Becky Proffitt

Cooperative Lesson

EDP 621 Summer 2001

Objective: Working as a group, students will complete a story map for a picture book.

Appropriate Age Level: third grade

Goal: use the Jigsaw technique to create a story map

Time: 90 minutes

Group size: whole class, small groups of 4 or 5

Materials: glue, markers, colored pencils, drawing paper, sentence strips

Multiple copies of these books by Patricia Polacco:

Rechenka’s Eggs, Chicken Sunday, Babushka Baba Yaga, Babushka’s Doll, Pink and Say,

Just Plain Fancy, Thundercake, Meteor!, Thank You, Mr. Falker

Procedures: The third grade class is in the middle of an author/illustrator study of Patricia Polacco. You can read these picture books as a whole group or in small literature circles. As a class, review the different sections of a story map (characters, setting, problem, solution, three main events). Break the class into five or six groups. Each group will be responsible for creating a story map for one of these books.

Allow each group to decide which book they will be creating a story map for. (Ideally each group will have a different book.) In each small group, members will have to identify the five areas of the story map and write them as complete sentences. The teacher should check problem, main events, and solution before the students proceed with lesson. Within each group, students decide who will be responsible for creating a mini-poster/picture for each section of the story map. Some members may have to do an extra section. When each member is finished, paste each mini-poster/picture on a large sheet of butcher paper. Students create section headings for this giant poster.

When the giant poster is finished, the group has created a large story map for the picture group. Each group presents their story map to the class. Then all the posters are displayed in the classroom or hallway.