Brooke Eubanks

10/22/15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Reading with a Question in Mind
Grade level: Third Grade
Objective: The student will be able to further make sense of the information they are reading by asking
questions before (and during) the text and making note of facts from the text to answer their questions.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard:
Standard 4: Comprehension/Critical Literacy - The student will interact with the words and concepts in a
text to construct an appropriate meaning.
1. Literal Understanding
A. Read and comprehend poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that is appropriately designed for
third grade.
B. Use pre-reading strategies independently to preview, activate prior knowledge, predict
content of text, and establish a purpose for reading.
C. Recall major points in a text and revise predictions about what is read.
D. Show understanding by asking questions and supporting answers with literal information
from the text.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
The students have already learned about monitoring their thinking while they read. They have learned to
mark or code questions they have throughout the text they are reading. Additionally, students have learned
to look for answers to these questions in their text.
Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary?
One thing I have noticed in my students is that they are not taking time to activate many pre-reading
strategies. This mini lesson is designed as a pre-reading strategy that will carry the reader through the
remainder of their experience with the text. It will also allow them to make more sense of what they are
reading.
Materials Needed
Lesson from: Strategies that Work (page 117)
Mentor Text: Dinosaur Tracks by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Materials: Readers Notebook, writing utensil
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Whole class and table talk

Mini Lesson Format:

Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading)
Good morning, readers! I hope youre ready for an exciting day! I am so proud of the way each of
you have been actively reading and making meaning of the information youre learning. We have
learned so much about what to do when we have a question in our heads while we read. We have
learned to code these questions and look for answers throughout the text. Today, we are going to
try something a little new. We are going to learn what to do when we read a text with a question in
our head before we even open the book.

Teach (Model/Explain)
To begin, I would love everyone to open his or her readers notebook to your next clean page.
We are going to make a chart with two columns. The first column on the left we are going to title
notes. The column on the right will be titled thinking. This chart will be useful today as we
explore our text. Our text for today is a book called Dinosaur Tracks by Kathleen Weidner
Zoehfeld and illustrated by Lucia Washburn. Just by looking at the title and cover of this book, I
can make some predictions about what this book is about. Im aware that it is an informational
book and I can safely assume it will be about dinosaur tracks, right? So before I even open the
book, I am going to think of the schema I have on dinosaur tracks. I am also going to think of
some questions I have on this topic that the book might be able to answer for me. I know that for
me, I do not have a lot of background knowledge on dinosaurs or their tracks. However, I can
think of a question I might have about dinosaur tracks. I want to know how dinosaur tracks form.
So Im going to write that in my thinking column of the chart because thats what Im thinking
before I even start reading, Im thinking of what the answer to this question could be. I would like
you to turn and talk to your table for a couple minutes about any schema you have on this topic
and a question you might have before we start reading.
Does anyone have another question stuck in their brains that they would like us to write down
before we start? (Write down any responses). Now class, I am going to start reading the book and I
am going to model how to fill in the rest of our chart. The notes column of our chart will be filled
in with any facts or information we gather from our reading that might help us answer some of our
questions. Lets see what we can discover.
(When we finish reading page 7), I learned something on this page that I think I want to add to
my notes column. I learned that dinosaurs roamed the earth 65 million years ago. That might help
me answer a question I have so Im going to add it to my chart. However, Im noticing that my
original question still does not have an answer to it yet so Im still looking for that as I read.
(When we finish reading page 11), Wow! This page has a lot of information on it so Im going
to add it to my notes column. But while Im reading this I have another question that I want to add
to my thinking column. Now Im wondering if there are different kinds, shapes, or styles of
dinosaur tracks. Class, youve seen how I am filling in my chart as I read. We will stop
periodically to fill in more but if you come across some information in the text that you want to
add to your notes section or questions to add to your thinking section, please feel free to add them.
Each chart will be different because we all have different schema on this topic, so feel free to add
your own notes and questions.
(After page 15, add the question when were dinosaur tracks found? and add information about
different kinds of tracks.)
(After page 16, add information to notes about 2 different kinds of footprints from one
dinosaur).

(Skip pages 18-25 for the purpose of the lesson and for time)
(After page 30, add information about the finding of dinosaur tracks)

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
Now class, we have a lot of information here in our notes section as well as a couple questions
from our brains in our thinking section. I would like you now to turn and talk with a partner or
your table and see if you can find any information from youre notes section that might be able to
answer one or some of the questions in youre thinking section. Then we are going to come back
together and share just a couple of answers.

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process])
Okay readers, did anyone find a connection between their notes section and their thinking
section that they would like to share? (After a few students respond). Excellent thinking, class. The
facts we wrote down from our text helped us directly answer some questions that we had in our
brains. Without these questions, our notes section would just be a long list of facts, right? But
because we took the time to read with a question (or two or three) in our minds, these facts now
help us make more meaning of the informational text we read. This is a great strategy to use with a
topic that you might not have a lot of schema on. I look forward to seeing you use this strategy as
we move forward!