Subject: Science & Reading

Date: March 23rd, 2015

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Lesson Objectives:
The students will be able to make connections to text, to self, and to the
world while listening to the story Spring Is Here! by Mary Packard.
The students will be able to identify examples of living and nonliving
organisms.
The students will be able to understand that offspring of animals are similar
to their parents but are not identical.
Reading Comprehension Strategy: Making Connections to text, self, and world
SOL Standards:
K.2 The student will investigate and understand that humans have senses
that allow them to seek, find, take in, and react or respond to information in
order to learn about their surroundings. Key concepts include a) the five
senses and corresponding sensing organs ; and b) sensory descriptors used to
describe common objects and phenomena
K.6 The student will investigate and understand the differences between
living organisms and nonliving objects. Key concepts include a) all things can
be classified as living or nonliving ; and b) living organisms have certain
characteristics that distinguish them from nonliving objects including
growth, movement, response to the environment, having offspring, and the
need for food, air, and water.
K.7 The student will investigate and understand basic needs and life
processes of plants and animals. Key concepts include d) offspring of plants
and animals are similar but not identical to their parents or to one another.
Lesson:
The teacher will.

Review the 5 senses by adding the

sense to Mr. Potato Head (<5
minutes)
Activate the students prior
knowledge by asking what they
know about the season Spring. (<5

The student will...

Review what they know the 5

senses
Review what they know about
Spring
Observe the book walk and discuss
what they know about books

minutes)
Do a book walk for the story Spring
Is Here! by Mary Packard (go over
the front/back, title, author,
illustrator, title page, and show each
page of the story). I will point out
what the baby animals and the grown
animals look like and how they may
be similar but not identical. (<5
minutes)
Tell the students we will be making
connections with the story. We will
make connections text-text, textself, and text-world. Tell them we
will talk about how we can relate to
the story. I will have a chart for

Learn about making connections to

text, self, and the world

Resources Needed:
Spring Is Here! by Mary Packard
Making Connections anchor chart with a picture of a student, a book, and the
Earth
The 5 senses Mr. Potato Head anchor chart

I decided to model this lesson because the teacher said this is something that her
students do not know what it is yet. I decided to model this lesson to show the
students how to make connections by connecting the signs of spring into the story.
I was hoping they would be able to connect with the story to understand what it
means to make connections when reading. I hope the teacher understood that
these students can be taught several things even if they do not understand it one
bit the first time. It may take several lessons for them to fully understand the
lesson but you have to start somewhere no matter how challenging. I would
encourage the teacher to review with the students throughout the day (reading a
story, watching a movie, in other lessons) about what it means to make connections
while reading. I would continue to support this teacher by encouraging her that it
is okay for the students to not understand the first time the lesson is taught and
to help her find ways to teach the students so that they will eventually learn.

My own reflection:
Students did not know what it meant to connect or what a connection was so I
had to explain more than what I thought I was going to do. They understood
making a connection to other stories and to themself but not to the world. They
really enjoyed the story and main character describing what there is to see, taste,
touch, smell, and hear during spring time. They absolutely LOVED the Mr. Potato
Head with his 5 senses! They wanted to keep that in their classroom and play with
it.

Subject: Reading

Date: March 26th, 2015

Grade Level: 2nd grade

Lesson Objectives:
The students will be able to make connections to text, to self, and to the
world while listening to the story Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Reading Comprehension Strategy: Making Connections to text, self, and world
SOL Standards:
2.8 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts.
b) Relate previous experiences to the main idea.
Lesson:
The teacher will.

Do a book walk for the story

The student will...

Observe the book walk and discuss

Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

(go over the front/back, title,
author, illustrator, title page, and
show each page of the story).
Tell the students we will be making
connections with the story. We will
make connections text-text, textself, and text-world. Tell them we
will talk about how we can relate to
the story. I will have a chart for
this with a picture of a book, a
student, and Earth to look at while
reading. (5 minutes)
Tell the students that it is
important to make connections while

what they know about books

Resources Needed:
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Making Connections anchor chart with a picture of a student, a book, and the
Earth
I decided to model this lesson because the teacher said this is something that her
students always need extra help with. She said they struggle with making

connections while reading their stories. I taught the lesson by reviewing what it
meant to make connections and to connect with something, the importance of
making connections while reading, and the ways we can connect with reading. I
believe the teacher is capable of teaching this lesson very well because she is very
knowledgeable but I want the teacher to understand how you can make it more
entertaining for the students. I believe they will not want to learn if they get
bored so I tried to make sure I was keeping all of their attention focused on the
story and making connections. I would encourage the teacher to use this technique
in other lessons to increase the students knowledge of making connections while
reading. I would support this teacher in her instructional methods by modeling
other lessons and helping her if she has any questions about certain ideas.

My own reflection:
The students were not able to give examples of connecting a text to the world. I
tried my best explaining it but I believe that is just one that is hard to connect to
anyways. They were able to make some great connections with the story to
themselves and to other texts. They said they really liked my chart I made that
reminded them there are three ways to make a connection- to yourself, to other
texts, and to the world.