Small Group Reading Lesson Plan Grade Level: _____3______ Number of Students: ____4______ _Native English Speakers_______ Students

Linguistic Backgrounds: Length of Instruction: 20

Instructional Location: _Half moon table in the back of the classroom_________ minutes for 3 days_______

Standard(s) Addressed What Common Core standards will be addressed during the lesson? Key Ideas and Details: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers What WIDA standards complement the core standards and will be utilized? Content Objectives What will the students know and be able to do by the end of the lesson? Students will be able to summarize a story including key points from the text. Students will use vocabulary words verbally in their summaries Title: What is the name of the book? Tiger Tales Author: Who wrote the book? Mary Peace Finley Publisher: Who published the book? Celebration Press Date: When was the book published? 1996 Language Objectives What language will students be expected to utilize when illustrating their understanding? Students will use vocabulary words verbally in their summaries How will the language be differentiated for various levels of students language proficiency? The students will orally provide a summary to a peer. Genre: What is the genre of the text? Nonfiction Narrative Text Structure: Does the text follow narrative or expository text patterns? Narrative Level: What is the guided reading or lexile level? Level 34

Theme(s) What themes or big ideas will be explored during the reading? Siberian tigers need their mothers to survive when they are little. When it is time Siberian tigers get curious and get more distant from their mothers. Siberian tigers are becoming extinct due to people hunting them.

Strategy Focus What strategies and skills will be the focus of the lesson? -Making predictions -Vocabulary -Summary

Vocabulary What words will be focused on: Den, Discipline, Endangered, Exhibit, Survival

Assessment How will you determine that students are meeting the content and language objectives? Be specific. (checklist, antidotal records, student work, etc) Informal Checklist: 1. Does the student use photographs to further his/her understanding? 2. Does the student use context clues to figure out the meaning of new words? 3. Does the student identify the main ideas in key sections of the text and use them to retell what they read? 4. Does the student understand the importance of retelling the events of a story in sequential order?

Add any relevant information that is essential to understanding the context of your lesson: Reflection NotesQuestions/Concerns you have after teaching the lesson(s)? Day: 1 (Make sure and write-out what you will say to your students.) Before (Introduction) * Preview the skill (Teacher led) I will read the title of the book and show students the cover. I will then explain that this is a nonfictions narrative and describes something that really happens. It also does so in the order in which the events happen. * Activate and build on prior knowledge about the topic (Teacher and Students Together) I will ask students how this book is different from books they have read (Do students compare to fictional books?) I will then have student predict what they think will happen in the text given the title and cover of the book (Do they use prior knowledge about tigers to explain what they think might happen?) Ask students to share what they know about tigers in general (Do students talk about tigers at the zoo or in the movies?) * Set a purpose Introduce vocabulary words: endangered, den, exhibit. Ask if anyone knows the meaning of each word. Write down the meaning of each word on the white board at the back of the table using student friendly vocabulary. Endangered- animals that may be wiped out completely. Ask how students may think this could happen? (Do they say people killing them, environment changes?) Den- tigers home. Exhibit- where tigers may be on display ex. Zoo * Introduce the focus strategy Have students reread the title and use what they know about the word endangered to tell why the author might have chosen this title. Now have them revise their previous predictions with their vocabulary words in mind. Explain the objectives to students so they have a clear understanding as to what will be expected of them at the end of this three day lesson. Tell them that retelling a section of a book helps readers focus on the main ideas, or most important facts, in that part of the book. Putting all these main ideas in sequential order creates a summary.

Teacher model: Read aloud page three, which is the first chapter, explain that at the end of each chapter good readers go back and summarize what they just read. I will then summarize the main ideas on page 3 to show students how this process is done. During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) Students will read pg. 1-13 of the story with a partner. At the end of each chapter they will take turns retelling what they just read. Students will be encouraged to look back and reread portions of the text that were difficult to retell. Prompt: -As you are reading are you thinking about which ideas are the most important? After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) Have students reread the titles of the chapters they read on pg. 1-13. Ask them given the titles they have read so far what they think the next title will be without looking. Why do they think this? (Do students use sequential knowledge to arrive at the next title?) Ask how the author uses these titles to create suspense and engage the reader. Change the first chapter title (In the Quiet of the Night) to nighttime. Ask if this makes students want to read on? Explain that the title of chapters must be engaging for readers to want to read on. Assessment: (Listen to students summarize to their partners to see) Does the student identify the main ideas in key sections of the text and use these main ideas to summarize, or retell, what they read? Does the student use photographs or context clues to enrich his/her understanding? If students can answer these questions or not will be noted in my notes How might you extend the lesson? Talk about captions. Explain that the captions on pictures can also help explain what is going on in the story. Tell students when they are making predications it is a good idea to read both the title and the captions on pictures to better their predictions of what will happen in the story. Discuss how you differentiated instruction for your learners? Two students read with partners while the other two read independently due to their different reading levels.

