Reading Level:
N

Word Count:
874

Pages:
20

Text Summary
The Shepherd and the Fairy is a rags-to-riches-to-rags Corsican folktale about a young man who wins the love of a magical fairy. She makes him wealthy with her wishes, but he succumbs to the temptation of wanting a better love and more worldly goods. In the end, he is left with nothing.

Lesson Objectives
Children should use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The targeted strategy for this lesson is: Using context clues.

There are several expressions and some vocabulary that will probably be unfamiliar to most children. However, the familiar setting, characters, and plot provide a good opportunity to use context clues to decode meaning.

For comprehension, strategies include: Making connections between what children are reading and what they already know.

Children will readily make the connection between decisions the protagonist makes and the outcomes. They can use what they already know to make judgments and suggest different decisions that lead to different outcomes.

Word and Print Skills
Phonics

silent consonants

kn

Word Work
verbs

homonyms

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Understanding the author's purpose.

Like many fables and folktales, there is a moral to this story and a universal lesson for those making quick and easy choices. Advanced thinkers can be encouraged to draw parallels between the virtues of simple life and enjoyment of nature versus the lure of superficial materialism. Younger readers can readily identify the good and bad aspects of the characters in their roles.

Visual Learning
Fairy, queen, and shepherd are familiar icons to most children. Encourage them to give descriptions of how these three figures might appear prior to reading the book. Compare their ideas to the pictures in the text.

Targeted Vocabulary Words
Content Words
shepherd, fairy, queen, married, quite, content, practical, man, vanished, ashamed

These content words are chosen because they are necessary for understanding the main idea of the story.

Word work words
past tense action verbs

played, watched, stopped, smiled, twisted, dropped, turned, climbed, laughed, looked, bowed, searched

homonyms

fairy, reining, merry, marry, plain, hair, here, need, died, knew, nose

silent kn words

know, knew

Before Reading

Building Background
Have children work individually or in small groups, to find out the similarities and differences between a folktale, a fable, a parable, and a legend. They may do this by using a dictionary, encyclopedia, or the Internet, or by asking parents, siblings, and others. Have children report on their findings. Introduce the idea that different story forms serve different purposes, such as entertaining them, teaching a lesson, presenting a dilemma (problem situation), comparing good and bad behaviors, or relating a historical event. If time allows, tell a short folktale such as Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby and ask children to discuss the purpose of this story.

Introducing the Book
Show the front and back cover, and the title page. Ask: What do you see on the covers? What do you think the book will be about? What does a shepherd do? Do you think the folktale will be true? Why or why not?

Book Walk
Discuss the idea of understanding the meaning based on context. Say: When we read, we always find new words. Sometimes we can understand the meaning if we look at the whole sentence, or read several sentences before and after the unfamiliar word. For example, write - jammerywhammerygibbonsgob on the board. Ask: Does this seem familiar?

Next write, The old witch said, "Jammerywhammerygibbonsgob!" and the boy turned into a frog. Ask: Now, who can guess what this is? Say: Remember, when you see an unfamiliar word, try reading the whole sentence and even a few sentences before and after the word to see if you can understand the meaning. Now let's try this idea with our book.

Before handing out the book, write several items (words or phrases) on the board: quite content (page 7) coy (page 15) practical man (page 16) and vanished (page 17). These may be unfamiliar to children so pointing out the context clues will help them to remember these items.

Read the small section of dialogue that includes quite content (page 6 and 7).

Think Aloud
I see that the shepherd is happy and he doesn't need anything, so I could guess that "quite content" means-. Ask: What?

Read the queen's proposal on page 15 with a bold, imperious tone of voice. Then complete the sentence that includes coy. Have children guess the meaning of coy. If they are unsuccessful using context clues, then use

Think Aloud
If I can't successfully guess the meaning of the word by reading the sentence, I may have to use a dictionary.

Use a similar process for practical man and vanished.

Reading Strategies

• How will the pictures help you understand the text?
• How does what you read connect to what you already know?
• What can you do when you come to a word you do not understand?  

During Reading

Student Reading
Have children read pages 3-6.

Ask: What did you learn about the fairy? The shepherd? What do you think will happen to these two characters?

Have children read pages 7-12.

Ask: What did the shepherd have? What did he need? Why did the fairy ask the shepherd to marry her? What was the power of the ring? What happened to the shepherd's sheep? Why didn't the shepherd go home with the fairy? What do you think will happen to the shepherd?

Have children read pages 13-16.

Ask: What happened to the fairy? Who did the shepherd meet? What did the queen ask the shepherd? Why did the shepherd say yes? What do you think will happen next?

Have children read pages 17-20.

Ask: Why did the assistants laugh at the shepherd? Why was the queen embarrassed? What does "nose in the air" mean? Why was the shepherd ashamed?

Ask: What is your opinion about the shepherd's decision to marry the fairy? The queen? What do you think he should have done? What is your opinion about the queen? What can we learn from this story?

