The lesson begins with author's purpose. The educator explains the three things an author can be trying to do: persuade, inform, or entertain. Then, instead of opening a book, she opens a wordless film.
The film is Shantanu's story from India. He runs a small street stand and uses glass cups instead of disposable ones, which means customers have to stay to drink and return them. The educator asks: why? Was he trying to persuade, inform, or entertain his customers? The class discusses. One learner says: maybe he wanted people to stay so they could talk. Another says: he was building a community.
That word, community, is the key. The educator reflects: a small choice with a huge effect. And the connection back to the classroom itself: our class is also a community. What you talk about on the carpet helps with the lesson, just like Shantanu's glass cups helped build his.
"Giving students a video with little to no narration changes everything. Now they are doing all the heavy lifting. If this happened every single day, I think it could change their trajectory."
Educator, on using wordless films in literacyFor more on wordless films and reading comprehension, see wordless films for inferencing and what is a wordless film. For the full library of lesson plans aligned to reading standards, see find a story.
The educator introduces author's purpose: three things any author tries to do, persuade, inform, or entertain. Instead of a book, she opens a wordless film from India. The class watches Shantanu at his street stand, laughing with friends, using glass cups.
She asks: what did you notice? Learners answer at surface level at first: he was exercising with friends, doing his job. Then she pushes: why did he use glass cups? If you use glass cups, customers have to stay to drink and return them. She asks what reason he might have wanted people to stay.
The class works toward it: he wanted to keep his friends nearby. He wanted to build something. One learner says: it is like a community. The educator affirms it. That small choice had a huge effect. And she connects it back to the classroom: what you talk about on the carpet helps with the lesson, just like Shantanu's cups helped build his community.
The educator reflects afterward: giving students a video with no narration forces them to do the interpretive work themselves. They are making inferences, forming hypotheses, noticing what is and is not being explained. If students engaged with content like this every single day, it could change how they read everything, not just stories from elsewhere in the world.