Add any relevant information that is essential to understanding the context of your lesson: Reflection NotesQuestions/Concerns you have after teaching the lesson(s)? Day: 2 (Make sure and write-out what you will say to your students.) Before (Introduction) * Preview the skill (Teacher led) I will read aloud the title of a book and make predictions as to what will happen in that book given its title, pictures, and chapter titles * Activate and build on prior knowledge about the topic (Teacher and Students Together) I will read the title of the next chapter in Tiger Tales aloud from pg. 14 and ask students what they think these chapters will be about given their prior knowledge of pg. 1-13 that we read yesterday (Do students use prior knowledge of what we read yesterday do predict what will happen in the next chapters?). I will then have students take a picture walk through the rest of their book on their own and then share with a partner one thing they think will happen in these chapters given the titles and the pictures. * Set a purpose Introduce vocabulary words: discipline, survival. Ask if anyone knows the meaning of each word (Do students make text to text connections between the word disciple and the Wayside Story books we have been reading?) Write down the meaning of each word on the white board at the back of the table using student friendly vocabulary. Disciple- to give punishment so others will learn. Survival- the act of staying alive. * Introduce the focus strategy Explain that the objective to students so they have a clear understanding as to what will be expected of them at the end of this days lesson. Ask them what we learned about summarizing yesterday (do students say good readers use main ideas to summarize a part of a story?) Explain to students that good readers also use vocabulary words in their summaries as well as sequence words. Introduce sequence words: first, next, then, after, finally.

Teacher model: Read aloud the first paragraph on pg. 13. Summarize that paragraph using the vocabulary word discipline. During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) Students will read pg. 13-19 of the story aloud in the group. Group members will take turns reading each chapter and summarizing the chapter for the group Do students use vocabulary in their summaries?) When they get to pg. 20 students will read the final chapter alone. Prompt: -Tell me the most important idea in this section. -What words help you visualize what the author is describing? -What does this part of the text tell you about Siberian tigers? After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) Go around the circle and have each student summarize what they just read. Explain that it is okay for people to summarize things differently as long as they get the main point of the story. Talk about the word endangered on pg. 20. We defined the word endangered yesterday now can someone tell me why the author thinks Siberian tigers are endangered? Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why? Assessment: (While each student is summarizing pg. 20 in small group) -Does the students use contents to understand and retell the main ideas on pg. 20?) - Does the student understand the importance of using vocabulary words in their retelling? I will be recording these in my notes. How might you extend the lesson? Talk about context clues. Discuss how the surrounding words and photographs can help students figure out the meaning of an unknown word. Discuss how you differentiated instruction for your learners? I provided prompts for a few of my students to think about before they read they chapter aloud to help guide their thinking before they share their summary of that chapter aloud.

Add any relevant information that is essential to understanding the context of your lesson: Reflection NotesQuestions/Concerns you have after teaching the lesson(s)? Day: 3 (Make sure and write-out what you will say to your students.) Before (Introduction) * Preview the skill (Teacher led) I will reread chapter one of the book and summarize it using the sequence words first, next, and finally. * Activate and build on prior knowledge about the topic (Teacher and Students Together) I will ask students if they remember what good reads do while summarizing (Do students use prior knowledge of what we talked about yesterday such as vocabulary and sequence words?). I will then have students remind the group what our sequence and vocabulary words are and write them on the board. * Set a purpose I will have two students work together and two students work independently to create a sequenced summary of their day so far. * Introduce the focus strategy As a group we will try to remember all of the main ideas that happened in the story (Do students remember these main ideas in or out of order? Do they use logic when thinking about the sequence of events? For example the mother has to have the babies before she beings to discipline them). Teacher model: Provide prompts if students cannot remember a main idea in the story (For example, where did the tigers live?) During (Engaging in meaning making and strategy/skill practice) Students will reread the story if they cannot remember the main ideas throughout the story. If they remember most, prompt students to reread the chapter titles to double check the sequence of events.

After (Clarifying key concepts, extending ideas) Students will be provided paper to write their sequence of events. The sequence and vocabulary words will be on the board for them to reference. Assessment: - Do the students use the vocabulary words and sequence words in their summaries? - Do the students record main events or minor details? I will review what students write on their papers to see if they understand this. How might you extend the lesson? Talk about authors purpose. Why do students think this is a narrative rather than a fictional story? Explain that authors write books for many reasons including entertainment, to inform, persuade, or offer an opinion. Discuss how you differentiated instruction for your learners? I allowed two students to work together while sequencing and two students to work independently due to different levels of comprehension.

