The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Read Aloud Treasury

The Three Billy Goats Gruff From: The Read-Aloud TreasuryGenre: Picture Book

Comprehension Strategy: Characterization3.RL.2.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the plot.Objective: Students will be able to characterize a minimum of one character in the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff.The Three Billy Goats Gruff, was found in a treasury compiled by Joanna Cole. The story begins in a barren meadow. The three billy goats wanted to cross a bridge to a better meadow to make themselves fat. The catch-there was a large troll living under the bridge, who is described as having "eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker." The first little Billy Goat Gruff begins to cross the bridge, when he is approached by the troll. He says that his brother is much bigger than he, and the troll takes that and lets him go. The next Billy Goat Gruff begins to cross the bridge when he is approached by the troll. He again says that his brother is bigger than he, and the troll again, believes it and lets him go. Then, the third, and largest Billy Goat Gruff begins to cross the bridge. He knows better than to be intimidated by the troll. The big Billy Goat was not afraid and smashed the troll to bits. After that all of the Billy Goats Gruff were able to cross the bridge and make themselves fat. So fat that they were hardly able to go home. Description of the lesson: We will begin the lesson by talking about characterization. Why it is important, why we use it, etc. Then, we will read the story. I will then prompt conversation about some light character traits that could describe the goats. For example, saying the big goat is 'big.' The students will then be released to their desks to begin the activity. We will then reconvene after the activity to compare as a class.

The Read-aloud treasury (pp. 84-88). (1988). New York: Doubleday.

The Activity: Students will make a character web. They will pick one character out of the story, and then they will put that character in the middle bubble. After students have chosen their character, they will then make webs and write out character traits about that specific character. We then can come together as a class and see what kinds of character traits that students came up with for the four characters.

Morgan Taylor