ellsd68.weebly.comellsd68.weebly.com/uploads/4/7/5/1/...lesson_siop.docx · Web viewThe following lesson plan was adapted from the SIOP lesson plan template 1 from Echevarria, Vogt

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The lesson plan that I describe in this paper was designed for an inclusive Grade two

classroom. My goal was to create a reading lesson that would engage and meet the needs of all the

learners. As this wide-ranging group includes ELL students, I have included both content and

language objectives. ELL students may require particular kinds of support in learning literacy such

as scaffolding, explicit teaching around academic language, rereading and the incorporation of oral

language through interaction. These are helpful instructional literacy strategies for all learners.

This lesson is designed with the assumption that some children may not be familiar with the

cultural aspects of the text and may not yet be fluent in the spoken language.

January, I attended a Joyful Literacy conference in Victoria and was inspired by Tim

Rasinsky, a professor of literacy education at Kent State University and director of its award

winning reading clinic. His approach led me to incorporate explicit and authentic fluency

instruction into my literacy program. I decided that the focus of this lesson plan would be on

reading fluency. Rasinsky defines reading fluency as “reading with and for meaning” and argues

that the focus of fluency should not be on speed of reading (Rasinsky, 2012, p.517.) His conception

of fluency is that it should be “at the centre of authentic reading instruction in which the aim of

students’ reading is comprehension (Rasinsky, 2012, p. 517.)” The National Reading Panel’s survey

of research on reading also supports the notion that reading fluency is an important component of

effective reading instruction (NRP; 2000.) For a list of how to help students become more fluent

readers please see Appendix B.

According to Rasinsky (2014) reading fluency has two essential components: Word

recognition that is accurate and effortless (automaticity) and prosodic or expressive reading

(prosody.) I have narrowed the focus of the lesson to prosody. The content objective is derived

from the new B.C. Ministry of Education Grade 2 language arts curriculum objective: Students will

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be able to read with fluency at Grade level. My goal is to teach the students about the exclamation

mark and how to read the punctuation correctly to give the words of the text the intended emphasis

and meaning (Johnson & Keier, 2010.)

I chose the poem, The Zoo was in an Uproar, for the reading passage because poems are well

suited to fluency practice as they lend themselves well to choral reading, often have repeating lines

of dialogue, contain rhythm and rhyme and are short and highly engaging (Rasinsky, 2017),

Walther (2017), Johnson & Keier (2010.) Please see Appendix D for a copy of the poem.

In her book, Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English Language

Learners in the Mainstream Classroom (2015), Gibbons states that classroom reading activities

should generally aim to fulfill two major functions:

1. “They should help readers understand the particular text they are reading.

2. They should help readers develop good reading strategies for reading other texts (Gibbons,

2015, p.145.)”

The activities that I have chosen for this lesson aim to fill these major functions. The following

lesson plan was adapted from the SIOP lesson plan template 1 from Echevarria, Vogt and Short’s

textbook: Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners, the SIOP Model.

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SIOP Lesson Plan

Reading with Excitement: Exclamation Marks

Grade: 2

Subject: Language Arts lesson with a focus on reading and fluency

Timeline: This lesson may take place over one or more sessions. It will be necessary to adapt the pace and structure to the needs and abilities of the both the individual and group of students.

Content Objective:

- Students will be able to show excitement with their voices when they read a sentence that ends with an exclamation mark.

Language Objectives:

- Students will be able to explain orally what an exclamation mark is. - Students will be able to show excitement with their voices when reading aloud a sentence

that ends with an exclamation mark. - Students will be able to find and highlight exclamation marks in a poem when they listen to

it being read aloud.

Content vocabulary: excitement, expression, exclamation mark, exclamation point

Materials:

- Poem: The Zoo was in an Uproar by Jack Prelutsky

- Illustrations of each animal in the poem with the name of the animal written clearly

underneath. These illustrations can be printed out on paper or shown on a smart board.

