Comprehension Lesson Plan

Name: Molly Morgan

Grade Level: 6
1. INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the lesson: This lesson will serve as an opportunity for students to identify a main idea in their

reading as well as specific evidence that supports the main idea that they have developed.. Students will
identify the main idea, and some of its supporting evidence. They will learn the importance of distinguishing
main ideas of a text, especially with regard to non-fiction text, as they recall facts and ideas to summarize
the passage. They will demonstrate their knowledge as they distinguish between evidence and main ideas.
Learning goal formula: SWBAT: Learning behavior (verb from taxonomy level locator) + content (what you will assess) + strategy
(means) + conditions.
(e.g., SWBAT: identify 6 features of plants by asking questions and observing with small groups.

Learning Goal written on the board:

Learning Objective:
SWBAT identify the main idea and its supporting evidence of a text as a class by listening and identifying
common themes throughout the short story, All Around The Kitchen Table as we read it together, and then
individually with a different text.
Language Objective:
Students will be able to read the short story with a partner, and determine the main idea of the story by
writing and speaking with their reading buddy using a graphic organizer.
Utah State Standards covered:

Reading: Literature Standard 1

Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn
from the text.
Reading: Literature Standard 2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details;
provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
2. EXPLICIT READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION
FOCUS:
Comprehension Strategy:
Main Idea/determining Importance
Vocabulary Focus:
Beacon, disturbances, coincidentally, enthralled,
clamor, persisted, objections, marvel

Interesting/appropriate TEXTS for lesson purpose:

Text the teacher reads aloud to students: All Around The
Kitchen Table, by Erin Liles
Text the students read with teacher support or independently:
The Kid Who Named Pluto, by Marc McCutcheon

Materials Needed:
The short story to read together as a class, All Around the Kitchen Table
Access for each buddy reader to the textbook containing the story, The Kid Who Named Pluto for individual
practice of the skill.
Graphic organizers for each student
Writing utensil for each student
Whiteboard and markers to utilize visual reference and availability to the application of the skills being taught
Teacher MODELING and SCAFFOLDING: (this will include declarative, conditional, and procedural knowledge of any
strategies)
Declarative: Today we are going to learn about how we can determine the main idea in our reading. We are going to
read a story together to talk about it, and to practice working with the main idea. Then I am going to have you work
with a partner to use the same process with a different story. The main idea is the theme of what we are reading.
Authors and writers use main ideas to focus their ideas, and make their words more effective. (Learn new information,
confirm predictions, identify text structure, or perform a task).
Procedural: To identify the main idea, we need to look for a couple of things. We need to know what kind of a text we
are going to read, is it a textbook, a newspaper, or a novel? We also need to identify the structure of the text we are
using. If the text is written as paragraphs, will we read differently than if it was a bulleted list? Then we need to look at
the text itself, does it have pictures or bolded words? Is the text funny, or is it full of charts and diagrams? This is to
help us to know what the text is about. We need to think about why we are reading the text and the other factors weve
talked about, and use those to determine what the main idea is in reading the text, All Around the Kitchen Table.
Conditional: It is important because identifying the main idea helps us to get more essential information out of our
reading. It also helps us to better comprehend our reading; if we know that main idea we can make connections to our
text, it also helps us to summarize and remember our reading. We could use this strategy anytime we read anything. It
is important to know how to do this because it will help you to become a more thoughtful reader.
GUIDED PRACTICE: (teacher and students together)
We will read a short story together as a class following the graphic organizer and practicing the vocabulary and the
strategy, as we read.
It is important to determine the main idea when we read so that we can guide our thoughts as we read. Sometimes a
book, or an article can spark all kinds of other thoughts that may not be relevant to our main idea from the reading. This
text is just going to tell us a story; this is called a narrative text. From the title of our story, All Around The Kitchen
Table, what do you think the main idea might be? I am going to write our ideas on the board, so we dont forget them.
We would then have a small discussion about the possibilities they bring to the classroom. I would try to direct the
conversation. As we began reading, we would break the reading up and determine the main idea of individual
paragraphs. We are working on a smaller level so that we can more easily determine evidence to support those main
ideas.
Reading:

