Guided Reading Lesson Plan: Pinky and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin

Guided Reading Lesson: Pinky and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin, Level L

Grade Level and Unit: 1^st and 2^nd grade, Guided Reading

Session and Description of Lesson Tasks: A group of five students will be reading this book during the Writers Workshop time. I will facilitate discussion about the book within the group and oversee their work in journals.  

Materials needed: Copies of “Pink and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin”, pencils, journals.

Grouping Decisions: The students will be working in a group of 5.

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 understand the relationships of characters in the story and to be able to recall major events and problems.	Language Objectives? What language will you model during the lesson? What language do you expect to hear during student discourse? Gourd Tradition Family reunion Waffle Sitting cross-legged Jealous Apology embarrassed
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? I want students to be able to properly write responses to questions in their journal but numbering each question, writing in complete sentences, and skipping a line between answers. I would also like to see them looking back at the text to spell words correctly in their journals. Some students may struggle with articulating their answers so I will watch for students who seem to be copying from the text word-for-word.
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. I will introduce the activity by talking about the words from my Language Objectives as well as introducing the characters. Explore: To assess students’ understanding and to advance their thinking as they work independently, in partners or small group What is the problem in Chap. 1? Why was Rex worried if the weekend was going to be fun? Chap 2: How do you know what Rex was feeling? Tell why. Chap 3: What happened when Rex suggested the perfect pumpkin? (p.14) In Chapter 6 what happened to the pumpkin? Who do you think did it, and why? How did Rex, Abby, and Pinky solve their problem. Summary: To facilitate the analysis and synthesis of ideas shared at the end of the lesson Students will answer the questions above in their journals and we will have a discussion about their responses and how they found their answers.

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?) I will be able to tell if students understand based on their responses in their journal as well as their responses in group conversation. The students will be answering 6 questions on the story in their journal.

Pitfalls and Solutions:

                ELL: No child in this group fall under this category.

                Special Ed.: No child in this group falls under this category.