Shared Reading Artifact

By: Maeghan Albious & Missy Nelson

Text:
Freedman, R. (1987). Lincoln: A photobiography. New York, NY: Clarion Books.

GLEs:
SS3aI05
Missouri, United States and World History
Knowledge of continuity and change in the history of Missouri and the United States
Understanding the causes and consequences of the civil war
R1G05
During reading, utilize strategies to
a. determine meaning of unknown words
b. self-monitor comprehension
c. question the text
d. infer
e. visualize
f. paraphrase
g. summarize

Text

Teacher commentary
during the think aloud

Strategies
modeled/practiced

Lincoln: A Photobiography

As I look over this chapter

in the text I see pictures of
soldiers and of Abraham
Lincoln. The title of this
chapter is This Dreadful
War. I wonder if this

Predicting and using titles

and graphics provides focus
and motivation to read
further.

Chapter Six: This Dreadful

War

chapter is about the Civil

War. I will read the first
paragraph.
Many people rejoiced when
Lincoln signed the
Emancipation
Proclamation. But many
other denounced the
president. The
proclamation infuriated
thousands of Northern
Democrats who cared
nothing about freeing the
slaves. They had supported
a war to save the Union as
it was, with slavery intact,
and they werent willing to
fight for black liberation.

I see from reading this

paragraph that my
prediction was correct, this
chapter is about the Civil
War. But everything that I
know about the Civil War
tells me that the North was
against slavery and the
South was for slavery. I did
not know that some
Northerners were against
slavery. That makes me
think that most Americans
did not like what President
Lincoln was doing when he
signed the Emancipation
Proclamation. I need to
read on to know exactly
what their reactions were
and what Lincoln did about
it.

Activating prior knowledge

Opposition to Lincolns
wartime policies was
growing. Early in the war
he had imposed measures
to deal with the enemy in
the rearNortherners
who sympathized with the
South and threatened to
sabotage the war effort.
He had allowed army
commanders to declare
martial law in some areas.
And he had suspended the

This paragraph shows that

Vocabulary, finding the
President Lincoln had to
meaning of an unknown
deal with opposition from word, context clues and the
no only the South, but also
glossary
the North. In this
paragraph there are also
some words that we need
to know the meaning of to
understand the text. The
first word I come to that I
dont know is martial law.
As I look through the rest of
the paragraph I dont see

right of habeas corpus,

which meant that the army
could arrest and jail
suspected traitors without
trial.

any context clues that

would tell me the meaning
of the word. I do know,
however that this book has
a glossary, so I think I will
look in the glossary for the
meaning. As I find the
glossary, in the back of the
book, I need to find the
letter m. I have found the
letter m and now I will
continue down the list of m
words until I find ma, then I
will look for mar, and
continue until I find the
word. I found the word and
it says the meaning is the
temporary rule of the
military. So this tells me
that Lincoln allowed the
military to take over some
parts of the country.

Summary: This approach in the classroom shows students how they can use numerous
strategies during reading and think alouds. Students participate in activating their prior
knowledge to help form new knowledge. This is a great way for students to learn in a
constructivist setting. I could use this strategy in all areas of the classroom.