Here is a medieval themed text set for 3rd graders. It’s a side of history that isn’t always addressed at this age but it’s a topic that can be informational about how civilizations progressed but the side of knights and dragons can be beneficial to student’s imagination. The books are funny with dragons, informational about the civilizations, and tells brave tales of knights and kings. There is a variety of text levels that match to where a student is developmentally. In the book Yardsticks it talks about the development of children. With having different difficulties of text this text set matches where a student is developmentally. It adapts to a student's level and be able to build from there on.

Possible Standards

Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic. (KCCRS W3.7)

Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace. (KCCRS SL3.4)

RL.3.7 – Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).

RI.3.1 – Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers

Merlin and The Making of the King

• Genre: Visual
• Publisher: Holiday House
• ISBN: 0-8234-1647-X
• Number of Pages: 38
• Grade: 2-4

Summary

Merlin is a wise wizard, he tells Camelot’s King Uther Pendragon about the prophecy of Arthur. He told him about a boy who will be able to pull the sword from the magical stone and will become the most power knight and king. Arthur is born and does exactly what Merlin predicted. Arthur grows up to be a powerful knight defeating the witch Morgan le Fay and the traitor Mordred. Alas Arthur dies in battle but he will never be forgotten.

Reading Components

This story is divided into three simple chapters. Since this is an easier text this will focus around comprehension.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objective

• RL.3.2 – Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text
• This book visually compliments the book. The box is designed with text in a box with a traditionally painted picture. Aligning the box are designs that frame the text. This art form is seen traditionally in the medieval time period for books that speak tales and legends. These illustrations are educational and reflect the tone of the story with imagines in the designs. Even each chapter had a different frame theme.
• Students will research a legend or myth during this time period and retell the story by drawing a series of illustrations and frames to match.

Justification

The simplicity of the story will focus on comprehension and the illustrations effect the tone of the story. With these concepts working hand and hand they will connect and help the student remember better. The objective matches because it involves the aspect of illustrations and comprehension.

Castle at War

• Genre: Non Fiction
• Publisher: A Dorling Kindersley Book
• ISBN: 0-7894-3418-0
• Number of Pages: 48
• Grade: 3-6

Summary

This book is full of detailed information and text. This book is a little more advanced but definitely challenges the reader. It hold information on how to build castles and what generic castles looked like in this time period. It also talks about blacksmiths and how they created knight’s armor and what tools he used. There are sections on the royal family and their wardrobe vs. what servants or peasants wear. This is and informational text about how kingdoms were run and what went into that.

Reading Components

There is a lot of intelligent vocabulary in this book that is educational for this unit. There is even an index/glossary in the back to help students.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objectives

• RL.3.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
• RI.3.4 – Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area
• This book involves a lot of critical thinking. It is a heavily detailed book and for more advanced students. The way the book is written is very informational and uses a lot of educational terms that can be found in the index.
• Students will analyze each chapter then create a model or drawing of what they learned in the chapter and label it.

Justification

Critical thinking is always used when learning new information. When reading this book you come across a lot of new terminology. That’s why in my objective and standard it will involve a hands on activity to go deeper into the meaning of new terminology.

Saint George and The Dragon

• Genre: Visual/Illustrated
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• ISBN: 0-316-36789-3
• Number of Pages: 32
• Grade: 3

Summary

This story is about the Red Cross Knight traveling to discover himself and slay a dragon. The Queen of the Fairies sent him on a mission with the Princess Una. They travel far and wide and overcome many hardships to reach the terrifying dragon. The Red Cross Knight ends up slaying the dragon. When he returns home he marries the Princess and is made King.

Reading Components

This story would connect well with fluency or comprehension. The story is self is a mid-range difficulty and could be used to strengthen fluency or comprehension qualities.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objective

• RI.3.2 – Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea
• The visuals in this book are created to look like a stained glass window. Stained glass windows used to tell stories or relay important information. It is very suiting to use a stained glass window to tell the legend of the Red Cross Knight.
• Students will pick out a legend and construct a series of stained glass windows to tell their tale.

Justification

The objective and standard are about retaining information and that links back to comprehending a text. The visuals in this text hold as the context of a story which can help a student remember the story better.

A Tournament of Knights

• Genre: Visual/Illustration
• Publisher: Jackert Art
• ISBN: 0-690-04541-7
• Number of Pages: 32
• Grade: 2-3

Summary

This story is about a kind calling a tournament in honor of young Lord Justin. Lord Justin is afraid of losing and bringing dishonor to his family and kingdom. The events start and Lord Justin is advancing until Sir Rolf challenges him to a duel. Lord Justin ends up losing the duel, and the tournament. Lord Justin apologizes to his family but his father returns with compliments. He tells his son that he is so proud of him and his courage to fight.

Reading Components

For this story I would focus on phonemic awareness or phonics. This is a fairly simple book to read so it would be easier to listen to a student read and check for their development with the vocabulary in the text.

Standards, Subjects Addressed, and Objectives

• L.3.1 – Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• L.3.4a – Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
• The illustrations in this story could carry on the story if there was no text. It is very detailed and follows the story well. The pictures match the text almost perfectly
• Students will be able to identify key details that helped move the story along.
• Student will be able to record difficult or unknown words and analyze them to understand their meaning

Justification

All of the qualities relate back to comprehension of the story and understanding the vocabulary used in the story.

House

• Genre: Fiction
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
• ISBN: 0-8109-1196-5
• Grade: 3-6

Summary

This story is about a single castle overtime and the many people that occupied it. It starts in Egyptian times and leads to present days. It discusses the aesthetics of each time period and many traditional aspects of the house each time period held.

