Reading Experience Lesson Plan

EDIS 5401: English Education

Context:

Course name: Standard English 6

Grade level: 6
Length of lesson: 75 minutes

Students: 24 students of varying degrees of motivation and ability; 17

Caucasian students, 3 African-American students, one Middle-Eastern
student, two Hispanic students, and one mixed-race student. The two
Hispanic students are also English Language Learners who often sit near one
another and support one anothers learning. Three students have IEPs. Most
of the class reads at or below grade level as determined by diagnostic
reading assessments at the beginning of the year, where students read
passages and verbally answer questions about the passage they have read.
Many of them have proficient decoding skills, but struggle with producing
substantive meaning and connections to texts they are reading.

Current Unit: Inhabiting Perspective: Experiencing Life Through Literature:

Perspective, Voice, Empathy & Reading Strategies within the context of
multicultural texts

Context: This lesson will take place following the introductory Think-Aloud
lesson using vignettes from Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street.
This lesson will build on the Think-Aloud process by introducing students to
the individual text code, or logograph for making connections. This is part of
the staggered introduction of logographs, which is a reading strategy for
guiding students towards constructing meaning and monitoring
understanding during the reading process. The mentor text used will be
Louise Erdrichs Chickadee, a novel about twin boys of the Chippewa Native
American tribe.

Virginia SOL(s):

VSOL 6.5: The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a

variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and poetry.

a) Identify the elements of narrative structure, including setting,

character, plot, conflict, and theme.
e) Use prior and background knowledge as context for new
learning.
l) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout
the reading process.

Common Core State Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the
overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme,
setting, or plot.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in
a text.

Objectives (UKD format):

Students will UNDERSTAND that:

1) The use of reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout

the reading process is essential in guiding students to engagement
and meaningful interpretation of the text.

Students will FEEL that:

1) Confidence in working in small-group Think-Alouds.

2) Value of contributions of their peers in collaborative Think-Alouds.

Students will KNOW that:

1) Pausing while thinking about a text can help them actively

construct meaning.
2) Annotating while reading is a way of monitoring thinking and active
reading.
3) Personal interpretations, or student-generated understanding and
meaning from a text, can be used to make connections and to
construct understanding of larger themes as well as social or
political functions.
4) Creating connections to a character in a text is a way of practicing
empathy.
5) Interpretations of a text or a character can change as a text
progresses and the reader is presented with new information.

Students will be ABLE to:

1) Apply the Think-Aloud strategy to interpret the text in small groups.

2) Use logographs simultaneously with Think-Alouds to demonstrate
immediate engagement with the text in conjunction with
annotations used to preserve student thoughts and progress
directly in the text for later reference.
3) Explain their thought processes verbally, thinking metacognitively,
in Think-Aloud and use of annotations to their small groups.
4) Refer back to their annotated texts to reflect on their interpretation
and construction of meaning through personal response.
5) Listen actively and thoughtfully through the contributions of peers.
 6) Practice respect by not speaking while others are speaking.
7) Allow room in the conversation for others.

Assessments: Methods for evaluating each of the specific objectives

listed above.

DIAGNOSTIC: Students will demonstrate what they already know by

Initial, first-week observation during class and sample writing response
from the cultural artifact introduction activity serves as the diagnostic
assessment. Experience with previous years indicates to the instructor
that students in the beginning of the year struggle with engagement,
personal interpretation, and the construction of meaning during
reading of the text. That is, students struggle with making meaning
and understanding from sentences on a page. They need additional
scaffolding to make the connection between the text and larger and
more applicable thematic concepts, as well as generally making
personal connections. They read texts literally and isolatingly as words
written by another person, that have minimal meaning for them or
application to their lives. The types of reading strategies/text coding
have been chosen to best benefit students, with a wide variety being
taught so that students have options to choose from when they pursue
future independent and class readings. Readers with higher readiness
levels that are coming into the classroom with more developed skills
can use these same reading strategies to engage in higher-level
thinking.

