Spend two days on each lesson to give scholars practice.
Lesson 1: Great readers look at each page and think about what the pictures or illustrations tell them about the story.
Lesson 2: Great readers make mind movies as they read.
Lesson 3: Great readers read unknown words by thinking about what would make sense in the context.
Lesson 4: Great readers double-check their reading to make sure it looks right.
Lesson 5: Great readers use words they know to solve words they don’t know yet!
Lesson 1
What Does Success Look Like?
Great readers look at each page and think about what the pictures or illustrations tell them about the story.
Success is when scholars use pictures or illustrations to understand the story.
Lesson 1
Engage — 1 minute
Remind scholars that authors include illustrations to help us understand the story.
Direct Instruction (Model/Practice) — 5–7 minutes
- Preview the first two pages from Library Lion, by Michelle Knudsen. Think aloud about what the illustrations show.
- Show the illustration on the next page under the ELMO (Mr. McBee tries telling Miss Merriweather about the lion). Scholars turn and talk about what this illustration shows. Listen in to understand how well scholars describe what’s happening in the picture and infer what might be happening in the story.
- Briefly share out two scholar responses.
- Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 15–20 minutes
- Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 15 minutes. Get them excited about getting lost in their books and the luxury of reading time!
- Whether you are flying solo or teaching as part of a duo, start by making sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone.
- Play classical or instrumental jazz music, but the volume should be low.
- Narrate scholars who are following through on your expectations, such as staying focused on their books, or who are demonstrating strong reading habits, such as always making mind movies.
- Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 3–5 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading goal. Give scholars goal cards as a reminder. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
- Listen to scholars read and ask them to describe how they are using the pictures to help them understand the story.
- Note kids’ growth areas. Do they use the pictures to help them make meaning? Is their oral language development lagging?
- Model for scholars and give them strategies to tackle their goals.
- Listen to scholars as they read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
Partner Share — 3–5 minutes
- When the timer is up, reset expectations for partner talk.
- Each scholar shares an illustration from her book and explains how the picture helped her understand the story.
- Listen in to determine if scholars are mastering the lesson objective. Look for a scholar who can model his thinking during the Whole-Class Share.
Whole-Class Share — 5 minutes
- Bring scholars together at the rug and reinforce today’s objective.
- Choose a scholar to share 1–2 illustrations and explain how the illustration(s) helped him understand the story. Have others evaluate which great reading tactic the scholar used.
Lesson 2
What Does Success Look Like?
Great readers make mind movies as they read.
Success is when scholars can describe what’s happening in the story.
Lesson 2
Engage — 1 minute
Ask scholars why it’s fun to watch movies. Being transported to an imaginary world is fun, and we can do this not just with movies but with books as well. Reading is even more fun than watching a movie because you get to create the movie in your own mind!
Direct Instruction (Model/Practice) — 5–7 minutes
- Read page 3 from No, Bo! by Ann Staman, without showing scholars the illustration. Then think aloud, describing what you are imagining in your mind. Explain that this is what reading is all about—using the author’s clues to create a movie in your mind, or a “mind movie.” Great readers always do this!
- Turn to the next page. Instruct scholars to close their eyes, listen to you reading, and create a mind movie.
- Scholars turn and talk about what they saw in their mind movies. Listen in to understand how well scholars envisioned the scene you read. Ensure that they are not simply repeating the words you read and that any inferences they make are reasonable. They should describe the setting, characters, and action in the story.
- Briefly share out two scholar responses.
- Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 15–20 minutes
- Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 15 minutes. Get them excited about getting lost in their books and the luxury of reading time!
- Make sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone. Play classical or instrumental jazz music at a low volume.
- Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations.
- Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 3–5 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading goal. Give scholars goal cards as a reminder. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
- Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
- Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
Partner Share — 3–5 minutes
- When the timer is up, reset expectations for partner talk.
- Scholars share what’s happening in their mind movies across several pages of the books they’re reading.
- Listen in to determine if scholars are mastering the lesson objective. Look for a scholar who can model her thinking during the Whole-Class Share.
Whole-Class Share — 5 minutes
- Bring scholars together at the rug and reinforce today’s objective.
- Choose a scholar to share how she used the text and illustrations to create a mind movie, and have others evaluate which great reading tactic the scholar used.
Lesson 3
What Does Success Look Like?
Great readers read unknown words by thinking about what would make sense in the context. Success is when scholars recognize errors they make while reading and go back to reread.
Lesson 3
Engage — 1 minute
Teachers, parents, and coaches often tell kids when they’ve made mistakes and how to fix them. Tell scholars that today, and they are going to practice being their own teacher/parent/coach by catching their own mistakes! To do this, they must always double-check their reading to make sure it makes sense.
Direct Instruction (Model/Practice) — 5–7 minutes
- Read page 8 of The Shopping List, by Eliza Comodromos. Model getting stuck on the word “bread” by pronouncing it “bead.” At the end of the page, stop and think aloud, “Does what I just read make sense?” Referring to the illustration and the text, conclude that everything seems to make sense except the word “bead.” There are no beads in the illustration, and we know that the characters went food shopping, so that must be a mistake. Think aloud about what would make sense and fix the word.
- Read aloud a few more pages. Read some correctly and make some mistakes.
- After each page, scholars turn and talk about whether the reading made sense. If it did not, have the scholar explain what didn’t make sense and what would make sense. Briefly share out a scholar response each time.
- Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 15–20 minutes
- Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 15 minutes. Get them excited about getting lost in their books and the luxury of reading time!
- Make sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone. Play classical or instrumental jazz music at a low volume.
- Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations.
- Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 3-5 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading goal. Give scholars goal cards as a reminder. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
- Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding. Are they recognizing when they make a mistake and trying to self-correct?
- Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
Partner Share — 3–5 minutes
- When the timer is up, reset expectations for partner talk.
- Scholars share places where they realized their reading didn’t make sense and what they thought would make sense to fix it.
- Listen in to determine if scholars are mastering the lesson objective. Look for a scholar who can model her thinking during the Whole-Class Share.
Whole-Class Share — 5 minutes
- Bring scholars together at the rug and reinforce today’s objective.
- Choose a scholar to share a place where she realized her reading didn’t make sense and what she thought would make sense to fix it. Have others evaluate which great reading tactic the scholar used.
- Celebrate that scholars can now be their own teachers by catching and fixing their mistakes!
Lesson 4
What Does Success Look Like?
Great readers double-check their reading to make sure it looks right.
Success is when scholars are able to catch their own mistakes as they read, noticing when the spoken word doesn’t match the letters on the page.
Lesson 4
Engage — 1 minute
Connect to the previous lesson. Often when we catch a mistake, it can be tricky to figure out how to fix it. Similarly, when we get to a word we don’t know, it can be tough to figure out what it is! Today, scholars will continue to be their own teachers by learning ways to figure out unknown words.
Direct Instruction (Model/Practice) — 5–7 minutes
- Read aloud page 13 of Let’s Look for Words, by Beth Johnson. Model getting stuck on the word “telephone.” Think aloud: is a “T” word. I see a girl pointing to something on the wall. What would make sense here? Would “telephone” make sense? Yes! “Telephone” starts with “T,” just like this word, and the picture is of a telephone.
- Repeat with “tomato” on page 8 in Let’s Look for Words.
- Scholars turn and talk about what the word is and how they know. Listen in to understand how well scholars use the illustrations, the surrounding text, and the letter sounds in “tomato” to figure out the word.
- Briefly share out two scholar responses.
- Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 15–20 minutes
- Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 15 minutes. Get them excited about getting lost in their books and the luxury of reading time!
- Make sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone. Play classical or instrumental jazz music at a low volume.
- Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations.
- Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 3–5 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading goal. Give scholars goal cards as a reminder. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
- Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
- Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
Partner Share — 3–5 minutes
- When the timer is up, reset expectations for partner talk.
- Each scholar shares a word that he or she figured out, using the meaning and letters/sounds.
- Listen in to determine if scholars are mastering the lesson objective. Look for a scholar who can model her thinking during the Whole-Class Share.
Whole-Class Share — 5 minutes
- Bring scholars together at the rug and reinforce today’s objective.
- Choose a scholar to share a word that she solved and how she solved it, and have others evaluate which great reading tactic the scholar used.
Lesson 5
What Does Success Look Like?
Great readers use words they know to solve words they don’t know yet!
Success is when scholars can read an unknown word by finding parts of the word they know and using these parts to help solve the whole word. Scholars must look within a tricky word and recognize smaller known words (such as “at” in “cat”) or letter combinations (such as “ing” in “jumping”). Scholars must then use these recognizable pieces to help them read the entire word.
Lesson 5
Engage — 1 minute
Connect to the previous two lessons: Solving unknown words is tricky but possible! In the previous lesson, scholars learned one strategy, and today they will learn another. Their toolkit of reading tools is growing!
Direct Instruction (Model/Practice) — 5–7 minutes
- Explain that scholars can solve unknown words by looking for parts of the word that they already know.
- Read aloud page 3 from The Picnic, by Ann Staman. Model getting stuck on the word “going.” Think aloud to model how to figure out the word by recognizing the word “go” and/or the letter combination “-ing.”
- Select two more words to get “stuck” on. For each word, scholars turn and talk about smaller words or letter combinations they recognize within the word. Listen in to understand how well scholars can identify known words and letter combinations.
- Briefly share out two scholar responses for each word. Emphasize that sometimes there are several different parts of the word that we could recognize and use to help us!
- Set the expectation that scholars have two eyes reading, two hands on the book, and two feet on the floor during Independent Reading.
Independent Reading/Targeted Teaching Time — 15–20 minutes
- Scholars must sustain focused reading for a minimum of 15 minutes. Get them excited about getting lost in their books and the luxury of reading time!
- Make sure all kids are focused and the room has a hushed tone. Play classical or instrumental jazz music at a low volume.
- Narrate scholars who are meeting your expectations.
- Spend 2–3 minutes working individually with 3–5 scholars. Ask each scholar to identify his reading goal. Give scholars goal cards as a reminder. Kids should know and articulate their goals!
- Listen to scholars read, and assess their struggles and level of understanding.
- Model and give scholars strategies to tackle their goals. Listen to scholars read, and hold them accountable for applying the strategies.
Partner Share — 3–5 minutes
- When the timer is up, reset expectations for partner talk.
- Scholars share which tool they used to help them figure out a word.
- Listen in to determine if scholars are mastering the lesson objective. Look for a scholar who can model her thinking during the Whole-Class Share.
Whole-Class Share — 5 minutes
- Bring scholars together at the rug and reinforce today’s objective.
- Choose a scholar to share how she solved an unknown word by recognizing a known word or combination of letters within it, and have others evaluate which great reading tactic the scholar used.