Reading Components

A focus on the vocabulary used through out the text

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objective

• RI.3.8 – Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence)
• This book involves a lot of critical thinking. It is a more advanced book because of the ideals and difficulty of the book. It compares and contrasts different time periods and leads discussions on the changes of each house.
• Students will be able to compare and contrast living styles of many different time periods.

Justification

All of these points connect with understanding the terms learned in the book. Understanding the terms in the book widens a student's vocabulary and will deepen their comprehension of the text. The ability to compare and contrast will assess how much information a student really retained during the story.

Castle

• Genre: Non Fiction
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Boston
• ISBN: 0-395-25784-0
• Number of Pages: 74
• Grade: 3-6

Summary

Lord Kevin’s castle is based in concept, structural process, and physical appearance on several castles built to aid in the conquest of wales between 1277 and 1305. It talks about the different structures of the main castle and different tools and building found in the kingdom during this time period. Along with the facts there are visual aids and labels to help see what they would really look like during this time period.

Reading Components

Comprehension. This is an informational text that connects back to the main topic of how a kingdom is run. This involves comprehending each section of the story and using critical thinking to piece everything together for it to make sense.

Standards, Subject Addressed, and Objectives

• RF.3.2a – Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
• This book reads more difficult than the others. It is longer and holds more text. This book will challenge student and promotes critical thinking. It places you back in this time period and allows you to think and view the world as the villagers once did.
• Students will be able to outline important details and ideas that create castles and run kingdoms.

Justification

Critical thinking and comprehension go together because you need to understanding what you are learning before you act on those thoughts and go further into the text. The objective organizes all the information learned and the student’s thoughts on them.

The Dragons of Blueland

• Genre: Fiction
• Publisher: Random House
• ISBN: 0-440-421-373
• Number of Pages: 87
• Grade: 3-5

Summary

The dragons have returned to their homeland, the cave at the center of the Awful Desert in the Mountains of Blueland, only to find out that their family is in danger. The baby dragon decided to do something to help and summons Elmer to help save his family from hunters.

Reading Components

Since this is a longer book something to work with would be to strengthen comprehension skills. After each chunk of events you could do comprehension checks and activities. Then at the end of the book you can see how much information they obtained.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objectives

• RI.3.2 – Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea
• SL.3.1c – Ask questions to check understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
• You could involve lessons with reading, writing, or listening aspects. If you were to do reading you would make connections with reading and verbally checking for comprehension of the text. For writing they could keep a journal of thoughts, key points, character charts, etc, to organize thoughts and visually represent a timeline for the students. If you plan to read the book out loud it will test how good of listeners’ students are and if they are able to pull information listening to a story.
• Students will be able to compose a timeline of the important developments that happen in a story.

Justification

Comprehension can be checked by reading, writing, or listening. Keeping timelines and journals is a physical way to see a student’s comprehension and if they are understanding what is going on.

The April Fool

• Genre: Fiction
• Publisher: Lothrop and Shepard Books
• ISBN: 0-688-41990-9
• Grade: 2-4

Summary

There once lived a king who could not find a comfortable pair of shoes, he made his servants carry him everywhere. The king was a terrible grouch and was rude to everyone, even if they were trying to help by bringing him a comfortable pair of shoes. Every pair of shoes people brought had something slightly wrong with them so he threw them out his window creating a giant shoe mountain outside the wall. So to cheer him up he hired a fool for each month to entertain him. The April Fool promised he could bring the king to the most comfortable pair of shoes in the world. The price was a bag of gold and all the shoes outside the wall, the king agreed. The April Fool said the king had to come alone because special magic was being used. They went on a long journey that led to the shoes. The April Fool then returned and opened a successful shoe store.

Reading Components

There is a good chronological series of events that happen in this story so I would focus on comprehension of the text.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objective

• RI.3.7 – Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur)
• The story does a great job of visually representing the text through its illustrations. The sequence of events is represented well with no errors.
• Students will be able to construct a timeline of the events in chronological order with references to how the illustrations help.

Justification

Using the illustrations as context clues will help tell the story. Understanding a story means the student has a better shot at comprehending the whole text.

The Dragon Pack Snack Attack

• Genre: Fiction
• Publisher: Four Winds Press
• ISBN: 0-02-788840-1
• Grade: 1-3

Summary

Dragons terrorized the earth, they would swipe gold, bash knights, and breathe fire on pretty much whatever they felt like breathing on. One day a dragon, Hobart got bored and decided he wanted to go on vacation. All the dragons decided to take a trip to the beach. They stayed at that beach for hundreds of years. When they got hungry they decided to leave, they went on a grand search for something to eat. They soon stumbled upon a Burger Hut. The dragons needed a way to pay for burgers so they all got jobs to pay for food.

Reading Components

Listening to a student read this book to check for phonemic awareness and phonics.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objective

• RI.3.4 – Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area
• Speaking and understanding what is being read. This will check reading fluency and you will be able to tell where they are developmentally.
• Students will be able to retell and discuss a story with a partner and co-teach the story’s key points together.

Justification

It all related back to understanding the words in the story and be able to retell it with a partner and do a class discussion.

• Grade: Virtual Tour
• Title: Medieval Europe, Design of a Castle
• Length: 3 minutes
• Grade: 3rd

Summary

An overlook into the design of a generic castle and how it operates. It has actual pictures of real castles. It takes a glimpse of how invaders try to get it and the returning defense of the castle.

Reading Components

Comprehension and connections of everything they have learned from the video and from the unit.

Standard, Subjects Addressed, and Objectives

• RL.3.1 – Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers
• Use this as a comprehension checkpoint and a visual aid. This video could be the pre-activity to a critical thinking discussion or just repeated information.
• For students to analyze the design of a castle and form questions about the defense strategies.

Justification

The standard and objective with have students thinking about what they learned from the video which allows the teacher to check for comprehension.