Kristin Hensley

ELM-305: Foundational Literacy Skills and Phonics

4/17/2022

Kelly Moore

Reading Comprehension Lesson Outline Template

Part 1: Lesson Outline

State ELA  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1

Standard/s
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or

lesson.

(Common Core State Standards Initiative, n.d.)

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Learning 1. Using key details from a text, Alfonso will be able to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words with
Objectives
80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 trials by the end of the school year.

2. When given a grade appropriate reading passage, Alfonso will use context clues to answer

comprehension questions with 85% accuracy in 4 out of 5 trials by the end of the school year.

3. When given grade appropriate text, Alfonso will use key details from the text to make connections

through self, text, or world experiences with 85% relevancy to the text in 5 out of 7 trials by the end of

the school year.

Selected Book Mousetronaut by Mark Kelly

Vocabulary - Astronaut
Words and
Description of - Commander
Vocabulary
Activity - Training

- Mission

- Shuttle

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 Story Stones

- Alfonso is placed with the teacher in a small group station in a quiet space.

- The teacher writes down the vocabulary words on stones along with other nouns that can be found

in the story such as: mouse, space, moon, rocket, etc.

- independent discussion on the words included in the bags to create student focused definitions for

each term and allow Alfonso to create connections with the words to the story.

- Alfonso will draw 3-4 stones out of the bag and creating a short narrative with the words he drew.

- Alfonso can retell the story Mousetronaut, create his own story, or use his stones to discuss the

vocabulary and their meanings.

- With assistance from the teacher, Alfonso will write his story down on paper with handwriting lines

and illustrations.

Description of Sticky Notes Text Connections

Comprehension
Activity - The teacher will create sticky notes that say the following

o “Text to Self: This text reminds me of ________________ because of

____________________.”

o “Text to Text: This text is similar to __________________ because

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 ___________________________.”

o “Text to World: This text makes me think of _________________ because

________________________________.”

- The teacher will create a worksheet for Alfonso that can be reused for the remainder of the school

year.

- There will be 4 boxes that are large enough for Alfonso to place his sticky note in, that show

examples of each story connection.

- As we are reading the story Mousetronaut the teacher will share their own connections to the story,

modeling how to write down their experiences on their sticky note and place them onto their activity

sheet correctly.

- The teacher will assist Alfonso in writing down and discussing his connections to the story and

completing his sticky notes correctly.

Research-based 1. Implementing the use of graphic organizers before Alfonso begins the story stones is a great tool for
Strategies to
Meet Alfonso to use when he struggles recalling information from the story to determine the meaning of
Vocabulary and
Comprehension an unfamiliar word. Alfonso can write them down with the help of the teacher, create a definition
Goals
that works for him, a connection that he can relate to, and list some examples or draw a picture to

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 recall the information.

2. During the comprehension activity, the teacher can use the research-based Question-Answer

strategy to relate the connections made from the story to recall information to answer

comprehension questions.

Opportunities
to Apply Skills Using story stones and graphic organizers can be implemented across several content areas such as
to Other
Situations or science by learning new vocabulary about the plant life cycles or different stages of a cell, students
Content Areas
can use graphic organizers to learn each stage, create definitions, and examples that they can use to

recall information in an organized manner (Texas Center for Learning Disabilities).

The connection activity can be used in almost every subject area as students can relate addition and

subtraction problems to real life experiences like grocery shopping or counting their toys. Students

can make connections in social studies by relating history to real world experiences like the trade

routes of our country to trading out classroom money for special items in the class store, and other

means throughout the academic day. Teachers can also use this time to ask comprehension questions

on the subject material to measure how much the student knows about a concept and modify

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instruction accordingly (Texas Center for Learning Disabilities).

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 Part 2: Rationale and Specialist Planning

Alfonso is a seven-year-old boy who has two months left in his first-grade year. During literacy instruction, it’s been observed

that Alfonso struggles with reading comprehension in word meanings and finding connections within grade level texts. To ensure that

Alfonso can master the vocabulary and comprehension skill expectations before the end of the year academic goals have been set for

him to help him with making connections and determining the meaning of unfamiliar words in a story. Alfonso responds well to hands

on activities that use manipulatives, enjoys science, and has an interest in space, soccer, and sloths.

The activities that were chosen to assist Alfonso with his academic goals are both hands on activities that require body

movement and manipulatives. The book I chose Mousetronaut should keep Alfonso engaged since it incorporates two of his favorite

things, science, and space. To assist with Alfonso’s vocabulary learning objective, I chose story stones to help Alfonso identify

unfamiliar words, recall information from the story, and create meanings for these words in a fun and interactive way. The use of a

graphic organizer will assist Alfonso with words that he may struggle with as well as help him identify examples and connections that

can help him in the future when he finds words that aren’t familiar to him. The comprehension activity I chose helps Alfonso create

real world connections to what he’s reading by having the teacher model this information with their own experiences and encouraging

Alfonso to make those connections on his own. Using sticky notes with a placement sheet allows Alfonso to have something to move

around and having a small group session with the teacher allows for explicit one-on-one assistance to help Alfonso understand how to

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make these connections. During the activity, the teacher will use the Question-and-Answer strategy to build Alfonso’s comprehension

levels through the connection activity (Texas Center for Learning Disabilities).

The Reader-response Theory closely relates to the activities that are planned for Alfonso through the lesson plan. The Reader-

response theory focuses more on the audience and their reaction and connections to the text rather than the passage itself. The

activities and roles of both the teacher and the student examine and analyze the text to create their own connections and interpretations

of the text to create their own definitions of unfamiliar words and create connections to self-experiences that are like situations

throughout the text. Alfonso relates to manipulatives and hands on learning, so creating those experiences using manipulative aids and

kinesthetic movement can be beneficial for him to interpret the text in a way that makes sense for him (Poetry Foundation).

With the assistance of a Literacy Specialist, I would come up with a system of structure that would aid Alfonso in meeting his

literacy goals by ensuring that he is receiving explicit instruction on the concepts that he’s still struggling with, as well as a variety of

different activities that meet his individual learning needs while allowing him to build these concepts using various methods of

expression while also seeing these skills in a variety of different ways. The Literacy Specialist can continue building on these concepts

while I ensure that I am practicing individualized instruction from the evaluation of assessments and observations. Ensuring that there

is a proper plan in place where Alfonso is learning concepts and building off of the knowledge he already has, will give him the

greatest potential for successful comprehension and mastery of these skills (International Dyslexia Association, 2018).

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 References
Common Core State Standards Initiative. (n.d.). English Language Arts Standards » Reading: Literature » Grade 1 | Common Core

State Standards Initiative. http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RL/1/

International Dyslexia Association. (2018). Structured Literacy Instruction: The Basics. Reading Rockets.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/structured-literacy-instruction-basics

Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). Glossary of Poetic Terms. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/reader-response-theory

Texas Center for Learning Disabilities. (n.d.). Texas Center for Learning Disabilities: Five Research-Based Ways to Teach

Vocabulary. https://www.texasldcenter.org/teachers-corner/five-research-based-ways-to-teach-vocabulary

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