- Chart for classroom wall that defines, in kid friendly language, punctuation marks. Each

definition has the punctuation mark (character from Rosenthal’s book Exclamation Mark)

drawn beside it (See appendix C for examples.)

- Picture books for pre-reading activities: Exclamation Mark (Rosenthal, 2013), Hurry! Hurry!

(Bunting, 2007) and If You Were an Exclamation Point (Lyons, 2009)

Lesson Sequence and Activities:

Before the reading:

The following activities support potential cultural and conceptual knowledge barriers and

support unfamiliar vocabulary including academic and subject related language:

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- Predicting from visuals: Show illustrations of the animals in the poem and give the

children time in pairs or in groups to say what they think the poem may be about. Ask the

students to share what they think the poem might be about and record the ideas on a mind

map on the board or smart board. The illustrations of the animals will be labeled and the

discussion will reinforce the names of the animals. Students will be encouraged to share the

names of the animals in their first languages if they feel comfortable. Ask the students

where we might find all of these animals together. Accept and discuss all responses.

Introduce the word zoo if it does not come up in the context of the conversation. Discuss

what other kinds of animals could be found in zoos and lead a discussion about zoos.

Children from other countries could be encouraged to share if there are zoos in the

countries they are from.

- Read aloud and discuss the following picture book: Exclamation Mark by Rosenthal

(2013). Option for students to listen to the book being read aloud multiple times:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VjlGkEE4a8 Create together a chart of possible short

phrases to read with exclamation to post in the classroom based upon the example from the

book Exclamation Mark by Rosenthal. Encourage each student to share a phrase and record

it on the chart. Students can be encouraged to include phrases from their first languages

and share the meanings of these phrases with their peers. Read aloud the phrases that have

been shared by the students. Ex: Great job! I can’t believe it! Boom! Dude! Model

expression and excitement and draw attention to the exclamation marks. Introduce the

vocabulary “expression” and “excitement”.

- Introduce the objectives of the lesson to the students.

Teacher talk: “At the end of this week you will be able to:1. tell me what an exclamation mark is. 2. show excitement and feeling with your voice when you read a sentence that ends

with an exclamation mark.3. find exclamation marks when you read.” These objectives will also be written on the board and referred to throughout the lesson.

While the reading is going on:

This component of the lesson has been adapted from Rasinsky’s Fluency Development

Lesson which he highlights in his article 2014 article Delivering Supportive Fluency

Instruction – Especially for Students who Struggle (2014).

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- Introduce the poem and read it aloud two or three times, while the students follow along.

Teacher talk: “when I read a sentence with an exclamation point, my voice goes up at the

end and often gets louder so you can tell the character is feeling upset or excited. Listen

carefully to see if you can hear when my voice changes.” “Exclamation marks tell us to put

excitement into our voices.” Draw their attention to the poster that defines the punctuation

marks and read the definition of an exclamation mark to them. Remind them of the

character “exclamation mark” from Rosenthal’s book Exclamation Mark (2013). Ask the

students to listen and follow along and when they find an exclamation mark to highlight it

with a highlighter. (Kids love to use highlighters!)

- Discuss the nature and then content of the poem. Teacher talk: “Why do you think the

animals were so upset the day the hippopotamus forgot to take a bath?” “How did the

hippopotamus feel when all the animals were upset?” “Do you think the animals were

overreacting?” etc…..

- Read the passage chorally several times. Be playful! Model and lead with lots of expression.

- Organize students into pairs. In pairs the students highlight the expression marks on their

individual copies and then each student practices the poem three times while their partner

listens and provides oral support and encouragement. (Two stars and a wish)

- Circulate around the classroom and listen to the students as they read to each other. When

appropriate, use fluency prompts from: Catching Readers before they fall to support the

students (Johnson & Keier, p.125). These fluency prompts are identified in Appendix A.

3. After the poem has been read:

- Gather the class and choose three to four words to add the classroom word bank or wall.

- Students take the poem home to practice with parents and other family members.

