Collaborative Literacy Lesson Plan

Part 1: Selecting the Lesson Focus

Setting the Literacy Focus

Grade Level & Literacy Focus Area First Grade- Print concepts

Reading Strategy “I spy” print concepts- This strategy will be used to help students
Describe the strategy you will teach students how to use in this identify the main print concepts focused on in first grade, those
lesson to support your selected literacy skill/focus area being that capitals start a sentence, which word starts the
sentence, and that there is some form of punctuation that
completes the sentence. Students will have individual printed
and laminated magnifying glasses to use to identify the print
concepts. While reading, students move the magnifying glass
across the words, and raise a hand when they see a print concept
that is the focus.
Setting Literacy Goals
CCSS #1 (include code and description of standard): CCSS #2 (include code and description of standard):
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.1.A CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.1
Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (e.g., first Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic
word, capitalization, ending punctuation). features of print.
Write a learning objective aligned to this standard: Write a learning objective aligned to this standard:
Students will be able to identify the basic organization and
Students will be able to identify the first word of a sentence, features of print in the assigned book (What do you see in the
that it should be capital, and that sentences have ending
punctuation.
Describe how you will formatively assess this standard.
● Assessment can take place during instructional activities
or at the end of lesson.
● Include a copy of all assessment materials at the end of
the lesson.
Fall?).
Describe how you will formatively assess this standard.
● Assessment can take place during instructional activities
or at the end of lesson.
● Include a copy of all assessment materials at the end of
the lesson.

During the read aloud students will be asked randomly During independent reading students will be asked to underline
to find the first word of a sentence, identify that it starts the title, circle the author, highlight the first word in the
with a capital letter, and ends with some form of sentence, underline the capital letter that starts the sentence
punctuation. and draw a box around the punctuation.

Lesson Rationale:
Print concepts are one of the beginning building blocks for all readers. Zucker, Ward and Justice explain print concepts as
such, “Print referencing is a technique that is integrated with one's existing language arts program and that provides a
developmentally appropriate means for achieving curriculum and state standards that specify the importance of systematically
addressing children's development of print knowledge (2009).” The concepts of print help beginning readers learn how to
manipulate the physical book to understand the text and how we as readers decode the text structures in a proper manner. These
print concepts lay the groundwork for understanding how text works. They include knowing the title, author, illustrator, knowing
that print flows from left to right and top to bottom, sentence structure which includes where to begin reading, what is the first
word of a sentence, that the first word has a capital, there are spacing between words, and that there is an ending punctuation. Dr.
Stoetzel writes in week 5, that there are four domains of print concepts they include; print as an object of meaning, book
organization and print conventions, alphabet knowledge and concept of word (2021). When readers are able to master the
concepts of print, they no longer have to spend mental energy trying to decipher them and can spend time on other literacy focus
areas including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary.
In the beginning early readers may pick up a book, hold it upside down and open to a random page. They may begin ‘reading’
anywhere on the page, making up words that they may have heard when the story was read to them, they may track the text
backwards or erratically, this is pre-print concepts. Beginning print concepts have readers who have learned how to decipher the
cover of the book, they can identify the title, author, and illustrator spaces. They are understanding that the symbols, or letters, are
important and may understand that they make up words. In shared reading, the teachers model how they think about print
concepts through re-reading texts. Mesmer writes that with shared repeated reading, “The idea is to support children in
remembering the words of the book so that they can link that knowledge to emerging print knowledge (2019).” As the print
concepts grow, students are understanding that the letters make up words and that those words make up sentences, thus the book.
Students then understand that the words start at the top and work their way to the bottom, they understand that left to right is the
correct way to read. The print concepts continue growing until they become automatic. Finally, as adults, Education.com writes that
“In fact, they're things that are so automatic for adult readers that we don't even think about them-- things like which way words
flow on a page, or the fact that reading happens from left to right (2008).”
Teaching print concepts is much different than most literacy concepts. Teachers spent time modeling the strategies and ideas
that make up print concepts. Reading rockets has a list of strategies that help children learn how to understand the print concepts,
“Make references to words, spaces, letters, lines of print, left to right, top to bottom, direction of print, in big books that you have
read and as you model writing (Michigan’s Mission: Literacy, 2016).” While this may seem strange to model and reference things
that come so naturally to successful readers. In doing so, little readers are learning print concepts. Scholastic has a great list of fun
and unique ways to engage little readers and suggest that when you give children a chance to correct a seasoned reader they hold
on to the concept much stronger (McDonald, 2021). It's said that when you can teach something you have a full understanding. One
of the most interesting ways to teach that spaces go in between words, is to read the children's writing, as it is with no spaces. Take
an extra dramatic breath and read the sentence as quickly as you can with no pauses. This usually brings giggles while opening the
ways to talk about spacing and its importance, along with punctuation, if the written piece is longer than a sentence. The little
learning corner, a blog for those teaching pre-k to 2nd grade suggests, “Book walks, or picture walks, are when you have the kids
walk through the book, starting at the first page, and tell what they see happening in the pictures. Once you’ve gone through all of
the pages, encouraging kids to participate in talking about the pictures, they will have already formed an understanding of what the
book is about (2021).” When you engage in a book walk it frees up some mental energy to focus on print concepts. Students have
already been exposed to the illustrations so they can now focus on what the words look like, their placement, and the one to one
correspondence of spoken words to written words.

