Harvest Birds Lesson with Additional Reading Center

 Understanding the Authors Message

This is a 3rd grade lesson I made and taught. I know it can be improved but for now it is a good start. This lesson is based off the story The Harvest Birds and after the whole group activity, there are activities for a small group center. All my work is differentiated and I pride myself on that.

RL.3.1 Key Ideas and Details

      Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

RL.3.3 Key Ideas and Details

      Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

W.3.4 Writing

      With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

Whole Group:

·         Students will discuss questions verbally posed by teacher during the reading of the story The Harvest Birds that relate to vocabulary and characters.

·         Students will recall information from the story after it has been read by answering verbal questions from the teacher for comprehension.

·         Students will write a description of the story by using a Somebody-Wanted-But-So graphic organizer to support their message of The Harvest Birds.

Small Group Center:

·         Students will generate answers to questions verbally posed by teacher during the reading of the story What Was I Scared Of?

·         Students will relate the story to their own experiences by completing questions on a handout.

·         Students will use Odyssey as directed by RtI Intervention for rest of class time.

Individual Center:

·         Student will state verbally the text from Pumpkin Heads!

·         Student will interpret their comprehension of book by completing questions on a handout.

·         Student will use Odyssey as directed by IEP/RtI Intervention for rest of class time. 

Differentiation – Planned Supports

Whole Group: ·        Tactile-Kinesthetic learners: During the closure portion of the lesson, students will be able to get up and out of their seat to draw a smiley face the represents if they liked or disliked the story, The Harvest Birds. This will help because after sitting for almost 30 minutes, it can get students that need more movement out of their seat for a few moments.   ·         Verbal/linguistic learners: Comprehension questions will be asked during and after stories and vocabulary are read which will help facilitate students that like to explain their ideas and to provide dialogue during class discussions. Students will also repeat out loud the vocabulary word read by the teacher when teacher says “go”. ·         Auditory learners: The teacher will read out loud Too Many Daves, vocabulary cards, and The Harvest Birds so students can hear the correct pronunciation of words and unfamiliar vocabulary.  Verbal instruction will be given though the whole lesson along with verbal prompts and expectations. Teacher will prompt the question for students to think about as the story is being read and questions are being asked, “What is the message in the story?”  The teacher will read out loud the questions on the graphic organizer that students will complete. ·         Visual learners: Students will follow along from their Journeys reading book. Their reading book will be another visual tool of the vocabulary cards that the teacher will hold up. Students will do a picture walk of The Harvest Birds before any reading by the teacher begins. Teacher will point out images to think about and have them think to themselves what the story might be about. Students will then follow along once the teacher has begun orally reading the story to the whole class. The question will be written on the whiteboard for students to think about as the story is being read, “What is the message in the story?” The teacher will also display the graphic organizer they will complete on the SmartBoard so all students can easily see. ·         Students with additional needs (regular and special education): Three different graphic organizers have been made to accommodate the learning needs of the students. One graphic organizer is mostly blank for those who are advanced in reading comprehension and can write complete sentences with minimal grammatical errors. The second graphic organizer has numbers that will indicate how much detail the teacher is looking for the students to include. The second graphic organizer is made for those who comprehend stories well but challenge them to think of more than one answer. The third graphic organizer has multiple choice questions and students can circle the correct answer. The third graphic organizer helps those that can read with minimal assistance, but has significant difficulties with spelling and invented spelling. Each graphic organizer has the same structure and all three have a free write answer portion that students can write or draw “What is the message of The Harvest Birds?”