LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

(Include the title of each of the following sections in your written plan.)

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON

Charlottes Web Reading Unit: Digging into Chapter 8 & 9


B. CONTEXT OF LESSON

Over the past two weeks I have observed the class working individually and in groups on
learning activities in various subjects. I have observed that their focus in completing learning
activities in Language Arts is better when they work in small groups versus working by
themselves. In these small groups the teacher instructs students who are on the same reading
ability level. With the support of the teacher the students seem to be able to focus better in
grasping the reading and writing material.

When the students work in small groups versus individually, I have observed that they have a
better focus on learning the material because small group discussion about the reading
material is initiated. The students in this particular reading group or blue group are all
reading above grade level and are considered to be in the the highest reading group within the
classroom. While this group is a large group, consisting of nine students, whom sometimes
can be extremely chatty, they all show a passion, love, and desire to learn in school and to do
their best.

This lesson plan works well within the third grade curriculum. Every day the students spend
about two hours working in small groups, in partners and/or individually on both their reading
and writing skills. At Riverheads, their Language Arts program is based on the Daily 5.
The Daily 5 entails, reading to someone (write), listen to reading (write), read to self (listen),
and word study (listen). Mrs. Shomo, however, has designed her own Daily 5 based off of
what she believes works best in her classroom. Throughout the year, Mrs. Shomo has shared
that the students have practiced many skills in Language Arts and in reading groups including
making predications, finding the main idea, writing summaries, and several reading
comprehension strategies such as sequencing and visualizing. At this point in the year, Mrs.
Shomo continues to review with them several Language Arts skills in preparation for the
Virginia SOLs in May.

The blue group I have been working with has just started reading Charlottes Web last week.
They absolutely love it so far, and many of the students have been comparing the book to the
movie. Within the thirty to forty-five minutes I have with them we will discuss Chapter 8, A
Talk At Home that the students were asked to read for homework last night. At the beginning
of this unit, the students created little journals. In the journals we have completed a variety of
The following information should be included in the header of the lesson plan:
Megan Geisel
Mrs. Carolyn Shomo, Riverheads Elementary School
March 25, 2014; 8:30 a.m.
reading and writing learning activities such as listing the main characters, writing our
predictions and summarizing the chapters. We have also drawn several pictures of what we
have been visualizing while reading each chapter. After a brief discussion of chapter 8, we
will go around and make predictions about what we think might happen in Chapter 9,
Wilburs Boast. We will then together as a group, start to read Chapter 9. I will stop at
various points during the reading to ask the students questions. By stopping at various points,
this will keep the students engaged while also allow me to assess students reading
comprehension skills. We will at the end of page 63, because it is a long chapter where I will
assign students partners based on who they work best with to read the rest of the chapter
together. When they are finished reading, they will be given Charlotte Web task cards. They
will complete the assigned cards with their partners and write their answers in their reading
journals.


C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand
The students will use oral
language to respond appropriately
in group situations to both peers
and adults.
Know
The students will be able to
express their thoughts through the
utilization of oral language.

Do
The students will be able to
verbally discuss and describe their
thoughts to their peers based on
questions asked by the teacher.
The students will understand that
they should utilize a variety of
strategies to assist with
comprehension.
The students will understand that
visualizing while reading is like
creating a movie in your head by
using the five senses of seeing,
feeling, touching, smelling, and
tasting what is occurring from the
words that they read.
The students will be able to
practice using the reading
comprehension strategy of
visualizing by drawing pictures of
each season (spring, summer, fall,
winter), and writing down the
words that they heard in the
reading to determine what they
drew.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING

The group will be assessed and evaluated based on their responses to questions asked by the
teacher during the read aloud. The teacher will listen to the students responses focusing on if
they are able to recall what the read the night before

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING


F. MATERIALS NEEDED

10 copies of Charlottes Web by E.B. White-Ms. Geisel
Charlottes Web Task Cards-Ms. Geisel
Pencils-Mrs. Shomo
Crayons-Mrs. Shomo
Charlottes Web reading journals-Ms. Geisel
Dry Erase Board (if needed)-Mrs. Shomo
Dry Erase Board Markers (if needed)-Mrs. Shomo

G. PROCEDURE

Preparation of the learning environment

The students will be seated at a desk or table depending on the location in the classroom
where my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Shomo, directs us to work. The teacher will have all
learning materials prepared beforehand.

Engage -Introduction of the lesson

I will introduce the lesson by writing on the white board a question about chapter 8. The
students were assigned chapter 8 to read for homework. The students will individually write
in their journals quietly responding to the Do Now reading question (form of assessment). I
will explain to the students what is required in their responses and that afterwards we will
each share what we wrote. Additionally, I will explain the plan for today.

