Grade Level: 5th grade

Target Area: Comprehension

Common Core State Standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2
Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by
key details; summarize the text.

Lesson Objective(s): Students will be able to develop and support a theme or gist
statement, throughout the comprehension texts available on Smart Tutor. Students
will reflect upon story grammar (characters, setting, plot, etc.) in order to retell the
story, including the theme or gist statement.

Materials
Rationale This second activity, using story grammar, is a perfect follow up to the
first activity where students will learn about the use of story grammar, and how to
describe each part of the story effectively. This website, Smart Tutor, is the perfect
website to outline the use of major and minor details in the text. It allows students
to interact with the story, and ties in both vocabulary and comprehension in a very
cohesive way. Students will be able to utilize their new literacies abilities through
the guided use of this website, and the instructional objectives align very well with
the website.

http://www.k5learning.com/sites/all/files/sample_lessons/RC_Context_Clues_L5_V
1_T4a/RC_Context_Clues_L5_V1_T4a.swf

http://www2.smarttutor.com/player/swf/RC_StoryStructure_L4_V1_T4a.swf

LESSON OUTLINE
Introduction
-Motivation Students greatly enjoy using technology, and I believe this will be a
natural motivator for students in this second activity.
-Set Purpose I will state to the students that the objective is to improve our
comprehension using our new literacy abilities on the laptops provided by the
school. Students are very familiar with educational websites, and should be familiar
with this general format.

Instruction
-Explicit instruction Students will review their graphic organizers from the
previous lesson. Instruction will mainly take place in the first lesson, but students
will again be reminded of story grammar and how it can affect the process of
summarizing and how they can utilize story grammar in order to effectively retell a
text and focus in on the theme or gist statement.
- Modeling I will perform a quick run through of how to use the website, modeling
the first question for them.
-Guided Practice While using the website, students will be monitored to make
sure they are answering accurately. This will ensure that they are truly learning a
comprehension strategy to use in the future.

Conclusion The conclusion will be to discuss and reflect on what we learned and
how it will help us in the future. Students will be asked to discuss how they may use
the graphic organizer tool in the future. Students will also be asked to summarize
the text into a general theme or gist statement, using evidence from the text. If
students struggle, they can refer back to their graphic organizer.

Ongoing Assessment Students should continue to use the graphic organizer tool
in any appropriate format. It will be made explicit that you do not necessarily need
to write one out in order for it to be effective, but as students grow in their
comprehension abilities, they will be able to make mental graphic organizers to
keep track of the texts they are reading.