Guided Reading Lesson Plan- Coming to America

Guided Reading Lesson Plan: Coming to America, Level L

Grade Level and Unit: First and Second Grade, Literacy Time

Session and Description of Lesson Tasks: Students will be reading Coming to America  and answering questions based on their reading. We will also  

Materials needed: Paper, pencils, copies of Coming to America.

Grouping Decisions: Five students who are ready for an L leveled reader will be in this group.

Learning goals/Objective(s) What are your core ideas for this lesson? What do you intend all students to know and understand? I want students to have a deeper knowledge of the immigrant experience once they have read this story as well as be able to follow the guidelines given to them on the worksheet, like numbering all answers, spelling words correctly, and writing the appropriate amount of sentences.	Language Objectives? What language will you model during the lesson? What language do you expect to hear during student discourse? Ellis Island Ferryboat Experience immigrant
Standards: How do the learning goals relate to the standards? Massachusetts English Language Arts Curriculum Standards for Grade 2: 7.            Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
Connect and Anticipate: In what ways does this lesson build on students’ previous knowledge? What student strategies and responses do you anticipate? What misconceptions and struggles might students have? Students will have previous knowledge of how a guided reading lesson works and the steps to follow, like look at the cover and discuss what they see, notice, and think, do a picture walk, and describe if the book is fiction or nonfiction. This book will be introducing a new unit we are starting on immigration so students may have questions regarding what immigration is. They may struggle initially with some of the vocabulary but once they have read the story I believe they will be able to use the context.
Focus Questions Consider what questions you will use to focus on students’ thinking to encourage sense-making and discourse. Launch: To introduce the activity/motivate students. Look at the cover, discuss. Ask students what they see, notice, think about the cover and pictures. Do a picture walk through the story and answer any questions. Point out the map on p. 12 and 13. Explore: To assess students’ understanding and to advance their thinking as they work independently, in partners or small group Why have many people from faraway countries come to America? (p.3) How is Ellis Island different today than it used to be? (p. 14-15) I will also be listening to students read. Summary: To facilitate the analysis and synthesis of ideas shared at the end of the lesson Students will fill answer questions. The questions will include the ones above as well as Tell three things you learned about Ellis Island in the book. How do you think it would feel to be an immigrant coming to America?

Evidence: How will you know what students understand? What evidence will you collect? (If there is an exit task, what will be its focus to inform you instructional next steps?) The exit task for this lesson will be for students to answer questions. I will be looking for students to use the book to spell words correctly as well as to remember information. I will also be assessing their punctuation, sentence structure, and their ability to follow the directions on the worksheet.

Pitfalls and Solutions:

                ELL: There are no students who fall under this category in the group.

Special Ed.: One student does have identified special needs and is a bit slower than the other girls. I will accommodate for this by specifically asking her questions and allowing her time to think of a response. I also find that it helps to seat her a chair away from the group because she compares the speed of her work to others.

Reflection: I think this lesson went very well. I especially enjoyed the conversation I had with the group before they began reading. I used my prior knowledge of Ellis Island to tell the group that it is a manmade island and we discussed what that meant. I also discussed with them the difference between an immigrant and an emigrant. I think they really understood the concept. I was able to do this because this is the highest reading level group in the class. One pitfall was the group was very talkative when filling out the answers at the end of the book. Next time I may have them sit separately once we have had a final discussion about the story.