Lesson Plan: Reading

Lesson Plan 1

General Information Please use short answers to complete each box in this section.
Grade Level: PreK-5	School:
Literacy Component Focus: Reading: phonics and phonemic awareness.
Lesson Structure: Whole Class Small Groupindividual
Standards/Objectives Paste the appropriate standards below. Write the objective in measurable terms. Example: Given __________(criteria), the student will ________(performance), with __________ (accuracy).
State Standard: English Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools – January 2010
National Standard (Use Common Core or ILA): Common Core
Objective: Students will recall and recognize letters and letter sounds based on objects that begin with the letters A, B, and C with 70% accuracy.
Instruction Provide a detailed response for each section below. Include everything the teacher will do and say during the lesson. A minimum of 5-7 sentences should be written for each part.
Set: During the introductory part of the lesson, the teacher asks questions about letters. The teacher may ask what the letters are, where they can be found at home or in the class. As the lesson is developed for a small group of students that experience difficulty reading, the teacher should consider answering the questions to provide the students with an example. The teacher reminds the students that letters represent sounds and puts on an alphabet song by Bounce Patrol (2017). The teacher asks each student to name one letter and an associated animal that was present in the song.
Direct Instruction/Modeling: The teacher prepares three boxes with letters A, B, and C on them and hands out pictures of objects that start with these letters. The box should have pictures of an alligator, butterfly, and cow. The teacher should prepare at least three objects for each letter for every student and the teacher. The teacher demonstrates the boxes with pictures on them and asks the students guiding questions. Possible questions are: What are the names of the animals on the boxes? What are the first sounds and letters of the words? Demonstrate how the objects can be sorted into different boxes depending on what letter they start with. The teacher allows one of the students to choose a word and put it in the needed box. The student should explain the rationale behind his or her choice.
Practice/Activities: Every student is given the objects and asked to put these objects inside the corresponding boxes in turn. Every student explains the rationale behind the choice of the box using the model presented by the teacher. The teacher is to remind every student that to look at each picture card, say the name of the picture, identify the beginning sound, and identify the beginning letter. The teacher encourages students to correct the speaker if they have a wrong answer. However, it is vital that students do not say the correct answer before the speaker is given a chance to make his judgments.
Closure: The teacher asks volunteers to share what they have learned. The teacher is encouraged to help the students The teacher provides a summary of what letters were learned and what sounds they produce. Every student is asked to think of additional objects that can be put in the boxes. The teacher provides feedback to the students.
Assessment Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will assess the students. Include formal and informal assessments as applicable to the lesson. Use the box below.
The teacher needs to make notes about the mistakes the students make during the class. If a student makes more than one mistake with one letter, the teacher needs to provide the student with additional practice for the particular letter. If a student makes no mistakes, the teacher is to acknowledge the success aloud.
Differentiation Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will differentiate literacy instruction for the students. Use the box below.
Enrichment: A student may be asked to categorize the words without naming the objects aloud and providing analysis. This will make the process faster. Support: Students may be asked to name only the object and the starting sound if they experience difficulties categorizing the word.
Technology/New Literacies Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will integrate new literacies into your lesson. Use the box below.
The children will be watching a video from YouTube, which will allow them to learn the alphabet while singing the song. Students’ parents will also be provided with the link to the ABC song to practice it at home with their children. The use of technology will allow the continuation of the learning process and make the lesson more captivating.
Resources/Materials In the box below, list all of the resources and materials needed for this lesson. Please attach any handouts or resource materials.
Computer access; Alphabet animals video; Three boxes with letters and animals on them; Pictures of items that start with letters A, B, and C (3 per person per letter); Whiteboard; Marker.
References Please list any books, videos, teacher’s manuals, or websites referenced in planning the lesson.
Bender, W.N., & Larkin, M. (2003). Reading strategies for elementary students with learning difficulties. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bounce Patrol – Kids Songs. (2017). “Alphabet Animals” – ABC animals song for kids | Learn animals, phonics, and the alphabet. YouTube. Web. Johnson, M. (2015). Hungry animal letters. Education. Web. Temple, C. A., Ogle, D., Crawford, A., Freppon, P., & Temple, C. (2018). All children read Teaching for literacy in today’s diverse classrooms(5th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson. VDoE. (2010). Standards of learning documents for English. Web.

