Description of Wolfpack Readers Lesson Protocol

ECI 645

There are seven components you will include in your lessons each session. Each component is described on the next page The components
address the major foundational areas of reading suggested in research on intensified reading instruction. The suggested times for each component
serve as a guideline to illustrate the relative amount of time within each 1-hour session that should be spent in each element. Feel free to use your
professional expertise to modify the way you implement the timing and order of these components. You may also make changes to these
components to better suit your student, but you should be able to justify the changes.

The lessons are inquiry-focused, meaning they are connected by an inquiry topic/question developed with the student based on his/her interests.
Each lesson focuses on a core text (or a segment of a longer core text) at the readers instructional level that relates to the inquiry topic. Try to
develop inquiry questions that are big enough to require multiple resources and complex answers. For example, instead of pursuing What does a
snail eat?, consider something like: What do scientists know about snails and how do they know it? Across the lessons, the student is working on
becoming an expert in their topic. You should use the expert name to motivate the student and provide disciplinary rigor to the inquiry. For example,
scientists who study snails are called malacologists (for real, look it up!). So if this is your topic, your lessons could focus on becoming an expert in
malacology rather than JUST learning more about how to be a reader. This tiny tweak in our language changes the Wolfpack Readers experience
from Im a bad reader so I have to go to tutoringboo hoo to I get to go learn about malacology with my Wolfpack teacher! woo hoo! Did you
know that malacologists dont just study snails? they study all kinds of squishy mysterious creatures like octopus, squid, and clams! At the end of
the program, your student will create and present a visual display of her/his newly formed expertise.

Please note that your core texts do not all have to be nonfiction. You can creatively incorporate literary text into your inquiry project. For example,
you could read humorous stories that involve slimy insects/creatures if you are studying snails. Have fun with your inquiry. Be creative, engaging,
and quirky in your lessons. We want the Wolfpack Readers to be thrilled about coming to our program it should be more like dessert than
medicine!

In your archived lesson plans, provide a narrative description of what you plan to do for each component. Because we are focused on
individualized, responsive instruction, you will not be able to script your lessons. However, you are expected to describe your lessons in detail,
including examples of how you will explain and model strategies, the kind of thinking you will be listening for as students read and discuss text, and
so forth more than just listing the book and the skill you will work on. As a general rule, 4-6 sentences (or bullet points) will suffice for each
component. Your goal is to provide enough detail so someone else could read your plan and understand the gist of the lesson. You should also
note the titles/authors/urls for all the texts you are using and list the patterns/words you are using for the word work and vocabulary sections.

After the lesson is over, please make any necessary changes in your lesson plan document to reflect what you actually accomplished during the
lesson. For example, if you didnt get to a component or if you made a decision during the lesson to modify a component, make a note of these
changes before archiving. The archived version should be an accurate explanation of the actual implemented lesson.
 Inquiry-focused Introduction and Text Preview
~ 3 minutes
Always start the session by (very briefly) talking about knowledge construction/inquiry in some way so that the student begins to see the
connections across the sessions and senses a genuine emphasis on learning new information from the texts they are reading. For
example, you could lay out the different texts you will read during the session and preview them quickly, introducing some of the new
information that will be encountered in the texts related to the big questions that have come up in previous lessons. Or you could look
back at the inquiry journal/website and review some of the information you learned last time. Or even a quick read aloud from a website
that answers a question the student had at the end of the last session. You will also need to preview the core text(s) for the day and
activate background knowledge, with an emphasis on the inquiry topic (but do this quickly avoid excessive frontloading).
Fluency Practice
~ 5 minutes
In this segment, focus on fluency practice and fluency scaffolding using an excerpt of the core text for the day. This should be about 70-
100 words in length (about the number of words you expect your student can read fluently in one minute). The excerpt should be
meaningful i.e., should communicate something worth talking about with the student related to the inquiry topic.
Preparing for Reading

The student will read the text aloud while the teacher completes a running record and calculates the word reading accuracy %, WCPM,
and multidimensional fluency rating. It would be helpful for the teacher to prepare a copy of the excerpt ahead of time to facilitate
notetaking. Keep this information for your records to help track the learners progress. At teachers discretion (if the student finds it
motivating), parts of this information can be shared and/or charted with the student (quickly!).

Then the teacher and student will re-read the text, with fluency scaffolding (e.g., echo reading, choral, and/or teacher modeling).

Then the student will re-read the text one more time, followed by a quick discussion of the meaning of the text (again, ideally, in relation to
the inquiry topic being pursued). This discussion should serve as a preview/activation of knowledge that will increase the students
independence in the upcoming scaffolded reading segment.
Text-focused Word Work
~ 5 minutes

Prepare the reader for strategic word recognition in the upcoming text (chosen for the segment below) using a quick word work activity
e.g., the word sorting, building, and word writing sequence. It is best to focus on one or two orthographic patterns you know the student is
about to encounter and may find challenging. Dont try to cram too much info in this segment.
Vocabulary Building
~5 minutes
Introduce and briefly discuss two high-leverage words (e.g., Tier 2 words and/or topic-related concepts that are central to the text). When
applicable, you could also discuss morphological aspects of words (affixes) that convey meaning. Keep these words in your vocabulary
collection e.g., you could create a word poster for each word (but please be mindful not to turn this into a long project that derails the
lesson momentum). You will stop and talk more about these words when you encounter them in context in later segments.
 Scaffolded Reading + Comprehension Strategy and Strategic Decoding Practice + Dialogic Inquiry
Reading, Thinking, and ~25 minutes

This is the meat of the lesson and the longest portion. Based on your assessment data, you should have selected a small number of
Discussing the Text
comprehension strategies to focus on across the semester (e.g., using text structure to inform understanding, pausing to retell whats
important in your own words, visualizing, comprehension monitoring/noticing and repairing alarms). This is where you use the GRR to
model the strategy with think-alouds and engage the student in scaffolded strategy practice while reading and learning from the core text
you have chosen for the lesson (instructional level for the student). As needed, also talk about strategic word recognition (what to do when
you get to a tricky word).

Depending on your instructional intentions and your students needs, you might ask the student to read aloud, silently, chorally with you,
etc. This portion should be dialogically organized with lots of conversation, initiated and led by the student as much as possible. There
should be a lot of metacognitive talk about the strategy/ies being practiced. Consider cataloging these somewhere for the student to use
as a resource e.g., the strategy bookmark/toolkit method. Over time, the student should be able to state what each strategy is, how to
use it, why it is helpful, and when it should be used.
Inquiry Journaling
Responding in

~8 minutes
Writing

There are numerous ways to integrate a writing component in your lesson linked to the inquiry topic. For instance, students can write a
response or summary of their reading for the day. This is also where you can help your student practice written comprehension in
response to questions. Depending on your intentions and the students needs, you might have the student write independently without
your assistance or you might engage in shared/guided writing. You might consider collecting notes on a website/blog or an inquiry journal
that will help your student keep track of what she/he is learning and communicate this learning with other people.
Systematic, Developmental Word Work
Additional Word

~8 minutes
Study

End the lesson with another word work activity (e.g., sorting, building, writing words). Unlike the segment above, this segment is not
specific to a text and might not be focused on the inquiry topic. Instead, focus your selection of orthographic patterns on your assessment
data and what you know about the typical developmental sequence of letter-sound and decoding knowledge. Depending on your students
developmental stage and needs, you might choose to focus on phonemic awareness, automaticity with high-frequency words, single
syllable/within word patterns, common suffixes, and/or syllabic analysis for multisyllabic words, etc.