Lesson 5

Lesson 5

Objectives:

Good readers can read for meaning and can understand text details and structure and relate themselves to a text.

Procedure:

1. Introduction

I will explain that we are going to read a short poem three times.  I will then have them tell me about it or answer some questions for me.  I will tell them the title of the story, but nothing else.

2. First Read

Before reading the poem, I will tell the student they are looking for the plot of the story.  This is important because they will be retelling the story to me.  If they do not understand part of the poem or certain words in the poem, I will have them highlight those words and we will talk about them afterwards.

After my student is done reading, I will have them retell the story to me.  Before they start, I will explain that retelling is what you do when you summarize what you have just read in your own words.  If the retell is missing detail I will ask questions to further engage them in the reading and get them to add more detail. 

When we are done talking about the story and what it was about, we will talk about the words they circled and what they mean.  I will ask them what they think the word means and if they can get clues by words that surround it.  If they still don’t know, I will help with defining the word.  After I define the word I will ask if knowing what these words mean makes the story make more sense.

3. Second Read

I will tell my student that they are going to read the poem a second time.  I will tell them to look for the structure of the poem and ask them questions such as:

“Who is telling this story?”

“What type of writing style did the author use?”

“What was the problem and/or solution to the story?”

“What is the author’s main point or the lesson they were trying to teach?”

“How does the author feel about the topic?”

4. Third Read

The students will read the selection for a third time.  After they read, I will ask:

Compare the story to their own life – how can you relate?


Reflection on student:
She did a great job of reading the poem fluently and not making mistakes.  After the first read when I asked her to retell the poem, she struggled with how to retell it.  I had to help push her thoughts a little bit and she did a better job after that.  After the second read, she did a great job of answering the questions.  She was aware that the poem was told in the third person and that it was a rhyming poem.  She identified the problem of the story as the girl being up to bat at the end of the game.  I thought she had a great answer about what the author's main point was.  Her answer was that people shouldn't worry about winning games as much as they should worry about having fun.  She said the author feels that people worry about winning too much and that they think having fun is more important.  My student could relate to the poem because she plays softball and she said that the other night her coach was screaming at the umpire and threw things in the dugout because he was mad.  She said she wishes he didn't do that because the team had fun and that is what matters.

Reflection on self:
This was my first time doing a close read and to be honest, I was kind of uncomfortable.  It didn't go bad, but it could have gone better.  I had to keep looking at my lesson plan to remember what I was supposed to do.  My student enjoyed this because she loves softball and that is why I chose this topic.  A lot of these things aren't "fun" for the students so I tried to make sure it was a little more interesting for her.  I really like the idea of close reading and the more I practice it, the better I will get so I am excited for the next one to see if I have improved.