Scaffolded Reading Experience Project

I. Introduction
A. Background Information:
1. Context: The target content area for my SRE is third grade Social
Studies. We will be working on our Economics unit of study, but more
specifically entrepreneurship. My class has 17 students and the lesson
will take place over two days, 45 minutes each day. My lesson will
also include tie-ins to our citizen-leader framework that we are trying to
integrate into all areas.
2. Text: The title of the text my students will read is Made in America
by Jean Liccione. I chose this title because it aligns with the NC DPI
Standards for Third Grade Social Studies. My lesson will address
standard 3.E.2.1 Explain why people become entrepreneurs.
Here are the results of my three-part text complexity assessment:
Quantitative: The back of the book says that it is Lexile 790L,
Guided Reading Level Q. Both of these are considered to be in the
range of a fourth grade reader. I used the free readability site and
it said that the Readability Consensus for this book, based on the 8
readability formulas the site uses, is Grade Level: 6, Reading Level:
easy to read, Reader's Age: 10-11 yrs. olds (Fifth and Sixth graders)
Qualitative:I will be using this text with students as part of our
Economics and Financial Literacy Social Studies unit of study. The
text will definitely offer more ideas and information about the
economics of small businesses. The author does an excellent job
explaining how entrepreneurs often get the idea to start their own
business and what it takes to turn those ideas into an actual
company. Students will need to know the meanings of several key
vocabulary words that are presented in the text: consumer,
entrepreneur, import, product, and profit. We will have spent some
time learning about these concepts prior to them reading this text.
The students will also need to be familiar with how to read a
timeline, use a glossary, captions, and sidebars in order to fully
comprehend the text. I think the book is written in a somewhat
conversational style that will make it easy for them to read.
Reader and Task: I think that my students will be highly interested

in this text. The businesses that are mentioned in the book are ones
that they will likely have some knowledge of: Louisville Slugger,
Goya Foods, JC Penney, and Levis Jeans to name a few. Learning
that regular people came up with ideas that ended up turning into
to hugely successful companies will no doubt intrigue them. It would
not be a good idea to read this book at the beginning of our unit of
study because the students wont have enough background
knowledge about economics to fully comprehend this book. I do not
think that my students would benefit from trying to read this book in
one sitting. It has a lot of information and they will need at least 2
or 3 days to read it and stop and jot notes. Despite the
quantitative readability levels on this book, I still think it is a good
choice for all of my students. I plan to allow most of my class to
read it with their reading partner. I have 5 students whom I believe
will need to read the book with me in a small group, so I can
provide extra support because they struggle with vocabulary in
context and interpretation of text beyond a literal level.
B. Philosophical/Theoretical Rationale:
Constructivism
As a student and as a teacher, I have always found that content area
reading can be a bit dry and uninteresting. I strongly believe that being
given the right motivation before reading increases the odds that the reader
will engage with the text. Pre-teaching tricky or unknown vocabulary sets
young readers up for success as well. I have been trying to use graphic
organizers more this school year to help my students organize their
thoughts when reading and when writing. I have found that teaching my
students to use a graphic organizer to aid them in their comprehension of a
text first helps them successfully use that same organizer when writing a
text of the same genre. For example I taught my students to use a tree
map to help them discern main ideas and details in informational texts.
They then used a tree map to plan their own informational writing. For this
lesson I am focusing on cause and effect, so I am having my students use
a double flow map. I am also looking for ways to integrate our citizenleader framework, that our school has developed, into as many lessons as I
can provided that I can do it in an authentic and meaningful way. This was
easy to do with this lesson because I was focusing on what sparks an
entrepreneurs vision and we were able to look at what it means to be a
visionary.

II. Lesson Plan

A. Instructional Objectives:
After instruction students will be able to explain why people become
entrepreneurs and where their ideas for new products may come from.
B. B-D-A Phases:
Before Reading
Motivate Readers- Small group brainstorm to answer questions,
Where do good ideas come from? When do we need them? and
then share out. Discuss what motivation means in terms of being a
driving force behind creativity.
Read Chapter 1, A Good Idea aloud to set up the main objective,
Why do people become entrepreneurs?. Review vocabulary words
on interactive word wall that are used in this chapter- entrepreneur,
products, profit
Show video about Braigo Labs. Set purpose before watching video
that students will be looking for: the idea that the boy had(central
event), what motivated him to come up with the idea(cause), how he
implemented his idea(effect).
Model completing multi flow map (cause and effect) using jots taken
during video.
Time: 30 minutes (It took closer to 45 minutes when I taught it.)
During Reading
Partner Reading- have groups of 2 partnerships read one of the four
chapters in the book with the same purpose in mind, stopping and
jotting along the way. The 2 partnerships will then work together to
complete a thinking map to share with students from the other
groups.
Time: 30 minutes
After Reading
After finishing their assigned chapter the 2 partnerships will then work
together to complete a thinking map to share with students from the
other groups.