Implementation of the lesson (specific procedures and directions for teacher and
students)

Today, we will discuss what we read last night for homework. I have written on the white
board a Do Now question about chapter 8. In your Charlottes Web journals respond to this
question. After you write your responses, we will then each share what have written in our
journals. We will then read chapter 9 together and complete a variety of learning activities
(task cards). You will write your responses individually and quietly. If you have any
questions, please dont hesitate to ask. Please open up to your next blank page in your
journals and answer the following question that I have written on the whiteboard about
chapter 8: How did Mrs. Arable feel about Fern in chapter eight? If you need to refer back
into your books, you may do so.

Give the students four to six minutes to respond to the question. Help any student who may
need it. After students have written their responses, come back together as a group. I gave
you guys a few minutes to respond to the question, How did Mrs. Arable feel about Fern in
chapter eight? What did you guys write down? Would anyone like to share first?

Pick on a student to respond (typically almost every students hand is up to share). After the
first student responds, let other students respond. At the end, summarize what all the students
said. I will say something like, You guys all shared great responses. From reading chapter 8,
we learned that Mrs. Arable was concerned because Fern shared with her that the animals,
like Charlotte and Wilber could talk and that they were having several conversations in the
barn. Mrs. Arable goes to the doctor, Dr. Dorian for advice but Dr. Dorian gives Mrs. Arable
some reassurance by saying, I have never heard animals talk, but I am ready to believe what
Fern says.

After the students all share (Note: I will not force a student to share if he/she wants to, but I
will encourage students to share), I will ask if any other characters were introduced in chapter
8 that we could add in our journals to our character list. Let several students respond. After
students update their character lists, we will open up our books to chapter 9.

We are going to read chapter 9 together. Everyone needs to open up his or her books to page
55. Reading the title, labeled Wilburs Boast, who has a prediction about what might
happen?

Let several students share their predications (They love sharing their predictions!).

After several students predict, the student to start will be picked on whose birthday is next.
That student will begin (they all love to read!) and after reading a page, will pick another
student to continue reading.

We are now going to start to read chapter 9. This is a really great chapter, and I cant wait to
read it with you guys! The person who will start to read will be based off of whose birthday is
next. After he/she reads, he/she will pick someone else to read. However, the rule is that girls
will pick boys and boys will pick girls to read. This is a very long chapter, so we will begin
reading it together first before reading the rest with a partner.

As students read, I will stop at various points to ask them what is going on, what they are
visualizing or picturing in their heads, etc.

For example, I will stop at the end of page 56, Who thinks Wilber will be successful in
making a web? What materials do you think he will use from the barn to try and make one?
Let several students respond.

Stop at the end of page 62: What are you guys visualizing (picturing) in your heads? What
helped your guys create your visuals? Let several students respond.

Now, I am going to assign you guys partner. You and your partner will read the rest of the
chapter. There are only a few pages left, so this should not take you that long. When you are
finished, I will give each pair a task card. The task card will have a question on it. In your
Charlottes Web reading journals under where you answered the Do Now question, you will
write down the question shown on the task card and together develop an answer. For
example, one of the task cards asks, What were the words that Charlotte wove into her
web? I would write that question nice and neat in my journal and then refer to my
Charlottes Web book to help me answer that question. Once I found my answer, I would
write it nice and neat underneath where you wrote the question. Once you complete one task
card, depending on time, you will complete another. If you have any questions, please dont
hesitate to ask.

The students will be assigned partners based on who works well together. The students will be
asked to stay around the area we work so they do not interrupt the other two reading groups in
the classroom. I will be walking around to manage behavior and assist any student who may
need help. In addition, I will informally observe students as a form of assessment.

When there are five minutes left, I will collect the students reading journals and task cards and
share with them that they are to read chapter 10 for homework. I will make sure that all
students write down to read chapter 10 in their agendas.

I need your reading journals and task cards. Tonight for homework you are to read chapter
10. Tomorrow in Language Arts we will discuss chapters 9 and 10 and what we have done
with the Charlottes We task cards thus far in our reading journals. Make sure you guys read
tonight. Remember reading every night is very important!

Closure and cleanup

Collect Charlottes Web Reading Journals and Task Cards.
Clean up all materials i.e. pencils, crayons.
Remind the students to read Chapter 10 tonight for homework.

H. DIFFERENTIATION

If we do finish early, the students can start reading chapter 10 quietly at their assigned seats.

Any individual student who does not meet any of the learning objectives will be taken aside
during any free time (i.e. during morning work) to receive additional help.


I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?

There could be an emergency drill during language arts lesson. If a drill does occur, I will
either complete the language arts lesson tomorrow, or if time permits I will finish it during the
designated time period that day.

Out of the nine students I will be teaching my lesson with, one student may be absent. If a
student is absent the day I teach my lesson, I will assist that student the following day during
morning work to catch him/her up. In addition, the student typically is supposed to go to study
hall to catch up on his/her work. If Mrs. Shomo allows me, study hall will be another
opportunity to sit one on one with that student to catch him/her up.

There could be a snow day. If a snow day occurs, I will push my plans back for this week by
one day. For example, Tuesdays lesson will be pushed back to Wednesday and Wednesdays
lesson will be pushed back to Thursday.