Lesson Plan Rationale (see question prompts in Lesson Plan Instructions)

The lesson will provide the students with the opportunity to help struggling students associate sounds and letters, which is an appropriate activity for primary students in the alphabetic phase of reading (Temple et al., 2018). Children in this phase are looking at the relations between individual letters and individual sounds (Temple et al., 2018). Therefore, according to the principles of effective reading instruction, the goal of the teaching of alphabetic readers should be to help them notice more and more letters as well as the sounds with which they are associated (Temple et al., 2018). The lesson provides students with a framework of how letters can be learned as they gain an association between words, their sound, and letters (Bender & Larkin, 2003). It helps to focus on the common letter-to-sound matches using picture sorts, which was proposed by Temple et al. (2018). The lesson plan can be extended to include a variety of print and digital materials. Picture sorts are available online for free or for a small fee, which makes it easy to include them in lessons and homework. At the same time, there is a variety of alphabet songs, and children can be encouraged to look for such videos and share them with the class. Therefore, the lesson plan is appropriate from the theoretical viewpoint.

A novice teacher may experience significant problems with instruction and discipline. The primary problem is that the students are struggling readers, which means that the teacher will need to provide more guidance than with average students (Bender & Larkin, 2003). Therefore, a beginner educator may find it challenging to find a balance between modeling and individual work. At the same time, novice teachers may encounter an issue with discipline due to the lack of knowledge about what noise and distraction levels are appropriate for the particular age of students. I can recommend the novice teacher to visit lessons of proficient teachers and watch online lessons to find the balance.