- Students return to school and read the poem to the teacher who checks for fluency and

comprehension. Teacher talk: “Can you tell me what an expression mark is? Can you read

the poem aloud to me? Can you point to five exclamation points in the poem?”

Students present the poem to their big buddy class. Performance motivates readers to

“read a text closely, deeply and repeatedly” (Rasinsky, 2017.)

Optional follow up reading activities

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These activities could give the students opportunities to respond creatively to the poem and

have them focus more deeply on the information in the text. These strategies are from

Gibbon’s 2014 book: Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning.

True/False questions: the students decide on whether a number of statements about the

text are true or false. Show responses with thumbs up or thumbs down. For example: The

pandas were happy the hippopotamus didn’t take a bath.

Readers Theatre: Each child reads the dialogue of one of the animals.

Cloze activities: Delete some of the animal names from the poem and encourage the

students to substitute them for different animal names or even classmates names. This may

result in some serious silliness!

Text Reconstruction: Cut an excerpt from the poem into sentences or words. Students must

put the sentences/words back in the right order.

Word study: learn the prefixes UN and DIS. Both prefixes have the same meaning: not or

the opposite of. Vocabulary in the poem to support the word study: Disgraceful, Distressing,

Unfair, Uncalled for and Unseemly.

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References

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: The SIOP Model. 4th edition. Pearson Education: New Jersey, 2013.

Gibbons, Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Heinemann: NH, 2015.

Johnson, P., & Keier, K., Catching Readers before They Fall: Supporting Readers who Struggle, K-4. Stenhouse Publishers: Maine, 2010.

Prelustsky, J. Something Big Has Been Here. Greenwillow Books: New York, 1990.

National Institute for Literacy (NIFL). (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, Kindergarten to Grade 3. NIFL: 2001.

Rasinsky, T. (2014). Delivering Supportive Fluency Instruction – Especially for Students who Struggle, Reading Today, April/May, 26 -27.

Rasinsky, T. (2012). Reading Fluency is Hot, The Reading Teacher, 65 (8), 516-522.

Rasinsky, T. (2017, January). Reading Fluency is Hot. Session presented at the Joyful Literacy Conference, Victoria.

Walther, M. (2017, January). The Promise of Poetry to Boost Vulnerable Readers’ Fluency and Comprehension. Session presented at the Joyful Literacy Conference, Victoria.

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Appendix A

Fluency Prompts from: Catching Readers before they fall (Johnson & Keier, p.125)

How do you think you sounded? Put these words together. Make it sound like talking. Was that smooth or choppy? (Use this when the reading sounds smooth and when it

doesn’t – we want the child to listen to himself or herself and be aware of how his reading or her reading sounds.)

Look at this mark. (Point to punctuation.) What does it tell you to do with your voice? Make it smooth, like when you read _______________. (Refer to a favorite book that has been

read often.) Can you read in quickly? Can you make it sound like the character?

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Appendix B

A list of how to help students become more fluent readers adapted from the book: Catching Readers before they fall (Johnson & Keier, p.125-126.)

1. Provide them with models of fluent reading

2. Have students repeatedly read passages as you offer guidance

3. Read the poem to the children first and then practise it chorally.

4. Have students suggest lines that they thought needed more practice. Encourage smooth

reading and talking like characters when dialogue is involved.

5. Practice re-reading the poem in groups and then coming back together as a whole group.

6. Have each group take a turn performing the poem for the other students.

7. After the reading, the audience can help the performers reflect on what went well and

which parts of the poem sounded the best

8. The keys are having an audience and holding reflective discussions

9. Talk about making it sound smooth, like real talking, not “robot reading”

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Appendix C

The following is a list of “kid friendly” definitions, that Johnson and Keier (p.126) share in their

book, which teachers can use to explain punctuation marks:

“Quotation marks tell us someone is talking

Question marks tell us to make our voice sound like we are asking a question

Commas that tell us to take a quick pause or a breath

Exclamation marks tell us to put excitement into our voices”

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Appendix D