A New Narrative Voice

Overview

In Lesson 6 of 10, students meet Judy Moody Mood Martian as a new mentor narrative. They review irregular plural nouns, identify narrative elements and character responses, compare the text with Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match, and begin planning a second personal or imaginative narrative.

Learning intentions

Students will be able to:

• Identify a story’s characters, setting, problem, and key events.
• Explain how a character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings affect what happens.
• Recount important events and suggest a possible lesson or message.
• Use irregular plural nouns correctly in sentences.
• Begin an organized narrative plan with a situation, characters, and event sequence.

Success criteria

• I can identify the main character, setting, problem, and key events.
• I can explain how a character’s choice changes the story.
• I can compare narrative elements in two mentor texts.
• I can use irregular plural nouns correctly and begin a clear narrative plan.

Curriculum links

• Reading Literature — describe characters and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
• Reading Literature — recount stories and determine a central message or lesson using key details.
• Reading Literature — distinguish my point of view from the narrator’s or a character’s point of view.
• Writing — introduce a situation and characters, organize events naturally, and use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings. Georgia 3.T.T.1.b is addressed through narrative planning and development.

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–10 min · Grammar review: irregular plurals. Teacher uses the grammar review slides to model how some nouns change in unexpected ways, such as child/children, mouse/mice, foot/feet, and tooth/teeth, and places each in a sentence. Students first identify the plural in teacher examples, then help complete shared sentences, and finally complete the independent grammar section of the narrative and grammar worksheet using the I Do, We Do, You Do sequence.

2. 10–16 min · Engage: predict the narrative. Teacher displays the cover and opening details of Judy Moody Mood Martian through the prediction and mentor-text slides and asks, “What might happen when a character feels like a mood Martian?” Students study the title, illustrations, and opening details, record one prediction on the worksheet, and share evidence with a partner.

3. 16–26 min · Focus: identify story elements. Teacher reads or revisits a suitable excerpt, pausing to model a four-part narrative map: characters, setting, problem, and key events. Students help place details on the story-elements slides, then complete the matching sections of the narrative and grammar worksheet. Prompt students to explain not only what a character does, but how the action moves the story forward.

4. 26–33 min · Discuss character and message. Teacher asks, “How might the character see this situation differently from you?” and “What lesson or message could the events suggest?” Students turn and talk, distinguish their own response from the character’s point of view, and use one detail from the excerpt to explain a character’s feeling, motivation, or action.

5. 33–41 min · Apply: plan a second narrative. Teacher models a brief plan about a personal or imaginative experience, including a situation, narrator or characters, setting, problem, and three naturally ordered events. Students begin the narrative-planning section of the narrative and grammar worksheet, adding at least one description of a character’s thought or feeling and considering where dialogue could fit. Confer with students as they work.

6. 41–45 min · Reflect and exit. Teacher briefly revisits Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match and asks students to compare one element—character, setting, problem, or event sequence—with today’s mentor text. Students complete the reflection prompts exit-ticket slips by naming one similarity or difference and explaining how one character action contributed to events.

Resources

• Judy Moody Mood Martian classroom copy or approved excerpt
• Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match classroom copy or previously completed class notes
• the complete grammar, prediction, story-elements, planning, and reflection slide deck
• the narrative and grammar worksheet
• the reflection prompts exit-ticket slips
• Document camera or interactive display
• Pencils and colored pencils
• Whiteboard and markers

Assessment

• During grammar practice, check whether students can distinguish regular and irregular plural forms and use them correctly in context.
• Listen for predictions supported by title, illustrations, or opening details; check story-element maps for accurate evidence and explanations of character actions.
• Review narrative plans and exit tickets for an identifiable situation, characters, event sequence, and comparison supported by a text detail.

Differentiation

• Provide a word bank with irregular plural nouns, picture support, and sentence frames such as “The character ___, so ___ happened” and “Both stories have ___, but ___.”
• Read the excerpt aloud while students follow along; pause to clarify unfamiliar vocabulary and allow oral responses before writing.
• Offer a partially completed narrative map or allow students to dictate ideas, sketch events, or use speech-to-text. Pair students strategically for prediction and discussion.
• Challenge students to include a character decision that causes a later event and to draft dialogue that reveals a feeling or motivation.