Name:

Karen Bolick

Date of Lesson:

3/12/13

Group Member Names: Bree, Lulu, Chamomile, Mack, and G-man School/Teacher and Grade: Suzanne Singer 5th Grade Sawmills Elementary

GUIDED READING LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE SPRING 2013 (10 points)

[TO BE USED INCONJUNCTION WITH THE GUIDED READING INFO AND PLANNING GUIDE]

Students Instructional Level & How You Know: These students are all above level readers reading at a 6th grade or higher level. Ive observed them reading in the classroom during DEAR time, small group sessions, the Inter-active read-aloud and the QRI-5 which I did with one of these students. Objective/Comprehension Strategy & Why You Chose It: I will be guiding them in finding main ideas and supporting details. When consulting with the classroom teacher, she indicated she would like for them to have additional practice with this strategy before the EOGs. Additionally, I chose an informational text to provide students more practice with this type of text as it will feature prominently in the new EOG tests. Book Title / Book Level / Where You Found It & Why You Chose It: From Roman Roads to Railroad Tracks by Stef Donev McGraw Hill Leveled Readers 6th grade This was one of the many leveled readers that the classroom teacher gave me access to. I wanted to use an informational text. This book offers many facts about how and why our rail system operates as it does.

Book Introduction : Include new vocabulary, new important words, or unusual language structures
Vocabulary gauge a measurement locomotives a powered rail vehicle transcontinental across the continent chariot two-wheeled horse drawn vehicle from ancient times used for warfare and racing

This book, From Roman Roads to Railroad Tracks, will give us some information as to why the railroads were built as they are. There are facts and theories that you will need to look at critically as you read.

Strategy Reminder: Include information about how the strategy works as review so they are ready to use it. As you read, I want you to be thinking about what the main ideas are for the book and what details are there to support those main ideas. Setting the Purpose/Focus for the Days Reading and Strategy Use: Today you are going to read individually. I want you to be looking for the main ideas of the text and the details that make you believe it is an important idea. Ive given you a graphic organizer to get you started. The center circle would be for the overall topic of the text well talk about that as a group after you are all finished. The smaller circles are for the main points you find as you are reading you should write the details about each point off the side of the circle (I will show them one that I

have done). You can do this while you are reading, or after you are done.

Teaching Points: (pre-plan ideas, pages to discuss/talk about/return to in order to echo strategy being taught) There are a lot of details in this book, so you will have to think carefully about what is important and whats really not important. Lets look at page 12 In the second paragraph it says Stephenson was and English engineer who helped build the Liverpool & Manchester Railway between two major cities in England. Is that an important detail? We dont know without examining the rest of the paragraph. Read the paragraph and tell me what the important point is. Discussion Questions/Starters: P7 What does the author mean when he said the railroad would bring the country together? Why is that important? P9 Why would some countries deliberately make their trains a different gauge? P13 Why did it make sense for Stephenson to design the trains to the existing gauge? Writing Activity: Describe the writing extension activity On the back of their graphic organizers I will have the students write a brief summary of the text using some of the main points and details they found while reading.

OBSERVATIONS / ANECDOTAL NOTES TEMPLATE ON NEXT PAGE OBSERVATIONS/ANECDOTAL NOTES (4 points) STUDENT NAME Notes from: Observing and Dipping In to Their Reading Listening to Their Discussion and Reflections Observing and Reading Their Writing Observation G-mans oral reading is flat and expressionless. He does pause for punctuation, but these pauses seem to be unnaturally long. He appears to be reading ahead and then returning to his place to continue reading aloud. During the time I listened to him read he made two minor errors which he self-corrected (many/money; runes/rules). He worked at filling in major ideas and details as he read sections. Dicussion During the discussion, G-man used his notes to find the sections in the book to support his thoughts. He thought the main idea of the book was that having a standard gauge for the railroads was a good thing for the country. He stated that it allowed for easier travel from one section to another and pointed out the section where Lincoln proposed the Transcontinental Railway. Writing Using his notes and some of the thoughts from the group discussion G-man quickly wrote a 6 sentence summary of the book. He concluded that the author wanted to show how there might be a connection to ancient Rome.

G-man

Mack

Observation Mack is very expressive when she reads aloud. She reads quickly, often omitting articles and changing words within the sentences. These word substitutions did not alter the meaning of the passage, and Mack seemed to not notice that she had even made the substitutions. She

paused often while reading to fill in details on the bubble map. Discussion Mack felt that the main point of the book was that even though the reason behind the precise 48 measurement is unknown, there is a theory that it stems from when the Romans ruled in Great Britain. She referred to her notes and pointed out the final page of the book where the author states, No one can prove that wagon makers deliberately copied the Roman legions (p. 16). She said, These are just this guys ideas about why the wheels were that far apart. Writing Macks summary was the shortest of all which was in direct contrast to her bubble map. She had many details on her map which she didnt share during discussion or in her summary. When I read over her details, she had pulled important facts from the text, but may not have felt they were actually relevant to her summary since the group discussion didnt touch on those facts.

