Sonya Tilley Guided Reading Lessons

Transitional Readers: Grade 4Book: Amber Brown is Not a Crayon by Paula Danziger (Chapter One)

Reason: I thought this book had great visual and would be easy for them to begin how to learn how to develop a “picture” of the book. It had good description but I could still ask the students questions about what kind of visual they saw.

Goals: Learning how to visualize text in order to better understand the story and connect with the storyWhat I Say Purpose: Why I Said it

Good Morning Class! Today we are going to focus on a new reading skill that will help you understand the text better called visualizing. Lately, we have been reading books with less pictures. This can be challenging because you are used to having pictures to help you understand the story. However, great readers visualize what they are reading without having pictures. Most of the time it is much better than the pictures in the books because it is your own image. Visualizing a story is like mental pictures of a movie unfolding in your mind that make reading three-dimensional and more real. It helps you connect to the text and make in more personal and memorable. We are going to read the first chapter of a book called Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon by Paula Danziger. I want you to visualize the story. This requires you to do more than just listen, you must use all your senses! While I’m reading think about what is happening in the story. What do you see, hear, smell, feel, taste? Use these connections to build your pictures.

So let’s looks at this book called Amber Brown is Not a Crayon. What do you already notice about the cover? Can you visualize what the book is going to be about just by the cover and title? What do you think this book will be about?

This book is about a girl and her best friend who happen to get into a fight before he moves away. She doesn’t want him to move away. She has figure about how to overcome the obstacles of her best friend moving. Let’s find out how the story starts!

Before we actually start reading, I want to point out some words you might not know in this chapter. On page 6 there is the word licorice. You

For transitional readers, I can be difficult to understand a text without a picture to help because they are used to looking at stories with pictures. I feel like visualizing is an important strategy to teach students. Given the students a good explanation of how to visual test was important to learn this skill.

I wanted to students to see how their own picture of the text can develop just from the cover page. Then how they can expand their knowledge by thinking about what the book might be about.

I felt that giving a brief background of the story will help the students visualize the situation and setting in the book. It helps to start developing a mental picture.

I thought these words would be challenge to figure out and most students probably don’t know the definition. I thought it was important to explain.

all know what this is but it doesn’t quite sound like you would think. (I would write the word on the board to show how it sounds different then it looks) It is candy. I’m sure you all have had it before! Another unfamiliar word is on page 8, License. This is basically a paper or a permit that lets you use something or do an activity. For example, a driver license and I have a license to teach all of you. We might come across a few other words you don’t know but we will figure them out has we go.

(After reading the first three pages, I will stop and ask the students questions) What is the classroom like? What noises do you think were going on? Do you know what Ann looks like or what kind a person she is? You are allowed to make up how she looks. This will help you paint a picture! Is there anything else going on in the classroom?

(Finish reading the chapter)

The purpose of this stopping point is to develop a picture of the scene and people of the story. Asking students open ended questions will help the learn how to visualize stories on their own because they can ask themselves the same questions when reading.

After the Reading: I know it seemed like we just read a lot but if you were using your new visualizing skills then you

should have a pretty good picture of the story. What are some things you can tell me about Amber? How about the classroom? What are they doing? It is important has reader to listen to the whole story and allow your picture to change throughout the story. What was something that change in the story for you? Here is a short worksheet to help you with visualize skills and remember how to use them when reading independently. (Worksheet included on next page) Great job today! Remember, it is important to use this new skill while reading by yourself.

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VisualizingName:

Book:

Author:

See

Hear Feel

Taste Smell

Fill in the follow squares by either drawing or writing what you saw, heard, felt, tasted, and smelt while we read Amber Brown, Is Not a Crayon.

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Reading Level: Transitional: Grade 4 Goals: Visualize the text and reading beyond the text. Help students understand why these skills are importantBook: Amber Brown, Is Not a Crayon (Chapter 2)

What I Say Purpose: Why I Said itLet’s begin on practicing some reading skills! Remember, yesterday how we learned how to visual what is going on a story and how that can help us understand a story. Today, we are going to continue work on our visualize skills and enhance them. We are going to read beyond the text by asking ourselves questions and figure out things the author doesn’t say directly in the text. A good way to do is by using those visualizing skills we learned.

