Standard Of Learning 

4.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts,, 
narrative nonfiction texts, and poetry..  
(g) Identify sensory words that describe sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, 
and describe how they make the reader feel 

Context of Lesson 

The purpose of this lesson is to teach the students about how to 
identify sensory words and understand why it is important that authors use 
them.  
 
Pre-Reading- ​To start off the the lesson, we are going to have a discussion 
about the five senses and what they each are. After that, the students will 
gather onto the carpet in preparation for the read-aloud. I will ask the 
students to predict what the story is about based on the cover picture and 
the title. Before I begin reading, I will tell the students pay close attention to 
any sensory language that the author uses. I will ask them to make a 
mental note of how what the author is saying makes them feel and if it 
reminds them of anything they have experienced in the past.  
 
During-Reading- ​I will be reading the book ​Come on, Rain!​ By Karen Hesse 
to the whole class. In this book, there are a lot of instances in which the 
author uses sensory language. As I am reading, I will stop at predetermined 
points in the book to ask students questions about the language that is 
being used. For instance, after reading the sentence “Mamma presses the 
ice-chilled glass against her skin” I will ask the students questions such as 
“What sense is the author trying to get you to use in this sentence? How 
does it make you feel?” Once the story is over, the students will go back to 
their desks in preparation for the after-reading activity 
 
After-Reading-​ The after-reading activity will first consist of a whole group 
discussion about the story itself and why the author may have chosen to 
use sensory language throughout the story. I will explain that by using 
sensory language, the author is helping the readers to feel more apart of 
the story and better understand what is happening. After that, the students 
will be given a worksheet that they can work on individually or in pairs. The 
worksheet will ask the students to match the sentences with the senses 
that are being used. There will also be a short response question, in which 
the students are asked to choose a random object to describe using as 
many of the five senses as they can. 

Materials 

● Book- C
​ ome on, Rain!  
● 23 worksheets 
 Reflection
 
My comprehension mini-lesson was a whole group lesson with 4th 
grade students. Since it was a whole group lesson, I decided that the best 
method of instruction would be to read the book aloud to them myself. The 
book that my CT requested that I read was ​Come on Rain! B
​ y Karen Hesse. I 
thought that this was an excellent choice for this lesson because the author 
was extremely descriptive throughout the story and it reinforced the reading 
comprehension strategy that this lesson was focused on (sensory language).  
For my pre-reading activity, I facilitated a whole group discussion in 
which we reviewed what the five senses were. The students learned about 
the five senses while in the 2nd grade, but since it related to the content of 
the lesson, I thought that it would be important to activate their prior 
knowledge. After reviewing the five senses, I explained to the students that 
the five senses are things that appear in stories all the time, including the 
book C
​ ome On Rain!​ I told them to pay close attention to the different senses 
that the author uses in the story and think about how it made them feel as a 
reader.  
For my during-reading activity, I read aloud the book. To make sure 
that the students got the most out of the read-aloud, I made sure to read the 
book before my lesson multiple times to decide which sentences would be 
most beneficial for me to stop at and analyze with the students. I think that 
this was a vital aspect of the read-aloud because it allowed me to informally 
assess the students’ comprehension of the text and push their thinking 
further. 
The post-reading activities consisted of a discussion and a writing 
assignment. In the discussion, we talked about the different events that took 
place in the story and how the author used sensory language to help convey 
her point. I asked the students if they could relate to anything that the 
characters saw, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted. I allowed them to share their 
experiences with the whole class.  
After this discussion, the students were given a worksheet. The 
worksheet served the purpose of giving the students more practice with 
being descriptive through sensory language. The worksheet first asked the 
students to read different sentences from the story and determine which 
sense was being used. They also had to circle the sensory words that were 
included in the sentence. Then, the students were given a writing prompt 
that asked them to describe any object they wanted using the as many of the 
five senses as they could.  
Overall, I thought the students did well with the lesson and enjoyed 
participating in it. The students were very engaged throughout the lesson, 
but especially during the read-aloud. One problem that I faced was having 
too many students want to share their thoughts and experiences while I was 
reading and needing to wait for them to be calm before continuing with the 
story. There was one student who particularly enjoyed the story and asked to 
look at the book herself one she had finished her worksheet.  
One thing that I would change about this lesson would be the wording 
of the writing prompt. I asked students to choose any object to describe 
using the five senses, however, some students took this as to describe 
multiple different objects using one sense for each object. My intent was for 
the students to describe a singular object using the five senses so they could 
better understand how to be more descriptive in their writing, so I should 
have been more clear about that in my directions.  
In order to incorporate comprehension instruction in my future 
classroom the first thing I would have to do is assess the reading 
comprehension of each of my students. One method that I can use to do so is 
to conduct a reading interview with a student after they have read aloud a 
book to me to assess whether or not they comprehended what was read. 
With the information gained from their comprehension assessment along 
with their reading levels, I would group the students based on their literacy 
needs.  
One of the most important aspects of teaching comprehension is that 
the lessons include a pre-reading, during-reading, and post reading activity. 
This will segment the lesson in a way that is most beneficial to student 
learning. Some strategies that I plan to use in my future classroom to help my 
students develop their reading comprehension skills are anticipation guides, 
sequence maps, directed reading-thinking activities, and reciprocal teaching. 
The strategy that I use with a particular group will vary depending on the 
needs of the students.  
During our reading rotations, I would work with one group at a time for 
around 10-15 minutes to facilitate the activity in a way that best promotes 
their comprehension of the text. I also plan to informally assess my student’s 
comprehension skills by going around the classroom during their 
independent reading time and asking them to summarize what it is they are 
reading.