Calendar

Week

Unit:
Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies
Day 4

Readings: The American Revolution passage from Mr. Nussbaum (Mon), The American Revolution short text (Tues-Thurs), Thomas Paine and Common Sen
Introduction Day!

Unit Overview/Text Preview

Opening exercise:
Teacher introduction to the
unit theme of the American
Revolution and becoming
better readers.
Pre-test: (20-25 minutes)
students will not be graded
(and will be told this)
Topic American
Revolution: reading,
10 MC ?s
Pre-test taken from
mrnussbaum.com:
http://mrnussbaum.com/rea
dingcomp/amcomp342.htm
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Opening discussion:
(about 5 min)
reading is thinking
Why is this
important?
How is reading
thinking?
What kind of
thinking should we
do when we read?

Corrections and
Discussion: (15-20 min)
Students will trade
tests with a partner
and we will correct
the test together
Trade back, we will
talk as a group
about which
questions we
struggled with and
why (chance for me
to see what
students are

Unit Calendar

Unit overview/preview
lecture: (5-10 min)
Successful readers
use strategies to
help them before
they read, while
they read (during),
and after they read
Strategies we will learn
about: (list on the board and
briefly discuss)
Using text features
Using what we
already know
(background
knowledge)
Predicting
Questioning
Self-monitoring (Do
I understand?)
Re-reading
Making inferences

Background Knowledge,
Asking Questions, and
Making Predictions
Opening: (1-2 min)
Hand out completed graphic
organizers from Day 2,
present the idea that
successful readers use
these text features to find
out what the text is going to
be about before they even
start reading
Pair discussions: (2-3 min)
Students working with a
partner will make a
hypothesis for what they
think the text is going to
about based on title,
headings, pictures, etc.
Large Group Discussion/
KWL chart: (10-15 min)
Each pair with say
what they decided
the text is about.
(The American
Revolution)
Teacher will lead
students in
discussion of (and
record on KWL
chart) what they
already know about
this topic (K)

If there wasnt time to finish

the read aloud on Day 3:
Open by reviewing
the questions asked
yesterday (KWL),
which ones were
answered, and any
new questions we
had
Finish reading the
remainder of the
book (see Day 3)
Once read-aloud is finished
(whether Day 3 or Day 4):
Review discussion: (3-5
min)
What do we do to think
about our reading before we
even start to read?
Teacher writing steps/takeaways on the board for
students to see:
Look at important
text features/
preview the book
Think about what
you already know
about the topic
Ask questions
Do we only think about
reading before we read?
No, we keep
revising our
questions and

Finding Main Ideas

Opening Review, KWLs: (5-10 min)

Teacher will return KWLs to the studen
of their charts to help warm up and rem

Lecture Identifying Main Ideas: (10

What is a main idea?
How to find main ideas
Teacher modeled examples fro
As a whole class students pra

Pair Practice: (10 min)

Using Thomas Paine and Common S
Teacher will help the whole cla
students will work together in t
Class will come together to ch

Assessment 10 MC ?s: (15-20 min

Students will individually comp
Class will come back together

Exit Slip: completed and corrected co

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struggling with and
why)
After pre-test specific
questions have been
answered, conclude with
discussion of:
What do good
readers do? Do you
use any strategies
when you read?
Should you?
Teacher discussion goals:
Tie introduction to
the Units Essential
Questions and
Objectives
Guide students
towards the takeaway: reading is
thinking (write on
the board for later
reminding students
that reading is an
active process)

Unit Calendar

Unit:

Summarizing
Drawing
conclusions

Informal Assessment/Text
Preview: (25-35 min)
Each student will get a copy
of a short low-level highinterest text on the topic of
the American Revolution
and a graphic organizer
focused on text features
(listed below)
Teacher will help students
work through the organizer
by asking all students to
point to various text features
and write down the specifics
in the organizer (check
student recognition)
If students do not know,
briefly explain what the text
feature is/where it is/writing
the word on the board for
students to see:
Title
Sub-title (if there is
one)
Front cover
Back cover
Back cover
summary (if there is
one)
Table of Contents
Index/Glossary
Headings
Sub-headings

Students will each

be asked to come
up with 1-2
questions on their
own that they have
about the American
Revolution or that
they think the text
may answer
Students will each
share at least 1
question to be
written on the KWL
chart (W)

Read-Aloud: (remainder of
class)
Prep students by reminding
them to think about the
questions in the KWL chart
(remind them reading is
thinking) and try to find the
answers. If students find the
answers to one of the
questions they should raise
their hand and we will
discuss the answer
Students will take
turns reading a
page aloud to the
class (including
headings and
captions)
Stop to discuss and record:
Questions that have
been answered (L)
Ask students to
come up with new
questions when we
read new

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies
thinking about the
text while we read

Practice with a Partner:

(25 minutes)
Students will each
be given a copy of
Thomas Paine and
Common Sense (a
passage with 10
MC ?s from
mrnussbaun.com)
http://mrnussbaum.com/pdf
s/thomas_paine.pdf
Each pair will also be given
(or asked to draw) a KWL
chart to fill out together
Teacher will have
sentence starters
on the board for
students to use and
go over them with
the whole class
(The topic of the reading
is This reminds me of I
predict that Do you think
that etc.)
Students will not be
asked to answer the
10 MC ?s yet, they
will just be filling out
their KWL charts
together to practice
thinking about
background
knowledge, making
predictions, and
questioning the text
Teacher will be
walking around the

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Unit:

Pictures/Graphs
Captions
Bold, Underlined,
Italicized words
Special text
features such as
vocabulary boxes,
etc.
(start with the front and
back covers, table of
contents, glossary/index,
then move through the book
page by page through to the
end)

information or have
a question
answered
Model continuous
questioning,
predicting, and
reflection.

