I.Title and Author of the Text
The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci with pictures by Jerry Pinkney

II. Materials Needed for Lesson
    The Talking Eggs and other books with Cinderella stories from China, Russia, France, and Disney Productions, Graphic Organizers with a Beginning-Middle-End Story Map and a Venn Diagram for Comparisons and Contrasts, Sticky Notes with Words and Context from The Talking Eggs, Blank Sticky Notes, Pencils

III. Reasons for Text Selection
    This book was chosen because it is one of the 700+ Cinderella variant tales and will introduce students to the familiar Cinderella story from a different culture and time. This book is an example of high quality children’s literature that earned the Caldecott Honor Award, and both the author and illustrator have won Caldecott Awards for other books. This book was selected for reading aloud to audiences of students in grades 2 in some cases but primarily for audiences in grades 3 and 4 because most students at these grade levels would not be able to read this book independently and “hear” rhythm and intonation patterns of the dialogue, understand the content, and make text-to-text connections to other Cinderella stories.

IV. Specific, Standards-Based Learning Goals and Objectives
Alabama Course of Study Standards for English Language Arts- Grade 3
    CR7 – Use literary analysis.
    CRLV14 – Develop an understanding of cultural similarities and differences through
exposure to multicultural literature. 
    CRW16 – Employ study strategies to gain information.
    CRV17 – Relate to the experiences and feelings of literary characters.
    CRLEWS19 – Demonstrate vocabulary growth and development through reading and listening to
literature.

V. Detailed Plans for the 5 Steps of the Reading Process   

A. Prereading:
Show students examples of books with Cinderella tales from different cultures. Explain that almost every culture in the world has one or more versions of the Cinderella story that have been told and retold and put into print in books. Show students a Cinderella book that they are likely to have read, and ask them to talk through or fill in a Beginning-Middle-End Story Map. Introduce The Talking Eggs and explain that it is a Cinderella tale that was told by African-American and Creole storytellers in the Southern United States for a long time before it was written down and illustrated in this book.

    B. Reading:
Read the book aloud as a performance of text. A performance read-aloud style was selected to present a dramatic, oral interpretation with different voices for different characters and the narrator using intonation, volume changes, and dialect. A performance style was chosen to promote comprehension of the whole story and allow students to notice similarities and differences between the language used in it and in other Cinderella tales.

    C. Responding:
Have students engage in a grand conversation about plot, characters, and setting and make text-to-text connections by discussing the following questions:
1. What part of the plot in this story did you like the most?
2. What part of the story was the most surprising or strange?
3. What part of the story would you change if you were going to re-write it?
4. What word would you use to describe the old woman? What word would you use to describe each sister?
5. How do you think Blanche felt when she saw the old woman take off her head? …when she threw the eggs over her shoulder and saw all the fine presents that they became?
6. Why do you think so many countries, cultures, and languages around the world have tales with Cinderella-like characters and stories?

    D. Exploring:
Ask students to further explore story vocabulary in The Talking Eggs by asking each to identify one or two unfamiliar words in a set taken from the story. Words should be pre-written on the front of sticky notes with sentences or phrases showing them in context from the story on the back. The following words were selected because they may be difficult for students to decode or because they have multiple meanings or innovative, creative usage in this story: hightailed, tumbledown, kindling, reel, sprouted, sliver, mortar, trail-train, brayed, dainty, generous, string,. If time permits, have students select their own words from the book and practice using context as a strategy for vocabulary study.

    E. Applying:
    Have students apply what they learned about The Talking Eggs Cinderella tale to make a compare-contrast chart for this and at least one other Cinderella story that show similarities and difference between characters, setting, or plot features such as Beginning-Middle-End events, characters, and/or setting. (The application activity can be completed as a group, in a reading center, or while reading with a buddy.)

VI. Evaluation and Assessment for Mastery of Standards-Based Learning Goals and Reflection
A. Evaluations and Assessment for Standards/Goals (Which of the targeted Standard/Goals were and were not addressed? Why? For which ones did students demonstrate beginning competencies or mastery? What evidence shows that Learning Goals had already been accomplished or were met as a result of this lesson?)

