Integrated Methods Block: Reading

Small Group:
Area/aspects of literacy
Main Idea in a reading passage
Explanation of need
My cooperating teacher really liked the article that I was doing my whole group lesson
on. It was about California Gray Whales. She thought it would be a good idea if I worked
with a small group to read part of the article together and focus on the main idea of the
passage. She knew some of the students in the class struggle with that and she let me
work with those students. After I did the small group she asked me if I would do another
rotation of it for another set of students because of how helpful it was.
References to curriculum
The standard was Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by
key details; summarize the text. This directly correlated with what the students had
been working on in the classroom. It also tied in the article that I had taught my lesson
on so they could refer back to an article they already recognized.
Student performance
In the small group, I was impressed with the answers I got when I asked questions. I
thought they were engaged with what I was teaching because they thought some of the
facts about Gray Whales were cool. At times, one student would be distracted and that
would through some of the group of because the student was distracting them. At the
end I wanted to be certain that the students left with knowledge about finding the main
idea because it is important because of End of Grade testing (EOGs). It was
information that they would definitely need and I felt confident when they left they knew
what the main idea was and how to find it.
Classroom environment
The classroom environment was very encouraging especially when it came to reading.
The teacher had a great library, which was one of the first things that I noticed when I
walked into her classroom. It had every type of literature.
Materials
For my small group, the students needed to bring their own Gray Whales article, their
reading journal and a pencil.
Hopeful outcomes for the students
My outcomes for the students is that they would leave the small group with a better
understanding of finding the main idea that can sometimes be a hard thing to do. I
broke down the article with them and tried to show them step-by-step how to do that
and pick out the most valuable information and leave the parts that could be left out. I
want them to be confident in finding the main idea.
Interventions
For the most part they were really good at finding the most important information to find
the main idea. A few times they picked out information that could be left out but once I
would ask if they thought we could leave that piece of information out then they could
see why I was saying that and it made sense to them.

Grade Level/Subject: 4th Grade

Central Focus: Students will read and identify words that

are unknown and answer questions related to the given
text.

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

RI.4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domainspecific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or
subject area.

Date submitted:
taught: 3/11/16

Date

RI.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text
says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will read an article and identify unknown words and answer
questions that are related to the text.
21st Century Skills: CollaborationAcademic Language Demand (Language Function and
Students will work with other
Vocabulary):
students to collaborate on ideas to Reading- students will read the given article
find missing words.
Identify- Students will identify words they are unfamiliar
with
Prior Knowledge: Students should be able to recognize that there are ways to find meanings to
unknown words.
Activity

1. Focus and Review

2. Statement of
Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input

Description of Activities and Setting

Teacher will focus the students in on what they have been
working on in the classroom and will ask questions to refresh
their memory. The teacher will ask the students what they
usually do to find the meaning of words that they are not sure
of.
Students will read an article and identify unknown words and
answer questions that are related to the text.
Teacher will create and anchor chart for the students to help
the students use strategies to find unknown words. Some of
the strategies include,
-Guess the meaning, based on experience and how the story

Time

2 min

15 min

goes.
-Read on to see if it becomes clear later.
-Check for a glossary, footnotes, or endnotes that explain the
word.
-See if you recognize root words, prefixes or suffixes in it.
-Check if it is a bit like another word you know in another
language that would make sense.
-Ask someone.
-Use a dictionary or Google.
The teacher will go through each strategy and tell explain how
it works. When the teacher comes to the first word that they
think the students may struggle with, the teacher will think
aloud, such as insulated the teacher will chose to use the
strategy of looking it up and will use the search engine on the
Smart Board and then once the class sees the definition the
teacher will re read the sentence and ask if it makes sense
now. The teacher will continue to do this with 2 more words
such as marine, and average.

