ED215r Lesson Plan 3

Rationale for Lesson

The first grade curriculum for Elmbrook schools says that students will be
able to retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding
of their central message or lesson. The students know how to use details
from the text such as key words and pictures to understand the story. In this
lesson I will be working with students on using these details to determine the
authors message in the story. Students have worked on this strategy before
so this lesson will be used to strengthen this strategy. In order to do this,
students will need to make inferences about the book character and pictures.
These students have worked on inferences multiple times this year and have
experience inferring things like how a character is feeling or what will happen
next. Students are used to working with being taught with read alouds and
are very good at turn and talks with their reading partners. The students in
this class are in varying stages of literacy development and range from early
to self-extending readers. This lesson is appropriate for all levels of reading
development because the text is at a level that is appropriate for most
students but I will be doing all the reading. All the students will have the
opportunity to do the thinking and practice the strategy no matter what level
of development they are.

Outcomes/Goals
For the Student:

CCSS RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details and demonstrate

understanding of their central message or lesson

For the Teacher:

WTS 1 - Teachers know the subjects they are teaching - The teacher
understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of
the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences
that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.
o The teacher has enthusiasm for what he or she teaches and sees
connections to everyday life.

Lesson Objective
Students will be able to

Use details from the story such as cover, pictures, words, and
character feelings to infer the authors message in order to understand
the story.

Assessment
To assess students ability to use details in the story to determine
authors message I will observe them during the lesson and take notes
during and after the lesson on a chart that I have created. Since I will
not have time to assess all students during the lesson I will focus on 46 different students. I have selected these students because they are
different ones than I assessed during my first lesson and second
lesson. This way I will be able to learn more about the thinking of all
students. I will watch for a few different behaviors. First I will look to
see if students can identify key details in the story based on pictures
and words and connect them to ideas from their own life in order to
see the authors message. I will also look to see if students can use
those details to infer what the author is trying to tell us.

Strategies for Students of Varying Levels of Development

Since this lesson will involve me doing all the reading students
individual reading levels will not be a factor. This way no matter what
levels the students are at they will still be able to participate by doing
the thinking and discussing. I will also model and be ready to remodel
any strategies if needed. Also the students will be working with
partners during the lesson and will have the opportunity to hear other
students thinking during sharing times. Since the students already
have assigned reading partners for discussions I will have students
work with the partners they are usually with. If one student is stronger
in the strategy being taught they will be able to support the others by
sharing their thinking.

Materials

Book: Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord

Chart for Assessment, Pen

Time
Total: 25-30 minutes

Introduction: 3 minutes
Demonstration/Practice: 20 minutes
Closure: 3 minutes

Procedures
Introduction
o Say You have worked on inferring a lot this year. You have
learned about inferring characters feelings in stories by using key
details like feeling words and pictures, and now we are going to
talk about inferring the authors message in a story.
o Say We are going to work on using details from the story to
figure out what the author is trying to tell us. The authors
message. I know you have worked on this a little already. I know
you have used details like the cover, clue words and pictures
before when reading and we are going to do this again
o Say The authors message is what the author is trying to tell us.
It is what the author is trying to teach us that we can use in our
own lives. The author teaches us this by showing us what the
character learned so we can use that in our lives. We can figure
this out by collecting and thinking about details or clues in the
story. Sometimes the author is trying to tell us more than one
thing so there are multiple messages in one story. We can use
things like the cover, the pictures, and clue words as details.
o Say Finding the main idea will help us understand the story
because we will see what the author was trying to tell us.
o Introduce book
Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord, Illustrated by Derek
Anderson
Say We are going to read this book and find lots of
important details in it so we can figure out what the
authors message is

Demonstration/Participation
o Model
Think aloud about cover and make a prediction about what
the story might be about
I see a hamster on the cover who is holding a checkered
flag. I see a big wheel in the background too. This makes
me think the book might be mostly about racing because I
know wheels and checkered flag might be things I would
see at a race. Hamster looks really happy on the front of
the book. That makes me think something good must
happen to him in the story.
I know the author probably wants to teach me something
from the book but I cant really tell what that is from the
cover. I will have to watch for more details as I read
because I know that the authors message should teach us
something that we can use in our lives.
o Read pages 1-5
o On page 5 comment on the word burn rubber make sure
students know meaning (I will explain it and have them repeat
the words with me)
o Read page 6-8
o After page 8 stop and model how to infer meaning from pictures
I have noticed some things in the pictures so far that I
think are important
I see lots of other animals building and driving cars and
hamster isnt driving one. I also see lots of car parts that
hamster is choosing. This page says the word wheels so
many times. I think the author is trying to tell us that
hamster is building his own car.
I noticed something else too. Hamster looks really excited
in all the pictures. He is smiling and waving his arms
around. When I am excited I smile a lot and sometimes I
wave my hands above my head just like hamster.
Maybe the author is trying to tell me that working hard on
something like hamster is can make me happy
o Ask what did you see me doing when I was thinking about the
authors message?
Turn and talk
Comment on discussion I heard

Have a few students share

Ask does anyone else have an idea of something else the
author might be teaching us?
Have a few students share
Read pages 9-23
Say I noticed on the page before this that Hamster looked kind
of worried. The other animals were saying that he was too small
to win. But on this page he looks really determined. I can tell by
his face he looks like he knows he can win. Sometimes when I
know I can do something I think I might look like that. He didnt
let the other animals distract him. He knows he built a good car
(he was really happy about building his car) so he wont let them
make him think he isnt good enough.
This makes me think maybe the author is trying to tell me to
believe in myself just like hamster did.
Ask do you agree that maybe the author is trying to tell us
to believe in ourselves just like hamster did?
Ask does anyone have any other ideas about what the
author might be telling us now? Is it different from what
you thought before?
Turn and talk
Comment on discussions I heard
Have several students share
Read to end
Talk about details we noticed
Say We saw lots of pictures and words in that story that
helped us infer what the author was trying to tell us
Talk about details, Maybe call on students to share details
they saw
Ask to retell
Can anyone retell the story so we can make sure we
remember what happened
What happened first, next, after, finally (have one student
say each so they build on what others say)
Call on several students
Ask does anyone else have an idea about what the author was
trying to teach us that we could use in our life? Why do you thing
so?
Have several students share
Remodel if needed
Say Now that we have read the whole story and we thought
about the details we gathered, I am thinking the author was

o
o

o
o

trying to tell us that even if you are little, if you work hard you
can beat the big guys
Closure
o Say I really liked how everyone was able to use the details in
the story to connect to their own lives and infer what the author
was trying to teach us in the story. I heard some really good
ideas.
o Say remember that the authors message is what the author is
trying to tell us that we can use in our own life. We can look at
lots of details in the story to figure out the main idea. Details like
the cover, pictures, and words, and characters feelings. We can
connect these details to what we already know.
o Say finding the authors message can help us understand the
story better.
o Say Now remember that you can do this when you read by
yourselves. You can look for pictures, words and feelings that
show you key details to help you figure out the lessons that the
author is trying to teach you.