Part 2: Launching with a Focal Text

Launching with a Focal Text

Text Selection: The Punctuation Mark’s Journey

Describe the text you’ve selected. The Punctuation Marks' Journey - StoryWeaver
Text Selection:
Justify WHY this text is useful for the lesson purpose. Give
specific examples to demonstrate your thinking.
Text Complexity:
Describe the complexity of the text related to qualitative and
quantitative factors of text complexity. Articulate why this is an
appropriate text for students. (Note- This is clearly a
generalization as you are not matching texts to individual
readers at this point).
Textual Representations:
Describe how this text engages diverse perspectives and
experiences relevant to student lives. You can consider
elements of conflict, character, or theme. (Note- Even if you are
not choosing a comprehension focus, these dimensions are still
important.)
Part 3: Instructional Steps in Your Lesson
This text has been translated into 5 additional languages, which
is helpful for accommodations. We chose this text because while
it explained the roles of different punctuation marks, as a
refresher or introduction, it also is written with proper capital
letters to start sentences, and a top to bottom/left to right
reading pattern. Additionally, this book is written with questions,
and a problem to solve. There are plenty of areas for
comprehension questions, using both literal and evaluative
questioning.
Background knowledge- Students in first grade should have a
basic understanding of the different punctuation marks in the
book.
Quantitative- According to the website, Storyweaver.org, Level 2
books are between 250 to 600 words in length, follow a linear
plot, and have simple concepts. The sentences are rather short
and no more than 3 sentences on a page.
Qualitative- Students should have background knowledge which
should make the text simpler to comprehend. The sentence
structure is simple, and explanative.
There is a problem in this book. Everyone wants to stand at the
end of the sentence. Much like the want of the job of line leader,
teacher’s helper or even paper passer, the symbols must figure
out who fits the job best and when. Students will be able to
relate to this conflict.

Using bullets or numbers, describe the steps you will
take to launch this lesson. A lesson launch should
include all of the following components:
● Begin by drawing on student interest
● Activate prior knowledge
● Introduce the purpose of the lesson
After writing your launch, please read through your bullets/steps and highlight the following:
Lesson Launch
Students are at their desks. Desks are set up as groups of roughly 4 to 6
students.
R: “Miss Jessica! I read this great book! Oh man, it was so so good!”
J: “What was the title?”
R: “Idk, But there was this big fish on the front.”
J: “No silly, The title, The larger words on the front of the book?”
R: “I don't know. But the fish was shiny on some of the scales! Oh, such a
good book!”
J: “Miss Rachele, The title is the name of the book, It's how we know
what books we have read in our reading journals.”
R: “Well I think I remember who wrote it, A Mr. Marcus Pfister. Is that
helpful.”
J: “I think it might be a good idea to go over those print concepts, just as
a good refresher.”
R: “ Print concepts? We worked on those last week. That's how we know
where to start reading, and what sort of information you can find on the
cover.
J: “Yes, print concepts are the tools we use to know what the cover
information is and how to find the information to help us read. Today we
are going to go over the different print concepts we know.

