Lesson Plan: Literacy (Reading)

Goals:
Students will be able use a graphic organizer (T chart) to identify the
similarities and differences presented in two different informational texts on
the same topic.
Essential Question(s):
How do we gather the information we need from the text and graphs?
Standards (and Assessment Anchor):
CC 1.2.2.1: Compare & contrast the most important points presented by 2
texts on the same topic.
CC 1.2.2.E: Use various text features to locate key facts or information in a
text efficiently
Materials and Preparation:
Hows the Weather by Pat Cusick
Weather: Kingfisher Readers
A T chart on the whiteboard that shows similarities and differences
Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:
Students will be seated on the rug in the back of the classroom
Students will be reminded of the rules while theyre on the rug
Teacher will initiate turn and talks when necessary to let the
energy out of students
Plan:
The Hook
Review what we have just learned in science about air before
going into the topic of weather
Brief discussion on why is weather important and what are the
ways we could learn about what the weather is like today
Introduce the two books for read aloud today
remind students of what we are going to do with the
two informational texts: compare and contrast
quickly review the T chart
We will read two informational texts today about weather. As
we were discussing earlier, our lives are closely tied to weather.
How much do we know about weather? Im sure we will learn a
lot when we compare and contrast the similarities and
differences presented in these two different texts. Please pay
attention to the details and try to capture as many details as

possible. Lets see who will be able to come up with the most in
the end!
The Body
(I): Write down the new vocabularies on the whiteboard, such as
meteorologists, forecasters, atmosphere, etc. and briefly explain
the definition
(We) Read aloud:

Go over page 3, 4, 5, 7 and 16 for the book Hows

the weather (may skip certain texts depending on
time)
Go over page 5, 6, 11, 22, 24 for the book Weather:
Kingfisher Reader
Stop for turn and talks when necessary
Reminding students to have listening ears and being
respectful while others are sharing
Teacher check-in during turn and talks
Brief discussion at the end of one book to summarize some
of the facts gathered from the text
(You) After finishing up both books:
Students will turn and talk with their neighbors on
what are the similarities and differences they notice
about
Students will help the teacher fill in maybe one or
two similarities/differences on the whiteboard
Closure:
Teacher go over the T chart very quickly
Students will return to their tables and work on their
reading notebooks to add more details and complete the T
chart
Assessment of the goals/objectives listed above:
Check-ins with each turn and talks on the rug
Have students help with filling in the T chart (just one or two)
Individual worktime on completing the T chart
Closure: Share out discussion
Anticipating students responses and your possible responses:
Management issues
Remind students of the rules and norms

 Remove students who are being distracting to a nearby table to

sit by themselves but having them facing the rug still so that
they wont miss the lesson
Silent moments: wait for everyone to be quiet before going to
the next step
Phrases theyre familiar with: eyes and ears track the
speaker
Positive recognition to students who are showing classroom
expectations
Response to content of the lesson
That is an excellent answer! Can you tell us in which book do you
find this piece of information?
Does this book mention (information) as well?
How is the author representing his/her ideas?
I see another similarity/differences on (detail). Can someone help
us figure it out?
Accommodations
Make sure that everyone has a partner they could turn and talk to
Rotate to check if they are on the right track
Have students join a different group if they have finished sharing with
their neighbors
Leave 5 seconds before coming back as a whole group so that students
would have time to organize and finishing up
Teacher revoice responses of other students
Check in with individual students who may need more help in
identifying similarities and differences