Lesson 4- Close Reading

Emily Bowers

Lesson Plan 4- Close reading

Objective: Good readers can use what they know about spelling patterns to write and sort words that have “oa”, “ow”, and “ou”. Good readers can read the same text multiple times for different purposes.

Assessment: Discussion, underlining unknown words, circling phrases that stick out, word sort

Procedures:

1. State the purpose for this reading and instruct students to make appropriate marks on their paper as it relates to their purpose for reading. Ex.)  Underline unknown words or phrases, circle parts that stick out

                2. Ask student questions that correspond with each reading and discuss answers.

                3. Repeat steps 1 and 2, two more times.

Opening:

“Today we are going to work more with the words we have been using the past couple times we have met. This time I am going to read you the words and you are going to write them down and sort however you would like. After, we are going to read a poem out of the book Falling Up by Shel Silverstein. You may have heard of this author before. The poem is called Crazy Dream. You are going to read it three different times. Each time you read it I will tell you the purpose before you read. After you read it each time, we will talk about some questions and discuss the poem.”

Reading 1:

Purpose: Read to comprehend what the text is saying. Read to be able to retell what the poem is about.

Questions: What is the main idea of this poem? What message is the author trying to share about teachers?

Reading 2:

Purpose: Read to understand how the text said the message or main idea.

Questions: How does the author’s choice of words and tone of the language make their point of view on teachers stick out? Who is narrating this poem?

Reading 3:

Purpose: Read to understand what the text means and the value of this poem.

Questions: How did the author use pictures to help engage you what was happening in the poem? How did the pictures help you to understand what was happening in the poem? Have you read anything similar to this before? How was it similar to something else you have read? Can you relate to the how the character in this poem feels about teachers?

Closing:

 “Good readers use what they know about spelling patterns to write and sort words. This is important because today you wrote and sorted the words that I read to you. Today you also learned how to read the same text multiple times for different purposes. Before reading you were told the purpose for reading and this helped you to think about specific things during your reading. We read for summarizing the text, understanding how words help to shape the message, and to understand what the text meant or was trying to say about how the narrator feels about teachers.”

Prompts to try:

Did that sound right?

Can you reread that?

Did that make sense?

What letter/sound does it start with?

Today my objectives for McKenzie were: "Good readers can use what they know about spelling patterns to write and sort words that have 'oa', 'ow', and 'ou'. "Good readers can read the same text multiple times for different purposes".

To teach the first objective, I did a blind sort with McKenzie using the same words we used with the closed and open sort. I read her the words and she had to write them down and also put them in categories that she chose. To teach the second objective, I had McKenzie read a poem called "Crazy Dream" by Shel Silverstein. I explained to her that the first time she read it she was reading it comprehend what they text was saying. After reading it, I had her retell what happened in the poem, She then read it a second time. The second time I told her to read it in order to comprehend how the text said the message or main idea. After she read I asked her questions like "How does the author's choice of words and tone of the language make their point of view on teachers stick out?". The third she read the poem, I had her read in order to comprehend what the text means and the value of the poem. After reading, I asked her questions like "How did the author use pictures to help engage you in what was happening in the poem?" After the third reading, we went through everything we did that day and I had her tell me what she learned.

McKenzie did really awesome with the word sort today. Before even giving her one word, she remembered what the sorting patterns  were that she used last time and started writing them on the top of her paper. Once I started reading words to her she easily put them under the correct category and needed little assistance from me. After reading her all the words, she also easily told me how she sorted them and why. She spelled all the words correctly and now I know I can move on to a harder set of words for next time. The close reading did not go as well as the word sort did. The first time she read, she was able to retell what happened with some prompting from me. The second time she read, she struggled with answering the questions I asked her. I think this is because she is a struggling reader and it took her a while to get all the way through the poem. The questions I was asking may have been a little too hard for her as well. The third time we read the poem she answered the questions about the pictures well, but struggled with the other questions i asked her. At the end she was able to state what she learned doing the word sort, but needed prompting stating what she learned with the close reading.

Today I learned that, as a teacher, it is important to state the objective to the student. I did not do a very good job at explaining to McKenzie what the purpose of the close reading was and this was evident at the end when she struggled to tell me what she learned or what the purpose was. I also learned the importance of choosing material the is appropriate for the student. The questions I had planned to ask McKenzie after each reading were a little deep for her to understand what I was asking. I think I am getting better at using prompts when she comes across a word she does not know and also using academic vocabulary.