Roald Dahl

Students explore how two humorous works of Roald Dahl contain deeper messages about courage, friendship and stepping in to save others. 

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ELA

Unit 6

3rd Grade

This unit has been archived. To view our updated curriculum, visit our 3rd Grade English Language Arts course.

Unit Summary


In this third-grade literature course, students explore the concepts of courage and friendship, beginning in Unit 1 with an author study of Roald Dahl. Even though Roald Dahl is known for writing silly, exaggerated stories with highly engaging characters, his stories have important themes and messages embedded in them. 

In addition to launching a year-long exploration of the themes of friendship and courage, these texts will also help establish a positive classroom culture as students analyze what it means to help others, be a good person, and show courage. We hope this unit, in connection with all of the units in our third-grade literature course, will help students develop a deep and nuanced understanding of both friendship and courage. 

In reading and writing, this unit focuses on setting a strong foundation for text analysis. Students will dive deep into characters and study the ways in which authors develop characters. They will analyze author’s word choice, both as a strategy for figuring out unknown words and as a way to improve their own narrative writing. Roald Dahl’s fun and playful writing style also allows for an exploration of how reading with expression and fluency helps develop comprehension.

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Texts and Materials


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Core Materials

  • Book: The Twits by Roald Dahl (Puffin Books, 2007)   —  750L

  • Book: The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl (Turtleback Books; Bound for Schools & Libraries ed. Edition, 2002)   —  600L

Supporting Materials

Assessment


These assessments accompany this unit to help gauge student understanding of key unit content and skills.

Unit Prep


Essential Questions

  • Why do people seek retaliation?
  • Is seeking retaliation an effective way to solve a problem? 
  • How does Roald Dahl capture a reader's attention? 

Vocabulary

Text-based

"be foiled" "bear it" "beg your pardon" "pay back" arrange cling faint fearsome filthy fury gasp glimpse gradually gulp helpless horrid hoisted innocent instigate intends long magnificent nasty nonsense obedient ordinary pale peer pity presence revenge revolting schemes shrink smeared smear stubborn thistles

Root/Affix

-less -ly -some non- non-

To see all the vocabulary for Unit 6, view our 3rd Grade Vocabulary Glossary.

Supporting All Students

In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.

Lesson Map


Common Core Standards


Core Standards

L.3.1
L.3.1.f
L.3.1.i
L.3.2
L.3.2.e
L.3.2.f
L.3.3
L.3.3.a
L.3.3.b
L.3.4
L.3.4.a
L.3.5
L.3.6
RL.3.2
RL.3.3
RL.3.5
SL.3.1
SL.3.1.a
SL.3.1.d
SL.3.6
W.3.3
W.3.3.a
W.3.3.d

Supporting Standards

L.3.1.a
L.3.1.b
L.3.1.c
L.3.4.b
L.3.4.c
L.3.5.a
L.3.5.c
RF.3.3
RF.3.4
RL.3.1
RL.3.4
RL.3.7
RL.3.10
SL.3.1.b
W.3.4
W.3.5
W.3.6
W.3.10

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