LESSON PLAN OUTLINEJMU Elementary Education Program

A. Scarecrow Comprehension

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON AND UNWRAPPING OF THE STANDARDEvery school day the students have about an hour and fifteen minutes for reading and doing

their reading rotations. During this time they can read to self, read to someone, or work on word work. While they are doing these things, they are sometimes pulled to work on a certain skill based on what group they have been grouped into. These groups are based on assessments that my cooperating teacher has done and are focused on what areas the students need more practice with. There is a group of students who are good readers and can breeze through a book, but when asked about what they read, they can’t answer a single question. I see that they do enjoy reading, but I think they could enjoy it so much more if they were able to comprehend what they’re reading. I’ve decided to do a poem related to fall and something they may be able to relate to if they’ve ever been to a pumpkin patch or read fall stories. I also wanted to pick something that wouldn’t involve super explicit comprehension questions, such as “what color was the dog’s ball?”. I picked a poem because they students will have to do a bit more critical thinking to comprehend the meaning of the poem as the writing is a bit more abstract, not just remember the words they read in a story about a dog.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVESUnderstand – The student will understand that comprehension of a text is essential to reading.

Know – The student will know the content of the text they read.

Do – The student will be able to read a poem and answer three comprehension questions about it.

D. ASSESSING LEARNINGWhat will your students do and say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your objectives? Remember – every objective must be assessed for every student!

Objective Student Work/Response Was Objective Met?The student will understand that comprehension of a text is essential to reading.

The student will correctly answer three questions that show comprehension of the poem they were given.

Yes

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING3.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional text and poetry.

f) Ask and answer questions about what is read. g) Draw conclusions about text. k) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process.

3.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading. e) Discuss meanings of words and develop vocabulary by listening and reading a

variety of texts. 3.6 The student will continue to read and demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction texts.

b) Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. j) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process.

Monica AtheyMrs. Coffey- 3rd Grade at Wilson Elementary

October 10th, 2013 at 2:00 pmOctober 1st, 2013

k) Identify new information gained from reading.

F. MATERIALS NEEDED A copy of the poem “Scarecrow” with the three comprehension questions on the back

o 6 copies- provided by me Pen or pencil

G. PROCEDURE The “comprehension group” will gather on the rug in a circle Engage:

I will ask the students if they know what “comprehension” means I will ask them if they ever catch themselves reading but not really paying attention to

what the words are saying I will ask, “What are some things that make comprehending a text difficult?”

o Possible answers: don’t understand the words, aren’t paying attention I will ask, “Have you ever seen a scarecrow?”, “Tell me about it”

Implementation I will pass out the poems to the students and they will each get a chance to read it to

themselves I will ask one student to volunteer to read it to the group We will discuss what we each thought the poem was about

o What happened in the poem?o What were some words that were confusing?o What was the main message?

We will go over the comprehension questions and answer them together while discussing them

o I will encourage the students to lead this part of the discussion about the comprehension questions

Closure I will ask the students what they thought of the poem and the questions

o “Were some of the questions harder for you to answer?”o “What learning techniques did you use to answer them?”o “What did you learn about reading poems and reading comprehension through

this activity?” Clean-Up

Collect papers and thank the students for their participation and attitudes

H. DIFFERENTIATIONSince this is the lower ability comprehension group, I suspect that they may need quite a bit of

guidance when we get to the point in the lesson when we are working on the comprehension questions. I will encourage students to read the poem on their own and lead their own discussion on what the poem is about. I will however be actively listening to see if I need to jump in and steer the conversation. I also suspect the students may need some assistance with some of the harder words in the poem. I will encourage their peers to answer questions about words if they are able and will provide definitions of words they don’t know if they need those. I also realize that some students may be more timid than others about speaking up to answer questions or read aloud. I will only have one person read aloud and not force anyone to if they don’t want to. I will also have them writing down their answers to the questions so that I have a record of if they understood or not. This way I am not only relying on discussion to see if they understood, but have their written work to look at if they are too shy or embarrassed to talk in discussion.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

I anticipate that a few things could go wrong with this lesson. The students are just beginning to work on poetry and haven’t quite grasped the idea that it isn’t the same type of writing as the children’s books or chapter books that they’re reading now. I anticipate that the wording and cadence of the poem may be confusing and possibly even discouraging to them. The writing is a bit more abstract and vague and requires the students to read into it to understand the content. I picked this on purpose to work on comprehension, but if it is too abstract for them I will need to be ready with ways to simplify and explain it to them. I also anticipate that when it comes to the comprehension questions on the back, the students may just jump to a surface-level answer that they guess immediately and not put enough thought into it. For example I anticipate that the question “Why can nobody hear the scarecrow cry if he is surrounded by ears?” may be too complex and the students may jump to a wrong answer too quickly. If this happens I will be ready with leading questions, such as “where is the scarecrow placed?” and “what kind of crops are grown in fields like the one the scarecrow is placed in?”. Hopefully this strategy will get them back on track and have them thinking critically.

Student Work Samples:

Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made them.

II. Student Work Sample Analysis: Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?

Look at the assessment data and identify 2 students who appear to fall into these 3 categories: (1) Gets it; (2) Has some good ideas, but there’s still room for learning and (3) Does not get it. Organize your responses to the following questions in a chart/table form similar to the one below.

Gets it Has some good ideas, but… Does not get it

Student A Student B Student C Student D Student E Student F

a. Understands…

Rylee

b. Confused about…

Christian

c. Questions to ask to clarify what I know

d. Ideas to work on next

a. What does each student appear to understand?b. What does each student appear to be confused about?c. What questions might you want to ask each student to clarify what you know about the student’s

understanding?d. What ideas does each student need to work on next?

III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again.

IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher?

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as learners?

VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching?

VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?