SPED 638

Research to Practice Toolkit #5 Comprehension

Mini Lesson Plan

Connection to Common Core State Standards

CCSS 5.RL.10 - By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories,
dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text complexity band independently and
proficiently.

CCSS 5.RI.10 - By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including
history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text
complexity band independently and proficiently.

Lesson Objective
Using collaborative strategic reading (CSR), students will learn, practice, and implement
strategies to improve their reading comprehension by using four specific strategies - preview
the text, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap up.

Description of Instructional Delivery

This lesson is designed for whole or small group instruction with 2-4 students per group, or
individualized one-on-one time with the teacher.

Procedures that Reflect the Cycle of Direct Instruction

Prior to this lesson the teacher will prepare and have all materials needed. This lesson can be
done as a whole group or in smaller groups.

Cycle of Direct The teacher will... The students will...

Instruction

Anticipatory Set Preview/Introduce the article Preview the article

Teacher will ask the following

questions:

“What do you think the article is Look at the pictures in the article.
about?” Share possible answers.

“What do you think the picture

tells us about the article?”

Preview the questions about the Understand what each question is

 text before the text is read
“When a question starts with who,
what are we looking for?”
“When a question starts with
when, what are we looking for?”
“When a question starts with
where, what are we looking for?”
“When a question starts with why,
what are we looking for?”
Modeling Have students point to title of
article and will read title as
students follow along with their
index finger.
Teacher will remind students to
look for answers to the questions
that were previewed and read first
paragraph of article.
- Use the “click and clunk”
reading strategy
- Will find word that may be
difficult for fifth grader
- Will use context
clues to find
meaning of word
- Will find a phrase that may
be confusing for a fifth
grader
- Will reread phrase
to help get a better
understanding of
what is being said.
- Teacher will ask students if
specifically asking for.
Understand they are looking for a
person.
Understand they are looking for a
time period of when the event
happened.
Understand they are looking for
where the important event took
place.
Understand they are looking for
the reason why the event
happened. Often times, the
answer will have because in the
article and will tell us why
something has occurred.
Students will…
- Point to title with index
finger and follow along as
teacher reads title
- As teacher reads first
paragraph, students will
follow along silently using
their index finger.
- Will listen intently as
teacher models what is to
be done when reading an
informational article
 they are able to answer any
of the questions being
asked.
Guided Practice Teacher will now ask for a
volunteer to read the next
paragraph.
- Will remind students to
stop when they see an
unfamiliar word
- Stop when they read an
unfamiliar phrase
- Will remind students to
look for possible answers
to questions
Independent Teacher will now tell students they
Practice need to read the rest of the article
by themselves, answer the
comprehension questions by using
the strategies that were taught and
modeled to them.
Closure Teacher will use “wrap it up”
strategy
- Teacher will ask, “what is a
personal connection you
can make to the article?”
- Teacher will ask, “What
was the main idea of the
article and what are two
important details in your
reading?”
Students will read the next
paragraph intently and use their
click and clunk strategies to help
comprehend what is being read.
- Students will stop when
they see an unfamiliar
word and use fix-up
strategies to help figure out
word (prefix, suffix, root
word)
- Students will reread
unfamiliar phrase with fix
up strategy with clunk and
see if they can figure out
what the phrase meant.
- Students will remind each
other to look for possible
answers to questions and
answer any questions they
can answer from the
paragraph.
Using the strategies that were
taught and modeled to them,
students will answer
comprehension questions by
reading the rest of the article.
Students will
- make a personal connection to
the story
- students will state the main idea
and be able to give important
details to support the meaning
Option for Differentiation

● Small group instruction - As students become more familiar with the strategies, smaller

groups can be formed.

● Have students work together during the Guided Practice section of the lesson.

● After gauging where students are at after working with the first two prefixes, students

may need more direct instruction on the other prefixes and suffixes.

● Mini lesson on each prefix and/or suffix found in the article.

​

● Have the articles printed for the students to write and take notes on.

● Provide students with a premade note taking worksheet.

● Provide a highlighter for students to highlight keywords in questions (who, what, where,

when, why) and key sentences in the article.

● Refer to CSR Strategies board conveniently placed in classroom for struggling readers to

see.

○ Or have CSR Strategies made into smaller copies that students can paste in their

reading notebooks to easily refer to.

● The four components of the CSR strategy can be broken up into separate lesson in order

to reinforce knowledge of each specific component.

 References

Boardman, A., Vaughn, S., Buckley, P., Reutebuch, C., Roberts, G., & Klingner, J. (2016).  

Collaborative strategic reading for students with learning disabilities in upper  

elementary classrooms. ​Exceptional Children, 82(4), 409-427. doi:10.1177/001 

4402915625067

Capin, P. & Vaughn, S. (2017). Improving reading and social studies learning for secondary

students with reading disabilities. ​TEACHING Exceptional Children, 49 (4), 249-261.

doi: 10.1177/0040059917691043