Summary
How do you make sense of what you read? In this lesson focused on literacy practices, students engage in a variety of reading strategies. Students consider their reading processes before discovering annotation techniques, and then read and annotate a short story and craft a multimodal response.
Essential Question(s)
How do readers make sense of texts?
Snapshot
Engage
Students create a reading pictogram concerning how they make sense of what they read.
Explore
Students explore annotation strategies, including Beers' and Probst's Signposts.
Explain
Students define reading strategies: clarifying, evaluating, connecting, visualizing, predicting, and questioning.
Extend
Students read and annotate Shirley Jackson's short story "Charles," applying Signposts and other reading strategies.
Evaluate
Students create a Strategy Snapshot, highlighting the reading strategies that helped them most while reading the short story.
Materials
Lesson slides (attached)
I Notice, I Wonder handout (attached; one per pair)
Card Sort (attached; one per group)
Charles by Shirley Jackson (attached; one per student)
Strategy Snapshot handout (attached; one per student)
White copy paper
Highlighters
Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
Internet capable devices (optional)
Engage
Use the attached Lesson Slides to introduce students to the lesson. Use slides 3-4 to introduce the essential question and learning objective.
Distribute copy paper and pencils. Move to slide 5 and ask students to answer the question:
How do you make sense of what you read?
Give students a moment to write down their thoughts. Introduce students to the Mingle instructional strategy and give them a number for how many peers should be in their group when the music stops. Repeat the strategy a few times to allow students to interact with multiple peers. When complete, ask students to return to their seats and conduct a brief, whole-class discussion about the prompt. Move to slide 6 and ask students to answer the prompt on the screen:
What is a pictogram?
Allow students a few minutes to write down their thoughts and remind them to write their answers on the same side of the paper as the previous prompt. When they are done, move to slide 7. Ask students to read the excerpt on the slide, or read it aloud to them. Move to slide 8 and instruct students to use the blank side of their copy paper and illustrate what is going on in their minds as they read. When students are finished, direct them to share their work with an elbow partner. If time allows, facilitate a brief, whole-class discussion.
Explore
15 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 9 and distribute internet capable devices to students along with the I Notice, I Wonder handout (attached). Introduce students to the I Notice, I Wonder instructional strategy. Then, pair students and instruct them to watch the videos in the playlist: Notice and Note Lessons. They may access the videos by using the URL on the slide or scanning the QR code. As they watch, direct them to take notes on their handout.
Explain
10 Minute(s)
Arrange students in groups of 3-4 and distribute the Card Sort activity.
Move to slide 10 and introduce students to the Card Sort instructional strategy. Direct students to sort the cards by matching the strategy to the definition and picture that fits best. When students are done, facilitate a whole class discussion to review the correct matches and clear up any misconceptions. Use hidden slide 11 to check student work. You may choose to display slide 11 so students can check their own work as well.
Extend
25 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 12 and distribute copies of Charles by Shirley Jackson (attached) along with highlighters.
Introduce students to the Why-Lighting instructional strategy. Then, instruct students to read the short story and highlight any signposts they discover. Encourage them to note any strategies they use in the margins. They should note the strategies by drawing the symbol for it (from the Card Sort) in the margins.
Evaluate
25 Minute(s)
Transition to slide 13 and distribute the Strategy Snapshot handout (attached).
Direct students to choose 4 of the 6 reading strategies that they think were most effective in helping them understand the story: Clarifying, Evaluating, Connecting, Visualizing, Predicting, and Questioning. Instruct students to include one written response and one visual element related to the story for each of their chosen strategies.
Resources
Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (2013). Notice & note: Strategies for close reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Card sort. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/147
K20 Center. (n.d.). I notice, I wonder. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/180
K20 Center. (n.d.).Mingle. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/53
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-lighting. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
Peterson, Brent. (2015). Notice and note lessons [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF469SQhojEKgthLS7RlEmk91Slo8ldt
Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Bloomsbury.