Grade 4 ELA lesson plan: Firsthand and secondhand accounts
Topic: Comparing firsthand and secondhand accounts of the same event or topic (RI.4.6). Adjust the settings, then copy the prompt.
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Planning notes for this lesson
Prerequisite skills to check: telling the main idea and key details of a text (RI.3.2); knowing who is telling a text and using pronouns such as I, we, he and they; describing an author's point of view (RI.3.6).
Key vocabulary: firsthand account, secondhand account, primary source, secondary source, eyewitness, point of view, focus, event.
Warm-up idea: Tell the class a short, true story about something that happened to you this morning. Then have a student retell it to the class. Ask what changed between the two versions and which one had more feelings and which had more facts.
Exit ticket idea: Students read a short firsthand account and a short secondhand account of the same event, sort sentences into a T-chart (only the eyewitness could say this / the reporter added this), and write two sentences comparing the focus and information of each account.
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Quiz on the same standard
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