Lesson Plan 2

General Information Please use short answers to complete each box in this section.
Grade Level: Grade 4	School:
Literacy Component Focus: Reading comprehension
Lesson Structure: Whole Classsmall Group Individual
Standards/Objectives Paste the appropriate standards below. Write the objective in measurable terms. Example: Given __________(criteria), the student will ________(performance), with __________ (accuracy).
State Standard:English Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools – January 2010
National Standard (Use Common Core or ILA): Common Core
Objective: Students will acquire efficient strategies of close reading to acquire an in-depth understanding of short texts and answer short questions with 80% accuracy.
Instruction Provide a detailed response for each section below. Include everything the teacher will do and say during the lesson. A minimum of 5-7 sentences should be written for each part.
Set: During the introductory part of the lesson, the teacher tells everyone about the text the class is going to read, which is “The cat that walked by himself” by Rudyard Kipling. The teacher provides an overview of the activities that will be done during the lesson and hands copies of the texts. The teacher also needs to tell the students that by the end of the lesson, they will become stronger readers. They will learn new words that will be added to their word bank. At the same time, they will learn to understand the idea of the text answer questions using textual evidence. The teacher introduces the central question of the text and puts it on the interactive board, which is “why did the woman allow the cat to live in the cave?” The class reads the questions in chorus.
Direct Instruction/Modeling: The teacher explains that while reading it is vital to take notes. The teacher reads the first paragraph and makes notes on the interactive board. The notes are to be put in three sections, including central ideas of the passage, difficult words, and a short summary. The teacher focuses the attention of students on the fact that students will need to demonstrate textual evidence to the ideas they wrote down. Therefore, in their notes, they need to mark the paragraph number associated with the idea.
Practice/Activities: The teacher asks the students to whisper read the text to familiarize themselves with the content. The teacher monitors the process and helps students sound out difficult words or explain their meanings. While reading, students are encouraged to take notes. After the first reading is finished, the teacher asks volunteers to share what they have learned in different sections of their notes. The teacher offers to read the text once again paragraph by paragraph in turn, stating what the central idea was, what the unknown words were, and what was difficult to understand. The teacher promotes discussion of every question.
Closure: The teacher asks to complete answer the questions after the text. Students switch texts in pairs and the teachers tell the correct answers and ask students to evaluate the work of their partners. The teacher asks volunteers to answer the central question of the lesson. The teacher provides an overview of the lesson and acknowledges the new competencies that were learned during the lesson. The teacher also thanks to the students that were especially active and successful.
Assessment Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will assess the students. Include formal and informal assessments as applicable to the lesson. Use the box below.
The teacher is to gather information about how many right answers every student had on the worksheet. The teacher should notice what were the most common mistakes and explain them during the next lessons. As for informal assessment, the teacher should walk around the class during reading time and look at the notes of the students. While walking, the teacher can give advice to individual students about how notes should be taken.
Differentiation Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will differentiate literacy instruction for the students. Use the box below.
Let higher-level students model reading and note-taking for their classmates. Higher-level students should be put in a separate group to complete another reading and note-taking activity using the “The Wizard of Oz” worksheet. Struggling students can be put in a separate group, where they will need only to summarize the text without discussing the main ideas.
Technology/New Literacies Write a 3-5 sentence description of how you will integrate new literacies into your lesson. Use the box below.
The teacher can use an interactive blackboard to model note-taking, introduce the outline of the lesson, and post the central question of the lesson. Smartboards promote interest among all learners and make classes more convenient for the teacher. At the same time, the level of engagement also increases.
Resources/Materials In the box below, list all of the resources and materials needed for this lesson. Please attach any handouts or resource materials.
Interactive (smart) board; “The cat that walked by himself” worksheet; “The Wizard of Oz” worksheet.
References Please list any books, videos, teacher’s manuals, or websites referenced in planning the lesson.
Harmon, N. (2012). Culturally responsive teaching through a historical lens: Will history repeat itself? Interdisciplinary Journal of Teaching and Learning, 2(1), 12-23. Snow, C., & O’Connor, C. (2016). Close reading and far-reaching classroom discussion: Fostering a vital connection. Journal of Education, 196(1), 1-8. Temple, C. A., Ogle, D., Crawford, A., Freppon, P., & Temple, C. (2018). All children read: Teaching for literacy in today’s diverse classrooms(5th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson. The cat that walked by himself. (n.d.). Education. Web. The wizard of Oz. (n.d.). Education. Web. VDoE. (2010). Standards of learning documents for English. Web.

Lesson Plan Rationale (see question prompts in Lesson Plan Instructions)

The proposed lesson will help the class to learn comprehension by acquiring close reading and note-taking skills. According to Temple, Ogle, Crawford, and Freppon (2018), close reading, or hermeneutics, is the primary method for students to meet the common core standard that calls “for students to exhibit a careful understanding and to have the ability to explain fine points of literacy texts” (p. 177). During close reading practice, students are encouraged to extract the meaning from the text, and note-taking is an excellent instrument that can help to achieve this goal (Snow & O’Connor, 2016).

The lesson plan adheres to the standards of the Virginia Department of Education (VDoE, 2010), which states that students in the fourth grade need to identify the main idea and summarize the contents of fictional texts. The lesson is appropriate for diverse learners as it includes differentiation, and the text analyzed during the class is free of racial or cultural prejudice or stereotyping. At the same time, according to Harmon (2012), the lesson adheres to the principles of culturally responsive teaching, as it empowers students and allows students with different cultural backgrounds to share their views about the story.

Novice teachers may experience problems with teaching reading comprehension as they do not know common issues that influence the success of students in close reading activities. The teachers need to realize that students in the fourth grade may experience difficulties with using background knowledge appropriately, word recognition, and vocabulary knowledge. Therefore, it is crucial that during the instruction, teachers demonstrate how they single out the main ideas of the text. The teachers should also be very attentive to students with diverse cultural backgrounds, as they may have different background knowledge and values. Teachers need to understand that all human beings are cultural creatures to use cultural diversity as an instrument to empower learners and enrich the classroom experience.