Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College

Education Department
Lesson/Activity Plan Template
Teacher Candidate:

Rebecca Graham

Name of Lesson:

The Mystery of St Matthew Island

Subject:

Language Arts Block

Grade: 5th Grade

Rationale for lesson:

Students will gain knowledge in recognizing the main idea of reading selection and the
supporting details. Students will be able identify the new vocabulary words and be able to use
them correctly. The students are able to read and understand The Mystery of St Matthew
Island.
Learning outcomes/objectives:
Students will be able to complete study guide to show their knowledge and understand of The
Mystery of St Matthew Island. The students will be able to identify the main idea and detail
sentence of the reading passage entitled Fussy Customer Leads to Invention. The students will
be able to identify the events in the story and the order that they happened.
Assessment of student outcomes:
Students will share the detail of the Fussy Customer Leads to Invention and the main idea table
with the support detail legs. Students will be tested on their knowledge of story The Mystery
of St Matthew Island.
Related Foundations/Indiana? Academic Standard:
5.RN.2.1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what a text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
5.RN.2.2: Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by
key details; summarize the text.
5.RN.4.1: Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support claims in a text,
identifying which reasons and evidence support which claims.

Materials Needed:
Copies of Fussy Customer Leads to Invention
Copies of the main idea/detail table
Completed study guides
Reading Street Book
10 Important Sentences strips sets
Lesson/Activity Presentation:
Anticipatory set:
If you can hear clap once Students clap
If you can hear snap Students snap
If you can hear clap snap Students clap snap
Teaching procedures:
First thing is I will ask the students about the story we read yesterday. I will want to make
sure that they are remembering some of the details from the story. I will give the students about
5-8 minutes for finish their study guide in their table groups for the Mystery of St Matthew
Island. The students and I will then go over the study guide for the story. I will have the
students answer questions regarding the vocabulary of the lessons. I will ask them some
comprehension questions to make sure they understand the details of the story.
Secondly, I will leave the students in their table groups. Each table group will get a set of
the ten important sentences of The Mystery of Saint Matthew Island. I will look at the sentences
to see if they are in the correct order once they say that they are done. I will allow all groups of
students to complete this and when they are done we will have them give the order that the
sentence should be in.
I will then talk to the students about the table we created yesterday with our main idea as
the tabletop. I will remind them that we discussed that the main idea like a table top needs
supporting details (legs) to hold it up. What happens if the supporting details are not strong
enough to support the main idea? The table would be lopsided or not sturdy.
I will hand the story Fussy Customer Leads to Intervention to the students. I will have
them read the story silently to themselves. I will hand out a table paper to each of the students. I
will have them create the table. We will discuss their outcomes. We will make sure that all
students are able to see what the main idea of the story is. We will discuss the details too.
Guided & independent practice:
Students completed the study guide yesterday in class. Students will share answers on
their study guide with classmates for better understanding. Students will read a selection on their
own and create the table. They will be able to identify the main idea and supporting details.

Closure:
I will remind the students that they will have a reading test over The Mystery of Saint
Matthews Island. I will remind them to take their study guide home and look over their answers.
Differentiated instruction:
Identified students will receive supportive help from the assistants in the room. Some
students may need to be given some help them focus when we are working on finding the
difference between main idea and detail. We have one student that receives a copy of the
teachers study guide for the test.
Cultural diversity emphasis (if appropriate):
NONE
Technology (if appropriate):
NONE
Reflection on lesson:
This lesson went well. I believe my favorite part of the lesson is helping the students to
understand a new way to look at topic sentence and supporting details. I find it rewarding when
you introduce a new idea for a topic students have studied before and you are able to reach some
of the students. I reminded that the topic sentence is the tabletop and the supporting details are
the legs of the table. The supporting table has to be able to support the top; this will help them to
find the topic sentences. The students identified the main idea of the story by looking at the
details that went with the overall them of the story.