LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program A. Sequencing The World According to Humphrey: A Comprehension Lesson Plan B. CONTEXT OF LESSON At this point in the school year, students in Ms. Zehrs reading class are continuing to expand their vocabulary knowledge using various resources. Students are able to read various fictional texts, as well as ask and answer questions about what is read. In addition, students are effective in locating information to answer questions, describing characters and important events, summarizing stories and events with beginning, middle, end sequence and drawing conclusions based on the text. Based on the curriculum sequence, because Ms. Zehrs students have successfully displayed knowledge of the second grade reading comprehension components listed above, this lesson plan will prove to be appropriate for third grade readers. Furthermore, based on Piagets stages of cognitive development, third grade students are currently in the concrete operational stage. In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. In addition, operational thinking develops as well. I have chosen to continue with the latest class read aloud and chose chapter 11 of The World According Humphrey, by Betty G. Birney, to be the basis for this comprehension lesson plan. This book and chapter will be an appropriate pick for a comprehension plan because it is the final chapter, therefore I will be able to touch on information from the entire book that is summarized in chapter 11. As stated previously, in this lesson I will read aloud chapter 11 of The World According to Humphrey. Prior to the reading, I will introduce new vocabulary to the students that will appear in the reading. After reviewing which each of the new words means, I will then instruct students to listen for these words in the reading and identify any context clues that suggested the words meaning. Following the reading I will direct the students attention to the six sentences on the board containing multiple events that occurred in the chapter. I will then tell the students that they will be working in their small groups to put the six events shown on the board in order from beginning to end on a provided poster board. Each of the events should also have a corresponding picture to go along with. In conclusion to this lesson, as a class we will go over the correct sequence of events from chapter 11. C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand Know Through a selected text, new learning will occur through the use of prior and background knowledge. Through a selected text, the main idea and supporting details are identified in beginning, middle and end sequence. Through various resources, students will continue to expand their vocabulary knowledge Texts are constructed in a beginning, middle, and end sequence. This sequence consists of facts and opinions that can be classified as the main idea and/or supporting details. The students know the definitions for prior unknown words (guarantee, deafening, squabble, harmonica and sprawling)

Do The student will describe and reconstruct the sequence of the text using supporting details. The student will identify the new vocabulary words using context clues.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING Prior to reading the text aloud to the students, I will introduce new vocabulary words that may be unfamiliar for the majority of students. Therefore, during the reading students may point out the newly learned words. If this occurs I will ask the students if they can tell me what context clue is used in the text to identify the word. During the sequencing activity

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS O F LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if required) 3.1 The student will use effective communication skills in group activities. a) Listen attentively by making eye contact, facing the speaker, asking questions, and summarizing what is said. b) Ask and respond to questions from teachers and other group members. c) Explain what has been learned. d) Use language appropriate for context. e) Increase listening and speaking vocabularies. 3.2 The student will present brief oral reports using visual media. a) Speak clearly. b) Use appropriate volume and pitch. c) Speak at an understandable rate. d) Organize ideas sequentially or around major points of information. e) Use contextually appropriate language and specific vocabulary to communicate ideas. 3.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading. a) Use knowledge of homophones. b) Use knowledge of roots, affixes, synonyms, and antonyms. c) Apply meaning clues, language structure, and phonetic strategies. d) Use context to clarify meaning of unfamiliar words. e) Discuss meanings of words and develop vocabulary by listening and reading a variety of texts. f) Use vocabulary from other content areas. 3.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional text and poetry. a) Set a purpose for reading. b) Make connections between previous experiences and reading selections. c) Make, confirm, or revise predictions. d) Compare and contrast settings, characters, and events. e) Identify the authors purpose. f) Ask and answer questions about what is read. g) Draw conclusions about text. h) Identify the problem and solution. i) Identify the main idea. j) Identify supporting details. k) Use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process. F. MATERIALS NEEDED: *Poster board Markers *Paper strips The World According to Humphrey

* I will be providing these materials. G. PROCEDURE I will begin by telling the students that today we will read the last chapter of The World According to Humphrey. Before beginning the reading, I will introduce any words that I feel would be unknown to the majority of students. These words include: guarantee, deafening, squabble, harmonica and sprawling. After going through the new vocabulary, I will tell students to pay close attention and listen for the new vocabulary words previously discussed. When new vocabulary words appear in the text, I will ask students if they can identify any context clues