Lulu

Observation Lulu made only one error while reading aloud. She mispronounced gauge as gouge then immediately corrected herself and said, Oh yeah, that was one of the vocab words we looked at. She reads very quickly and expressively. She finished the entire book before turning to the bubble map. She then flipped through the selection filling in major points and details very quickly. She seemed to have noted the major points as she read and was able to quickly return to that section to pick up the supporting details. Discussion Lulu was quick to state that the overall main point of the book was that the standard gauge for the railroad was 4 feet 8 inches. She said that had to be the main idea because the author stated it on nearly every page! During the discussion, Lulu conceded that probably the dimensions werent necessarily the main point that probably it was more that there are theories about why this measurement has carried over. Writing Even though Lulu expressed the idea that the main point wasnt the specific dimensions of the wheel base, she still included that on her summary. She was also the only one to reference the authors statement that it was possible the ultimate wheel base was determined by a pair of horses galloping side by side at a distance they would not tip over when they made a tight turn (p. 16). She felt this was at the root of all the theories since man used horses long before powered vehicles.

Chamomile

Observation - Although Chamomile has stated that she really doesnt like reading, she is a very expressive and attentive reader. She made no errors during her read-aloud portion and appropriately used pauses for punctuation including a section with two emdashes. She worked on her bubble map in a very methodical way, typical of her work in her stated preferred subject, Math. She would jot down a word or two in a bubble with the page number. After she finished reading the selection, she returned to the bubble map and filled in more details. Discussion Of all the students in the group, Chamomile was the only one who had noted that some European countries used different gauge track on purpose. The group decided that was probably a good security measure and could be really helpful when all the countries are so close together. Writing Methodical thinking seems to drive Chamomile. She summarized the selection page by page using her notes on the bubble map. I could see

her erasing a long section so that she could put in a sentence from a prior page that she had forgotten. She included all the details that she had on her bubble map. Bree Observation As with other times Ive observed Bree reading, she read quickly but without much attention to the punctuation. She substituted any for the article an and self-corrected. She mispronounced the word dining and stumbled around before finally re-reading the sentence (about the different types of rail cars on a typical train) before coming to the conclusion that the word was dining. She worked on the bubble map as she read but seemed to spend a much longer time picking out main points and details as compared to her peers. Discussion Bree was very quiet during the group discussion only speaking when I asked her specific questions. In other settings, Bree has been very vocal, so I dont believe she is simply a quiet person. I wondered if she felt she didnt find the right ideas and details, or if she was simply not used to a small group setting such as this. Writing Brees summary was surprisingly thorough, especially when compared to her contributions during the group discussion. She concluded that the author wanted to present facts and theories about different types of transportation and how / why they may all be related to each other. She pointed out the fact that chariots and farm wagons both traveled the same roads, so it made sense that they would have the same gauge of wheels.

Additional Notes and Information: Even though my CT stated the students had used this type of graphic organizer before, they seemed to have no idea what to do with it. We spent considerable time simply going over how this type of organizer could be used to take notes.

Reflection Questions to Complete After the Lesson: (6 points) Make at least one connection to a course reading during your reflection responses. 1. What did you learn about your focus group students as readers? What strengths/needs did you observe? What would you teach in future lessons given what you saw? In general, I found that these students have excellent reading and comprehension skills. All of them could benefit from more mini-lessons on selecting the main idea and supporting details. The students seemed confused by what I meant by main idea and many of the details on their bubble maps didnt support the idea in the bubble. The students often chose items which were simply on the page to fill in something. From information in Module 3, I realize that students need training on how to determine the importance of information when they read.

They need to sift and sort information, weighing its importance as they read. In general, the students who took the most care with their bubble map (Chamomile and Bree) had the best written summaries. Each of those students put more thought into the types of details they were including on their maps. I believe these students would all benefit from learning how to take notes. 2. What did you learn about supporting readers in a small group setting and what did you learn about yourself as a reading teacher from this experience? The main thing that I learned was that working in a small group was more difficult than I had anticipated. Ive taught reading lessons one-to-one and as a whole class, but I found the small group to present more challenges for me. I thought I knew these readers that this would be an easy concept for them to grasp as they are among the top readers in their grade. I found that these students need the same support and training as any other student when it comes to reading strategies. 3. What went well? What would you do differently? Why? Be specific. The selection was at an appropriate level for these readers, but they may not have had the background knowledge that they needed to fully comprehend the concepts. Laura Pardos article stated that teachers should build students background knowledge to improve their comprehension. This will help them make connections to the text, which will in turn, enhance their recall of the text. I would give a bit more information in my introduction of the book the next time I taught this lesson and try to connect it to recent social studies lessons on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Additionally, I would teach a mini-lesson on note taking and this specific graphic organizer before attempting to use it in a guided reading lesson. Students need this skill to succeed in their studies and on end of grade tests. Working with informational texts requires a different skill set than narrative texts.

[Remember to turn in your practicum hours confirmation sheet signed by your clinical teacher.]

Main Ideas and Supporting Details