FORMATIVE: Students will show their progress towards todays objectives

by
Conferencing during Small Group Think-Aloud; I will circulate around
the room observing and conferencing within small groups taking care
to spend time observing and talking to each student in the small group
to ensure individual accountability. I will make individual student notes
while conferencing to track areas of struggle for each student.
Feedback will be verbal, succinct and during conferencing. [VSOL 6.5]
[CCSS 6.5, 6.6]
o Criteria for grading:
Is the student employing the think-aloud method
thoughtfully?
Has the student been questioning the text?
Is the student able to demonstrate progress in the utilization
of the Think-Aloud strategy to engage and make personal
and thematic interpretations of the text?
Think-Aloud Self Assessment; Students will fill out a Self-Assessment at
the end of the class period, reflecting on the Think-Aloud as a reading
strategy as well as their utilization of it during class. This will serve
more as a teacher resource to assess how students are doing in terms
of employing different strategies while reading. Feedback will be
written on the Self-Assessment and returned, so students can use their
self-assessments in the reflection portion of their Individual Personal
Interpretation Journals (see below). [VSOL 6.5] [CCSS 6.5, 6.6]
 o Criteria for grading:
Is the student able to authentically reflect on the Think-
Aloud method?
Is the student able to evaluate and compare different
reading strategies and how they align with scaffolding
their personal interpretation of the text? (Are they able to
identify what works better for them and what doesnt?)

SUMMATIVE: Students will ultimately be assessed (today or in a future lesson)

on these standards by
Submission of Final Draft of Found Poem; students will submit a final
draft of a Found Poem after two rounds of revision done in in-class
workshop. The Found Poem will be constructed from powerful words
and phrases drawn from perspective-based entries from their own
Individual Personal Interpretation Journals.
o Found Poems will be graded for completion.
Performance of Found Poem; on the last day of the unit, students will
perform their Found Poetry pieces to the class in a celebratory Poetry
Jam.
o Criteria for grading:
Is the student incorporating emotion and expression into
their reading of their Found Poem?
Is the student being an active listener?
Has the student asked a question or contributed a
comment during the poet dialogue following each
performance?
Is the student being a respectful and courteous audience
member?
Personal Writing Response Journals (GoogleDocs); these will be ongoing
journals in which students include Thought Logs about class texts as
well as independent reading texts, responding to premade prompts or
making their own. Journals will be submitted bimonthly for completion
grades. One focus piece will be submitted at the end of the unit to
assess for quality of interpretation, incorporation and use of instructed
grammar skill, and improvements made on final drafts based on peer
and instructor feedback. Students will have to integrate their use of
reading strategies into their reading response journal entries. Journals
will also include a summative self-assessment in which they are to
reflect in how their use of reading strategies has grown or change over
time. They will be able to use their self-assessments from each mini-
lesson as checkpoint references. Feedback will be provided through in-
document comments and an end summative statement, as well as
through individual conferencing.
o Criteria for grading:
Is the student employing reading strategies thoughtfully?
Is the student able to use reading strategies to aid in his
or her making of connections, predictions or
visualizations?
Has the student been questioning the text?
 Is the student able to demonstrate progress in the
utilization of reading strategies to engage and make
personal interpretations?
Is the student able to authentically reflect on the Think-
Aloud method?
Is the student able to evaluate and compare different
reading strategies and how they align with scaffolding
their personal interpretation of the text? (Are they able to
identify what works better for them and what doesnt?)

Materials Needed:

Copies of:
o Copies of excerpt from Chickadee by Louise Erdrich (APPENDIX
A)
o Making Connections Handout (APPENDIX B)
o Connections Self-Assessment Exit Ticket (APPENDIX C)
o Hook Slideshow (APPENDIX D; attached as PowerPoint)
o Google Classroom Prompts to be put online (APPENDIX E)

Instructional Steps (Procedures): Detail student and teacher

behavior.

Beginning Room Arrangement: The desks will be arranged in a seminar-style

circle and the digital projector will be on, showing the slideshow of Ojibwe
photographs and playing the music from the Anishinabe Spirit Bear Song
video. One light will be cut off so that students will be able to see the
photographs. On the whiteboard will be written, Ojibwe Native American
Tribe, Minnesota, USA.

I. Welcome/greeting/announcements (5 minutes)

I will greet my students at the door, encouraging them to take a seat, fill out
their agendas, get settled and get their materials ready for class. Post-it
notes will be on each student desk.

