Tiffany AgnelloNew Hope Solebury Lower Elementary School2nd Grade Guided Reading LessonTime: 11:15 – 11:45November 21, 2014

CURRICULAR AND CLASSROOM CONTEXTAt LES the guided reading program is taught using Literacy by Design. Each level has a small group

reading teacher’s guide, four fiction books and four nonfiction books. The nonfiction books include two social studies related books and two science related books. In the teacher’s guide it provides a step-by-step lesson. It starts with introducing the book. To introduce the book students review the name, author, illustrator, and genre. They are provided with an overview of the book and questions to connect prior knowledge. In the first section, building reading skills, it includes the questions to connect prior knowledge, a phonics skill, and vocabulary words to preview. Within the vocabulary review there are also prompts to use to introduce the vocabulary and allow students to do a picture walk. Section two is called read and comprehend. In this section, students are introduced to the purpose for reading and the reading procedure. The purpose for reading always follows the whole class comprehension strategy that is being used in the whole class Literacy by Design reading lesson. Students then begin to read the book independently at their own pace while the teacher observes. The teacher’s guide provides comprehension questions, both literal and inferential to ask students after they are finished reading. The last step is providing students with one of two think and write questions that they respond to in their guided reading journal. These questions are graded on a one to three scale, three being the best.

Prior to this lesson, I introduced the story The Mysterious Animal Tracks by Gary Miller. The students discussed the genre, mystery and what it means. They were asked the following prior knowledge questions: What are some things you might see while walking in nature? How can you get information about a subject you want to learn more about? The phonics skill we reviewed was oil, ound, and ow word families. Students said the sounds in the word family and were given two or three example words, which they pronounced and then broke apart by sounds. Next, we did a picture walk and previewed the following vocabulary words: counselor and mates. For the picture walk I gave specific prompts to focus their attention on certain parts of the book. Students were asked what strategy we have been working with, determining important information. They were given the organizer and together we came up with the first example from pages two to five that we read.

This lesson will be taught to three students, 2 girls and 1 boy. Students are either seven or eight years old. The background of the students is as followed: two white students and one Hispanic student. One student is an English Language Learner. The reading level of these students is L. These students struggle with fluency and comprehension making these our focus skills with all books. DESIRED OUTCOMES

Objective: The objective for this guided reading lesson is to apply the whole class strategy, determining important information; work on fluency when reading and comprehension skills.

State Standards:1.1.2.B: Use knowledge of phonics and word recognition (e.g., root words, prefixes, suffixes, and syllabication) to decode and understand new words during reading.1.1.2.D: Demonstrate comprehension / understanding before reading, during reading, and after reading on grade level texts through strategies such as think aloud, retelling, summarizing, note

taking, connecting to prior knowledge, supporting assertions about text with evidence from text, and non-linguistic representations.1.3.2.A: Read, understand, and respond to works from various genres of literature.1.5.2.A: Write with a focus, with an understanding of topic and audience.

Temple Standards: Deep Content Understanding : This lesson is taught using multiple teaching strategies. There will

be whole group and independent work. The lesson is taught with a visual aspect with each student having a personal copy of the story. Students are answering verbally as well as writing. The guided reading lesson provides scaffolding by starting with teacher directed and slowly releasing the responsibility to the students. Students are able to demonstrate their understanding through multiple ways including verbally and written. By connecting students personal stories they will further understand the story. During our discussion I will clarify any misconceptions.

Coherence and Continuity : This lesson connects to the lesson taught at the last session using the same book and using the same whole class strategy. The procedures for this lesson are the same used throughout every lesson in guided reading. This provides a sense of knowing what to expect for students. This lesson will provide a foundation for the next lesson just as the one before it setup students for this lesson.

Real World Connections : Students will be asked to make real world connections to the pages we read in the book at our last session. This will allow students to not only make personal connections but also focus on what the book was about so far.

