Development of sequencing skills can be brought to the Internet with the use of MY HERO stories as reading material.

Objectives:

Students will analyze sentences taken from MY HERO stories and put them in proper sequence.

Students will find the sentences they ordered embedded in the actual MY HERO story so they can check their work and see how the sentences function in the storytelling.

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Resources/Materials:

Class set of teacher-generated selected sentences from a MY HERO story, scrambled.

One of the following: Class set of printed copies of the MY HERO story AND/OR enough computer access to the Internet to comfortably accommodate your class.

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Activities and Procedures:

Step One:

The teacher finds a story appropriate to the reading level of her class that has a basic narrative (see Selected Stories for ideas).

From progressive stages of the story, pick five sentences that show a sequence of action happening to the same character. Reproduce these sentences on a handout or overhead.

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Step Two:

Teacher presents the five sentences to the class and helps the students pick out the words that show action and time.

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Step Three:

Give small groups or individuals a set of the sentences, each one printed on its own piece of paper or cardstock, allowing students to move and manipulate them to analyze possible sequences.

Students put the cards in the sequence they think is best. A class discussion compares and contrasts students' choices. The teacher further explains what each sentence is saying, and how it relates to the other sentences.

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Step Four:

The teacher reads the MY HERO story to the class. They follow along with their copy, looking for the sentences they have sequenced. (This step can be done on the MY HERO website for practice with computer skills.) As targeted sentences are found, a set of the sentences are placed in order in the front of the class for all to see.

At the end of the story, there is a class discussion about whether or not the class correctly anticipated the order of the sentences. Discuss how and why the author of the MY HERO story chose to sequence the sentences. If the order was different, discuss how they would rewrite the story using the sentences in THEIR order.

(The teacher may also lead a discussion about the action words and the time sequence of the story as they relate to sequencing the sentences.)

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Extension Activity
Storyboard the chosen MY HERO story by creating a picture for each sentence. When placed in order, the visual elements can add to the understanding of sequencing.