Think Aloud
When we read a story, we can ask ourselves questions such as these: Why did the author decide that the shepherd would choose the queen instead of the fairy? Why did the author decide that the queen would change her mind after seeing the shepherd's old clothes? What would I do if I were writing the story?  

Have children complete activity sheet # 1.

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
Discuss "the moral of the story" and the author's purpose.

Ask: Did the story turn out the way you thought it would? Why do you think the author wrote this story? Did you like or dislike the folktale? Why? Did you like or dislike the ending? Why? If you could change the ending, how would you change it? Do you think this story is like real life? What did you learn from reading this story?

Ask children to make some judgments about the characters' behavior.

Ask: What did you think about the shepherd? The fairy? The queen? If you were writing this story, would you change the shepherd's behavior? The fairy's? The queen's? How do you think each character could change his/her behavior?  

Think Aloud
Sometimes, stories are written to teach a lesson, give information, or send a message. We may or may not enjoy reading the story, but we should try to find something good or valuable in it.

Visual Learning
Ask: How does the picture on page 4 make you feel? What does the picture on page 6 tell you about the shepherd and the fairy? Look at the picture on page 15. What do you think about the queen?

Have children draw their own pictures of the shepherd, fairy, and queen. Suggest that they may agree or disagree with the way the illustrator has drawn each character, so they may use their own ideas and interpretations.

Building Skills

Phonics
kn
Introduce the silent consonant kn sound. Write it on the board and use the example of know.

Have children read (reread) pages 12 and 20 of the text. Ask them to search for words that have the kn

know (page 12) and knew (page 20).

Divide children into pairs and have them use a dictionary for 10-15 minutes to look up useful words that begin with the silent kn. After the time is up, ask the pairs to give examples of words they have discovered and create a word list on the board (Examples: knife, knit, knowledge, knot, knead, knock, knight, knee).

Word Work
past tense action verbs
played (page 5), watched (page 5), stopped (pages 6, 11), smiled (pages 6, 8), twisted (page 9), dropped (page 9), turned (page 10), climbed (page 13), laughed (page 17), looked (pages 9, 19), bowed (page 16) searched (page 20).

You may write this list on the blackboard and have children circle these words as they read or reread the book, or you may elect to give a few examples and then have children identify the others. (There are many examples of past tense verbs in this book.)

Have children write a few of their own sentences using these verbs.

For fun, play "Action Verb Charades" using the words from the text and other words identified by children. Write the verbs on slips of paper and have children take turns acting out the words while their classmates guess the words. This could also be done as a team competition. Additional words to use in the game include: jumped, bumped, pulled, pushed, combed, petted, danced, clapped, kicked, skipped, hopped, opened, closed, carried, washed, wiped, tapped, and picked.

Homonyms
fairy, reining, merry, marry, plain, hair, here, need, died, knew, nose

Introduce the idea of homonyms. The text provides a ready example in merry, marry. Ask: What's a girl's name that sounds like these two words? Ask: How do we spell Mary?  

Use several examples from the text and ask children to supply the correct spelling of the homonym. Variation: Ask children to search the text and see if they can find the words that have homonyms.

Homonym pairs search: Write homonyms on single slips of paper. Randomly distribute the slips so each child will have a matching partner. Encourage children to wander around, helping each other compare slips until they locate the partner who is holding the matching homonym. Next, allow each pair to say their words and write the correct spelling on the blackboard. Words for game slips include: poor /pore, red/read, piece/peace, pair/pear, whole/hole, wood/would, sundae/Sunday, hour/our, herd/heard, mist/missed, here/hear, flour/flower, heard/herd, an/Ann, ant/aunt, ate/eight, eye/I, by/buy, bear/bare, be/bee, fair/fare, pale/pail, rose/rows, sea/see, son/sun, sail/sale, blue/blew, dear/deer, sew/so, soar/sore, one/won, cent/sent

Have children complete activity sheet #2.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
In small groups or individually, have children write their own short story. Stress the author's purpose by indicating that folktales teach a lesson or have a moral. This assignment may be easier for them after they have completed other portions of the lesson (see below) so they have more examples to draw from. Alternate assignment: Have children rewrite the ending of The Shepherd and the Fairy.  

Social Studies Connection
Invite a guest speaker/reader from a country that the class is studying about. If possible, the guest can wear a traditional costume and read examples of different folktales from that country.

Reading Independently
Have children read the book independently or with a partner. Children will also enjoy discovering and sharing other folktales (see Home Connection below). If time allows, have them trade, report on, or read additional folktales with a partner.

Home Connection
Send the book home to be read to or with parents and siblings. The family can discuss the moral of this story and talk about the "what ifs" of decision making. Encourage children to ask their parents, grandparents, etc., to share their favorite folktales.

Assessment

• Monitor children's responses in the Comprehending the Text section to assess how well they understand the text or story.
• Monitor reading to see if children are using the effective reading strategies.
• Assess children's knowledge of author's purpose, homonyms, past tense verbs, and silent phonetic kn by checking their written work for accuracy and completeness. Observe their participation in classroom activities and discussions.
  
  

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