Johnny Morris

Lesson Plan: Reading Strategies

Concept under investigation: The seventh grade students will look at what they read and begin to understand what their reading territories are.

Context: Students will be able to express their identities as a reader through their detailed reader territory lists. By doing this, some students may see through racial or cultural barriers once they see the same authors on each others’ lists. Also, students can broaden their knowledge of authors and territories by viewing each others’ lists.

Competencies and Skills:

Competency Goal 1

1.02 generating a log or journal.
maintaining an annotated list of works read/viewed.
1.03 responding appropriately to comments and questions.
offering personal opinions confidently without dominating.
Soliciting and respecting another person’s opinion.
1.04 analyzing personal learning growth and changes in perspective.

Other goals/objectives: Mentioned Above

Materials needed:

Pen/pencil
Teacher’s reading territory list
Journal
Reading survey

Procedures with script:

Initiating activity/warm-up/mini-lesson: The students will be given a reading survey for their warm-up activity. Once finished, the students will hold on to their surveys until the end of class. The warm-up exercise will last for fifteen minutes.

Review: We will review our past readings and talk about our favorite books and genres. The review will take ten minutes.

Purpose setting: The purpose of this lesson is for students to establish and recognize their reading preferences.

Introduction for today’s lesson: I will begin the class by asking students what some of their answers were on their reading surveys. We will go around the room and listen to each other’s responses. I will share my responses with the class as we compare answers. Then, I will introduce what reading territories are and why we make them. The introduction to our class will take ten minutes.

Guided practice: By using the overhead, I will show the class my own reading territory list. As I am reading my list, the students may begin to make notes about their own reading territories, and they may use my territory list as a guide. I will explain some of my preferences to the students and why I like them. Also, I will take time to explain how I decided on my categories and how I have them organized. Next, we will create a genre list on the overhead. I will ask each student to contribute one. Finally, I will show them my reading survey on the overhead and go over my answers. This is a concept from Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle. Guided practice will last for fifteen minutes.
Independent practice: Students will now be given time to compile their own lists. This list will be an ongoing process throughout the school year. They will use their journals to write their lists. The students will be given fifteen minutes to jot down the beginnings of their reading territories. At the end of the ten minutes, students will get into groups of three and share their reading territory lists with each other. They will note each other’s favorite authors and discuss them. Students will offer opinions about authors they like or do not like and give reasons why they do not like a certain authors. In turn, students will enlighten each other on new works, authors, and genres they may have never heard of before. Students will have fifteen minutes to get into groups, share their lists, and discuss them.

Closure/expectations: The last ten minutes of class will be a review of what we have done, the importance of it, and why we should make reading territory lists. I will ask the students to explain what their opinions and perceptions are about creating a reading territory list. Any remaining questions will be answered. The students’ homework will be to make a log in their journals about what they have learned about themselves by making a reading territory list and sharing it with their classmates.

SPED modifications: One student has A.D.H.D. and will be in a group with their peers, and I will monitor the student by checking on their list frequently. I will monitor the student to ensure that they are on task at all times and not day dreaming or doodling on the desk.

Assessment:

Formative: The students will turn in their reading surveys as they go out the door to their next class. I will read their territory lists and I will also look at their logs in their journals. I want to ensure that they have their categories and authors paired together correctly. The reading survey will give me a very strong idea where each student stands on reading and I will be able to use these surveys to help the students continue or begin their love of reading.

Summative: The class will keep a running log in their journals about their reading territories. At the end of the year each student will see how much they have grown in their reading over the past year. Their lists will show a lot about who they are as students and young adolescents in general. I will determine their growth by monitoring their lists and journals throughout the year. I will be able to watch them grow in their ability to read harder books as the year progresses. If not, then I will evaluate the situation and review so that students will have a better understanding.

Next lesson: The students’ next lesson will be an introduction to literature circles.

NETS-T Indicators addressed in this lesson:

II. Planning And Designing Learning Environments And Experiences.

D. plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.

My lesson uses the overhead in three different situations. My reading territory list, our list of genres that we create together, and my reading survey are the three instances that I use the overhead. I want to ensure that everyone can see what we are discussing by blowing it up with the projector. By showing them my examples on the overhead each student could get an idea of what a territory list is and what genres are. I will manage their learning by giving these examples and encouraging them with their own lists.

Name: __________________________

Reading Survey

If you had to guess…

How many books would you say you owned? ____

How many books would you say there are in your house? ____

How many books would you say you have read in the last twelve months? ____

How did you learn to read?
Why do people read? List as many reasons as you can think of.
What does someone have to do or know in order to be a good reader?
What kinds of books do you like to read?
How do you decide which books you will read?
Who are your favorite authors? (List as many as you’d like)
Have you ever reread a book? ____ If so, can you name it/them here?
How often do you read at home?
In general, how do you feel about reading?

Note: Survey adapted from Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle Appendix E, 1998. Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.

Reading Territories

Favorite Authors of Fiction Favorite Authors of Non-Fiction

Stephen King Walter Lord

Anne Rice Ken Marschall

Nicholas Sparks Don Lynch

Jean Shepherd Dr. Bob Ballard

Mary Shelley

Charles Dickens

Favorite Poets

Walt Whitman

Robert Frost

Edgar Allen Poe

John Updike

Emily Dickinson

Seamus Heaney

Mary Oliver

Favorite Playwrights

William Shakespeare

Favorite Authors for Adolescents

Robert Cormier

Lois Lowry

S.E. Hinton

J.D. Salinger

Wilson Rawls

Walter Dean Myers

Sharon Creech

Eve Bunting

Cynthia Voigt