Shared Reading Textbook Literacy lesson

 

Shared Reading – 5-Day Lesson Plan

Reading a Science Textbook (grade 6)

Lesson Focus: What is the focus of the lesson? How will I teach it? The focus of the lesson is to learn how to access information from a textbook.  This includes textbook format and features, and skimming to predict content. This is a pre-reading strategy that will provide a context for reading, and allow students to find specific information.  It will also serve to introduce the first science topic.  I will use a shared reading approach involving read-alouds, think-alouds, guided practice, paired practice, and discussion.

Rationale: Why am I teaching this lesson? The junior student is having their first introduction to textbooks and are unfamiliar with this format.  They need to develop literacy skills to be successful in using their textbooks.

Assessment: How will I know when my students are successful? Students will be able to recognize and use the features of their science textbook in a textbook scavenger hunt.  They will also make realistic predictions of text when given only the key features of a textbook section (title, figures, bolded words).  Finally, they will be able to efficiently locate requested information in their textbook through skimming and predicting in a “Quick on the draw” game.  Reflective journals will be used as formative assessment.  Teacher anecdotal observations will be made throughout.

Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge do my students need in order to be successful with this lesson’s focus? Prior to this lesson, students will need to be familiar with the characteristics of a fiction text.

Curriculum Expectations: Which expectations will I address? 6e23     • read a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials for different purposes; 6e25     • read independently, selecting appropriate reading strategies; 6e32     – summarize and explain the main ideas in information materials 6e37     – identify different forms of writing and describe their characteristics 6e46     – use a variety of conventions of formal texts to find and verify information (e.g., index, headings and subheadings, charts, glossary). Relevant science expectations to the textbook sections covered.

Materials/Preparation for Teaching: What do I need to know, have, and be able to do before I can begin the lesson? Class set of grade 6 science textbooks, class set of a novel with standard format, chart paper and markers, Powerpoint (or overhead) of section 2 of the science text, student journals, skim reading prediction sheet for each pair of students, questions for sections 3-6 of science text.

Differentiated Instruction: How can I ensure that I am meeting the needs of all my students? -Allow students to choose the section of the textbook to read, have some read portions of text online, choose a graphic organizer format, have students work in pairs for cooperative learning Accommodations: Give preferential seating for ESL students and students with special needs to allow for easy redirection when a student is confused. During paired work, ESL and special needs students will be paired with stronger students for support

Instruction: Day 1: Textbook Features Before Reading: Whole Class -Hand out textbooks and novels.  Brainstorm -Ask:  A textbook is a form of informational text.  What does that mean?  What is the purpose of an informational text? -Ask:  How is a textbook different from a fiction text like a novel? During Reading: Whole Class - Teacher creates a chart titled “Comparing text types” with the headings “Text Feature”, “Fiction Text” and “Informational Text”.  She directs students to the different features of the textbook, one at a time.  Each time, they check off on the table whether that feature is present in each type of text.  She reads aloud some key information from that text feature.  Each time, the students are asked to do a “Think-Pair-Share” to figure out the purpose of the feature. After Reading: Pairs -Students complete a “textbook scavenger hunt” where they are asked to use the textbook features to locate various pieces of information.

Day 2: Skimming Before Reading: Whole Class -Define skimming:  To read a text quickly to get the main ideas (not reading every word) -Discuss the reasons for skimming i.e. to get the main ideas of a text in order to;     1. Preview what we will be learning about and thinking about what you already know about that subject     2. Get an idea of the big picture before you start reading the details     3. Find information to answer a specific question Small groups -Using first section of text to be covered, students brainstorm a list of the parts of the text that provide the most information (i.e. what to read when skim reading) Whole Class -Discuss their answers.  As each group presents their answers, on chart paper, have a student from the group write their best answer in large letters.  (A guideline is given below.)  Post in the classroom. During Reading: (First section of science text) Whole Class -Teacher skim reads the text aloud, doing a think-aloud of her predictions for the text -Teacher asks a few key questions about the main ideas, and guides the class as they suggest the answers -Students discuss what they already know about this topic (initiating prior knowledge) -Teacher asks a few questions about details of the reading, and guides the class to suggest where to find the answers in the text.  Teacher then locates the answers to confirm the students’ answers -Teacher read-aloud of text (no skimming) for complete science content. (Reminder about using glossary for unfamiliar bolded words). -Teacher asks students to rate how much of the information they learned just from skimming by holding up fingers (scale of 1-10) After Reading: -Journal Reflection:           I think the hardest part of skimming for me is…          I think skimming will help me… -Follow-up science activity

Day 3: Making predictions Before Reading: Whole class -Refer to posted information on “skimming” from yesterday to review During Reading: (Second section of science text) -Teacher puts a copy of the text section key information (headings, figures etc.) on overhead/powerpoint.  Ideally, this would be done in stages, so powerpoint would work best. In Pairs -Student volunteers read key parts of text to the class, with time between each reading for students (working in pairs) to complete the appropriate section of the Skim Reading Prediction Sheet (see below) -Students read the whole text together in pairs -On the sheets, students rate their predictions.  The teacher then asks the class to show how close their predictions were using thumbs up, thumbs over, thumbs down. After Reading: -Journal Reflection:       When I was trying to predict what the text was saying by skimming, I felt…       Besides reading a science textbook, I could also use skimming to… -Follow-up science activity

Day 4: Skimming to answer questions Before Reading: Whole class -Review how to skim During Reading: -Teacher posts questions for section 3 of science text -Teacher answers questions with read-aloud (skimming) and think-aloud (modelling prediction skills) After Reading: Small Group -Quick-on-the-draw game:  Students work in groups of 3 or 4 (ESL and special needs students placed together to allow for greater teacher support).  Each group works independently and competes only with themselves.  One student from each group picks up a reading and questions.  The goal is to answer the questions as quickly as possible (requires skimming the text for main ideas and to predict where details will be found).  Another group member times this activity with a stopwatch.  When complete, they bring the answers to the teacher who checks the answers.  If any are incorrect, they must return to the group and correct them.  The timer gets stopped and the time is recorded when the teacher says all answers are correct.  They can then be given the next reading and questions.  Each group tries to beat their own time.  An advantage of this format is that it accommodates students who will be working at a slower pace.

Day 5: Before Reading: During Reading: Have students read a passage and create their own questions (shows them how to read for meaning rather than just picking out key words to find the answer they are looking for) After Reading:

Reflection: Were my students successful? Did my instructional decisions meet the needs of all students? What worked well? What will I do differently in the future? What are my next steps?

SKIMMING

To get the main ideas of a text quickly, we read:

1. the title, headings and subheadings
2. the figures (illustrations, diagrams, charts, tables)
3. the first and last sentence of each paragraph
4. the key words (bolded)

Ask: “What is it talking about?”  and   “What do I already know about this?”