Unit Plan: Grade 1, ELA

1A: Building a Community of Readers | 1B: All About Me

Standards/Goals:
Reading Standard for Literature (RL1.1, RL1.3)1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text; Describe characters,
setting and major events in a fictional story, using key details.
Learning Goals:
- Students will use the Five Finger Retell to track their retell (characters, setting, events)
- Students will cite evidence from the text when discussing key details.
- Students will find key details in words and illustrations.
Reading Standard for Literature (RL1.2) 1 While retelling fictional text using key details, begin to demonstrate an
understanding of central message or lesson
Learning Goals:
- Students will use key details as support to determine the central message, lesson or main idea of a fictional text.
- As a class, we will determine the central message or main idea, but students will write their own evidence to support it.
Reading Standard for Literature (RL1.4) 1 Identify words and phrases in stories that appeal to the readers senses or
suggest feelings.
Learning Goals:
- Students will name our five senses.
- Students will visualize while listening or reading.
- Students will understand that visualizing is more than just seeing something in our mind; its using our imagination to smell,
hear, feel or taste while reading.
- With guidance and multiple choice, students will identify words and phrases that appeal to their senses or suggest feelings.

Supporting/Repeating Standards:
Speaking and Listening Standard (SL1.1) 1: students will meet speaking and listening expectations appropriate for the first
grade classroom.
Language Standard (L1.2) 1: students will respond to reading and demonstrate comprehension by using sentence starters,
expanding and citing evidence from the text.
Reading/Foundational Standards (RF1.1, RF1.2) 1: students will continue to segment words to decode while reading and
spell phonetically while writing.

Understandings: Essential Questions:

Students will understand that
What is a poem?
Poems are often short pieces of writing. Poets use
interesting words that put images in our mind and What does it mean to visualize while reading?
sometimes the meaning of a poem needs to be unlocked.
What are the five senses?
Our five senses help us navigate and understand the world
around us. How do my own five senses help me understand my
surroundings?
Good readers can describe characters, setting and major
events in a fictional text. What do the following mean: characters, setting, key
events?
Sometimes there is a central message or lesson that we
can apply to our own life. What message is the author sending in this text?
Is there a lesson I could learn?

Students will be able to

Put the poets words into their own to find meaning.

Offer verbal and written responses when asked to describe characters, setting and major events.

Describe how we use our five senses in real life AND how we use them to visualize while reading.

Use evidence from the text to support a central message or lesson we may have identified as a class.
Assessment evidence:

Follow-Up Work after Read Aloud: 2-3 times per week; students complete a sentence starter or prompt in order to
show their own thinking or demonstrate understanding of the text I used during a read aloud. For a poem, students will
illustrate what the visualized and, on subsequent day, put the authors words into their own. For the five senses,
students will illustrate and label what they enjoy using each sense for.

Exit Tickets: students will answer 1-5 questions at the end of a read aloud or focus lesson.

Unit Assessment: Ill administer this standards-based assessment at the end of the unit and it will allow students to
apply strategies weve practiced together, such as citing evidence.

Learning Plan: 9 Weeks

Students will:

name our five senses

visualize while listening or reading
understand that visualizing is more than just seeing something in our mind; its using our imagination to
smell, hear, feel or taste while reading
with guidance and multiple choice, will identify words and phrases that appeal to their sense or suggest
feelings
use the Five Finger Retell to track their retell (characters, setting, major events)
cite evidence from the text when discussing key details
find key details in words and illustrations
write their own evidence to support a central message or lesson that we determined as a class.

Instructional Activities:

Turn and Talk: Students will speak with a partner to answer a question. During this time, they will practice: listening to
others, staying on topic, citing evidence from the text and then sharing with the class using complete sentences.

Responses to reading: Students finish my sentence starter to demonstrate comprehension through writing. Prompts
and starters will vary based on the read aloud or focus lesson.

Journal Prompts: Journal prompts give students a chance to use their imagination and put themselves in the position
of a character or author. In a journal entry, students can express their own feelings or opinions.

Applying a strategy during guided or independent reading: Throughout the unit, Ill name the specific strategy we
worked on together and students will practice that strategy during guided or independent reading. For example, if we
identified words and phrases that appealed to our senses together, that will be the students focus when reading
independently or when we meet in a small, guided reading group.

Texts for Read Alouds and Focus Lessons:

Fox at School by James Marshall
Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora
Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Flincher
What a Day it Was at School by Jack Prelutsky
By Myself by Eloise Greenfield
My Five Senses by Aliki
The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls