Ken Krupa September 28, 2010

Interactive Read-Aloud - 5th Grade

Grade: 5th

Time: 25 - 30 Minutes

Standard: 3.4 Listening comprehension

Objective: By the end of this interactive read-aloud, students will be able to identify

hidden meaning in the text while using context clues and their own experiences.

Materials: Thank You, Mr. Falker

Lesson Procedures:

Lesson Introduction (before reading)

Make a connection to students’ prior knowledge.

Say something like: “We are going to read another book about Mr. Falker today for our

read aloud and I want you to pay special attention to hidden meaning/messages in what

the author is saying here. Sometimes an author will use words in an interesting way that

we call figurative language to describe something that is going on in the story. Does

anyone remember what we said figurative language is? What we are going to use here is

a reading strategy called ‘reading-between-the-lines’. What you should all be paying

attention to is how the author is providing some clues as to what she really means when

she uses figurative language.

Teach and Model (during reading)

Stop to refocus when appropriate. Re-engage the students and ask about

predictions and/or inferences. Ask questions written on the post it notes on the

appropriate pages. “ What do you think the author meant when she wrote about her

grandparents letting go of the grass?” “What do you think happened when Mr. Falker
said Eric wouldn’t be bothering Trisha anymore?” “After reading the author’s message at

the end of the story, saying that the girl in this story was actually her, what kind of book

do you think we can call this? There is more than one right answer.” Use the turn and

talk strategy, then ask two to four students to make contributions to the discussion

involving the whole group.

After Reading:

Discussion of what the students liked about this story.

Turn and Talk: “What did you think was interesting? What did you think about Mr.

Falker’s actions throughout this story? After the story has been concluded, turn and talk

questions might be “Why do you think Mr. Falker wanted to help Teresa? What do you

think the theme of this story was?” These questions will also engage the students in

inferential thought processes and allow them to make judgments about what they have

just read in terms of the figurative language used.

Whole Group: Listen to three or four students answers as a whole class before

concluding with your own impression of the text (what you as the teacher felt as you

heard how to story developed).

Assessment: You will know this read aloud lesson was successful if, after listening to

the story, students will be able to answer questions about inferences and figurative

language as it was used by the author to describe events without directly stating them,

Students will also be successful in this lesson if they can understand the genre elements

of this book (the fact that this story can be classified as a narrative or an autobiography of

sorts).

Closure
 Students will return to their desks and prepare for the next part of the day’s

schedule.

Reflection:

Based on my interactive read aloud, I feel that my first lesson with this fifth grade

class was mostly successful. To prepare for this read aloud, I read the book twice to

myself and prepared questions after having read it once. I used three post it notes, placed

inside the book itself, on the appropriate pages so that I would not forget to ask these

more important questions. There were some other applicable inquiries which I ended up

using more on the spot to re-engage the students, such as asking for predictions, or at the

end of the story how they might have been able to relate to it. I know I met my objective

of getting students to recognize hidden meaning in passages that featured it because they

were able to elaborate not only on what I expected them to, but also made outside

connections to the text that I couldn’t have predicted them making before hand.

One slight setback I encountered while reading was where to have the students

seated I the classroom. I had been aware that Mrs. Mears would allow them to be read to

while seated in their desks, or gathered on the floor by the teacher’s reading chair. She

also gave me the possibility of reading to them in the hall way. Perhaps out of

nervousness I chose to read to the students in the manner with which I was most familiar.

Another setback I encountered was when students seemed more reluctant to share

thoughts on the book. This mostly applied to some of my questions pertaining to hidden

meaning and I dealt with it by sharing some of my own thoughts to get them re-engaged

in the story points.

The next time I read aloud to these students I may try reading while they are
seated in their desks before ever attempting to get them engaged in a read aloud in the

hallway. I believe the more room they have to move around, the less likely they will be

to remain attentive to the story. If this were my own classroom, following this lesson I

would use my reading mini lesson about discerning hidden meaning and writing mini

lesson about students writing in this same manner.

Ken Krupa September 28, 2010

Reading Mini Lesson

Grade: 5th

Time: 30 Minutes

Standard: 3.1 E: Reading Strategies, 3.1 G: Comprehension Skills and Response to

Text.

Objective: By the end of this examination of text from Thank You Mr. Falker on the

overhead projector students will be able to identify hidden meaning in the text while

using context clues and their own experiences.

Materials: pieces of text from Thank You Mr. Falker on a transparency,

Lesson Procedure:

Lesson Introduction

State objective: “ I expect that you have all become more acquainted with the idea of

reading in between the lines. What we are going to do today is take another look at

Thank You Mr. Falker and see if you can spot the places where there might be some

hidden meaning in the text.”

Teach and Model: Use text from the story - Read aloud: “’You know,’ her grandma
said,’ all of us will go there someday. Hang on to the grass, or you’ll lift right off the

ground, and there you’ll be!’ They laughed, and both hung on to the grass. But it was

not long after that night that her grandma must have let go of the grass, because she went

to where the lights were, on the other side.” Say something like “do you think this

passage is supposed to be taken literally? “ point out that the usage of simile and

metaphor can make a sentence slightly confusing for the sake of figurative writing. “ I

think this passage was talking about how, when grandparents pass away, we sometimes

use metaphors to describe what has happened (example: “on the other side”).

Guided Practice: Following the modeling put up another transparency and this time

allow students to use the context clues to discern the hidden meaning.

“Alright, now I want us to try together, as a class, to figure out what the author

meant in this passage. ‘He marched Eric down to the office. When he came back; he

found Trisha. ’I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that boy again,’ he said softly’.

Now, class, why do you think Mr. Falker said that? Since this is easily decoded it

should serve as a good introduction to learning about reading in between the lines. Allow

the students to raise their hands and give possible answers. Offer the advice that there

may be more than one right answer so that the students feel they .

Independent Practice: Once students demonstrate confidence in deducing the hidden

meaning within figurative language, put up some more overhead transparencies, but this

time offer little to no help as the students try to understand the subtext.

“Mr. Falker, in his plaid jacket and his butterfly tie, said, ‘Stop! Are all of you so perfect

that you can look at another person and find fault with her?”

“Almost as if it were magic, or as if light poured into her brain, the words and sentences
started to take shape on the page as they never had before. . . And finally she had read the

whole paragraph. And she understood the whole thing. She didn’t notice that Mr. Falker

and Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes.”

“Her grandma hugged her. ‘You are the smartest, quickest, dearest little thing ever.’

Right then the little girl felt safe in her grandma’s arms. Reading didn’t matter so much.”

Allow them to determine if the questions about subtext in these passages have only one

right answer or many possible answers. Wait for the majority of the students to agree that

they have brainstormed all the possibilities of what the author meant.

Assessment: You will know if this lesson was successful based on the students

articulation of their thoughts regarding hidden meaning and the reading in between the

lines strategy. The students will be most successful if they use context clues and their

own prior experiences to discern the meaning of the writing.

Differentiation: For students who struggle with this exercise, help them to discern the

hidden meanings of some passages by relating them to their prior experiences. Try to

relate the book to their lives a bit more. Ask them if their parents have read to them at

home. If not, send a note home asking one or both parents to spend some time reading

together out loud and talking about what they’ve been reading.

Closure: “who can tell me what we have learned about hidden meaning in text? How do

you think you can write something with hidden meaning?

Ken Krupa September 28, 2010

 Writing Mini Lesson

Grade: 5th

Time: 40 Minutes

Standard: 3.2: writing forms, audiences, and purposes

Objective: By the end of this writing exercise, following our studies of the book Thank

You Mr. Falker, the students will be able to utilize hidden meaning in their own writing

using context clues.

Materials: students’ writing journals, pencil, students should also have access to the

classroom’s library.

Lesson Procedure:

Lesson Introduction

“Students, today we are going to review our recent study of reading in between the lines

by trying to write about something that has happened without directly stating what has

happened.”

Anticipatory Set/Engagement:

“Does anyone remember when we heard the story Thank You Mr. Falker by Patricia

Polacco? What do you remember about that book? What kind of writing did Patricia

Polacco use?”

“Lets look at an example of hidden meaning that Patricia Polacco uses in Thank You Mr.

Falker: (Almost as if it were magic, or as if light poured into her brain, the words and

sentences started to take shape on the page as they never had before. Slowly, she read a

sentence. Then another and another. And finally she’d read a paragraph. And she

understood the whole thing. She didn’t notice that Mr. Falker and Miss Plessy had tears
in their eyes.) “Readers, what do you think Patricia Polacco was trying to express in this

passage? Why were Tricia’s teachers crying? What was Tricia doing?”

Teach and Model: Model the kind of writing the students will be doing by reading aloud

the passage from Thank You Mr. Falker about the girl’s grandparents letting go of the

grass as a subtle way of saying they have passed away. Check to make sure everyone

understands the hidden meaning.

“Readers, do we all understand that sometimes writers tell us something without directly

saying so? Who can tell the class what ’Show, Don’t Tell’ means?” Show, Don’t Tell is a

way for writers to describe something that has taken place without stating it in simple

terms.

For example: “The teachers cheered as Tricia read the entire paragraph.” Why would

they have done that?

Guided Practice: Call students up to the white board to try writing a sentence like those

found in Thank You Mr. Falker. Ask those called up to try thinking about two similar

subject which my have opposites and write them as an analogy or if they wish, try writing

something similar to Patricia Polacco’s writing in Thank You Mr. Falker. Have about 3- 5

students try this before proceeding to independent practice. “Now I want you all to write

for 2-3 pages about something you did this last summer and try to use at least 5 instances

of hidden meaning or subtext. If you get confused about how to write like Patricia

Polacco did in Thank you Mr. Falker, we still have that book in our classroom library as

well as other books that use some hidden meaning, so you can take a look at some other

author’s writing to get your creative juices flowing!”

Independent Practice: Students will write a short narrative, derived from the writing
styles of texts they have read previously while trying to use some of the strategies used in

Thank You Mr. Falker to use hidden meaning and/or the read in between the lines

strategy.

Differentiation: For students struggling with creating their own writing using hidden

meaning, provide examples akin to Thank you Mr. Falker and discuss how metaphors can

be used. The key in figurative writing is to make sure the students aren’t bound to

writing what is most obvious.

Assessment: The students will be assessed for their use of grammar, proper spelling,

penmanship/cursive handwriting, and their use of context clues in their writings in which

they are to suggest events which have taken place without directly stating so. Students

should also have avoided using the word ’said’ too often in their text.

Closure: When finished writing, students will place their writing journals in the bin by

the teacher’s desk for the teacher’s review of their writings and proceed to the next part

of the days schedule.