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies
room to monitor
student work,
answer questions
and guide students
in completing their
KWLs

Exit Slip: completed KWL

If there is still time at the

end of class (if students
were already very familiar
with text features) begin
discussions of background
knowledge and predicting
(see Day 3)
Exit slip: Completed
graphic organizer

Readings: various short teacher-selected passages (Mon), Boston Tea Party passage from Mr. Nussbaum (Wed)

Main Ideas and Making

Inferences
Intro: (1-2 min) Why is it
important to know how to
find main ideas?
Sometimes its
difficult to
understand what we
read and it can help

Unit Calendar

Opening Review,
Inferences: (3-5 min)
What are inferences? How
do we know something if
the text doesnt tell us
directly? Teacher guided
student discussion.
Inferences in previous
readings: (40-45 min)

Intro overview of the

days practice activity (1-2
min)
Main Idea/Inference
Practice: (30-35 min)
Students will work with a
partner using Boston Tea
Party passage from
mrnussbaum.com

Summarizing a Text Overall

in Your Own Words

Assessment:
(20-30 minutes)

Opening: (1-2 min)

Introduce activity for the day
and explain to students why
we are doing it. (writing
overall summaries of longer
passages can be hard for
students so we are learning

Thomas Jefferson passage and 10 M

http://mrnussbaum.com/pdfs/jefferson.
Correction/Discussion:
(5-15 min)
We will correct the questions together
have and how they can be resolved in

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Unit:
to re-read and find
the main idea
If you can find the
main ideas you
know what the
passage is about

Finding Main Ideas

Review: (5-10 min)
Teacher guided practice
paragraphs. (whole class)
Students
highlight/underline
main ideas in the
paragraphs with the
help of the teacher
Making Inferences Intro
Lecture: (10-15 min)
Teacher lecture What are
inferences? What does it
mean to make an
inference? When do we
need to do this?
Sometimes
information is not
explicit
We have to use
what we know to
make meaning
Helps us to write
main ideas in our
own words
Teacher example
modeling thinking out loud:
He put down $10 at the
window. The woman behind
the window gave him his
change. The person next to
him gave $3, but he gave it

Unit Calendar

I will use select paragraphs

from previous passages that
I will have written questions
for to target what details can
support specific inferences
We will walk through the
three passages discussing
the paragraphs and
questions in this manner as
a whole class

http://mrnussbaum.com/btp
_main_idea/
First students will
just read each
paragraph and
underline/ highlight
the main ideas as
they are in the text
Next students will
go back and write a
main idea for each
paragraph in their
own words using
their partners for
support
Teacher will be monitoring
and helping as needed.
Assessment: (10 min)
Students will answer 5
MC ?s focusing on main
ideas for the Boston Tea
Party passage
Correction/Discussion:
(10 min)
We will correct these 5 ?s
as a whole class and
discuss/troubleshoot any
confusions as well as talk
about what strategies we
used to understand the
passage and what we still
need to be working on.
Based on how the
assessment goes we can
either work on more
practice passages, review
main ideas and inferences,

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies

what information is
generally important)
Lecture: (5 minutes)
What to look for in the
reading: (Adapted from on
Somebody Wanted But So
Beers, 2003)
Who or what is this
text about?
What did they do?
What did they
want?
But what
happened instead?
What was the
conflict? What
changed?
What happened in
the end? How was
this resolved?
Students should be thinking
about these 4 areas during
the read aloud.
Read aloud: (5-10 minutes)
Students will take turns
reading a paragraph at a
time from The American
Revolution (As a refresher.
Students read it on Day 1)
Pair Work: (3-5 min)
Students will
identify these 4
previously
discussed areas:
Somebody Wanted
But So writing what
they identify into

Students will add the assessment to th

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back to her. So, when they
went inside, she bought him
a large bag of popcorn.
(Adapted from Beers, pgs.
62-63)
Ill have to re-read
this because it
didnt make sense
the first time
Popcorn makes me
think of going to the
movies
I think the boy was
buying movie
tickets
Who are the
pronouns referring
to?
Etc.
Teacher-led student
practice: (20-30 min)
Whole class discussion of
short example passages
with teacher support. At
least 3-5 examples, but
more if time permits or
students are struggling.
(I will have prepared a
cache of examples to
choose from before class)
Students will be
asked to pick out
details from the
passages that
support inferences
made (I will give
them the inferences
t this point)

Unit Calendar

Unit:
or review some of our
strategies from last week to
keep them fresh The rest
of the period will just be
based on how the students
seem to be doing with the
material and the strategies.

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies
four labeled boxes

Whole Class Summary

Writing: (10-15 min)
As a whole group
we will discuss what
students wrote, with
the teacher
recording answers
on the board
Teacher will then
guide students in
using their answers
to write sentences
using their answers
and the frame
[Subject] wanted
____ but ____ so
____
There will be multiple
possible final sentences.
For example, The colonists
wanted to be independent
but they were under British
control so they wrote the
Declaration of
Independence.
Pair work: (for the
remainder of class)
Can we summarize the
other texts weve read?
Students will work
in pairs to write a
summary sentence
for at least one of
the other passages
previously read in
class
They will have access to the

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Unit:

The American Revolution & Reading

Comprehension Strategies

passages for reference but

do not necessarily have to
read them all the way
through again.
Exit Slip: at least one
summary sentence for one
of the other passages.

Unit Calendar