II. Hook/bridge/opening to lesson (15 minutes)

Aaniin [ah-neen] my class! Aaniin! Or, in English, Hello! In the Ojibwe

language, Aaniin is a common greeting, or way of saying hello. You may see
that you have post-it notes on your desks, but do not touch them just yet! We
will need them in a few minutes. When I say go, please turn to the person
you are sitting next to, your companion in the learning community, shake
their hand, and say, Aaniin. Go! [Give students time to greet one another.]
We have lots of learning to do today, but my hope is that it will all be very
exciting! I hope you have been enjoying the music and the photos on the
slideshow that have been playing as you have come in. The music and the
photos come from the Ojibwe Native American Tribe. [Flip to slide with
names.] They are also called the Chippewa Native Americans, and some
members of the Ojibwe, or Chippewa tribe, call themselves Anishinabe
thats how you will hear the tribe referred to in the text we will read today.
Thats right, this Native American tribe has three different names. [Pointing
to the slide on the board.] Ojibwe, Chippewa and Anishinabe. Lets practice
saying them together. Ready? Ojibwe, Chippewa, Anishinabe. [Flip to map
slide, pointing to states/provinces throughout description.] Now, the Ojibwe
tribe lives in the northern Midwest region of the United States, in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan, and also Southern Canada. I know this feels far
awaythe Midwest is a whole different region of the United States, and
Canada is a whole other country!

But this has everything to do with reading. Do you all remember when we
talked earlier about reading as an experience that can transport you
anywhere in the world, and even beyond it. When you read, you can step into
the shoes of a young Ojibwe boy or girl in the snowy plains of Minnesota,
smelling meat cooking over an open fire and listening to old Ojibwe stories,
or folklore. You can do this without ever leaving your seat. That is the power
of words, the power of reading, and none know that better than the Ojibwe
Native Americans, who have a long and powerful history of oral storytelling,
or telling stories out loud. Raise your hand if you like to tell stories! [Let
students raise hands.] Raise your hand if you like to listen to stories! [Let
students raise hands.] Now, I would like for you to take two minutes and write
down on your post-it note the name or title of a story that you like to tell,
read or listen to. What is a story that means something to you? Take two
minutes now! [Set timer for two minutes.] Now that we are thinking about
stories that mean a lot to us, we can take a look at this story that means a lot
to the Ojibwe people. This is a story about the origin of creation, more
specifically, where North America, the continent we live on, came from. It is
an Ojibwe myth. Storytelling is a way of passing down history, information
and culture. It is a beautiful and powerful way to keep tradition rich and alive.
Please listen quietly to the video. [Play An Ojibwe Story of Creation video.]

[After the video has commenced, discuss with students the series of events
that took place in the story to recount students understanding of the plot.]

The Ojibwe have such a beautiful myth that is shared and passed down
generations through storytelling. We can consider the Perspective (thats one
of our unit BuzzWords, guys!) of Ojibwe Native Americans and how that
perspective may be different from ours and the way we see the world.
Learning about other cultures can be a way of expanding the way we
understand the vast and mysterious world!

III. Think-Aloud Model (25 minutes)

Last class, we explored Perspective through the eyes of Esperanza, a

Mexican-American character living in a city. Today, we are going to explore a
perspective that is completely differentthat of Chickadee, a young boy, one
of twins, of the Ojibwe tribe. [Pass out packets with passages from Chickadee
by Louise Erdrich (APPENDIX A).] Chickadee and his twin brother, Makoons,
live in Minnesota by Lake Superior, which is one of the five Great Lakes.
Were going to keep using the Think-Aloud strategy that we used with the
stories about Esperanza, which we practiced in small groups last class, but
today we are going to focus on thinking about connections as we move
through the text. How can we, as the readers of this text, feel a connection,
or find similarity between us and the text, or the text and the world around
us? How can we practice Empathy, one of our Unit Buzzwords, when we read?
What about reading makes it easy for us to be empathetic? Let us look at this
excerpt from Chickadee, by Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich, and see!

[Switch to digital overhead projector mode. I will have my own copy of

Chickadee.]

Please follow along in the text as I read out loud. Again, we are practicing our
Think-Aloud strategy to monitor the thinking we do as we read. Chickadee, by
Louise Erdrich.

Chickadee was sure that he remembered everything about the day that he and his
twin brother were born. It was cold, wasnt it, Nimama? Just like today? Didnt the
snow come suddenly? I remember that there was lots of snow! Omakayas looked
down at him and smiled wearily. She had told this story a hundred times, and
Chickadee had told it a hundred times more. He had heard it so many times that he
now believed that he was the one who remembered every detail. He was an
exhausting child, and there were two of him! His twin, Makoons, was using a stick to
spear an imaginary bear like the old woman in his mothers stories.

