ORC Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is suitable for children Kindergarten through 2nd grade, with some appropriate tweaks to the lesson plan accordingly. This lesson plan features a stuffed animal bear named Corduroy, who is nestled deeply in the hearts of many children and adults alike. This lesson focuses on English Language Arts, and promotes skills in writing, reading, and discussion as well as engages their creative and literary reflective skills. In this lesson, the children will listen to a variety of stories featuring Corduroy over the course of a few days. They will discuss the characters in the story, as well as the plot. They will begin to feel a personal connection to this bear that they have followed on journeys throughout the books.  Through a variety of writing activity handouts, they will gain a deeper understanding of the books and storylines. They will then have the opportunity to experience their own adventures with Corduroy. A classroom Corduroy will get to go home with a different child every night, and the student will write a short paragraph and illustrate a picture of Corduroy's stay with them. These stories will be compiled together to form a journal, and each student will share their experience and illustration with the class.

This lesson plans meets the criteria for the following national standards:

NCTE/IRA National Standards For The English Language Arts
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g. conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g. for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

The lesson plan also meets the individual standards for each state. In the drop down menu, after choosing Ohio, a multitude of standards come up as being met from this lesson plan. 

#4 Standard is met because the students will be writing their own experience with Corduroy and then using a visual representation of the words to communicate their story.
#5 Standard is met because the students will need to organize their words to form full and complete sentences with correct punctuation.
#11 Standard is met because the students will understand that as they become knowledgeable in reading, they become part of a reading community and can begin to formulate their own thoughts, opinions and preferences for different types of literature. 
#12 Standard is met in much the same way #4 is met, except that the student is able to tap into their own creativity and think deeper about the literature and take it one step further with their own imagination.

A Journal For Corduroy: Responding to Literature

I would love to implement this lesson plan in my classroom one day. I remember reading about Corduroy's adventures when I was a child, and I have a feeling that the children in my classroom would enjoy the sweet gentleness of this cuddly bear as well. Parts that might pose a problem would be the need for some parent involvement, depending on how old the child is. I would be hopeful that the parents would enthusiastically participate in helping their child with this activity but it's always up in the air when it comes to parent involvement. The child would be the one primarily responsible for bringing the bear home and back to school, and writing their own short story, but it's always helpful for the parent to help along the way. I would change the lesson depending on what grade level I was teaching. I would keep it short, sweet and simple for Kindergartners and 1st graders, but expect a little more depth in the writing and reflection and evaluation from 2nd graders.