580-small group instruction

Grade Level

4th Grade

National/State Reading Standard

Identify one of the reading standards from Part 2 that will be the focus of the lesson. Standards must align with the lesson’s learning targets/objectives and assessments.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.

Text: Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (Chapter 3: Escape)

Specific Learning Target(s)/Objective(s)

Learning objectives are designed to identify what the teacher intends to measure in learning. These must be aligned with the standards.

Students will be in a position to explain the personality of Wilbur in Charlotte Web by noting and listing at least three definite textual details about his thoughts, words, or deeds with 80% accuracy using a character analysis graphic organizer at the end of this lesson.

Whole Group Lesson

Explain how information will be presented to students and describe activities you will use to engage students in practicing and applying the learning target/objective before reading, during reading, and after reading the core text.

Pre-Reading:

At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher shows the students a handful of pictures of farm settings and questions them about what they know or have heard about farms. This triggers prior knowledge and develops a mental structure of the text. It is then followed by the introduction of the essential vocabulary (runt, escape, slop) by the teacher with a visual vocabulary chart on a board, simple definitions, simple pictures. In small groups, students tell us in a few words what they believe the chapter could be about, based on the title and the image we see on the cover of the book. The teacher sets a clear reading purpose: "As we read, we will pay close attention to what Wilbur thinks, says, and does, so we can describe who he really is." This will relate directly to the learning goal and will equip the students to read with a narrowed mind (Duke and Cartwright, 2021).

During Reading:

The teacher reads the chapter aloud and students go through the chapter in their own copies. After every few paragraphs, the teacher pauses to model a think-aloud: "I notice that Wilbur says he doesn't want to stay in his pigpen. This tells me something about his character." Students are then asked to make notes on their own text with sticky notes or text coding symbols (T = thought, W = word, A = action) to help highlight important information about Wilbur. This facilitated annotation approach promotes active learning and develops understanding. The class stops halfway to have a short turn-and-talk session, during which students tell one thing they have discovered so far. The teacher moves around, overhears and where necessary offer correctional feedback.

Post-Reading:

The students will continue reading and then complete a character analysis graphic organer independently and add at least three details about Wilbur in categories: Thoughts, Words and Actions. The class will then unite to create a joint anchor chart filled with student-supplied information. On their organizers, the students write a short paragraph about the character of Wilbur. The teacher engages the entire group in a discussion through open-ended questions like, What do Wilbur actions say about the way Wilbur feels? The post-reading stage assists students in solidifying and using the skill of character description in writing, the core of the standard (Achmad et al., 2024).

Differentiation

Explain strategies to differentiate the whole group lesson to support each group of students.

English Language Learners (ELLs): ELL learners are provided with bilingual vocabulary card having essential words of a chapter and their translation. They are assigned a supportive peer during the turn-and-talk portion and a partially completed graphic organizer with one example detail already filled in. Sentence frames are available for writing: "Wilbur shows that he is ___ when he ___." The scaffolding will enable ELL students to receive the same grade-level content and minimize language barriers (Ma et al., 2023).

Students with DISabilities: Students with IEPs or 504 plans have an audio recording of the chapter to listen to as they follow the text. Their graphic organer has only two details (instead of three) and contains some icons of visual prompts next to each category. Further guided prompting is given by the teacher or paraprofessional with the annotation and writing. Extended time is available if needed for the post-reading written paragraph.

Gifted Ability Students: Advanced learners will be challenged to do more than identify and compare two characters: Wilbur and Fern. They fill out a two-column character analysis organizer and write a comparison paragraph describing how the two characters differ in their reactions to the same situation. They are also asked to find out how the author uses detailing of character to bring out theme.

Early Finishers: Students who complete early are provided with an extension card that makes them select a favorite Wilbur detail and form a short illustrated journal entry in the first person as Wilbur, utilizing textual evidence to substantiate their depiction. This fosters creativity and strengthens the standard.

Assessment

Explain one formative assessment that will be used to gauge student learning throughout the lesson that provides meaningful feedback. Additionally, provide a summative assessment to be used at the end of the lesson to allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of the learning target/objective.

Formative Assessment: The teacher provides continuous formative assessment during the lesson. In the turn and talk part, the teacher moves around and overhears students talk, and writes down whether they are recalling character details correctly. In the concluding phase of the During Reading, students will provide a sticky note exit ticket with a character detail they discovered and the category it falls under (thought, word, or action). This fast-check will enable the teacher to determine the students, who require further help, before they proceed to independent writing.

Summative Assessment: Students submit their completed character analysis graphic organizer and the written paragraph at the end of the lesson. They are evaluated on a teacher-created rubric that is pertinent to RL.4.3. The rubric will assess: (1) the number of specific textual details (minimum 3), (2) the correct classification of those details as either thoughts, words, or actions, and (3) the skill to write the character based on those details. Scores are used to plan future instruction and determine grouping for follow-up small-group lessons.