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Language Arts:Friendship Unit

Printable Version

Time Frame

1 class periods of 90 minutes each

Group Size

Large Groups

Life Skills

Communication

Authors

Debora Cluff

Summary

February is a great month to present this unit on friendship.


Materials

Attachments

  • High Frequency Word List Folder
  • Copy of Wayside School
  • Inspiration 6 Program or graphic organizer
  • Copy of Chunk Poem "Brain Drain" by Adele Wilson on an overhead
  • Open Court Intervention Book Level 2:Unit 2, Lesson 1
  • Copies of the story "A Sweet Treat" for each student
  • Paper Strips
  • Markers
  • Concept Board with title "Friendship"
  • Pictures of students or friends.
  • Rubrics and assessment sheets.


    Background for Teachers

    Comprehension Plus: Students listen for key words and phrases while teacher reads a chapter from "Wayside School". They make a tally mark on a post-it note each time they hear the words or phrases. At the end of the reading, students add up their tally marks and receive a reinforcement if within 5 of the given number of words & phrases.
    Throughout the reading, the teacher models each of the strategies by modeling and pairing it with the phrase "good readers...(ex. summarize)." SWBS: At the end of reading the chapter,the teacher writes on the board ___wants___but___. So___. Students tell who in the chapter wanted something, what they wanted but what was stopping them from it, so what they did about it. Reinforce students by telling them they just did what good readers do, "summarize". Students then add the chapter to their graphic organizer in the Inspirations 6 program.


    Student Prior Knowledge

  • Knowledge of SWBS Strategy
  • Knowledge of how to create a graphic organizer in the Inspiration 6 program.
  • Vocabulary:Custard


    Intended Learning Outcomes

  • Students will be able to listen for key information from a passage of text
  • Students will be able to apply the strategies: making predictions; summarizing; reread; clarify; and asking questions to understand and make sense of text.


    Instructional Procedures

  • Self Start-Students practice reading their High Frequency Word Lists and pass off with the teacher.
  • Teacher displays the chunk poem "Brain Strain" on the overhead. Students are asked to say "Hello" to the words they know for 1-min. Students ask to clarify any unknown words. Choral Reading-One side of the room reads the words in red, the other side reads the words in green, and all read the words that are in black. Students stand up when it is their turn and sit down when it is the other groups turn. Read again breaking into groups of boys for one color, and girls for the other color. Students tell what the chunk is for this particular poem.
  • Teacher gives the prompt-What does friendship mean to you? and asks students to write their ideas on strips of colored construction paper to activate prior knowledge.
  • Students share with peers their answers and place them on the concept board.
  • Teacher hands out story "The Sweet Treat" and asks students to say "hello" to the words they know in the first two paragraphs.
  • Students are asked to make predictions based on picture and title.
  • Teacher begins with whole group choral read for first few lines and then calls on small groups to read a few lines.
  • Teacher gives students opportunity to work in their small group to summarize the first paragraph using the SWBS strategy.
  • Teacher asks questions throughout story and models what "good readers do".
  • Teacher gives students instructions for workshops which includes two separate assessments for the story.
  • Teacher begins instruction with small reading groups while students work on workshop. This is where students are reading at their instructional level and fluency and decoding are the focus.


    Strategies for Diverse Learners

  • Students are grouped into four groups during whole group instruction. For whole group instruction, each group has a combination of higher and lower level readers and a combination of ESL and non-ESL students. In each group, there are at least 2 ESL students in each group so that if a direction isn't clear or we are working on activating prior knowledge they may speak in their own language.
  • Choral reading helps students feel less at risk when reading out loud.
  • Teacher varies between implicit and explicit questions based on student skill level.
  • Students are assessed both orally and in written form in a variety of ways.
  • In small group, students are grouped by their individual reading levels to work on decoding skills.
  • I do workshops where students can move at their own pace. The workshops have varied skills that students need to practice.
  • Choices are built into the specific workshop
  • The agenda is written on the board and students know the routine.


    Assessment Plan

    Attachments

  • Teacher tracks students listening skills through the use of the comprehension plus strategy.
  • Teacher asks questions orally to monitor understanding of text.
  • Teacher monitors the use of good reading strategies by students.
  • Students fill out a written assessment requiring them to summarize the text using the SWBS strategy.
  • Students draw a picture that shows what happened in the story and how it relates to the friendship theme. (They are added to the concept board).


    Bibliography

  • Open Court
  • Chunk Poems by Adele Wilson
  • Wayside School


    • Created: 02/02/2004
    Updated: 01/22/2018
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