Good morning everyone!
I am joining my friend Carla from Comprehension Connection today for her mentor text linky this month!
I know that St. Patty’s was yesterday and I am late to the leprechaun parade. However, I have a great lesson that I developed using the book “The Luckiest Leprechaun” by Justine Korman. This tale is a great story of trust, loyalty, and friendship.
Teaching the lesson or central message of a story, is usually a challenging strategy for firsties to master for many reasons:
- They need to identify the key details in the story that lead to the central message.
- In most cases, the lesson or central message of a story is not stated in the story and our students have to infer it.
- Some stories may have more than one central message, and in my own experience, our students may be confused by this. Therefore, we have to teach them the art of interpretation.
So let’s get started!
The Gradual Release Model
Let me show you how I teach this strategy (it is actually standard RL.1.2) within the gradual release of responsibility model.
For the “I do” stage, I usually develop an anchor chart. In some cases, I do it myself, and in other cases, I do it with my students… in which case I call it an “interactive chart.” I love anchor charts and they are a perfect way to do “first time learning.” In most cases (actually is more like 80% of the time) I introduce and new reading strategy by using a Thinking Map as well.
I believe that the walls belong to my students and this is the reason why I have a love-hate relationship with the fire marshal. If you want to learn more about anchor charts, you MUST check the Chart Chums Blog. I have purchased both of their resources and they are totally fab!
But let’s get back to business.
As you can see, I have used half of a multi-flow map to do this mini-lesson. Each mini-lesson doesn’t last more than 10-12 minutes and an anchor chart is done over several days. After we are done completing the anchor chart, I hang it on the wall. The most important thing to remember about the “I do” stage is that a whole group lesson is something that everyone needs. We refer to it quite a bit while building proficiency during individual and guided reading conferences.
Which brings me too…
The “we do it” stage.
During guided reading groups I use this matrix to see who needs what, for how long, how often, etc.
I usually create a small group matrix of reading and writing behaviors to notice and support for each standard. With the years I have learned that each standard is made up of many different reading and writing strategies. Hello formative assessment! You can get a copy of this matrix by clicking HERE!!
During our small groups I use these comprehension sticks. They spark the intentional conversations that lead to writing about lessons in stories.
After we have practiced, and practiced, and then practiced some more, I release the comprehension sticks for my students to talk and write as partners during literacy stations. Which is the “you do it together” stage. You can get these FREE comprehension sticks from my TPT store. CLICK HERE!
For the last stage or “You do it alone” stage, I meet with my students individually to discuss key details in the story that lead to the central message or lesson. I also use my written comprehension check ups to assess and I look for consistency of mastery.
I hope you have enjoyed my blog post and you find it informative and useful! The lats word on my post in lawnmower.
To collect the other last words on my bloggy friends posts, follow the link up and record the last word on their posts in this sheet:
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