Mini Lesson

Education 360

By Kristen Romano

  1. Course Title: English
  2. Unit: Successful Reading Strategies
  3. Anticipated Grade Level: 10th/11th
  4. General Objective of this Lesson: The students will gain an understanding of how to draw the most knowledge out of their reading when studying or reading for comprehension. Students will also be introduced to a variation of the SQ3R method of reading to aid them in their SAT preparation.
  5. Behavioral Objective: Given a sample SAT comprehension test, students will use the various strategies discussed in class to complete the test with 100% accuracy.
  6. Rationale: When stepping in front of a class we cannot assume that the students seated before us have any knowledge of the information we intend to teach. Nor can we assume that these students know how to gather the information either in the form of class notes or from their own independent reading. It is generally left up to the language arts teachers to show the students how to do seemingly trivial things such as reading effectively or studying. It is extremely important that students learn to get the most out their comprehensive reading for any subject. Effective reading is the key to effective studying an ultimately academic success. Also, at this grade level many students are preparing for their SATís and the only preparation most of them get if from SAT guides sold in local bookstores. The problem with these books is that although they may offer various strategies, they do not offer the guided practice that can be offered in the classroom. Therefore, I have designed a lesson based on reading comprehension and test taking strategies not only to prepare students for the SATís but also to sharpen their study skills. SATís and study skills are practical applications that students can easily see the use for in their lives.
  7. Content: The following outline illustrates the material that will be taught in this lesson:
  8. Survey/Follow Directions. The first step in preparing for or taking a test knowing what to do.
    1. When asked to read an assignment, look briefly at each page paying special attention to headings, titles, paragraph length, and highlighted text.
    2. The reason behind this first step is so that you know what the topic of the reading assignment is before you begin reading. This will give you a sense of what is important and where to focus your reading.
    3. When taking a comprehension test make sure you read all directions before you begin reading. The directions may provide you with focus cues.
    4. You may also want to read over any questions that go also with the assignment before you begin reading.
  9. Ask yourself questions before you begin to read.
    1. When studying for a test, you may want to ask yourself questions central to the topic of the material that you need or want to know.
    2. This idea coincides with the KWL (know, want to know, learned) method of reading. You could make a list such as the one illustrated in #432 of you grammar book, answering the questions as you go along.
      1. This technique tends to work best when rereading for the answering of questions.
    3. When taking a test you may want to focus on the questions that correspond to the text while reading.
  10. Reading the text.
    1. Read the text carefully, following the authorís reasoning and the general focus of the text. Pay particular attention of the authorís attitude, tone, and general style.
    2. You may want to mark important facts and ideas, but donít waste too much time underlining or taking notes when taking a comprehension test. Try to get a sense or the principle ideas, facts, and organization of the passage.
    3. When preparing for a test, read each paragraph carefully and take notes that may include questions that may arise in your reading.
    4. Do your best to either look up unfamiliar words or use context clues.
    5. Use your senses to imagine what each topic looks like, smells like, sounds like, feels like, or even tastes like. Become as much a part of the reading as possible. This will help you to recall important ideas when answering questions.
  11. Recite/Recap important ideas.
    1. When studying for a test, take some time to recite out loud the important ideas of the reading material.
    2. When you have the opportunity, tell someone around you what you have read and what it was about.
    3. When taking a comprehension test, you will not be able to recite ideas out loud but you can recap the major ideas in your head.
    4. If this doesnít work, you may want to take a minute or two to write short answers to the following questions in the margin of your test or test booklet: Who or What? Did What? Where? When? Why?
  12. Review
    1. When taking a test, answer the questions immediately. Try not to skip back and forth between sections of the test because you may forget important ideas or get confused with different lumps of information. If you feel you cannot answer a question, either take your best guess based on what you have learned from the reading, or skip it and move on to the next question. Don not spend more that a minute on each question.
    2. When studying for a test, review or summarize the material immediately after reading.
    3. If there are any questions that you have, try to go back and answer them.
    4. Make some sort of study guide (use what ever works for you)
      1. Out line
      2. Flask cards
      3. Mapping (# 433)
      4. Graphic organizers (# 434)
      5. Get together with friends and quiz each other

 

VI. Difference between skimming and scanning (handout)

 

  1. Instructional Procedures:

Introduction: Begin by distributing test that illustrates why students should follow directions. Stress the fact that directions can be written or oral. This will lead into the first point of the lesson which to survey the material. This little test will also warm up the group and gain their attention and interest.

I will get into the lesson by stating the objective. I will tell the students the importance of this lesson and how it applies directly to their lives via the SATís as well as improving their study skills.

I will begin to teach to the objective by presenting an outline of the above mentioned steps on the blackboard. This will serve two purposes: first, the students will get the information and have a chance to discuss it if any problems arise, second, I will indirectly be giving them a lesson on note taking and out lining.

The students will then be given a sample comprehension test from a SAT study guide and we will work together as a group to get through as many steps as possible and answer the questions.

Once this exercise is complete, the students will be given another brief passage without questions to read. Before distributing questions I will ask a few students to share what they have learned from the passage. I will then distribute 4 questions on the passage to be completed independently. The answers will then be discussed as a group. I will ask students how they arrived at their answers and if they used any special techniques that they could share with the class that helped them to remember details from the passage.

Conclusion of the lesson:

I will ask the students to recite the five basic steps, and which steps they feel are most useful.

 

 

Evaluation of Mini-Lesson

 

Although I spent a lot of time preparing this lesson in a fashion that I thought was valuable to the students, it lacked something in the presentation. I over zealously chose this topic, something that I knew nothing about, and tried to relate it to something useful in the studentsí lives. My major downfall was that I tried to hard to teach the students how to use the material rather than what I should have done, which would have been to use the material to teach the students. After I presented this lesson, I thought about how I could have used the techniques mentioned in Writers Inc., such as KWL, to get the students to read successfully. What I came up with was a plan that used the elements of KWL to encourage students to read effectively rather than simply telling them to use the plan as I did in this lesson. For an example of how this is done, see my lesson plan for "The Pardonerís Tale". That was the first lesson I taught on my own to an actually class and although there are things that I know I should have done differently, I still feel that this was an effective plan and an effective use of the KWL theory.

Overall, I felt that during this lesson I spent too much time lecturing to the class and very little time interacting with the students. If you choose reading strategies for your mini lesson, take into account ways you as the teacher can manipulate these strategies to fit into the actual teaching of a lesson. You can then point the process out to your students and suggest that they use this technique in the future, but begin with an example that involves the students before you get to caught up in defining terms and preaching about strategies.

 

 

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