Reading Direct Instruction Lesson Plan

Grade Level/Subject: 4/Reading Topic: meaning

Rationale:
Teacher requested that I teach this lesson plan. The independent work was changed due to not
aligning with the TI and GI. It is also important that students are aware that everything they do has
an effect whether it is good or bad.

ELA CCSS:
RL.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that
allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g. Herculean.)

Behavioral Objective:
Student will be able to pick out the cause or the effect from the passage getting 3 out 4 correctly in
order to have mastery.

Prerequisite Knowledge & Skills:

knowledge: students will have already read Daedalus and Icarus
difference between cause and effect

Materials/Resources:
Imagine it – Daedalus and Icarus – retold by Geraldine MeCaughrean
Power point
Dead Zone- by weekly reader- ReadWorks- see email
Worksheet

Focus/Review:
We will be playing a vocabulary game. (Reviewing the vocabulary before the test) The teacher will
have a cube with all different sides spelling, definition, and sentence, what’s the word, acronym, and
synonym.TW roll the dice children have to write the answer down on their whiteboard and raise it up
when their done. (Vocabulary is on page 106 in imagine it book)
Objective (as stated for students):
Students will reference a text to complete the selection and will identify cause/effect relationships
Teacher Input
TW assist students with completing the following cause/affect chart: (Teacher will do the green in TI)
“Boys and girls let’s reread the story we read yesterday. This time however we’re going to learn about
cause and effect. Cause and Effect is when you break the events into two different parts. The cause is
WHY something happens and effect is WHAT happens because of the cause. Usually when we read we
can pick up key words that will help us find the cause like because, as a result of, why, if, so, so that, and
reason. Cause and effect is done during and after reading and it also important that the students are
aware that everything they do has an effect whether it is good or bad. TW read the 1st page. “Now let’s
go back to the chart under Effect it says … Daedalus was unhappy …. The statement before says “but it
was a prison so that is my cause.” Now it will not always be exactly the words right before, it could be a
summary. Teacher will than demonstrate the rest up till the purple.
 Cause Effect

WHY something WHAT happens

happens
Because he was Daedalus was
prisoners unhappy

He wanted to Daedalus
be free like the begged the bird
birds for a feather
each night
Daedalus places Daedalus warns
sticky wax on Icarus about the
Icarus’s heat. Icarus flies
shoulders. out the
window.
The sea gulls Icarus flew
pecked at Icarus higher than the
angrily birds
They had Icarus was
everything they content being a
needed prisoner
Daedalus and The guards
Icarus were looked up in
flying astonishment
Icarus was The heat started
determined to to melt the wax
outfly the sun
He wanted to The wax
out fly the sun. softened,
trickled, and
dripped

Guided Practice- SW fill out the rest of the chart in groups of 2-3. We will join together when everyone
is done and go over chart. (The purple will be filled out by the students)

Independent Practice- Each Student will be given the passage Dead Zone and will have to fill the
following chart independently. (Green is the answer)

Cause Effect
Why something happened What happened
Pollution and Fertilizer from farms
across the Midwest wash into the Mississippi River Huge Algae formed
and flow into the
Gulf of Mexico.

Algae takes all the oxygen Sea creatures can’t survive

 This year’s dead zone Shark Attack

Shark Attack Tooth fish came in contact with human swimmers

Closure: Student’s will do a “speed dating” that is when the students are paired and they have to listen
and talk about the topic and switch partners after 30-45 sec. In this activity the students have to tell
their partner a quick cause and effect sentence and the other person has to determine what is the cause
and what is the effect.

Differentiation- ESL/struggle readers will get a copy of the cause/effect chart to fill out and staple in
their notebook as well as the teacher will have a focus group with them to help out with the harder
words in the passage.

Sources: The instructor from my clinical experience