Close Read: A Day's Work - Craft and Structure

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SWBAT find the author's purpose and identify the structure of the text.

Big Idea

Day two of our close read lesson on "A Day's Work" focuses on the craft and structure of the piece. Why did the author write this text? How is the text organized?


Second Read - Focusing in on Abuelo's Reaction

20 minutes

Our second read of the story will focus on page 26. (Of the Kindle version.)  We will take a close look at how Abuelo reacts to both Ben and Francisco when he realizes that they have pulled out all the plants and left the weeds.

Each student will take out their reading response notebook and a pencil.  Sometimes we have the text typed up during a close read and the students can mark up the text.  Since we are using the iPads today, we will take notes instead.  We will re-read page 26 on our ipads and then will ask the students the following questions:

What is Abuelo feeling as he learns about the plant mistake?  How can you tell ?

What is Abuelo's react to the bad news?

Students will then re-read the page 26, taking notes on what they read about. I will encourage the students to jot down clues in the text that help them answer the questions.

After students have had a chance to reread page 25, will hold a group discussion about their findings. These discussions are what I love about close reads. Often students find things within the text that I may have overlooked. It is fun to see how the children perceive things.

Bunting, E. (1994). A Day's Work. New York, NY : Clarion Books

Text Structure Class Discussion

10 minutes

During the second read of a close read, our focus is on the author's craft of the piece and the structure of the text.  This is a shift is focus with the new CCSS.  Previously the students were simply expected to comprehend the text and be able to answer questions about that text. Now, students are required to go beyond that.  They are expected to think about why the author wrote the piece, the structure the author chose to organize the piece, the word choice the author used to convey the message.  All of these fall into the craft and structure section of the CCSS.  Today we are going to focus on the structure of "A Day's Work."  

Together as a class we will discuss the structure of the text. How is the text organized. Together we will fill out a beginning, middle, end graphic organizer.  What takes place in the beginning of the story? What happens in the middle of the story? What happens at the end?


Next we'll take a look at why the author wrote the story.  What was the author's purpose?

Author's Purpose - Quick Write

10 minutes

To conclude our second read of a day's work, I will have the students take out their reading response journals and write on what the author, Eve Bunting's, purpose was for writing this text and what message or theme she was trying to portray to the reader.  This quick write will serve as a formative assessment to gauge their understanding.