books on medieval times available in your classroom. Use the Medieval Times Booklist for suggestions when searching your school or local library for books.
- Use the Book Selections for Comparison handout for suggestions of sample sections in the book for you discussion on this assignment.
- After choosing the selection(s) from The Tale of Despereaux that you are going to use in class, have factual information highlighted to read with/to your students that either makes a comparison or contrast to what is in the book. This will vary by what books or web sites you decide to use for comparison.
- Preview the web sites about medieval times noted in this lesson plan and bookmark them on your computer or student computers.
- Make copies of any handouts and the Compare and Contrast Map Rubric for students.
- Test the Compare and Contrast Map on your computer. Familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the proper Flash plug-ins installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.