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 on the first day of instruction, and will
introduce the Think-Aloud method using vignettes from The House on Mango
Street by Sandra Cisneros. This lesson will be an introduction towards
building on student reading strategies by introducing text-coding along with
reading and the Think-Aloud method. Text-coding, or logographs, will be
introduced through staggered introduction the following class, later using
Louise Erdrichs Chickadee and Kwame Alexanders The Crossover to
illustrate two of the logographs, including making connections and
visualization. This lesson will act as an introductory reading lesson, getting
students comfortable with the concept of constructing meaning and thinking
while reading. I will model using Unit Buzz Words discussed during Intro Week
in order to facilitate annotation and Thinking-Aloud of Sandra Cisneros My
Name, and students will proceed with guided collaborative practice using
another of Cisneros short stories titled Boys and Girls.

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) 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 My Name, Boys and Girls by Sandra Cisneros
(APPENDIX A)
o Google Classroom Prompts to be put online (APPENDIX B)
o Hook Slideshow (APPENDIX C; attached as PowerPoint)
o Helpful Prompts for Thinking Aloud (APPENDIX D)

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 first slide of the
slideshow

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. I will ask
students to start by looking at the two pictures up on the projector and start
jotting down some initial thoughtsanything that comes to mind!

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

So lets look at this picture, and start by just talking about what we see. What
observations do you all have about this particular place or scene? [Pointing to
photo of Chicago.] Where do you think this is? [Listen to students
observations, contributions, what they have written as a warm-up.] Well,
what about this place? What can you observe here? Where do you think this
is? [Listen to students observations, contributions, what they have written as
a warm-up.] How are these two places different? Can you see any different
cultural practices going on in these two places based on these photos?
[Listen to student contributions.]

This is a scene from the Daley Fountain in Chicago, Illinois around Halloween.
As a tradition, the town dyes the water in the fountain orange. If we are
looking at a map of the United States, Chicago is here. [Change slide to US
map.] The other scene is one from Dia de los muertos in San Miguel de
Allende, Mexico. Dia de los muertos is a holiday that begins on October 31 st,
the same day as American Halloween, and ends on November 2 nd. If we are
looking on a map of the world, San Miguel de Allende is here. [Change slide
to world map.]

So why have I put these two places side by side to show you today? Well, we
have begun talking about what it means to be multicultural in America. The
author we will be reading today, Sandra Cisneros, is a multicultural one.
Though she was born in Chicago, Illinois, her parents were from Mexico, and
she grew up very much a part of both Latina and American culture. In many
ways, Sandra Cisneros can be said to identify with two different heritages
her Mexican heritage, and her American one. This is very common in the
United Statesmany people, like Sandra Cisneros parents, immigrate here
because of career changes or just because they are looking for a better life,
for them or their families. The United States is a nation rich in diversity and
culture because of this.

Talk with your elbow partner for two minutes about your heritage or
heritages, if you have more than one, have affected your experiences
growing up. [Allow students time to talk to one another.]

III. Think-Aloud Model (25 minutes)

So, today we are going to be reading a short story by Sandra Cisneros called
My Name, which Im passing around now. Now, I will go ahead and tell you,
this short story might be a little bit different from ones that youve read or
heard before. It conveys a feeling that is a lot like a feeling conveyed by
poetry. Have you all read or experienced poetry before? Take a minute to talk
to your elbow partner about what you think about poetry. [Give students two
minutes to talk, and then ask for volunteers to share out impressions of
poetry.] Thats very interesting everyone, and I would be interested to see
how your idea of poetry might expand and change as we continue forward
into learning about it this year.

Alright, lets go ahead and look at the story Ive handed out to you today.
Today Im going to introduce to you all a new reading strategy method called
a Think-Aloud. In my Think-Aloud of Cisneros story, Im going to read a bit of
the text at a time, marked off on our copies by the black lines, and then Im
going to stop and talk about the part of the text I just read. Im going to try
and focus while Im reading this on some themes weve been talking about
this unitthat is, multiculturalism, perspective, voice and empathy. [These
words will be written out on index cards and pasted at the top of the
whiteboard.] Using a Think-Aloud as a strategy allows for you, as readers, to
articulate your thoughts about the piece of writing. We read words and we
develop an understanding of them in our minds, connecting them to
experiences weve had or heard about. Now, as Im having these thoughts,
Im going to make little notes along the side, which we are going to call
annotations, and I will ask that you go ahead and make these annotations
along with me in your text as you follow along.

My Name, by Sandra Cisneros. In English, my name means hope.

Now, Im thinking, how is the writer shaping voice? Remember, voice is one of
our Buzz Wordsand setting up voice is something the author accomplishes
right in the beginning of a piece of writing. How do I know who is telling the
story? Well, here, we can see that the story is being told from the point of
view of one individualand we know this because Cisneros uses the word
my. This story is told from a first-person perspective. I will go ahead and
write that in the margins. Dont forget to be making these same annotations
on your own papers, along with any other thoughts you are having as we are
reading along. Just from this sentence, I have so many thoughts flying around
in my brain! I have a question; what is the name of this character? Ill write
that in the margins as well, with a big question mark. You can see that while I
read, there are a lot of processes of thought that are happening in my mind,
and annotating, or writing on the paper, is a way to document that thinking
which takes place. Okay, lets continue to read.

