Lesson Plan Activity Title & Big Idea: Questioning in Poetry Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Unit Overview/Summary: Students will learn about how to use questions to support their reading comprehension and Class Periods Required: 1
meaning making in poetry. Questioning will lead the readers to see how the little girl in the book uses a positive mindset
in what is often a negative and difficult situation (having to move).
Key Concepts (2-3)
Questioning a text
Using the post-it note strategy
Objectives:
Students will learn how to ask questions about a text and then answer those questions with evidence
Students will use questions to deepen their understanding of the text
Students will explore and make meaning from poems
National Standards (1-2 per subject) Content Areas Integrated:
RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a 1. Reading
text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers. 2. Writing
RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of
events.
Lesson Plan Activity Sequence/Order:
1. Welcome students and invite them to the carpet for a read aloud.
2. Tell the students that they will have several opportunities to practice questioning today. Pull out Poems in the Attic by Nikki Grimes. Tell
students that youre going to model a question first and you want them to be thinking about what youre doing. Read a few pages and ask a
question (perhaps What does the line: poems about home, no matter where that might be mean?) and write it on a yellow post-it note.
Show students how you put your post-it note on a two-column chart labeled Our Questions and Answers.
3. Read on and discuss what happens next. Explain that three things can usually happen: 1. We can find an answer to our question (if its a
relatively simple question this might happen quickly) 2. We can find evidence or clues for a specific answer, or 3. We can find no more specific
information and made need to make an inference. Summarize your thinking on a blue post-it and put it on the Answers side of the chart.
4. Give students several yellow and blue post-it notes and tell them as you continue to read, they should come up with at least one question
and one answer/piece of evidence. Tell students that if they hear something and need a second to write, they should raise their hand quietly
and you can slow down. Continue reading the book; pause to discuss student ideas if students seem confused.
5. Have students Think, Pair, Share about their questions and answers. Then have students put their post-its on the anchor chart. Finally, invite
students to share a few thoughts with the whole group. Tell students that all these questions are wonderful; when we ask questions it shows
that we are thinking about what we read and trying to figure out what our characters are thinking or doing.
6. Ask the students, How did the little girl feel about moving? Use this discussion to practice finding evidence in the text and to springboard
into a discussion on growth mindset. Rather than telling herself it would be awful, the little girl embraced what she couldnt change and made
the best of it. While she was still a little sad, she was also excited about the new place she would go to live, just as her mother had been in her
childhood.
7. Have students break out into their reading groups or individually read for the rest of the lesson and tell them to take sticky notes with them
to continue practicing this strategy; they can place the sticky note directly on the page where they ask the question. You will be around to
conference with the students and explore their questioning. Remind students not to forget to follow up with a blue Answer post-it because this
is the most important part. If we dont follow up, we never find out what the author meant or was communicating.
8. During the last 5 minutes, have students complete an exit slip that asks them to write a paragraph about one question they asked and what
happened afterwards while they were reading. Collect their responses and assess students on their questioning and evidence use to prepare
future instruction on questions.
What student prior knowledge will this unit require/draw upon?
This lesson requires students to draw on their prior knowledge of making meaning while reading to explore a new genre. Questioning is specifically paired
with poetry because poems are often confusing for children. This knowledge that its okay to ask questions when were reading and that readers actually
seek out answers to these questions is powerful.
How will this Lesson Plan Activity permit/encourage students to solve problems (to think) in divergent ways?
This lesson encourages students to ask the questions that come to their mind while reading. This allows everyone to come up with different questions and to
make different meanings from the text. The important thing is that we come back together to acknowledge this divergent thinking and to discuss different
interpretations/perceptions that students might have had about the same content.
How will you engage students in routinely reflecting on their learning/learning processes?
Students are asked to reflect through discussions with their peers and the whole class about what questions they had and how they answered these
questions with evidence from the text. The teacher even asks a specific question to foster reflection about growth mindset (as an asset of leaders). The
assessment piece is also a form of reflection and a question could be added about how confident students feel about using the questioning strategy and
finding answers (perhaps on a 5 point scale) if necessary.
How will this Lesson Plan Activity engage students in assessing their own work and the work of peers?
Students will complete an exit slip that will allow both them and the teacher to see how well they are able to use the questioning strategy and to support
their answers with evidence from the text.
What opportunities/activities will students be given to revise and improve their understandings and their work?
Students engage in modeling, guided/co-operative practice, and independent practice with questioning in order to revise and improve their understandings
and work. If only low-quality questions are being asked, or students are struggling to find evidence, the teacher will take corrective action and respond to
these needs with extra opportunities for students to revise and improve their understandings, through more modeling or text exposures.
What opportunities/activities will you provide for students to share their learning/understanding/work in this Activity?
Students share their thinking and learning with a partner after writing down a question and answer. Students questions then remain present for all to see
and learn from through the anchor chart about questioning. This allows students to share their understanding and work with each other, and to reference
back to their learning about questioning while they are reading.