Lesson 2-Day 1 Read to Comprehend
The objectives of this lesson were to teach the students the importance of main idea, supporting details, and monitoring and clarifying while reading. I also taught them how to do it. These were strategies that have been talked about in the Reading Street curriculum earlier in the year so the students did have some background knowledge on them. I also went over the definitions of their weekly vocabulary words as a whole class discussion. The students learned, more in depth how to find the main idea of a text based on the supporting details, as well as monitor and clarify while reading. This is done to check for understanding, and to inform them of steps to take if they do not understand what they are reading. Since Reading Street is quite repetitious they are familiar with how I progressed through the lesson. They know that it is a lot of practice, and working as a whole class to understand why these strategies are important. One area where students struggled was with the supporting details. My students would get too caught up on the wording and just reiterate what the text said word for word instead of stating the main supporting details in their own words. This required a lot of practice all week long, which ended up working out because they got the main idea and details, and monitor and clarify right away. They were able to prove their knowledge through class discussion, worksheets, and a lot of them wanted me to see how well they knew it during reading groups.
Another way that I looked at this lesson in terms of being helpful to the students was how they will use it in their lives outside of school. Knowing how to determine the main idea, based on the important supporting details. This can be found by monitoring and clarifying while you are reading. I use these strategies in my everyday life. When I read the newspaper, check the mail; check the TV guide, even when I am planning my lessons with the Reading Street book. This is important to solidify because it will be a determining factor in the student’s comprehension abilities.
I now see, after teaching the lesson that these strategies truly will be carried with them for the rest of their lives. When out in the world working, reading emails, reports, directions, instructions, etc. they will use these strategies. The objectives were for the students to understand the meaning and how to use them at school, but I felt that it was important to take it a few steps further and clue them into how they will be using it for the rest of their lives. We talked about sending an email verses sending a text message. We discussed how emails might need to be read for the main idea and details, but a text message will most likely only have the main idea and possibly some details.
Since the material was talked about for four days of the week in all literacy blocks there were not students who needed much extra support. The students who did get pulled out during literacy do not get pulled out during that block anymore so they are there for the whole lesson and are on the same page as the rest of the class. If there was extra support needed I was available during part of the reading groups/Daily 5 block to clarify any misconceptions or clear up questions. I was also able to work through more examples with these students.
If I could teach this lesson again and change it to make it better I would have had the students listen to the story before we read it as a whole class. I feel that this would have given them a chance to hear the story more in order to ensure understanding, and comprehension. That was originally part of my lesson plan but it got cut out due to timing issues.
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