Day one Reflection Overall my lesson went well today. I first started out by asking students how to predict text and they remembered much of what we have previously discussed in our making meaning portion of the day where we talk about predicting text using title, pictures, and text style or in the students words what the words look like on the page. I then moved onto key vocabulary where there were

some deviations from the lesson. When I asked students what endangered meant students defined it as when an animal is going to die and there will be no more. I then asked students what a den is and one student thought I said dam because he responded that a den is where beavers live. This was a slight deviation of the lesson in the wrong direction which I then needed to find a way to bring the group back on topic so I showed them the picture on the front cover of the story. They then realized this story would not be talking about beavers but instead tigers. After listening to students read and predict I realized my students do have many of the skills I wanted to teach in this lesson already. When I would ask students to predict the text after reading the chapter title they often did quite well and almost predicted exactly what actually happened in the text. One of my students is very quite in class and after doing this lesson I realized she does know what is going on in class although she is not verbal in class. This is not due to her lack of interest or knowledge because she showed in the group she does have this knowledge. As a teacher I think my timing and explicit instruction was done nicely in this lesson but I will try to model the skill more during the next two days of lessons. When I would ask students a question they would deviate a bit and I believe modeling the skills first would help students realize exactly what I am looking for. Day 2 This lesson seemed to go a lot smoother than the first days lesson. I started the lesson out by modeling the previous skill of reading the title and predicting text of another book different from Tiger Tales. I then read the next chapter title aloud and asked

students to predict what will happen in this chapter using their previous knowledge of the previous chapters as well as the title itself. Now that the students are comfortable in this group and are familiar with what we are doing a lot more deviation occurred with students having text to text connections. Many started talking about outside experiences not related to the topic of tigers or summarizing but it allowed rich discussion I would not have been able to embed into my lesson without their participation. When I had each students read a chapter aloud and summarize that chapter to the group I realized that some students had the ability to pick out main ideas in the story whereas others picked out facts. For example, the main idea in one chapter was tigers caring for one another but instead one student summarized the chapter with a fact that was interesting to her which was at eight months a tiger weighs 100 pounds. Taking what I learned today about students knowledge of summarizing I realized my lesson did not model the skill I wanted them to learn today but instead I modeled the skill I wanted them to learn yesterday. When I reflected yesterday and realized I didnt model I went back and modeled that skill to open up my lesson today and didnt think about how modeling this skill would help my students with the next new skill. Tomorrow is my final day where students will be summarizing on their own so it is very important for me to make it explicit about what I want students outcomes to be and model the skill so they have a firm understanding of the skill and how the skill should look.

Day 3 The objective I had written on my first day was ultimately the objective I wanted students to be able to portray knowledge in on the last day which reflected the standard I was addressing. My assessment was then written around this objective/ standard. The actual lessons were sequenced around the assessment gearing students up to be able to complete the final assessment accurately using my previous instruction of the skill. Along the way were anecdotal notes which helped me gauge if students would be prepared for the written assessment I had planned for the end of the three day lesson. This assessment was for them to write a summary based on the book Tiger Tales they had read over the three day lesson. To guide their thinking, I gave them a planning sheet which they could use with their book open to refresh their memory on the story and write down some notes as to what they would like in their final summary. One thing students had trouble with was picking out main ideas for their summaries rather than interesting facts. One thing they were able to do well was sequence these main events, or facts in some of their cases, in the order they happened in the story. Based on students responses I realized that although these students are all at a 28 they do in fact all have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to reading and writing. Some of the students could verbally explain to me the summary of the book perfectly using sequencing and vocabulary words but when it came to writing it on paper were caught up with writing interesting facts and strayed away from writing what they had just told me. One thing I did well was I differentiated instruction by allowing some students who struggle to work together while the other students who are at the independent level work alone. One thing I did not do that I would do differently was challenge these students that were working independent. One of my students was often looking around

the room and not paying attention but completed the written assessment quite well. This shows me he already had the skill I was teaching and was most likely bored with my lesson, not just acting out or misbehaving for no reason. If I were to continue with this lesson I would give my students all different books. I believe one problem with the text I initially used was it was a narrative and therefore had a lot of facts that students got hung up on. Also, since these students are at different reading levels, that being instructional or independent, I believe giving them different books would challenge the students that need to be challenged while also allowing the students who struggle a chance to complete this lesson adequately. We would continue to work on the skill of summarizing because I do not think all four students fully understand how it works and Scholastic says in their Comprehension Strategy Resource good readers look for things that help them identify big ideas and why they are important (Scholastic). I would model the skill in front of the group using a book they are all familiar with and then we would compare what is a fact and what is a main idea. Not modeling the skill of finding the main idea in comparison to facts was my main fault while teaching these three days so I would make sure to be very explicit about what is a fact and what is a main idea.