Kara loved her kitchen table. It sat in the middle of her kitchen, big and brown and strong. She loved it even
though it had scratches in it from her brother's fork and marker stains from the pictures she drew. It even had
big chunks chewed out of one of the legs when her dog thought it was a chew toy.
What would the main idea of this chunk of reading be? How do you know? The things that explain to us why the main
idea is actually the main idea, are called supporting details, or evidence.
We would then begin to fill out the graphic organizer (that would be enlarged for the class to see as we work on it
together). Remind me what a main idea is, class. And what does it mean to find supporting evidence. We are now
going to read the story, and I want you to think of our main idea. I would then read through the story. Did anyone
hear what they think could have been the main idea, or did it match the idea that we thought of before reading?
Depending on the responses of the students we would have a discussion about the main idea and how they knew that it
was in fact that main idea. Now I am going to read our short story again, but I need you to listen, and stop me, if you
hear things that could be evidence to support our main idea. Then we would direct the discussion to finishing the
graphic organizer, as the students direct their answers. What do you think was one of the pieces of evidence,
supporting our main idea? How do you know this? Does anybody else see a supporting detail or piece of evidence
that supports our main idea?
We establish a main idea because it helps us to focus our attention on key components of our reading; it can also help
us to figure out the meaning of a text. We found the main idea of the short story, All Around the Kitchen Table
because we wanted to know what the point of the story was. We also found supporting evidence to support the main

ideas that we found. This helps us to more clearly see the main idea, and why it is the main idea. Now that we have
filled in our chart, does anyone have any questions about how or why we should determine the main idea of the things
we read, or about supporting evidence?
INDEPENDENT PRACTICE: (students on their own or with a partner)
I want everyone to pull out their books now and turn to page 469. This is a story called, The Kid Who Named
Pluto. What kind of a text does this look like? How can you tell? Just by reading the title, what do you think the main
idea of this story is going to be? Look through some of the pictures and see if you can find any evidence that supports
what we think the main idea is. Does anyone have any examples of supporting evidence to our main idea?
When I say, go everyone find your reading buddy and a comfortable place to work. I want you to do the same thing
we just did as a class, but with this new story. You will fill out your own chart, just like the one we did as a class, with
the short story. I want you to find a main idea and supporting evidence for that idea for every heading in the story. Be
sure to write in complete sentences. If you have any questions, or you dont understand something, I will be walking
around to help. Remember, you are looking to find the main ideas in your reading. GO!

3. READING ENGAGEMENT: What engagement principle(s) are you choosing for this lesson?
________choice, ____x_____collaboration, ____x____building concepts, ____x____relevance/real world interaction
________challenge
Briefly describe HOW you will engage your students in this lesson.
Students will be engaged as they contribute to the class discussion, and then work with their partners to find the main
idea of the reading as well as evidence to support those main ideas to prove why that is the case. The texts that I have
chosen are interesting and represent two different genres to engage more of the class. They will also be engaged in
their pursuit to fill in the graphic organizer and prove their claims as to what the main idea is. Students will be engaged
as they are reading texts that have contextual ties to some of the other subjects being discussed in the classroom.
Students will also be engaged as they learn a new strategy (identifying the main idea) in their reading.
4. DIFFERENTIATION. How will you simplify or provide challenge for students who need it?
The text I have chosen to read first will be done as a whole class, so students will have the comfort and support of a
group-learning environment to establish the initial application of the strategy. We will follow the I do, We do, You do
approach, to address misconceptions in the beginning of the activity.
The second text I have chosen is at their grade level, and is the basal book established though the district, as such, it
has specific text features and structure intended to address more specific needs of the students
For the ELLs we have texts that contain pictures to guide the story. As well as a focus on unfamiliar vocabulary. They
will have constant access to the words and their definitions to support their language development throughout the
course of the story.
Students will work in partners or triads, so students will be able to support each other as they work. This will help with
language barriers as well as any academic leveling gaps, and it provides a decrease in stress level associated with
teacher students contact that arises in some students.
We will display all forms of class discussion on charts clearly placed in an opportune and accessible location so that
students will have a continued reference to refer to if any questions arise.
I will walk around the room as students work in their small groups, to provide any extra support they may need, as well
as to manage any off task behavior.
As an extension, gifted students can find other books to identify the main idea and supportive evidence, and then share
those with the class. They also could take the text we were already working from and explain the supporting evidence
and what would be different in the text if those supports were not there.
Gifted and talented students could also create their own graphic organizer to represent that same information of the
main idea and supporting details.
Every student has their own copy of the book they are to read in small groups, this promotes their involvement as they
each can use their own text to follow and refer back to.
We will continually revisit this concept to reinforce the ideas, as well as the importance of its application. This will be
applied to all types of reading, narrative, and expository texts.
Posting the objectives and the example organizer on the board for students to access will further support the
expectations of the objectives and assist language needs will extended modeling of expectations.

