Literacy Lesson Literacy Lesson Plan - Maybe an article about Thanksgiving or Veterans Day,

or the election
Pedagogical Focus - How can I incorporate open ended discussion into purposeful instruction?
What?
The students in my class are transitioning to making inferences about narratives to using

Lan 11/15/16 8:06 PM

Comment [1]: Decide on the content
learning objective, and that will help you
choose the reading, e.g., do you want to
take this opportunity to have your students
discuss/learn about science, current
events, social issues, holidays, etc.?

these skills to better understand non-fiction texts. I am hoping to help them transition to
informational texts using open discussion and helping each other make inferences through
learning from their peers
How?
Most of my teaching is going asking students guiding questions that can help direct them
to the important parts of the texts based on their inferences. I want to act as more of a facilitator
than a leader of the group and allow discussions between students to really flourish. In my
classroom, students are given the opportunity to talk to their tables but rarely are they given the
chance to partner one on one with another student, and then share with the whole group. A pair
share is a new and different way to expose students to voice their opinions. I also want to be
able to hold a group discussion about the text .
Lan 11/15/16 7:54 PM

Why?

Comment [2]: Great discussion of the

collaborative structures to be used and the
rationale for these structures.

The bulk of my students reading instruction is through teacher directed skill lessons and test
prep questions on reading passages. There are no texts they read as a class no extended read
alouds no literature circles. There isnt a set time in the class where students read a text and
have a conversation about it, Additionally as my students transition to informational texts to be
discussion and inquiry based, using rather than purely test preparation passages . I know that
the common core is more informational text driven than the old state curriculum and I also know
that it can be troublesome to be engaged with and understand. Fountas and Pinnell believe that
students will be more successful if they are exposed to texts that are alike, they say, knowledge
of similar texts helps readers interpret new texts (1996, 146). By gaining the experience of
reading and comprehending an informational texts, these students will be better prepared for
the heavy emphasis on informational texts.
Introducing informational texts in a subject that all the students have background
knowledge on will also make it more accessible. Non-narrative nonfiction work can be
extremely daunting when it is first presented to students so helping them ease into these
essential readings can really help. Adults, for the most part, read mostly informational texts and
that makes it an important skill that needs to be taught in school.

Lan 11/15/16 7:56 PM

Comment [3]: Yes! If the students dont
already have a shared background, what
can you do to help them build a
background?

Goals/Objectives - Students will be able to make inferences after reading an informational text.
Students will be able to use evidence from the text to help explain and write their inferences.
Standards
CCSS. ELA-Literacy.RI.4.1 - Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the
text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Materials and Preparation
Actual text we have them reading
Graphic organizer to help them organize their thoughts
Marker
White Board
Scratch paper for coloring
Classroom arrangement and management issues
Students will be organized in a circle at a the back table some bouncy stools will be provided for
more active students . Students will partner with the student on their left using the routine of turn
and talk. I will call attention with our 4,3,2,1, method and explain the objective of the lesson and
explain how we will now apply our inference skills to nonfiction texts
Each student will then be given the Newsela article, What is a super moon?
https://newsela.com/articles/lib-nasa-super-moon/id/23783/
Before students start,I will ask a student to model how to make an inference and provide
evidence from reading a text. Then I will have another student restate what his/her classmate
said. Direct students to the first paragraph of the article and do a shared reading out loud as
an entire group, and then state the inference that the some people are not excited for the super
moon because they believe that it causes bad events to happen, one example is from the text is
that the moonlight wakes people up.
(The Body - 20 Minutes): Students then will be told to read the article and told to think about
how they would describe a super moon after reading the text. Students will be given the graphic
organizer to follow along with the text. Students must make two inferences and come up with
two or three pieces of evidence from the text for each of the inferences.
Students will then be told to discuss with their partner the two inferences and evidence that they
came up with. The purpose will be to choose one of the inference and share it and its evidence
with the entire group. If students finish early, they will be allowed to draw what they think the
super moon looks like or if they saw it what it actually looks like.
(The Closure - 10 Minutes): We will then come back together as a full group and student
groups will share the one inference they have made and the evidence that they have from the

Lan 11/15/16 7:58 PM

Comment [4]: Think about how you can
open the lesson to hook or engage the
students. How can you make the lesson
relevant to their lives and/or interesting to
them?
Lan 11/15/16 8:04 PM
Comment [5]: Consider building
background on the topic of the reading
before diving into it. Introducing the text
would be a nice way to lead into a
discussion or preview of the text before
students are given the text.
Another source of informational texts is
http://indykids.org/main/, which is great
because its usually social justice-oriented
and the articles are written by kids.

Lan 11/15/16 8:03 PM

Comment [6]: Consider how you want to
present the point of making inferences and
how it can be useful to the students.
If students havent done this in class
before, you might want to model it first,
and then have students model it.

Lan 11/15/16 8:05 PM

Comment [7]: You may want to model
how to use the graphic organizer.

text that supports it. Students will then be told to watch out for the super moon in December
(that the article mentions) and encourage their family and friends to look as well.

Anticipating students responses and your possible responses 3 Student Responses:

1.
Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above Teacher will collect the students graphic organizers; students can keep their scratch paper.
Teacher will also take notes as they walk around viewing student discussions and the final large
group discussion.

Lan 11/15/16 8:07 PM

Comment [8]: Overall, well organized
lesson.

Lan 11/15/16 8:07 PM

Comment [9]: Try your best to anticipate
these beforehand.

Accommodations If there was a student in the group selected that needs a differentiation, the first place I would start is with
the graphic organizer, allowing them to just come up with one inference and the evidence for that. I could
also just allow the student to find one piece of evidence for each inference and yet another way is to give
the student the inference and force them to find the evidence from the article that supports it. I think both
of these ways still force the student to use a lot of their cognitive abilities but it is more doable than both
finding two inferences and the evidence.
If the student is a lower level reader, the article can easily be changed to the level that fits that
students particular needs. I think that working in partners will also help students see a more diverse
range of inferences.

Lan 11/15/16 8:12 PM

Comment [10]: If you think it would be
helpful to students, you could have two
versions of the graphic organizer: One
version would be blank. An alternative
graphic organizer might have one
inference already filled in, and the student
would need to come up with one more
inference and two-three pieces of
evidence for each of the inferences. Or
the alternative graphic organizer can have
a hint or two (written or illustrated), and the
student would need to fill out the
inferences/evidence based on the hint.