Works Cited "Comprehension Strategy Resource." College of Education Moodle Server. Web. 01 Nov. 2011. <http://learn.education.illinois.edu/file.php/1713/Comp_Strat_resource.pdf>.

Critical Reflective Paper When I told my cooperating teacher about this assignment she immediately knew what group she wanted to place me with. She chose a higher level reading group that she had been wanting to move up a reading level for quite some time but couldnt due to comprehension. For this reason I decided to teach this group about summarizing. I thought that if I taught them summarizing skills their comprehension of stories would go up due to having the ability to pick out main facts in a text. I also wanted to teach them sequential summarizing so that they would see putting events in the order that they happened is in fact important when summarizing a text for someone else.

The first day I wrote my lesson plans and brought them to teach to my small group but I did not factor in much differentiation. I figured that because these students were all in the same reading group at the same reading level that they would all be equally knowledgeable of summarizing. The first day I realized quickly I was wrong. It seemed that all of them were at different levels of understanding summarizing and I was not challenging one of my students enough so his behavior was out of line. I realized this first when I explained realistic narrative to the students and showed them the book we would be reading. While the other students were not very familiar with this kind of text this particular student really enjoys reading science books so he was quite familiar with the format. This was an idea I had planned to spending a little bit more time on but I had to move on quickly because he explained the format perfectly to the other students. I did worry however that the students were still confused about the format of realistic narratives because we did move on quicker than I had anticipated. Next time I need to not underestimate students knowledge and be prepared for a student to lead discussion at times rather than the entire lesson begin teacher driven. One thing I overestimated the first day was students prior knowledge. I had assumed that all of these students have been to a zoo before and seen a tiger. I thought they could make this text to self connection which would get them very involved in the literature I was teaching. When I asked them to share what they knew about tigers they were all silent. I then asked if any of them had been to the zoo and they all said no. Being in a very high poverty school I should not have assumed they would be able to make this connection and been more prepared to present students with photographs of tigers to hook their interest. Since I did not do this, I believe they werent as involved as they would have been had they had a text to self connection or I had prompted their interest with a

photograph or video. The thing that I found most challenging was getting students to realize things I did not plan on explicitly teaching. Although I was teaching summarizing, I had assumed they knew how to pick out main ideas or even knew what a main idea was. Often when students read a chapter and I asked them to summarize what they just read they would give me an interesting fact rather than a main idea. Teaching things like finding main ideas is a hard concept for me because it is something I struggled with as a student. When teachers would have me take notes or highlight main ideas I would find myself highlighting the entire page. Instead of just deciding students had this skill I should have researched a way to teach finding main ideas versus facts rather than skipping it all together. I found questioning and keeping students on track the most natural for myself. If I asked students a question and they only answered yes or no I always found a way to get them to expand on their thinking other than just asking why? For example, I asked the students if they knew what the word endangered meant and one student said yes. Instead of simply asking what it meant I had him tell me where they heard it and then I had them use it in a sentence. The students that otherwise didnt know what it meant immediately understood the meaning of the word without me simply telling them a definition. Also, whenever the conversation started to stray away from summarizing and the literature we were reading, I found a way to bring whatever was being discussed back to the lesson. For example, another student not in our group was being disruptive so all of students in my small group were distracted by his actions. After I watched them turn their heads towards him for a moment I asked them to summarize from the beginning to the end of his actions and they did it quite well. Then we correlated that back to our reading. This helped conversation flow easily and I felt that

teachable moments were obtained. One major thing I learned about literacy needs of students is that even though they may be placed in the same reading group does not mean they are all at the same level. I had an idea in my head that if students are placed in the same reading group they all are at the same level but I did realize I was very incorrect. Reading groups are created by teachers so they can get students together that are at about the same level. This makes it easier for them to meet in small groups and work on specific skills. With that in mind, differentiation is still important even in small groups. No two children are going to be at the exact same literacy or comprehension level and even in small groups this must be noted and planned for during lesson planning. The three day sequence was nice for this because after the first day when I did not differentiate much, I got to go back and revise my second and third day of lessons to reflect these students specific needs rather than assuming one instructional strategy like lecturing would work for every student. As I enter student teaching next semester I learned from this project that constant reflection on my teaching strategies need to be made. The three day lesson plan allowed me to reflect and revise my lessons each day to match the needs of my students. Although the first day I did not differentiate, I reflected on this issue and revised my lessons to better fit the needs of the students I was working with. Another goal of mine is to get to know each of my students needs next semester seeing that I will be in the classroom full time. If I pay attention to each students level whether it is reading, writing, math, ect., I will be able to plan for differentiation given these individual needs. It is hard to get to know my students needs in my current placement seeing that I am only there two days a week but next semester this is one of my goals that I believe is very important.