5. WRITING/ASSESSMENT TOOL: How will you know that your students understand your purpose? What will
students be doing to demonstrate their learning? (Assessment tool).
Students will be assessed on their participation in the group read and discussion, as well as in their partner work. They
will also be assessed on the individual graphic organizers they fill out in their groups; they will be assessed by how well
they followed directions, the completeness of their chart, as the accuracy of their chart. Throughout their personal
reading, I will conduct individual interviews with students during their reading time to ask about the main ideas of their
books, and why those are crucial to the story. This can make the concept personal; as it pertains to the books they have
chosen to read.
6. REFLECTION: Based on this lesson, what is your very next step of instruction?
The lesson went well. Students were attentive and involved. They seemed to really enjoy the story, as well. We have been studying
the Solar System, so I think they were excited to have a different angle to study the topic. The graphic organizers seemed to be filled
out pretty thoroughly and accurately. I think that they really helped my students to concentrate their ideas and put them down on
paper.
I think it was and is difficult for my students to see the potential application of the practice of these skills. By showing them
application in one text, they tend to think it is restricted to just that one kind of writing. I would like to implement these skills in more
forms, to further demonstrate the immense and crucial application of determining the main idea. I also think that next time I will have
students read the text in turns to keep them more engaged and involved with the text we used. This time, they did alright, but I felt
like a few students were not with the rest of the class towards the end of our verbal instruction.
Next I would provide students with another text, preferably a different kind of text, and have them perform the same procedures
on that text. It is important for student to see the application of these skills across many forms of text. If you only ever apply it on a
narrative text then you are risking the chance that they will not know to apply it in other contexts as well. I would give them an
expository text and have them identify the main ideas and supporting details of that to solidify the concepts. We could then discuss
how the supporting details create a more substantial and believable informational text.
I would also like to start up a reading journal for students to communicate their reading to me on a more regular basis. I would
have students use a notebook and write about the books they are reading. Each entry would need to have the main idea of what they
read for the week. They would then have to support the main idea with three pieces of evidence from the text to prove to me that it
truly was the main idea. At least one of these supporting details would need to include a quote from their reading. This would provide
them with steady practice of the skill, and a wider range of application, as their reading could span over all genres and types of text.
Parent Involvement:
I will try to get parents involved in their comprehension work. Each student is expected to be reading at home on
a daily basis from a personal choice book. To incorporate parents into the concept learning from this activity, I will send
home the same graphic organizer that we used in class for students to fill out in reflection to their daily reading at home.
I will be sure to accompany this homework assignment with a letter to the parent describing the lesson and objectives as
well as the expectations of the homework assignment. Parents will then be asked to ask their child questions about their
reading, and prompt their conceptual knowledge of identification of the main idea and supporting evidence. There will be
an added place on the graphic organizer to sign, asserting that they were involved and discussed the assignment, as well
as for any comments, or concerns they may have regarding the child, or the concept. This will continue periodically
throughout the year, to increase understanding and comprehensive ability in personal reading.