LESSON ONE: Applying Reading Strategies to Aid Comprehension
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Students complete a Wordstorming sheet involving pre-reading strategies.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
R1F Students will apply pre-reading strategies to aid comprehension of nonfiction text.
LESSON MATERIALS
§ Sources of literature
§ Supplies
o Pencil and paper
§ Handouts provided
§ Words to Know
o pre-reading strategies
o predict
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Lead discussion to facilitate knowledge and awareness of students’ common, relevant responses as well as gain an idea of the number and direction of irrelevant responses. The assessments are findings from the Wordstorming sheets and information gained through listening to student discussion both during and after the activity. In addition, students write which pre-reading strategies were addressed by this activity, i.e., purpose and link to prior knowledge.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Give students the Wordstorming sheet. Explain they will be reading articles on the topic of fast foods. Students write down any word that comes to mind when you say the word “fast food”. Students write down words they think will appear in texts about this topic. Words they provide should be written in the corresponding word letter box.
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Questions for Students |
Are you having trouble coming up with words? If so, what could you do to think of more words? (i.e., visualize eating at a fast food restaurant, ads for fast food, information from a health class) Are you getting off track and talking about your favorite fast foods and places? If so, how are you going to get focused? What were some of the characteristics of the words you recorded? (Examples may include restaurant names, food items, and nutritional terminology.) |
2. Share a few words from the Wordstorming sheet and tell why those words would appear.
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Questions for Students |
Did you have trouble coming up with words that you thought would be included? What informative articles about fast food have you read? Does your experience or lack of experience with related readings correlate to the number of relevant words you wrote? If so, in what way? How will predicting words that could be in the reading make you look for those words while you are reading? How do you think participating in this activity will affect comprehension? Why? What was the purpose of this activity, and what do you think the purpose of the reading will be? |
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Suggestion |
Instruct students in the purpose of pre-reading strategies (Wordstorming sheet) by reviewing link to prior knowledge, prediction, purpose, etc. Do not give students any help in terms of whether their answer is “right” or “wrong.” The idea is to see what they do and don’t know about fast food and indirectly assess their opinions while teaching/practicing pre-reading strategies. Don’t let students quit when they first say they can’t think of additional words. Challenge them to continue for another five minutes with concentrated effort and/or put them with all partners so low ability students can get peer help. |
3. Move about the room observing, encouraging, and providing assistance where needed. This is an independent activity at the start.