● Highlight in yellow where you draw on student interest

● Highlight in pink where you activate prior knowledge
● Highlight in blue where you introduce the purpose of the lesson
Note: If you can’t find a place to highlight these areas in your instructional steps, then you need to revise your lesson.
I DO: Modeling & Demonstration
Using bullets or numbers, describe the steps you will
take to model the reading strategy for readers.
Modeling should include all of the following
components.
● Introduce and describe the strategy you will be
teaching to readers.
● Introduce the text you will be using during
modeling.
● Show students how to use the strategy. This
should be teacher-directed, explicit instruction.
Include specific references to any/all teaching
materials AND how you are using them.
Possibilities include:
● Specific stopping points in the text (with
page numbers/details)
● Scripted questions
● Scripted think aloud segments
● Using an organizer
● Creating an anchor chart
J: “Miss Rachele, Do you remember the I spy strategy we used for the
Letter Names? That magnifying glass we used to find what we are looking
for? I have a magnifying glass right here. We can use it for print concepts
too.”
R: “So I have a different book on the smart board and we will use the
magnifying glass and find the print concepts. First we should find that
title, right?”
J: “Yes, the title is the first print concept we should find.” Jessica will
move the magnifying glass around on the board, looking at different
words, and eventually settle on the title. “Here we have the title: The
Punctuation Mark’s Journey.”
R: “Can I have a turn? I want to find the author!” Jessica passes the
magnifying glass and Rachele uses it on the board looking for the author.
“I think I found it. Lưu Thị Lương. And I think that this book was
illustrated by someone else, Vũ Thị Thùy Dung. This book was also
translated, that means that it was not written in English and Shannon
David was the translator. Miss Jessica is that all the print concepts we can
find on the cover?”
J: “I do believe you have found them all, but now we need to look inside.
On the first page, we need to know where to start reading. Each sentence
starts on the left side of the page, as we read left to right. And each
sentence starts with a capital letter. So Miss Rachele, where do we start
reading?”
R: “Well I see a few capital letters on this page. But I think the capital T is
the first word in the sentence. The rest must be names, Let’s read the
sentence.” Read the sentence. And talk about how names are
 capitalized.
J: “Where do we start on this page? What do we know about the start of
a sentence?” Let students answer, hoping that the students say the
capital letter or the most left words on the page. “That is right the capital
letter T and that it is the most left on the page. But how do we know the
sentence is finished?” Let the students talk about ideas. “I think that the
characters in this book are different types of punctuation which are
commonly used to end the sentence. Let's use our magnifying glass to
look at the end of the sentence and see what punctuation is used.” Use
the magnifying glass to showcase the mark. “There we have found the
period, or its name in this book, Full Stop.”
After writing this section, please read through your bullets/steps and highlight the following:

● Highlight in yellow where you introduce and describe the strategy

● Highlight in pink where you introduce the text you are using to model the strategy
● Highlight in blue where you show readers how to use the strategy

Note: If you can’t find a place to highlight these areas in your instructional steps, then you need to revise your lesson.

WE DO/ WE ALL DO: Exploring Through Guided Practice

Using bullets or numbers, describe the steps you will
take to guide readers to practice using the strategy
with you and each other. This section should include
the following components:
● Guided practice opportunities in whole group or
small group settings
● Opportunity to receive feedback from/confer
with the teacher
R: “Now for the rest of the book, we are going to give you guys a chance
to find these 3 main components of print concepts up on the board just
like we did. They are the first word, the letter it starts with, and its
punctuation. Some will be individual turns, and some will be group work
because it might be a bit harder so talking it over with your tabletop
groups is helpful. Sometimes there is more than one sentence on a page,
and we need to know where one stops and the next starts.”
J: “ On page 3, I want you to work in your tabletop groups and find the
first word, the letter and the punctuation that is on this page. We'll give
 ● Opportunity to collaborate with peers
Explain how students will be supported to practice the
strategy following modeling. This section could include
whole group or small group activities.
you 3 minutes to talk it over and look around at the page.”
R: “Ok who thinks they have some print concepts?” Pick a group, and
then a student they use the magnifying glass to showcase answers.
Answers are The letter L and a period, for the first sentence. “I see more
than one sentence on this page. Where does the next sentence start?”
Pick a different group. The letter is W and a question mark.
J: “I see one more sentence. Who can identify the last group of print
concepts for this sentence?” Pick a different group, the letter W and
question mark. (Teachers remember that this information is part of
assessment one, mark the student (by number).
Page 6- Group work conversations with each other. W and period, W and
period.
Page 7- Student- N and period
Page 8- Group- N and period, I and exclamation mark.
Page 9- Student- N and period.
Page 10- Student- W and period.
Page 11- Student- C and period.
Page 12- Student- T and period
Page 13- Group- Y and period, S and exclamation mark.
Page 14- Group- C and period, C and period, and W and Question mark.
Page 15- Student- N and question mark.
Page 16- Student- T and period.
Page 17- Student- T and exclamation mark.
Page 18- Student- A and question mark.
Page 19- Student- D and period.
Page 20- Student- W and period.
Page 21-Group- W and period, L and exclamation mark
Page 22- Student- N and period.
Examples of conversations to provide feedback, as each student uses
magnifying glass at the board.
● Remember that when there is only one sentence the first word is
 the most left, and top word on the page.
● If there is more than one sentence: Find the punctuation mark
from before and check if that next word has what it takes to start
a sentence.
● Each student will be marked on the graphic organizer for
understanding, and then if necessary they can have a small group
conference to highlight different print concept strategies.
After writing this section, please read through your bullets/steps and highlight the following:

● Highlight in yellow where you provide guided practice opportunities in whole group or small group settings
● Highlight in pink where you provide teacher feedback/confer to gather evidence on student progress
● Highlight in blue where you provide the opportunity for students to collaborate to build understandings and skills

Note: If you can’t find a place to highlight these areas in your instructional steps, then you need to revise your lesson.