 Large group discussion and share. Including tie in questions to

citizen-leader framework. What leadership competencies to
entrepreneurs need to have in order to be successful?
Read aloud last chapter and pose question, What great idea for a
new product/service or improvement upon an old product/service
might you come up with? This will set up individual writing/art project
where students come up with an advertisement for their own new
product/service.
Time 60 minutes

D. Assessment: Describe in detail the specific method/s or approaches

you would use to evaluate the students learning in relation to the lesson
objectives in your SRE. Refer to the information in our course textbook and
on our course website about assessment. If applicable, include any
assessment materials or rubrics as appendixes to your SRE document.
iRubric
http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/wpcontent/pdf/classroommanagement/ilearned.PDF
http://www.thecurriculumcorner.com/thecurriculumcorner456/wpcontent/pdf/classroommanagement/iwonder.PDF
http://www.3rdgradethoughts.com/2012/04/exit-slips-freebie.html
Flow map
Exit Slip
Business project rubric
III. Reflection
I truly enjoyed implementing my SRE plan. This lesson was part of a unit
of study on Economics and Financial literacy. Last year was the first year
that we had taught this unit, so I was excited to implement this lesson that
was new for this year. The book that I used was one we ordered over the
summer, so it was my first time using it with students. My third grade
students were more engaged and excited than I have seen them perhaps
all year. I felt that the motivating readers activity that I did during the
before reading phase was particularly meaningful. I was actually completely
blown away by the insightful comments my students made about where
good ideas come from during the brainstorming activity. The video I used
came from a tweet that saw on Twitter a couple of months ago. My principal

was in the room observing this lesson and she said that you could see what
an impact the video had on my students. She said you could almost hear
them thinking, If that 13 year old boy could have a big idea and become an
entrepreneur, I can too! I do think that I probably spent a bit too much time
on this portion of the lesson, but as I said my students were totally engaged
and the conversation was so powerful. I really had a hard time moving on
as quickly as I probably should have! I will say that when I ran out of time
and told them we would have to read the book the next day, they were
genuinely disappointed. So, since my goal was to motivate them to want to
read the text, I did succeed despite the length of the before reading portion.
On the second day, my students were still very excited about reading the
text I gave them. I decided that given the high reading level of the text that
having every partnership read the entire book was not reasonable. As the
students were reading, it was obvious that this was a good suggestion.
They did not have a lot of difficulty decoding the text, but pulling out the
most important information and deciding what was jot-worthy was a bit
challenging. I had planned to stay with the group that I thought would
struggle the most, but ended up having to circulate to all of the groups
because everyone needed some assistance. Despite the difficulties, I did
feel that they got the gist of their assigned chapters and they remained
engaged while reading.
All groups definitely needed assistance with completing their multi-flow
maps. They were easily able to identify what sparked the big idea for the
company they were reading about(cause) and what the big idea
was(event), but identifying the effects was more difficult. The posters they
made were pretty sparse until I pushed them to use the notes they had
taken to add more details. They eventually got to the end point I was
hoping for, but they needed more support than I had anticipated.
Students were very excited to share what they had learned with the other
groups and to learn from their peers as well. I was particularly impressed
with how easily my students were able to discuss the leadership qualities
all of the entrepreneurs in the book had to embody in order to succeed.
Next year when I do this SRE, I will have students complete individual exit
slips as an assessment. While I do feel that the flow maps combined with
the whole class discussion, tell me that I met my objectives, I think I should
have assessed their learning as individuals.

Student Name: ___________________________

Vocabulary Words

Creativity

Organization

Demonstrates a
strong understanding
of economics through
the correct use of
many vocabulary
words.

Original and attention

getting idea. Demonstrates
personal involvement in
their idea.

Answered all of the

questions provided
thoroughly and with
an abundance of
relevant details.

Demonstrates an
understanding of
economics through
the use of several
vocabulary words.

Idea for the business is

original and well thought
out.

Answered all of the

questions with
appropriate amount
of detail.

Some vocabulary
words were used, but
they may have been
used incorrectly or
out of context.

Has a workable idea, but

lacks a definite plan of
action for their business.
Does not clearly connect to
the purpose.

Did not answer all of

the questions or did
not answer all of the
questions with an
appropriate amount
of detail.

No vocabulary words
were used.

Ideas presented are vague,

not original, or not clearly
stated.

Answered only a few

of the questions and
did not include
detailed explanations
to the questions that
were answered.

RUBRIC

Business Project

Imagine that you are an aspiring entrepreneur! You will create an idea
for a small business which you could run that either provides a service or
manufactures a good. You should answer all of the following questions in
your project:
1. Is your business going to manufacture goods or provide a service?
2. Who is your target market? **
3. How will you know if there is a demand for your product or service?
4. Who/what will be your competition?
5. Will your business rely on natural resources?
6. What will you need to start your business?
7. What risks are possible for you as you start your business?
8. What will you do if the demand for your good or service is greater than
your supply? What will you do if the demand is less than your supply?
**Optional- Create a market survey to find out if your target market will be
interested in buying what you are selling.
http://www.newsnet5.com/money/business-news/boy-13-builds-braille-printer-with-legos-startscompany
http://office.tumblr.com/#UYmu5rtRLaOs688c.97
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/06/health/ucf-3d-printed-arms-for-kids/index.html

RDJR video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEx5lmbCKtY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxCDZquT2Yk