Active Learning : Students are required to take ownership of their learning in this lesson. Students saw a model of how to complete the graphic organizer at our last session with an example of important information in the story. In this lesson they will be reminded of this example but then required to complete the rest on their own. They are encouraged to think for themselves and use higher order thinking to further understand the concepts by answering comprehension questions. The setup of this lesson allows for students to feel comfortable by using a “I do, We do, You do” approach. The activities will be modeled by myself, then as a group they try out the skills, and then they have to complete the skills independently.

Critical and Creative Thinking : By asking students inferential questions it allows them to develop original ideas without having a pre-established answer. Also in their graphic organizer they have options of what they can write and need to think critically to decide what is important and what is not based on what they know from the story. When students answer questions incorrectly instead of telling them no I lead them in the right direction. Handling the situation this way it helps students feel safe to participate without feeling they will be embarrassed.

Teacher’s Reflective Thinking : Throughout the lesson I will be reflecting on how it is going and deciding if it is effective. If it is not I will make the appropriate adjustments to meet the needs of my group. For instance, if students seem to be struggling at a specific point I will rethink the teaching strategy and explain it in another way. Based on what I am seeing I will decide if I need to spend more time on a certain area with certain students or if the whole group needs further instruction. Once I review the assessment data I will be able to further reflect on the lesson and

how well it went, what needs to be reviewed, and if a specific student had trouble with the lesson compared to the rest of the group.

EVIDENCE THAT OUTCOMES WERE ACHIEVEDI will be checking the students’ answers to the two comprehension questions and the information they

wrote in the organizer to get a clear understanding if they met the goals. During the lesson, I will be observing students as they work, as well as their participation, throughout the lesson as an informal assessment. While students are reading to me I will be taking notes on their fluency and emotion to have a record if they are improving.

LEARNING PLAN

Rationale – This lesson is part of the Literacy by Design curriculum. The teacher’s guide is a step-by-step process but after meeting with my group a few times I discussed with my cooperating teacher what the best way to use this curriculum would be for this specific group. Together we decided that fluency and comprehension were skills that the students struggled with and should be the focus of all the stories. After seeing that the students struggled more with comprehension when we read the whole story and then answered comprehension questions, I decided to break the books into smaller chunks and ask questions after each chunk of reading. By doing this I am able to find out if they understand the story before they finish the whole book. If they don’t understand we can stop and discuss that part of the story. This has been a successful procedure for this group. Knowing this I decided to have students answer two comprehension questions in writing for this lesson in addition to the graphic organizer they will complete. We also discussed using picture walks and talking about vocabulary more extensively than some of the higher reading groups to further their understanding.

Differentiation – This lesson is differentiated for these students based on their reading level compared to other reading groups. I will read all the directions out loud while the students follow along. Even though this will be done for the whole group it is mainly for the student who is an English Language Learner who might struggle.

Classroom management – During guided reading I will call on all three students. Sometimes I will call on someone who has their hand raised and other times I will go in order of how they are sitting. By doing this I am able to have everyone be involved and it lets students know that they will be required to answer questions throughout the lesson and need to pay attention. I will used a timer throughout the lesson to keep the students on track and give them a visual of how much time they have left to finish assignments. Using the slate with the directions allows them to be responsible to know what is next and allow for less transition time. They have to be responsible and independent but have a tool to help them if needed.

Materials – Teacher’s guide 4 copies of The Mysterious Animal Tracks 3 graphic organizers Slate, marker, and eraser Timer Pencils

Procedures

Introduction (whole group) 5 minutes: Have students come to the side table with a pencil. Hand out The Mysterious Animal Tracks by Gary Miller and their graphic organizer they started the other day.

Remind students that we started our new book, The Mysterious Animal Tracks by Gary Miller. Ask students what genre we said the book was? Expected answer: mystery. After the genre, mystery, is said ask what the genre mystery means? Expected answer: something that needs to be figured out, a problem, a story that has clues to solve something, etc. I will accept any logical response. Does anyone have any connections to our story from what we read the other day?

Next, remind students that we have been talking about determining important information and we started using our graphic organizer for the story. Tell students we did one example together. Ask what was our example? Expected answer: Emma found tracks. They were narrow near the back and wide at the front. They had webs between the toes. Did we say this example was important information or unimportant but interesting information? Expected answer: important. We are going to continue working on this skill today.