Wow, I can see in my text that this line is underlined. Lets read it again. She
had told this story a hundred times, and Chickadee had told it a hundred
times more. He had heard it so many times that he now believed that he was
the one who remembered every detail. Now, this underlining of the text is
signaling to me that there is a connection to be made! First, I am going to
draw my stick-figure logograph on my text. I am monitoring my thought
process because I am about to make a connection to the text! Next, I am
going to look over at my Making Connections sheet, and yes, here it is, right
on the right side of the chart! [Bring up the Making Connections handout so
that it is side-by side to the Chickadee text.] Now, I am going to read the
question over in the next column, which is going to help me start thinking
about a connection I can make to the text. It says here Text-to-Self
connection, which means I am going to make a personal connection between
myself and the text. I am going to write TTS on my text right underneath
my logograph. The question says, Chickadee has heard the story of his birth
many times. Can you think of a story that youve heard many times and
know by heart, just like Chickadee? Here in the box, I am going to answer
the question, making my own Text-to-Self connection. A story I have heard
just about a million times is the fairy tale Cinderella. As a kid, I used to have
a huge book of fairytales that I carried with me everywhere, and I had most
of those stories memorized and could tell them to other people from memory.
That probably was just like how Chickadee felt about the story of his birth. In
the box here, Ill write a sentence about that, using the words just like. Ill
say, I remember the story of Cinderella very well, just like Chickadee knows
the story of his birth. So first will come the part about you, like where I am
talking about knowing the story of Cinderella, and next will come the words
just like, and then the part about the character from the book, in this case,
Chickadee. I am comparing myself and Chickadees experience and finding
similarities between our experiences, even though we are probably very
different. In a way, I think I can feel similarly to how Chickadee is feeling in
this instance in the text, and Ill call that empathy. Okay, lets keep going.

Im Old Tallow! he cried. Stand still, Nimama. You be the bear! Omakayas growled
and took the stick. The twins were eight years old, and Omakayas was alone in the
camp with them. Their father, Animikiins, was out hunting moose. Ordinarily, he
would have taken the boys along so they could learn to hunt by his side. But today
the air had that iron edge of snow. The sky was growing dark and the clouds looked
heavy. Snow for certain. Perhaps that was why Chickadee could not stop talking
about the day he was born. I remember, he started again, you were out collecting
wood. I was cold. We were cold, Makoons corrected. You were out collecting wood
for a big fire, Nimama, when suddenly the snow just whirled down out of nowhere! It
was a flash storm, a blizzard! You started back to the lodge. You staggered, carrying
your load of wood.

Alright, in this section, the part about the snowstorm is underlined. The sky
was growing dark and the clouds looked heavy. Snow for certain. I am going
to draw my stick figure logograph in the margin next to these lines again and
again look at my Making Connections sheet to the next set of boxes. Yep!
Here it is. It says, Text-to-World. I will write TTW in the margins under my
stick figure. Then I will go ahead and answer the question in the box:
Chickadee and his family are about to be in the middle of a huge
snowstorm. When was the last time you ever saw or experienced snow? I
am going to write down my answer to the questionthe last time I saw snow
was last winter when we got a whole week off of school! [Write in my answer
on my handout sheet, continue modeling with the remainder of the first
section of the text, right before the picture of bears.]

IV. Think-Aloud in Small Groups (30 minutes)

Now that you guys have seen me use the Think-Aloud model for the initial
part of the story, we will progress into the second part of class, where you will
be splitting into small groups that Ive chosen, just like we did last class, and
we will take turns practicing this model with the rest of the storys excerpt
the moose hunt scene, with Chickadee and Makoons father, Animikiins. This
scene starts right where there is the picture of the bears in the text, and goes
on for a paragraph to the end. A really intense scene! I have group name
tents here, and Ill go ahead and set them up in various sections of the room.
Two name tents will go in the hallway so that its not too crowded in here.
Today, the person whose first name is first in the alphabet gets to think aloud
first! Make sure you are all following along on your connections sheets and
pausing to talk about and write down your connections whenever you
underlines, remembering to draw your stick figure logograph and write what
kind of connections are being made in your text. Today, being an active
listener in your group means that you can help one another make
connections to the characters or the events happening in the text. Youll be
hearing different ways people connect to the same storyanother layer of
exploring perspective! Remember, you will be turning in your Making
Connections Handout to me at the end of class today.