within the sentence that suggests the words meaning. I will also ask questions throughout the reading to keep student engagement at its maximum during the entire read aloud. Once the reading is through, I will then direct the students' attention to the white board where paper strips containing text details will be scrambled out of order. These chapter details include: AJ takes Humphrey home on the bus on Friday, Humphrey notices the Thomases television is on all the time, Humphrey does not get a good nights rest the first night, Humphrey sneaks out of his cage, The Thomases television does not work and The Thomases learn and play several card games. I will read each of these paper strips aloud and will then tell students that they will be working in their small groups to identify the correct sequence of events from the text using a beginning, middle, and end order. They will work together to record each of the six events in a storyboard format that will be predesigned on poster board. During this activity I will walk around to make sure that each group is successful in identifying the correct sequence of events. If a group appears to have difficulty in identifying the correct sequence, I will ask them why they put the events in the order that they did. If students still do not realize they have the incorrect chronological order I will then ask the students to summarize to me what happened in the chapter. If necessary, I will provide a hint to the group. Once I have observed that all groups have identified the correct sequence, I will then give them the opportunity to draw pictures relating to each detail. Time allotted for this activity will be about 12 minutes. Once I have noticed students finishing up with their group activity, I will then conclude with a class discussion. Starting with a single group, each will provide one event in the correct chronological order. This process will continue one after another. As each group provides an event in the correct chronological order, I will pick one of the students from that group to place the paper strip on the board in the correct order as well. H. DIFFERENTIATION Prior to doing this lesson plan for my third grade literacy class, I was informed by Ms. Zehr that there are several ELL in her class. Therefore I decided for it to be beneficial to have the paper strips of the chapter details listed on the board throughout the activity, in order for all students to refer to at all times during the activity. I also thought that by having students work in small groups they would be able to help and teach each other. If students prove to be having difficulty with the ordering of the events I will give a brief summary or provide them with the actual text. If students prove that the activity is too easy, I will have them predict what will happen next in the book, by doing a storyboard on the back of the provided poster board. I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? A student may not understand the activity in whole therefore I will provide further clarification and repeat the procedure directions until the student is comfortable in the activity objectives. A student may not have any interest in this activity therefore I will encourage and promote the activity with enthusiasm. If a student becomes sick during the activity, I will briefly pause the activity so that I can bring the student to his or her teacher for further care. An emergency drill may interrupt the activity so I will follow standard procedures until the drill is over. I will continue the activity if time permits. If a students behavior is unacceptable I will give him or her a warning. I will try to not allow the students behavior to interrupt my activity because I do not want to take away the learning experience from the other students within the class. If I finish early, I will have students continue the activity by predicting what is going to happen next in The World According to Humphrey. If the teacher already taught the lesson the day before, I will improvise by creating a greater challenge within the lesson.

Lesson Implementation Reflection I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made them. Originally, according to my lesson plan, I had planned to ask questions throughout the read aloud in order to keep student engagement and also to further assess student comprehension. However, when the time came for the lesson, I had realized that I did not have enough time for everything I had planned within this comprehension lesson plan. Therefore, due to the fact that my lesson was mainly based on sequencing (beginning, middle, end) I felt that it was necessary to eliminate the questions throughout the reading in order to be able to complete my main activity. I really wish that I were allotted more than thirty minutes for this lesson, however that time allotment was out of my control. I also planned for the story board activity to only take students about twelve minutes to complete, considering the chapter details were already provided for the students. However, the activity actually took students much longer than I had anticipated (I am assuming because it was a group effort that was based on communication). Therefore, much of the time that I was planning on using for the conclusion of this lesson was taken away. Although time proved to be an issue within this lesson, I believe that that main point of comprehension was conveyed successfully within all students based on the end product of their storyboards. II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn? Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid? There were several assessments that I thought were necessary in order to fully conclude how my lesson impacted student learning. The first of the assessments involved me recording student responses when they heard the newly learned vocabulary words within the text. Like I said previously, I instructed students to listen carefully for any context clues that may add meaning to our new words within the text. As students volunteered their answers that suggested the words meaning, I recorded the context clues along with the designated word on my observation paper. Continuing through the lesson, I thought it would be best to assess the students as a small group and also by individual in each group. Therefore, prior to the lesson, I created a sheet of paper that mimicked the seating arrangements of the classroom. As I walked around the classroom while the students completed the storyboard activity, I listened and observed what students were doing and saying. As a group I noted how they were collaborating, and as an individual I observed student contribution. The final assessment of this lesson was the completed storyboard. Within the storyboard poster of each group, I looked to see that students had the chapter details in the correct chronological order and that the corresponding pictures had clear relation and detail towards these events. Overall, based on the overall assessment, I feel that the majority of students were successful in understanding the sequencing of chapter 11. III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough way if you were to teach this lesson again. If I were to teach this lesson again, I would incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a more thorough way by having students work individually by documenting the correct sequence on their own and then have them bring their contributions to the group for the big storyboard. What I found to be the case in more than one group is that certain students would dominate the collaboration while others would sit back and just listen. Therefore, in order to get all students involved and to better assess each individual, I think it would be more appropriate for the students to work individually and then conclude as a group. The individual documentation will also provide me with concrete information about each and every students actual knowledge of sequencing in context- making this document a valuable indicator of students development in sequencing comprehension. IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher? Based on the students achieved knowledge in understanding sequencing of texts from beginning, middle, and end, I would suggest introducing the students to the process of predicting. It is clear that students are able to plot details in order, therefore a further challenge would be to use these detail in order to predict what will happen next in the text. This process involves student comprehension of the events that occur within the text and also provides an outlook into student thinking by assessing their predictions.

V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as learners. After implementing this lesson plan, I have learned that time is one of the biggest constraints that exist within the classroom. There is just so much that I want to teach the students, however when it comes down to it time is what mandates everything. Therefore as a future teacher, I have learned through this lesson that it is important to filter a lesson so that there is plenty of time for your main objectives. I also learned that group work has its pros and cons. I think that it is great to have students work together once in a while to build communication and social skills, however there is always that risk that some students may step back while others dominate. Therefore, I learned that it is best to first let children work individually and then bring their contributions to the group. Overall, I have come to learn that not many lessons will be perfect due to outside circumstances, however I have grown to learn from each and every lesson!