Derives Meaning from Text
How to Teach Reading Lesson Plans: Derives meaning from text and extends meaning beyond the print.
1) Retells a story
Have students retell story using an audiotape.
Have students retell story using story prompts.
Have students dramatize the story.
Have students listen to oral reading of story and then retell story (oral/written intervention for whole group). Retelling should include the following concepts:
Concepts of Comprehension include:
Specific details
Relevant content
General details
Concepts of Metacognitive Awareness include:
Connection of background knowledge
Summarizes text and connects to real life
Concepts of Language Development include:
Controls use of mechanics of speaking and writing (vocabulary, sentence structure, language conventions)
Organizes details and structures composition
Adapted from Reading Success Network
Videotape students retelling the story to share with peers, parents, and administrators.
2) Determines cause and effect
Read a story. Small groups will act out a story to demonstrate cause and effect.
Ask students to bring in toys or articles from home that illustrate cause and effect. The student then describes the cause and effect, (e.g., The balloon squeaks because it leaks.).
Analyze the results of specific movements. Let students act out events that occur in nature. Example: Let some of the students get under an umbrella. Play classical music or jazz music and ask the other students to act out the rain to the music.
3) Reads for more than one purpose
Use science books, dictionaries, cookbooks, telephone books, picture books, etc., to read for more than one purpose (e.g., reading for information, reading for pleasure).
Read a piece of literature. Ask guiding questions concerning the author’s purpose.
Allow students to make a picture collage to illustrate the various types of printed reading materials (e.g., reference books, biographies, textbooks, storybooks, advertisements and billboards, etc.).
Guide students to make a mobile of laminated pictures of various objects, artifacts, buildings, etc. associated with a favorite story or story character.
Make a diorama or class mural illustrating an event in history or a favorite story.
Create a song or rhythmical chant to go along with the main events of a story.
4) Reads with understanding
Read a story. Small groups will act out parts of the story to show understanding.
Read a story in small groups. The students will determine the story elements (e.g., character, setting, plot, theme, mood, conflict, and solution). The groups will share response and give supporting evidence from the story.
Allow students to create a summary illustration of a favorite story.
Allow students to create a mask that shows the feelings of a story character.
Guide students to make a paper mache’ sculpture of an important item in a story.
Allow students to make up a rhythm or melody to interpret an event in a story.
Use a story map to illustrate story events/sequence.
Ask students to record their impressions of a story in a journal, answering questions such as, “Why do you think the author wrote the story?” “Where do you think he or she got the idea for this story?” “Did the story surprise you at any time?” Include pictures and drawings in the journal.
5) Utilizes picture/context cues
Guide students to use picture/context cues to derive meaning (e.g., skip the unfamiliar word and derive meaning by using other words in the phrase or sentence or by looking at the picture).
Have students to interpret a visual picture through dance, drama, or music.
Show a picture of a scene in a storybook. Ask some of the students to create a dramatic tableau (a recreation of a scene using costumes, props, settings, etc.). Have another group create another tableau from another picture in the story. The students will form their tableaux on cue when the teacher says “action.”
6) Recognizes synonyms, antonyms, contractions, and compound words
Have students to read a self-selected book. Search for and create lists of synonyms, antonyms, contractions, compound words, as taught.
Create a matching game. Example: Draw or trace pictures of apples and worms and cut them out. Write contractions on the apples. Write two words that make up the contractions on the worms. Have students match the correct worms to the correct apples.
Demonstrate the meaning of pairs of antonyms by acting them out.
Allow students to work in groups to create a synonym mural or a contraction collage, etc. Find synonyms or contractions in a magazine or newspaper. Cut out the words and glue on a larger piece of paper or poster board to create a mural or collage.
Illustrate compound words through pictures. For example: For the word sunflower, cut out a picture of the sun and one of a flower. Glue pictures to a piece of paper and label each picture/compound word. Staple or tie pages together with ribbon to make a booklet of compound words.
7) Draws conclusions from reading
Guide students to draw conclusions after reading a story (e.g., The Relative Came—What happened? Why? “ happened because ?”)
Guide students to determine two possible endings to a story and illustrate through dance/drama.
8) Recalls details
Create a Word Kite. Have students make colorful paper kites. On each kite, carefully write the title, author, illustrator, etc. of a favorite book. (Write this on the main section of the kite.) On the tail of the kite, write as many details about the story or the characters as possible.
Allow students to perform or pantomime a selected detail of the story. The students observing will identify the story detail.
Have students to look at a painting, sculpture or fine art print. Observe as many details of the artwork as possible (e.g., What style of clothing are the subjects wearing? Are they going somewhere? Where? How many people/buildings/pieces of furniture are in the painting? Is the subject old? young? wealthy? poor? happy? What kind of mood is portrayed by the lines, shapes, and colors? etc.). Ask students to write down as many details as possible and compare the answers in a large group discussion.
Have students to act out a favorite part of a story, including as many details in the dramatization as possible.
Ask each student to write a sentence or statement describing a favorite historical figure of a particular period of history. Create an illustration to go with the statement. Use all illustrations to make a class booklet of the historical figures (e.g., men and women of the American Revolution).
9) Makes and revises predictions
Provide opportunities to make and revise predictions before and after reading a story (e.g., Before—What do you think this story is about; After—Was your prediction right? Why or why not?).
Combine parts of a print of a painting or photograph from a magazine with an original interpretation by the student. The students may paint, draw, or make a collage.
Show a print of a famous painting. Predict what will happen next in the painting. Write predictions. Discuss predictions. Revise predictions.
Show the class the cover of a book. Predict what the book will be about by looking at the cover and some of the illustrations. Write down predictions. Read the book together as a class. Check the predictions with the actual events of the book.
Play Pass the Hat. While reading a story aloud, ask students to pass a hat quietly around the class. (Students are seated in a circle.) Suddenly stop reading. The student holding the hat must predict what happens next in the story. Continue the game until the end of the story.
10) Compares and contrasts
Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast similar stories (e.g., Lon PoPo, and Little Red Riding Hood).
Read a story or book. Ask students to create a different story ending. Compare and contrast the book ending with the endings written by students.
Read two different versions of the same story (e.g., The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs) and compare and contrast the details.
Develops listening skills
11) Follows directions
Provides opportunities to follow oral directions given by the teacher (e.g., draw a boy in the middle of the page, draw a circle above the boy, put a dot between the circle and the box, and put an x on the bottom of the box, etc.).
Have students follow as teacher directs various music activities (e.g., echoing a phrase of a song, melody, or rhythm).
Play Simon Says.
Play Do the Hokey Pokey.
Have students follow drawing instructions (e.g., draw a curvy line along the top of the paper, draw a zigzag through the middle of the paper, etc.). The students will compare the results to see how they followed the directions. They may color or paint the spaces and shapes that are formed by the lines to create a colorful design.
Have students follow the verbal directions of the teacher to create an interpretive dance.
Have students follow instructions to compose a poem or song.
12) Listens attentively to a story
Use focused sharing. After listening to a story read by the teacher, the students will retell the story to a partner and make a story map (webbing) of setting characters, problems, and solutions.
Allow students to create a mural or develop a puppet show to retell the story they heard.
Ask students to listen for a certain word as the teacher or another student reads. When students hear the word they will clap, etc.
Ask students to draw a picture of a character’s particular action after the story is read. Listen to hear what the main character(s) or other character(s) do in a story.
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