In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like
the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday
mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

Wow, what an interesting way to describe a name, or any words, really. The
narrator makes many connections to her name with different things that
dont necessarily make literal sense! Im a little bit confused here, so Im
going to write another question in the marginwhat do emotions and colors
and music have to do with a persons name? Im going to read this part again
and try to understand a little more. Sometimes you have to read confusing
things more than once, but asking questions is a great way to get started
breaking passages down. [Read again.] Hm, now that Im reading it again, I
realize that these things which seem disjointed are making me feel confused.
I think maybe the author did this on purpose because the meaning of hope is
complicated. In a way it is happy, and you are hopeful for good things to
come. But in a way it is sad and complex, because things that you hope for
are still far away. Have you all experienced feeling hopeful about something
before? Take a minute to think about this. [Give students a few minutes of
silence, around 20 seconds.] In the margin, I am going to write, hope is
complicated so that I remember that Im having these thoughts.
It was my great-grandmothers name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman
too, born like me in the Chinese year of the horsewhich is supposed to be bad luck
if youre born femalebut I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the
Mexicans, dont like their women strong.

Now I know that the narrator is a female, which answers part of the question I
had in the beginning about how the author was shaping voice, and who my
narrator is. She feels a connection to her grandmother, because they share
the same name. She also feels a connection to her because they were born in
the same Chinese Zodiac year. Does anyone know what year they were born
in the Chinese Zodiac? I was born during the year of the dog. There were a
lot of beliefs about luck and fortune incorporated into the fabric of Chinese
culture and tradition, including the Zodiac signs. I wonder if the narrator feels
a connection to the traditions of her Mexican heritage in this way, that they
shaped her grandmother and her father into the people they are now. I am
going to write Chinese/Mexican traditions and beliefs into the margin as a
connection the author is making between the two cultures. I wonder if this
has anything to do with the experience of being multicultural, which, again, is
another one of our Buzz Words! Both Chinese and Mexican people in America
experience that feeling of being part of two different cultures. In this way,
they are alike. See how I am using our Buzz Words to guide my thinking. If I
get stumped in reading this short story, I can look at our Buzz Words to relate
what Im reading to the focus of our unit. I am going to write multicultural
in the margins.

So, guys, what can you see that Im doing here in this Think-Aloud activity?
What do you see happening here, and how does it relate to your own
experiences reading? [Allow for volunteers to say what they see happening, if
there are no volunteers, call on a student, remind them there are no right or
wrong answers, that I am only asking them to observe and draw connections.
Continue this model for the rest of the story, stopping to engage students
and then inviting them to contribute to the Think-Aloud with questions on
their thoughts.]

In helping students to elaborate or extend their talk, I would ask them:

What details from the text make you feel that way?
What is particularly confusing about this part?
o How does Sandra Cisneros write to convey emotion, rather than
explaining the progression of events in a normal way?
o What makes this story kind of unconventional?
How does making that connection make you feel?
o What choices is the author making that create this kind of
response?
When they are questioning: what predictions can you make based on
the text? Thats two logographs!
Can you think of ways multiple conflicts can be at play here?

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, Id like for you to split into groups that Ive chosen and take
turns practicing this model with each other using different paragraphs of the
same story we just looked at. 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. I also have marked on the
slide the two groups that are going to work in the hallway, so that its not too
crowded in here. The person whose first name is last in the alphabet gets to
think aloud first! Make sure you are all making annotations on your text while
you are thinking aloudeveryone should be making annotations all
throughout the Think-Alouds, regardless of if you are the one thinking loud or
not. Being an active listener in your group is just as important as being the
one who is reading aloud. In listening and actively annotating along with a
classmate doing a read-aloud, you will be observing different ways of
thinking and responding to text, to different parts of the story.

Being an active listener will be beneficial to you as a growing readerits not

often that you get a chance to hear what other people are thinking while
theyre reading. Write down the annotations that they speak about in their
think-aloud, even if they are not the same reaction that you would have, they
demonstrate different perspectives and reading of the text. So not only are
you listening actively to when your group members are reading the actual
text, but you are actively listening to their process of thinking aloud as well.
Active listening is a skill we will be working on continuously throughout this
unit, and the rest of the year. Not to mention that I will be checking your
annotations for an in-class grade, so please make sure youre following
along!

Remember to think in terms of the themes weve been talking about for this
unit that we have up on the boardwrite them at the top of your story
packet if you need to, so you can reference them to guide your thinking and
reading. Even write the words as annotations where you see a part of the
story that you think is relevant to a particular theme.

[Pass out reference handouts. 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 their reference handout (Thinking Prompts),
as well as to the thought words 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 and get back to our seats! If you
have not finished the story, I will ask you to read and annotate for homework;
remember that you should have annotations all throughout the story, as you
should have been annotating while being an active listener in your think-
aloud activities today. Ill check all of them for a completion grade next class
so remember to bring your story packets. Thank you for a great and
thoughtful class today. Now Im going to pass around a self-assessment
about our class today just to give you all some time to think about Think-
Alouds and reading strategies and how they relate to you as an individual
reader (Appendix E). 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.]

Now, tonight, 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 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, which offers a short biography on the author and her experience being
Mexican-American.