Information Problem Solving--Lesson 2 of 5

Summary

This lesson is the foundation of vocabulary for the upcoming lesson.

Reading's Five Ws and Vocabulary Presentation--The next lesson was a presentation of the five Ws of reading a story: who, what, when, where, and why. The second part of the lesson focused on teaching key vocabulary words to the students.

This unit of lessons is geared to the middle school and junior high resource populations. Vocabulary recognition is an essential part of teaching any new concept. This lesson was designed to be a foundation for the next two lessons. By understanding the vocabulary, it is much easier for the student to make the connection between vocabulary and short story text.

Materials

Precision teaching charts Overhead projector

Background for Teachers

Written by Janet H. Ekins EKINSJmail.ADM.ALPINE.K12.UT.US

This is the second in a series of 3 lessons. For the best results, do the lessons in order.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The essential question for this unit was 'how are the elements of a short story used to communicate ideas?' Students will be able to use the terminology of a short story after completing this lesson.

Instructional Procedures

To introduce this lesson we began by reviewing Dr. 'I' principles. We decided as a class that understanding the parts of a short story came under the category of step 4, information use. Identifying the parts of a shor story is important because it lays the foundation for understanding the five Ws of any story (short story to a novel). See the Moab Institute table of contents: Begin this unit with writing the words on an overhead transparency. Write the words: who, what, when, where, and why. Discuss these words in relationship to reading a story. Use the following definitions: Who--refers to characterization. (What a character thinks, feels, and acts.) What--refers to action. (What is happening, past, present, or future actions.) When--refers to time. (The immediate time & era of a story.) Where--refers to location and setting. (Immediate setting and sometimes a larger setting.) Why--refers to cause and reason. (The reason behind the action, the motivation.) As we went through the discussion, we wrote on the transparency the definition of each of the words on the overhead. After practicing the words as a group, the students were given a minute and a half to write the words on the sheet as a quiz. Similar to step 2, write the following new terms on an overhead transparency. Six new words were introduced to the students. These words were: Plot, characters, setting, illustrations, insightful, and mood. We made the connection with the students that who and characters were connected. Where and setting were the next connection we made and so on. Illustration was the sixth word that had to do with the art category of this project.

As with the first part of this lesson, we wrote the words on the overhead, practiced them as a group, and took a quiz on the words. The quiz was done as follows: The students have a minute and a half to fill in the 6 vocabulary words under the correct definitions.

Precision teaching sheets identifying the Five Ws and Reading Vocabulary words presented in the lesson. Precision teaching sheets are set up with 25 definitions given. The students have a minute and a half to fill in the sheets completely. There are 6-7 vocabulary words presented on each sheet.

Extensions

Hint: Teaching them in order and sequentially will produce the best results.

Assessment Plan

Evaluation was the result of the precision teaching exercise. Also, check the student's understanding of: 1. the Reading's Five Ws 2. ability to find and give examples of the elements of short story