Discuss Prior Reading (whole group/independent) - 10 minutes: The last time we met we read the first few pages of our story. Today I want you to read pages 2-5 to yourself and answer these two comprehension questions. Hand out comprehension questions sheet. The questions that will be given to students are: How did Sid describe the tracks? Which page tells you this? This is a literal question. Do you think Emma fell while hiking, or do you think she knelt down on purpose? What makes you think that? This is an inferential question. When you finish you can hand me your paper. Please make sure your name is on it. Set timer for students to know how much time they have to work.

Reading Procedure (independent) – 14 minutes: When you finish the comprehension questions I want you to practice reading pages 6 and 7 to yourself. I am going to have you read these pages to me. Make sure you remember to read with emotion. Who can tell me what I mean by reading with emotion? Expected answer: change your voice to show feeling. As you read you should think about what is happening in the story and how the characters feel. This will help you know what kind of emotion to use. Let’s practice this skill together before you try it on your own. Turn to page 5. Each student will read a sentence showing emotion. The examples that will be used are: Are you OK (read with concern)? I’m fine, but look, have you ever seen tracks like these (curiosity)? The tracks are narrow near the back and wide at the front, Sid said, and they have webs between the toes (concentration).

OK, we are going to get started. Let’s review what you are going to do. Show slate with list of directions. On the slate students will see 1. Read pages 2-5 and answer comprehension questions. 2. Practice reading pages 6 and 7 to yourself. 3. Read pages 8-16 and finish graphic organizer (1 important and 1 unimportant). As students finish the comprehension questions and have time to read on their own, call them over to read out loud and take notes on fluency and emotion. Set timer throughout lesson for students to see how much time they have to work on assignments.

Wrap-Up (whole group) – 1 minute: Collect graphic organizers and tell students that on Monday we will continue to talk about our story focusing on making sure we understood the story and looking for some things the author did to let us know what was important.

Student Work

Students in this reading group are at a reading level L on the Fountas and Pinnell chart. This group is the second lowest level in the class. The lowest group being level J, which are the Title 1 students. Although this group is the low end of the class elementary reading expectations for second grade for the end of the year benchmarks are an independent level L and an instructional level M. The fluency expectations are 60-104 WPM. These students are expected to be at an independent level N by the end of the year.

For this lesson students were asked to answer two comprehension questions, one literal and one inferential after reading the first chunk of pages of the story. Then they had to complete the important information organizer, identifying one important and one unimportant fact from the story. The first box was done together as an example.

Lilly: Reading level L according to Fountas and Pinnell (considered a second grade level). On the MAP assessment in reading Lilly scored a 184, which put her in the 70th percentile. The test breaks down into three goal performance sections including foundational skills, reading, and writing and language.

Comprehension questions: Lilly received full credit (1 point for each question) on this assignment.

Important information: The first answer was an example given by me (everyone got full credit) in the previous lesson. Lilly was absent and the example was reviewed with her the day of the lesson. She got credit for the example she gave and ran out of time to come up with the last example. I offered to write the answer for her if she gave it to me verbally but when she began to

give me the example already given I stopped and told her I would give her extra time the following day to come up with another example.

AJ: Reading level L according to Fountas and Pinnell (considered a second grade level). On the MAP assessment in reading AJ scored a 184, which put her in the 70th percentile. The test breaks down into three goal performance sections including foundational skills, reading, and writing and language.

Comprehension questions: AJ received full credit (1 point each) on this assignment. Important information: AJ got 2 ½ out of 3. She received half credit on the last example.

Joseph: Reading level L according to Fountas and Pinnell (considered a second grade level). On the MAP assessment in reading Joseph scored a 175, which put him in the 48th percentile. The test breaks down into three goal performance sections including foundational skills, reading, and writing and language.

Comprehension questions: Joseph received credit (1 point each) for the first question, which was a literal comprehension question. The second question (inferential) was answered incorrectly and with no evidence.

Important information: Joseph received a 2 out of 3. The last question he received no credit because the example given was important information and he marked it as unimportant but interesting.