Revised Lesson for Answering Reading Comprehension Questions Objective and Purpose NCTE Standard 3: Students apply a wide

range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). Objectives: 1. Students will be able to read a text and answer corresponding questions by including the question in their written answer. 2. Students will be able to read a text and answer corresponding questions by citing the page number location of their information. Checking for Understanding (pre-assessment) The teacher must understand the reading and writing levels of each student so that she can provided reading excepts and comprehension questions which suit the abilities of each student. Anticipatory Set Ask students what they thought of the passage that they read for homework. Ask why they think reading comprehension questions are important. Input Tell students that when we answer a question from reading comprehension, we must go back the the text to find the answer. Once we find the answer in the text, we must write the answer to the question. When we do this, we must restate the question so that it is clear which question we are

answering without needing to look at the question. The answers must be in complete sentences. Somewhere in our answer, we must also include the page number where we found our information. Modeling The whole class will read the same passage for homework. During class, we will go over the reading comprehension questions that go with the text. The teacher will model the first question on an overhead projector or document camera by finding the area in the text where the answer exists and writing a correct answer to the question, complete with a cited page number and a restatement of the question. For the next question, she will ask the students to direct her in answering the question, and will write the answer on the overhead or document camera. Guided Practice The teacher will have already split the class into mixed ability groups of three or four. She will have the students complete the rest of these reading comprehension questions in those groups. The class will review the answers by having volunteers bring their notebooks under the document camera for critique. Independent Practice The teacher will have determined in advance which students are having trouble, which are at the appropriate level, and which are advanced. She will give these students either an easy, average, or advanced level passage and questions for independent practice. Checking for Understanding (Assessment) The teacher will grade the reading comprehension questions to ensure that students are able to answer questions correctly.

Observation of Mrs. Shorts 5th Grade Language Arts Class on October 2, 2009 Research During the lesson I observed, the students were practicing how to answer questions based on a text. Mrs. Short wanted to make sure that the students went back to the page on which they found their information, and included this page number in their answers. She also wanted to make sure that they restated the question in their answer so she knew the exact question to which they were responding without needing to reread the question. Mrs. Short gave the students silent time to work on the comprehension questions from a text on volcanoes. They got individual practice writing their answers. As the students worked, Mrs. Short walked around the room and checked students progress and answers. When the most of the students were finished, Mrs. Short had students who she knew had written good responses bring up their notebooks to be shown under the document camera. She would then explain why it was an example of a good answer. After her chosen examples, Mrs. Short allowed volunteers to bring their notebooks up under the document camera, and then she would explain what was good and what could have been done better. She made sure to remind the students that it was okay to make mistakes since they were still learning how to do this. Analysis The overall lesson plan that I observed seemed to be successful, but it was hard for me to tell because I could not see what they students had written. I was worried that there might be some students who did not understand how to answer the questions correctly and who were slipping through the cracks. Although Mrs. Short walked around the classroom briefly, it is possible the some students had no idea what to do. While the class as a whole seemed to

understand what they needed to be doing, there was not very much modeling of the proper way to answer a question; there were instructions, but not examples. Some students could have benefited from this extra scaffolding. Furthermore, I know that there are some very intelligent students in the class who might not have been very challenged by this exercise and who could benefit from differentiation. Diagnosis Some students in the class could have benefitted from more scaffolding than was provided in this lesson. If I were to rework Mrs. Shorts lesson plan, I would include more modeling, and differentiation during independent practice. My revised lesson plan would include more scaffolding and modeling during instruction, as well as some group work to help ensure that students who are struggling will have the added instruction of more advanced students. The differentiation of the reading levels of the passages provided for independent practice would ensure that both struggling students and highly capable students have a fulfilling lesson.