By: Amy Spurlock
Rationale: When children learn how to read silently it is important for them to practice. Not only is it important for them to practice reading silently but it is also important for the children to comprehend what they are reading. This lesson will show children different strategies of how to understand what they are reading. It will also show them how to work together and discuss in groups what they have read and if they have comprehended it.
Materials: Red, Green, and Yellow index cards that have the different group jobs written or them (word wizard, discussion director, and summarizer), chalk, chalkboard, a passage from a book such as Mrs. Toggle’s Beautiful Blue Shoe by: Robin Pulver, an age appropriate novel such as Romona Forever by: Beverly Clearly (enough copies for the entire class.)
Procedures:
1. The teacher will review the children on silent
reading by talking about it with them. “Boys and girls, does
everyone
remember how to read silently?” “Who can tell me why it is so
important
to read silently?” “That’s right, you can slow down or speed up
as
you like.” “You can even look up words in the dictionary if you
do
not understand them.” “Today we are going to get into groups and
learn how we can understand what we read when we read silently.”
2. Have a paragraph or passage from a book that
the children have read before written on the board such as Mrs.
Toggle’s
Beautiful Blue Shoe by Robin Pulver. “Mrs. Stickler! Said Mrs.
Toggle.
“I don’t want to hurt you feelings, but you are being ridiculous.
My shoe can’t smell, and I have never known it to be hungry.”
“There’s
a first time for everything,” said Mr. Stickler. “Why don’t you
go
to the cafeteria? Ask Mrs. Burns to cook up something special for
your shoe.” So Mrs. Toggle and the children trooped into the
cafeteria.
They found the cook, Mrs. Burns, chopping onions for stew.” “Boys
and girls I want each of you to read this passage silently when you are
done I want you to raise your hand so I will know when everyone is
finished.”
When each child is finished reading read it aloud to make sure that
everyone
read it correctly. There will be groups of six and each child in
the group will have a partner. Each pair will get a different
color
index card that has a job on it. They will work on the job
together.
After everyone has read the passage on the board the teacher will need
to model each job. “Boys and girls I am going to give you and
your
partner in your group a different color card.” “If you get a red
card your job will be the summarizer job.” “When you summarize a
book or passage you tell what happened in the book or passage but you
do
not tell every single detail.” “For example if I was the
summarizer
for the passage on the board I would say that Mrs. Toggle thought that
Mr. Stickler was acting crazy because he thought that her shoe could
smell
or be hungry.” “He even told her to go to the cafeteria and ask
Mrs.
Burns to cook something for Mrs. Toggle’s shoe.” “As you can see
boys and girls I summarized this passage because I told what happened
in
the passage with out rereading every single word to you.” The
teacher
will then need to model the other two jobs, which are the word wizard
and
the discussion director. If the children get a yellow card they
are
the word wizards and their job is to pick at least three words that
they
find unique, funny or even difficult. It is any word that sticks
out to them. As they find them they have to write the word down
and
what page it is on. When it is their turn in the group they will
discuss
these words with the group and tell why they stuck out to them.
The
next job is the discussion director, which is the green card. If
the children get this job they are the leaders of the group. They
choose which job goes first and when every job is finished they read
out
three or four questions about the book to ask the entire group to
answer
to make sure that they are comprehending what they are reading.
When
the children are done they can swap cards so that each child gets a
chance
to have each job. As the children do this the teacher walks
around
and can also ask questions with the discussion director.
3. When the teacher is done modeling the group
jobs by using the passage on the board he/she needs to put the children
into groups of six and give them partners within the group. The
teacher
will pass out the different color cards with the job and the job
description
on them. Have the students read a chapter or half a chapter
(depending
on the amount of time there is) of a novel such as, Romona Forever by:
Beverly Cleary, silently and individually. When they are done
reading
it silently they can then work together with their partner on the job
they
were assigned to. When they are done discussing each job, they
can
swap cards if time permits. If time does not permit, they can get
into the same groups again the next day and do different jobs on the
same
book. They can repeat this each day until they are finished
reading
the novel.
4. For Assessment, you can allow each child to
read one chapter of the book alone, and when they are done reading it
they
can write down each job and what each job does. This way you will
know if the child understands what he/she is supposed to be doing with
each job. When they are done writing down each job, have the
child
do all three jobs as individuals instead of together. When they
are
done have each child come up to your desk at different times of the day
and read what they wrote down for each job. By doing this you
will
be assessing if the child is comprehending what they are reading and
also
if they comprehend what they are supposed to be doing with each job.
Reference: Cindy Miller, Troy Elementary
School, Troy, Al. 4th grade, 1999
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