In this lesson, I was able to informally assess individual student’s responses that demonstrated mastery of the ability to:
CR7 – Use literary analysis (to identify and discuss some literary elements but not others)
The lesson included discussions that engaged students in analysis of several literary elements and devices. Using a Beginning-Middle-End Story Map, students demonstrated their knowledge of events and their sequence as elements of plot, and their contributions to the Venn diagram discussion showed they could compare and contrast similarities and differences in characters from one story to another (the old woman in The Talking Eggs and the Fairy Godmother in other Cinderella stories, for example). Other literary elements such as setting, theme, and point of view and literary devices used by the author (i.e., comparison with similes and metaphors, hyperbole, imagery, personification symbolism, and tone) were not addressed in this lesson and need to be included in future lessons.
CRLV14 – Develop an understanding of cultural similarities and differences through exposure to multicultural literature
Showing other Cinderella books and using this Creole Cinderella tale with African-American characters as a read aloud seemed to expand students’ awareness of stories that are common to different countries, cultures, and languages and of terms and phrases that characterize African-American folktales (auntie, hightailed, trail-train dresses, etc.)
CRW16 – Employ study strategies to gain information
Students showed that they could use graphic organizers as study strategies to discuss sequencing of plot and to compare and contrast similarities and differences between The Talking Eggs and another Cinderella story. They also demonstrated the ability to use context to figure out pronunciations (kin-dling instead of kind-ling) and meanings (hightailed) or extend knowledge of how words can be used in different ways (tumbledown cabin as compared to Jack and Jill tumbling down the hill).
CRV17 – Relate to the experiences and feelings of literary characters
Although questions to address this Standard were planned and included in the Responding step of the lesson, I did not ask them and students were unable to provide evidence that they could personally relate to experiences and feelings of characters.
CRLEWS19 – Demonstrate vocabulary growth and development through reading and listening to literature
The students explored the rich vocabulary in this book by examining a teacher-selected set of story vocabulary words and identifying ones that were new or unfamiliar. They read the words themselves and then discussed and amended or extended meanings by revisiting the words in the context used in the story. One student, for example, said that “hightailed it” meant “walked” until she heard the phrase again in the context, “the wasps and wolf and all the other creatures wouldn’t be chased off, so mother and sister hightailed it to the woods, with all the animals following,” and then she realized that “hightailed it” must mean “ran off” instead of “walked away.” To improve the effectiveness of the Exploring step of this lesson, students should look at copies of the text and select their own words for vocabulary study to personalize word learning based on individual needs and make this activity more authentic.

B. Reflection (Why was/wasn’t the text appropriate? What did/did not work and why? What changes did you or students make during the lesson? What changes would you make for doing this lesson again? Address additional questions or insights that resulted from implementing this reading plan.)

This text was a good choice for these third graders because they had never read the story, and only two of the four children said they had read or seen a movie about any Cinderella story. So this book as the read-aloud selection and the other Cinderella books I showed them exposed them to new information about common folktales across cultures and traditional literature from our own and other countries. Since I read the book to them, the reading level was appropriate. Only a few of the words are ones that may difficult for third graders to decode (kindling, tumbledown, etc.), but the narration is in Standard English while the dialogue includes African-American dialect that was difficult for me, an accomplished reader, to read well. In addition, this book contains lots of creative language with similes (“like the tail end of bad luck”), words with multiple meanings (peer, reel, string, etc.), and strange concepts (taking a head off it’s body) that make it a challenging book for third graders to read and comprehend.

If I have the opportunity to do this lesson again, I will try to make sure that I have at least another ten minutes because a number of things I had planned to do were left out or abbreviated. Additional time was needed to address all the Responding questions and more effectively implement the Exploring and Applying steps of the lesson. Also I would add “What did the old woman mean when she said, ‘You got a spirit of do-right in your soul.’?” and “What questions do you have about this story and other Cinderella stories?” as prompts for Responding so students can expand on each others’ interpretations and generate their own questions to engage in more thoughtful (as well as factual) comprehension.

Teaching this highly structured lesson in which the students listened to a read-aloud performance, I realized the limits imposed on instructional conversations by this read-aloud style. This insight led me to ask myself if an interactive read-aloud style may generate more active engagement and interest on the part of the students and allow for instructional conversations that may be more effective for facilitating comprehension—if, that is, the teacher and students are talking about text in ways that promote deeper understandings rather than taking off on tangents that do not carry comprehension any further.