Title: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Author/Illustrator: Retold by James Marshall
Date of publication: 1998
ISBN: 0-14-056366-0
Summary:
The story begins with a little girl named Goldilocks who ventures off her path into the dangerous woods when going to buy muffins for her mother. Once in the woods Goldilocks finds a charming house. The house belonged to a family of bears whom had gone for a bike ride while their porridge cooled. Goldilocks decides to go inside of the house finding it empty and the breakfast table set with three bowls of hot porridge. She tries the three bowls eating the smallest bowl which was just the right temperature. Next Goldilocks snooped around the house trying out three comfy chairs finding the smallest chair to be just her size. Yet once she started rocking the chair it broke into pieces leaving yet again another mess. Then Goldilocks tried three of the beds finding the last smallest bed to be perfect. While Goldilocks tested the last bed, the family of three bears arrived back to their home to find a mess in the kitchen and empty bowls. Then the bears found a mess where Goldilocks had tried out the three chairs. Finally the bears found their tampered beds and Goldilocks lying in baby bear’s bed. Before the bears could catch their intruder, Goldilocks was out the window and never to be found.
Text Talk Portion of Lesson:
Title Page: Ask the student to look at the cover picture and describe what kind of girl Goldilocks looks like and maybe what she looks like she’s up to. Have them notice the bears leaving on their bike and the setting of the woods. Lastly point out the Caldecott Honor Metal posted under the title and explain what kind of honor it is for this book to have received this award.
Page One: “What do you think the townspeople think of Goldilocks?” Best Response: Based on the way the neighbor’s response is stated and the picture the older townspeople believe her to be a troublemaker.
Page Two: “What kind of girl is Goldilocks and do you think she’ll follow the rules? Best Response: Point out the statement about Goldilocks being “one of those naughty little girls who does exactly as they please”. Also point out the picture on page three with the warning signs and Goldilocks still entering the forest with a sneaky grin on her face.
Page Six: “According to the bears after eating their porridge, what does scalding mean?” Best Response: Have students read all sentences that come before and after the phrase containing the word “scalding”. The following sentence “I’ve burned my tongue!” and the picture should help the student understand the vocabulary word.
Page Eight: “What is Goldilocks about to do?” Best Response: Point out how Goldilocks didn’t bother to knock and point out vocabulary words such as how the porridge bowls were “inviting” and how Goldilocks helps herself. Also point out the picture again having them notice her facial expressions.
Page Eleven: “ What does the word gobbled mean? Best Response: Have students notice the sentence above and below the picture while also noticing what Goldilocks is doing with the porridge bowls.
Page Twelve: “What makes Goldilocks think they have kitties? Do you think the fur came from kitties? Best Response: Have them read the sentence about her finding coarse, brown fur and then have them use clues from what they already know about the story and clues from the picture to conclude where the fur came from.
Page Sixteen: “How can you tell the bed is too high?” (show picture) Best Response: Point out how Goldilocks if having trouble staying on the bed in the picture and how the bed is described as the “biggest” and had the “biggest head which was much too high”
Page Nineteen: “Do you think baby bear is messy?” “What makes you think that?” (show picture) Best Response: Have student look at the picture and point out things that make the room messy and possibly comfortable as well for Goldilocks.
Page Twenty: “Who do you think ate all the porridge?” Best Response: Have students think back about what Goldilocks has been doing and have them also look at the picture.
Page Twenty-Two: “Is papa bear happy?” “What does the word amused mean?” Best Response: Point out the key words used such as how papa bear “cried” and how he appears in the picture.
Page Twenty-Seven: “What did Goldilocks do when she got caught by the bears?” “What would you do if you were Goldilocks?” Best Response: Finally point out clues that showed how Goldilocks escaped out of the window and point out the picture.
End Note: Ask the student if they thought that Goldilocks learned a lesson in the end. Explain and have them help you point out the different ways she broke the rules and explain how she could have apologized to the bears. Make sure the student understands this story was a story not to be taken seriously and is just a fun fairy tale. Possibly have the student think of different ways the story could have ended as well.
Great lesson, Rebecca.
I would suggest that you revise some of the questions in your lesson. For example, you asked “Do you think baby bear is messy?” Questions are a part of the “text talk” that occurs after the reading of a section of the story. We ask questions to check on students’ comprehension of the story events and to clarify any misunderstandings. Only after the text talk, we show pictures. To answer your question above, you need to show the pictures first, which is against the rules of a TExt Talk lesson. Ask open-ended questions that elicit broad answers just like you did in the lesson before.
The question “Who do you think ate all the porridge?” is not a very good question. Students can easily guess that it is Goldilocks because she is the main character in the story. And this is a one-answer question that does nothing but constrain answers. Ask a simple question like “what is going on?” or “what is she up to?”
In the wrap up, you should also extend the moral of the story to the lives of the kids by asking a question such as “have you done anything like what Goldilocks did? what happened?”
~Dr. Ari