Abby Tierney Primary Literacy Methods October 6, 2011 Guided Reading Lesson Text: How to Weigh and Elephant

retold by Lorain Day Grade Level: 2 Lesson Purposes: 1) Fluency in reading dialogue and 2) Making connections Introduction Preview: Today we will be reading the book How to Weigh and Elephant together. This book is based on a Chinese folktale. Can any of you think of any folktales from our culture? Some examples may be: Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Good ideas! Well as I mentioned before, this story is based off of a folktale from China. In this story, a group of men are trying to figure out how to weigh an elephant but are not able to come up with any good ideas, until a young girl named Little Tsao comes. Although Little Tsao has the solution to this problem, her biggest challenge is getting her elders to listen to her idea. Prior Knowledge: Now I want you to close your eyes and think of a time when you have had a truly great idea, but have had a hard time getting other people to listen to you. This could be with your parents, siblings, peers, anyone. Let students think for awhile. Students Engage: Now, I want you to open your eyes. Who was able to think of an example they have personally experienced? I would really love it if I could have a few of you share. Allow students to share their personal examples. Picture Walk Lets take a picture walk through this book now. My students will be familiar with a picture walk and what a picture walk entails. Please open up your books to page 2. I want to bring your attention to a few things on this page. First, I want to know if any of you can find the word emperor on this page. Point to it when you think you have found it. Students will point to the word emperor. Excellent. Can any of you tell me what emperor means? If students do not know what it means, explain to them that it is a fancy word for king. Great. Now I want to point out one other word on this page weigh. Who can find the word weigh? Students will point

to the word when they find it. Great. This word has some tricky spelling, so I want you all to be comfortable with the spelling and meaning of this word. The last thing I want to point out to you are the quotation marks. Students will have had some prior experience with quotation marks. Can anyone explain to me what quotation marks are used for? Quotation marks are used to indicate that someone is speaking. This book contains a lot of quotation marks so I want you to be aware of them as you read today. Now I would like each of you to look at page 7. Lets look at the illustration on this page. Here Tsao is explaining her good idea to the elders. Tsao is also a word that you will see frequently in this story. I want each of you to frame Tsaos name on the page so that you will be able to easily identify if throughout the story. Students will frame Tsaos name so that they can read the word without hesitation. Now I would like each of you to turn to page 15. I want you to look at the picture and describe to me what they may be doing. They are weighing rocks. What tool might they be using? A scale. Alright, a scale. That is also something I want you to be able to visualize in your mind during this book. Now we are going to begin reading the story together. Each of you is going to read every word on every page in your whisper reading voice. As you read, I want you to be thinking about your experience you shared earlier when someone wouldnt listen to you even though you had a great idea. I want you to try to imagine how Little Tsao might be feeling. Also as you read, I want you to be aware of the quotation marks we identified earlier. Remember, quotation marks indicate to the reader that someone is speaking. So, you have two tasks as a reader today: make a connection and be aware of the quotation marks as you are whisper reading. If you finish early, please go back and reread the text. As we know, good readers reread in order to better understand the story. As students read I will be listening to them and guiding them throughout. I may also be conducting running records as needed per student. I will also be looking for how the students identify and read the dialogue in the story.

Discussion

Content: What was the problem that the elders were discussing? Why would no one listen to Little Tsao when she was trying to explain her idea? What was Little Tsaos idea? How do you think Little Tsao felt when no one was listening to her? What was the conclusion of this story? Process: Did the quotation marks change the way you read the story? How did you know who was saying what? Were you confused at any points? Students may revisit text to explain where they might have been confused or had questions. Revisit Text: I want each of you to think of your favorite part of the story. Before you share, I want you to find that page. Each student will share their favorite part. Why was it your favorite part? Did you find a connection with the character during this point? I also want you to think of any difficult spots you found while you were reading. Find that page. Talk about why that section was difficult. I am anticipating some difficulty with the excessive dialogue and quotation marks in the text which will be addressed in the mini lesson/ processing strategy. Please turn to page 8 now. This is a page of dialogue that I had some trouble with; in fact, I had to read this page a few times to fully understand who was speaking and what was happening in the story. I am going to demonstrate to you how I read this page. I want you to follow along and listen while I read. I especially want you to listen to how my voice changes when I read something that is in quotation marks. Describe how my voice is deeper when I read the sentence spoken by the rich man. Describe how my voice is smaller and daintier when I read what is said by Little Tsao. Now that I have showed you how quotation marks change the way I read, I would like each of you to try. Each of you choose a page with quotation marks on it that you would like to read. First I want you to identify who is speaking. Then, I want you to explain to me how that will affect your

Processing Strategy

reading. Finally, I want you to read that passage out loud to me. Have each student do this with some scaffolding, prompting, and guidance.

Extension

Word Work

Each of you shared an experience with me prior to reading this book in which you could connect with the character. Specifically, you shared an experience when someone would not listen to you or your voice was not being heard, just as Little Tsao experienced. Now, I would like each of you to take out your reading journals and write this goal in your journal; by the end of the week, I would like each of you to complete a journal entry about: how you connect with a character of a different book you read this week. Remember, if you need help or clarification, you can ask your peers in this group for guidance or you may come speak with me. Remember, good readers make connections to the books they read to understand the story and the characters better. Before we end our guided reading session, I want to do a little bit of word work with contractions. A contraction is a shortened word that combines two words with an apostrophe. Some examples might be Im = I am, Ill = I will, wouldnt = would not, and couldve = could have. Write these on the whiteboard and point out the apostrophe and the two words that were combined to create the contraction. Each of you have a zip lock bag in front of you with 16 pieces. Each piece has a pair, and when matched with its pair it creates a cupcake. The top of the cupcake has the two words that are used to form the contraction. The bottom of the cupcake has the contraction. Now, I want you to match the words with their shortened contraction. Give students about two minutes to finish. Great job. Remember, a contraction is a simplified word that combines two words with an apostrophe. Well do some more work with contractions next week.