4. Guided Practice

5. Independent
Practice

6. Assessment
Methods of
all
objectives/skills:
7. Closure

The teacher will read an article out loud California Gray

Whales which is shown below to the students, along the way
the teacher will stop at some of the vocabulary words that the
4th graders may struggle with knowing. The teacher will ask
20 min
students to choose a strategy that they would like to use to
help them find the meaning of the unknown words. The
teacher will do this with half of the article so the students will
have some practice with choosing a strategy.
The students will go back to their seats and finish reading the
article on California Gray Whales. They will be looking for
words that they do not think looks familiar and will use the
15 min
anchor chart we created to help them find the meaning. They
will then, independently work on a worksheet and answer
questions about California Gray Whales.
Students are expected to earn 5 out of 7 points on the independent
worksheet on California Gray Whales.

The students will return back to the carpet and the teacher
will have the students turn and talk about some of the
unknown words that they found as they read the article
independently and will tell each other what strategy they used

5 min

to find the meaning. The teacher will then ask what they
thought was difficult about their task and what they enjoyed.

8. Assessment
The class had outstanding results and 90% of the class met the required
Results of
points scoring 5 out of 7 points, which met my expectations.
all
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students
Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations:
Modifications/Accommodations:
For ELL students there will be an anchor
The teacher will pull a small group for the students
chart in their language to help with reading
who need extra help with directions or reading the
and referring back to.
Gray Whale article or a small group for the
students who finish early. Teacher may pair
students together based on needs. If a teacher
assistant in the room, a small group will be
provided so they can be verbally read to.
Materials/Technology:
(Include any instructional materials (e.g., worksheets, assessments PowerPoint/Smart Board slides, etc.) needed to implement the lesson at
the end of the lesson plan.)

-Anchor chart
-California Gray Whales article
-California Gray Whales question sheet
-Reading notebooks
References:
Reflection on lesson: The lesson went extremely well. The class was very respectful and kept
their eyes on me and did very well when I was asking questions throughout the lesson.

Overall Reflection
When I first got to the classroom and started observing how she had the room set up, I
thought it looked really engaging to the students. I thought she did a great job with her
library and it is exactly how we have been taught to set it up. I asked her how she had
so many books because she was a new teacher and she said they had just been
passed down. After I had observed a couple reading lessons I noticed that she had a
routine when she taught, they would come to the carpet for their mini lesson and then

they would return to their seats to work with their groups on an assignment or they
would do something independently. I think it is good for the students to have a routine
because it sets expectations for them.
When I started to ask my cooperating teacher what she wanted me to teach on
she said that they were about to start talking about ways to find the meaning of
unfamiliar words and asked if I would like to do that. I agreed and she helped me find an
article that I could use. She gave me an article called California Gray Whales. When I
first started planning I thought it would be good to start off with an anchor chart and
explore with the students in the article on how to use some of the strategies I was
teaching them. I read a couple lines of the articles and stopped at some words I was
unsure of and determined the strategy that I wanted to use. I thought that part of my
teaching went extremely well because I took it to their level. I read it as if I was stuck on
a word and did what I would do to find the meaning. This helped the students because
they saw me doing it so when it came time for them to do it they would know what to do
because I modeled it. They also had the anchor chart to refer back too. Once I was
done with the teaching part with me modeling. I let them go back to their seats to work
on finding unfamiliar words in the article and then answering questions to check for
understanding. When I was done with the lesson I talked with the teacher to get her
feedback on how I did and she thought I did good and gave me some advice. I really
enjoyed teaching the lesson to the students, I learned a lot about them and received
experience with teaching.
I really enjoyed teaching in the small group as well. I liked how the students
responded to me and how they were excited to work at the back table with me. I thought
it was great that I was the one that got to work in a small group and teach about
something that was very important and valuable to help with their EOGs. The main idea
of the passage is sometimes hard to find, so I had fun getting to assist the students in
their activity. I had the students set up a Group Mapping Activity with Gray Whales and
I showed them how to organize their information to help them find the main idea. I think
the students got a lot out of the small group and so did I.
Overall, this was such as great experience for me. Reading is one of my favorite
subjects so it was a blast getting to teach a whole group lesson and doing 2 small
groups with the students. Their passion for learning allowed me to enjoy this experience
even more. My cooperating teacher was so helpful and gave me so many helpful tips
that I can take with me to the classroom!