English Lesson Plan: Identifying Story Details

Lesson Objective: Students will be able to pick out the important details in a story as evidenced through their ability to analyze and comprehend a story that can only be understood through careful reading.

Lesson Opening (1)

1. Students who are still finishing up their diagnostic will finish in a corner. Those who are finished will read a story with me. This will be announced at the beginning, as an incentive for those students who do not like to concentrate.

Guided Practice (10)

1. Together, we will read a story that I wrote. It is a story that is similar to the Encyclopedia stories in that they need to read closely in order to solve the mystery. They have seen this type of story before and know the character. Before I begin, however, I will ask them to remind me who this character is and what he does. I will make quick notes on the board. We will stop briefly during the reading of the story and I will have them make predictions about what will happen next.

Independent Practice (19)

1. I will have them underline key passages in the reading at their desks. They will also cross out sentences that are opinion, which will incorporate another important lesson from the past weeks: opinion versus fact. I will not remind them of the difference between fact and opinion. This is a diagnostic within a lesson, I want to see how well they have learned this lesson. Their answers on the sheets that I collect will help me to see how if they understand this concept or not. (6)

1. When each child is finished with that, he or she must write a paragraph explaining what happened in the story and explaining how he or she solved the mystery. I will explain that while the topic sentence of their paragraph can be an opinion, the supporting sentences will have to be facts that are undisputable and come directly from the story. The concluding sentence will also be an opinion. (6)

1. As a class, we will examine the story and solve the mystery. If there is time, we will also discuss what sentences the children crossed out because they were opinion. This part, however, is not the main focus of the lesson. There may not be time to discuss this aspect of the reading. I will, however, collect the sheets at the end so that I can assess each child's ability to read closely and each child's ability to differentiate fact from opinion. (5)

Closing (2)

• 1. I will tie in the importance of close reading in this story with the importance of close reading of instructions when they take their test. I will explain how each individual word is important and how they must read slowly in order that they do not miss anything.