Again, a reminder to think in terms of the themes weve been talking about
for this unit that are on the top of the whiteboard. Write them at the top of
your story packet if you need to, so you can reference them to guide your
thinking and connection-making. Empathy is a big one today!

[Let groups split up, circulate for individual and group observation and
conferencing at this time.]

Anticipated patterns in student talk:

If students are struggling with talking after reading their portion of the
text, I would direct them to reconsider the questions on their Making
Connections sheet as well as to the thought words, specifically
empathy, to structure their thinking.
o If they are still struggling, I can ask them a more direct question
trying to draw out a personal connection.
If students are struggling with reading their passage out loud, I would
encourage them to do their best and to be patient and helpful with
their classmates. This is a collaborative learning environment! We all
have something different and valuable to bring to the table, and to
help each other grow as readers and lifelong learners.
o Students could also read passages out loud in partners or in
groups of three, if nervous anxiety about reading out loud by
themselves is present.
Especially students with learning disabilities, could
partner up with a stronger reader in the class (set up in
classroom norms of reading aloud for these two students
specifically)

V. Conclusion (15 minutes)

Alright yall, lets wrap up our Think-Alouds! Make sure everyone has their
name on their Making Connections Handout. Now give your handouts to one
person in your group. When I say go, that person will turn in your papers to
the box and everyone else will return to their seats. If your group has not
gotten through the entire story, dont worry, just turn in to me what you have
now and return please to your seats. Ready? Go!

Thank you for a great and thoughtful class today. Im passing around todays
exit cards about connection-making. Go ahead and take a few minutes to fill
it out independently and Ill collect them when youre finished. [Give students
about 15 minutes to fill out self-assessment. Circulate during this time. Have
students turn them in to inbox at front of room when finished.]

[When there are about 5 minutes left of class.]

Like usual, I would like for you to make a response entry to your Personal
Interpretation Journals using the prompt questions on Google Classroom
remember, you have this written in your agendas! [Read out, go over prompt
questions with students.] So you will just have to choose one of these
prompts to respond to for homework to extend the thinking that we have
done today. Okay, thank you for your excellent learning, I will see you all next
class!

Attention to Individual Student Needs: Detail specific

actions/materials you will use to differentiate your instruction to
meet various individuals learning needs in this lesson.

I will give attention to individual student needs through thoughtful grouping,

modeling and explicit instruction, and extra support and scaffolding through
individual conferences. I will group my WIDA level 3 students each with a
WIDA level 4 student and a stronger reader; likewise, I will group my students
who have focus trouble, like Joey, with students who they get along with and
can keep them on-task. The groups will be homogeneous so that the
struggling students, who will have reading partners, will have more good
examples of modeling the think-aloud strategy. The guiding questions are
structured in a way to help scaffold students into connecting the text with
their own lives. Explicitly modeling a think-aloud for a good portion of the text
allows students to get an idea of how they should be utilizing the think-aloud
method in small groups. As I circulate in the small groups, I can ask students
provoking questions or provide my own personal connections to guide
struggling students to predict, connect and question. I can also provide
additional help and scaffolding as the students start to do their personal
interpretation journals. I do not want to differentiate the actual target texts
for the unit, though I could differentiate for difficulty in supplementary texts
for enrichment (i.e. quad text set style).

I have also included footnotes in my transcription of Erdrichs Chickadee for

students who are struggling with the challenging vocabulary in the text.

I also want to give detailed and constructive feedback for cumulative journals
when they are submitted at the end of the semester, so that students can
use that feedback to grow in succeeding semesters. Depending on the level
of feedback and additional guidance and scaffolding the student needs,
feedback could range from solely instructor reflection/comments at the end
of the journal to more intensive, in-text feedback on some specific pieces to
be gone over with me in individual conferencing. In individual conferencing,
we could develop an individualized list of a students areas of growth and
areas that are growing, and need more attention. These could be the goals
set for the next semesters journal.
Technology Use:

A digital projector will be used to display the slideshow shown in the lessons
hook. The digital overhead will be used to show the students the process of
annotating their texts with logographs throughout the Think-Aloud.