YOU DO: Applying to Independent Reading Contexts

Using bullets or numbers, describe the steps you will
take to help readers transfer the strategy to their
independent reading. This section should include the
following components:
● Integrate a formative assessment to determine
how the student is independently applying the
strategy.
● Provide a resource/tool/classroom reference
material to help students use this strategy on
their own.
Materials: Individual Magnifying glasses ( they should have them from
other assignments, but have extras on hand just in case.) Individual
copies of What do you see in the fall?, highlighters, pencils.
R: “Alright your turn, please take out your magnifying glasses,
highlighters, and pencils, as Miss Jessica brings you each a copy of today's
book. Up on the smart board you have an example of how we’d like you
to make the books.” Show slide.
J: “While you all did amazing work identifying the print concepts, we
need to check one more time. In these books, we would first like you to
write your name and class number on the top right of the cover, just like
we do for most of our assignments. Then set your pencils down, and take
 ● Close the lesson by revisiting the goal (set at the a look at the smart board. This slide shows you what we would like you to
beginning) and reminding students how they do.”
can use this strategy in the future. R: “We would like you to underline the title of the book, and circle the
author of the book. Then for each sentence, we need you to highlight the
first word, underline the capital letter and draw a box around the
punctuation. Remember to use your own magnifying glass as a tool to
hunt out those print concepts. And the slide has some hints too.
J: “You will have 10 full minutes to work on this. I will give a 5 minute,
and 1 minute reminder. If you finish before time is up, there is a sentence
that the author needs your help with, and a chance to be the illustrator of
that sentence.” Let the kiddos work, refer those who are struggling to the
slide, and remind them what we looked for with the magnifying glass.
R: “As we collect these I want to tell you how awesome I think it is that
you worked your hardest to showcase those print concepts. They are the
title, author, and illustrator on the cover. And inside the book, it is
knowing a sentence starts with a capitalized word, and ends with a
punctuation, and that we read from left to right and top to bottom.”
After writing this section, please read through your bullets/steps and highlight the following:

● Highlight in yellow where you integrate a formative assessment.

● Highlight in pink where you provide a resource/tool/classroom reference material.
● Highlight in blue where you close the lesson by revisiting the goal.

Note: If you can’t find a place to highlight these areas in your instructional steps, then you need to revise your lesson.

Appendix: Teaching Materials

Be sure to include copies of all teaching materials AND assessments used in this lesson.

Assessment one, used during “We do group” work.

 Print, laminate, and carefully cut out the center circle for student
tool.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XMEPntjWqosJpu3Z1U5gkMk-kGjrtFTJiP42qi3vQRw/edit?
usp=sharing Book for the kids.
 Slide that can be
made prior as an anchor chart.
 Works Cited

20 Tips for Teaching Concepts of print (2021). In Little Learning Corner. Retrieved from https://littlelearningcorner.com/2020/08/20-

tips-for-teaching-concepts-of-print.html

McDonald, A. (2021). Silly Ways to Teach Print Awareness. In Scholastic: Parents. Retrieved from

https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/silly-ways-to-teach-print-awareness.html

Michigan's Mission: Literacy. (2016). Concepts of Print: Ideas for Teachers. In Reading Rockets. Retrieved from

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/concepts-print-ideas-teachers

Education.com. (2008, October 7). Lay the Groundwork for Reading, with Concepts About Print. In Education.com. Retrieved from

https://www.education.com/magazine/article/Concepts_About_Print/

Stoetzel, L. (2021, September 30). Week 5 slide show. In Ferris State University Canvas.

Mesmer, H. A. (2019). Letter Lessons and First words: Phonics Foundations That Work (pp. 54-55). Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Zucker, T. A., Ward, A. E., & Justice, L. M. (2009, September). Print Referencing During Read-Alouds: A Technique for Increasing

Emergent Readers' Print Kn. The Reading Teacher, 63(1), 62-72. doi:10.1598/RT.63.1.6