Student Teaching edTPA Lesson Plan Template

Subject: 5th grade, Language Arts Central Focus: Context clues

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.1 Quote accurately
from a text when explaining what the text says
Date submitted: Date taught: 3-27-18
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the
text.

Daily Lesson Objective: Students will use context clues to discover certain word meanings.

21st Century Skills: Critical thinking, creativity and Academic Language Demand (Language Function and
imagination Vocabulary): Explain, drawing inferences, discover, context clues,

Prior Knowledge: Students will need to be familiar with context clues and how to make inferences within a passage.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

“This week, we are going to talk more about context clues and vocabulary words. But first, 3-5
what are context clues? How do we use them?” minutes

“Yes, basically you read an article or a piece of text, and to distinguish something like a
1. Focus and
vocabulary word, you read the sentences or paragraph around the word to figure out the
Review
meaning behind it and how the word is used in this sentence or text.”

“So, we will be doing just that. We are going to focus on context clues and making
inferences, while reading an article together.”
“Today, we are going to read an article about a Holocaust survivor named Eugene Black. 30
2. Statement of
While doing so, we will use our context clues and critical thinking to read the text and figure seconds
Objective
out the meaning behind certain vocabulary words that we could be unfamiliar with.”
for Student
To being the lesson, the teacher will have students come to the main carpet, where the 7-10
whiteboard is, as well as a Context Clues anchor chart. The teacher will go into more detail minutes
about context clues and why they are important.
“Context clues are important, because they allow us ways to read an article or passage.
Sometimes when we read, we can’t figure out what the text is trying to say, or what the
meaning of a word is in that very sentence. Well, to figure this out, we use context clues.
When we use context clues, we re-read part of the paragraph or text to determine the
meaning behind the word or phrase that we had a little confusion on. When doing this, we
3. Teacher
can look for examples, definitions, word parts, antonyms, or synonyms (Using Context
Input
Clues anchor chart). For example, ‘The fox raced swiftly through the trees and flew out of
sight.’ We know that swiftly is the word we are trying to figure out the meaning behind, so
let’s read the sentence one more time. If the fox was racing and flew out of sight, we know
he was probably going very fast. We can put fast in the blank, and see if it makes sense.
‘The fox raced fast through the trees and flew out of sight.’ Does it sound like it makes
sense? It does to me. Use your best judgment and put substitute words in that could make
sense within the sentence. That may help more than you think. Now, I am going to read our
article aloud, and we will do the same thing with that.”
The teacher will read about Eugene Black, the Holocaust survivor aloud, and put the 12-15
vocabulary words on the whiteboard. These will be the words that students will need to find minutes
4. Guided the meaning of using context clues (lorry, forcibly, emerged, manufacture, pneumonia, minutes
Practice rifle). The teacher will model using context clues from the passage on the word
“upbringing” and “lorry” (lorry is used twice in two different instances).
“Using context clues, I am going to model what you will be doing, and how you can do it.
 Everyone should have their reading journals out and ready to record information.
So I read the article fully first. I read it aloud, but y’all will be reading it independently.
After I have read, I am going to find the words I am unsure of and underline it. Since you
guys will be reading from the computer, you will copy the sentence in your reading journal
and circle the word you are unsure of. You will then draw an arrow, and write down what
you think the new word means. So our first word is ‘upbringing’.”

“The paragraph: ‘Eugene was born Jeno Schwartz in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia in 1928. He
had a happy family life with 3 sisters and a brother. His mother came from an orthodox
Jewish family but his father, who was a master tailor, did not. Religion played little part in
Eugene's upbringing.’”

“So I reread the paragraph again, looking for clues. In this paragraph, they are talking about
Eugene’s past, his family, how he grew up. To me, this means his background, like where he
came from. What do y’all think?”

“The next word is lorry. We can do this one together. You guys try it first by yourselves,
then we will talk about it. The sentence states that, ‘Eugene wasn’t allowed into the house;
he was forces onto the lorry with the rest of his family and other Jewish people from the
ghetto.’
If he wasn’t allowed to go to a home, what do you think this was? Many people were forced
different places during this time. Many had to be moved and transported. I think lorry means
transportation, maybe a train? What do y’all think? This is what y’all will be doing
independently.
Do you have any questions?
Okay, now I want you guys to get started. Go back to your seats, and the article will be on
Canvas under Eugene Black.”
Students will independently read the article a second time. The teacher will provide a list of 12-15
words (lorry, forcibly, emerged, manufacture, pneumonia, rifle) for students to use their minutes
context clues and find the meaning of the word used in this article.
When students have completed that assignment, there will be two questions they need to
answer about the text:
5. Independent
“What did Eugene learn about his two sisters’ fate according to the text?”
Practice
“How was it different than what he originally thought?”
These questions will be answered in the independent section of the student’s reading
journals.

Students will be scored based on their ability to express their meaning of the vocabulary words
6. Assessment
throughout the article, and the questions at the end to see if they understood the article they were
Methods of
reading. To achieve mastery, students must earn 8 out of 10 points (80% accuracy).
all
objectives/skills
- Meaning of each vocabulary word (6 words): 6 points, 1 point per vocabulary meaning
:
-Content questions: 4 points, 2 points per question
3
Once the lesson and independent practice is over, the class will come back together to talk minutes
about how they used context clues, and whether they had any difficulties with the
7. Closure
vocabulary terms. A couple volunteers will then share what they they thought about the
article as a whole and how it affected them, as well as the questions they answered.

8. Assessment Overall, students knew the information and vocabulary words from the article. They used context clues
Results of to find the meaning of six vocabulary words and answered two content questions. Out of 17 students in
all the class, 2 students had issues using their context clues to find the meaning of the vocabulary words.
objectives/skills They received partial credit for that assessment. A majority of the class got most of the vocabulary
: words correct, with 4 students missing one or two correct answers. 10 students were able to answer the
content questions no problem, while 4 students missed one of the questions, and 3 students were not
 able to answer both of the questions correctly.

Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations

For students who may have difficulty reading and
making connections to the text, the teacher will
pick out fewer words in the article for those
students to work on. The students may also have
the teacher read the passage to them aloud so they
can hear it, if they have difficulty reading
silently/independently.
Teacher will work with students, reading a different, less difficult
passage, but with the same outline and idea of the original article.
Teacher will pull 3-4 phrases for students to focus on and try to
make connections with their context clues, and have a centralized
focus. Teacher will assist in making these connections with the
students and the passage.

Materials/Technology:
Printed article (teacher use)
Students’ computers
Student reading journal
Pencil
Context Clues chart/model
Whiteboard

Reflection on lesson:
Overall, I think the lesson went very well. The students paid close attention and followed along with the article while I
was reading aloud. Students had good questions and seemed to really explore the content of the article and were interested
in the material. First I introduced the topic and the article, read it, and pointed out the vocabulary words while reading the
article. After the article, students asked questions and then I wrote down the vocabulary words on the board and modeled
what we would be doing with the words, using context clues. Students wrote in their journals and followed along with me
as I modeled what they would later be doing independently. I enjoyed teaching this lesson because of the students and
how well they participated.

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