Who can remember what happened in chapter one of Amber Brown, Is Not a Crayon? (Let class respond) Great job summarize what happened! Let’s start reading chapter two and visual what is happening.

(Read until page 16) The author is starting to tell us about Amber and Justin friendship. What tells you they are good friends? What kind of friendship do you “visual” them having?

These questions may be challenging but they help you read beyond on the text. This is when you develop meaning of the words and figure out what the author is saying when it is not written. These techniques will help you become a great reader!

Let’s continue to read. Remember to listen closely and ask yourself questions and continue to build a picture of the story. (Finish reading the chapter)

To refresh students memory about what was learned the day before. Also to show how that can be expanded to read beyond the text by using skills you already have.

Summarize the text in order to increase comprehension and knowledge of the book.

I thought this was a good stopping point because students can relate to friendship and can develop a sense of what Amber and Justin friendship is like. Students will start to develop questions to ask themselves.Very important to tell student why this is useful. Many students just read and don’t think. This will help them stop, questioned and then read. They will start to build connections!

After Reading: Great job! So, who can tell me what happened in chapter one and two?

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What are some questions you asked yourself while reading? What problems do you see occurring? How do you know this? What details or things happened in the story that the author didn’t directly say? Visualizing and reading beyond the text are challenging techniques but if you do this every time you read than it will start to happen automatically. Without these skills, we won’t understand the text fully. By using these techniques you can greatly improve you reading skills! Continue to explore the chapter and the book and complete this worksheet.

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Reading in Between the LinesGood readers draw conclusions and clues in the text. Answer the

follow questions about Amber Brown, is Not a Crayon to know more about the story.

I wonder why-______________________________________________________________________________________________________I wonder if________________________________________________________________________________________________________I wonder how______________________________________________________________________________________________________I think____________________________________________________________________________________________________________Maybe it means________________________________________________________________

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_______________________________________

Reflection

I have done guided reading lessons in the past but never had to write out exactly what I was

going to say to the students. From this process, I learned I tend to use a lot of fillers when talking and

repeat statements. I realized I need to take one step at a time and talk about the important aspects of

the lessons. I also learned I need more practice making lesson for higher early childhood grades. Most of

the time I chose grades k-2 because I enjoy teaching beginning skills and find the activities easier to

come up with for these grades. However, I wanted to challenge myself so I decide to focus this lesson on

grade 4. Then I decided to use a chapter book for this assignment.

I found working with a chapter book more challenging because it isn’t something I have done

much. I felt like it was a lot to read to a class and they might lose focus. I decided it was important to

add stopping points and ask questions. This will help the students process information and know how to

ask themselves the same questions while reading. It was also challenging to figure out the purpose. I

know why I say things while I’m teaching but I don’t think about the purpose. My main purpose is to

teach the students something new. However, thinking of the purpose of each statement and why I said

what I said help me develop the lesson and eliminate unimportant information in the lesson.

I found it easy to come up with the after reading discussion questions and activity. I think this is

because has I was writing the lesson I thought of questions I would want the students to answer when

we finished reading. When I finished writing I felt like those questions where still important to ask. Then

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I knew it was important to summarize what was learned and why students should use this skill

independently. I also thought of the activity after I learned visualize a text is much like using all your

senses. I thought the activity development the students’ skills well and was fun.

I now understand how a guided reading lesson can be used in a classroom and what needs to be

done to make it a beneficial lesson. I think my understanding develop a lot since I had to think about the

purpose. Going through what I wanted to say helped me know the steps of a guided reading lesson. For

example, I now realize you have to define the unfamiliar text and then read the story. This will help the

students comprehend the text. It is also good to summarize the book before reading it. This will help

students start to build a picture of the text.

Overall, I enjoyed coming up with a guided reading lessons. It challenged my thinking and I

learned more about transitional readers. I can see myself using this is my future classroom because it is

something you can teach as a whole class and then break into groups. As a future special education

teacher, I will probably do a lot more group work than whole class. Therefore, learning these strategies

and the process a teacher goes through to plan a guided reading lesson was significant.

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