** I chose these stories because they are at the 2nd grade reading level and the kids LOVE them. The topics are age appropriate and real to the kids (loose tooth, friendships, sickness...). I used this lesson as an assessment to several lessons that I had taught on main idea. You can see the other lessons about identifying main idea, including Points of Literature-Main Idea and Details and Point to Main Idea/Point of View. I used the same organizer in these previous lessons and I wanted to see how well the students could summarize with less prompting.
Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics. The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary. My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words)
Get students engaged
Introduce lesson ideas and vocabulary
Students are encouraged to utilize figurative language as a tool to aid in comprehension. Analyzing how this adds to the text (RL.2.4) helps them become better readers and represents a shift in the ELA Common Core Standards toward close reading. As they examine the text and identify main points and supporting details, students are also demonstrating how to use evidence from the text to summarize and identify central themes. (RL.2.2) This use of evidence and figurative language are higher level skills for 2nd graders. They represent a shift in the curriculum encouraged by the Common Core Standards toward more independence in reading with carefully structured lessons that allow students to discover concepts and practice skills.
Introduce book and review text organization
Demonstrate the strategy
Review the strategy and apply it
As students look at the story structure of this piece of literature, they are evaluating the story as a whole and way the parts relate to each other. (RL.2.5) Common Core ELA standards encourages students to see how text is organized and recognize structure and patterns within the text. Ultimately, students, who can determine the structure of a story, will be better able to predict, connect, and summarize.
Explain the task
Follow up and guide them to the next step
Students share their ideas with sounds
Review - Why are we doing this?
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be easily scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
For students with academic challenges, groups of varying abilities would be appropriate. One person can be the reader and another the recorder. The student with challenges could participate by giving ideas or helping with sound recordings. If you are giving books to each student, ensure that you can sit with challenged students and read one book to them and help them fill out the worksheet.
This is a great lesson for students with more academic ability. There is great descriptive vocabulary in this book for them to include in their main ideas, such as 'hare' and 'pries'. I would challenge them to include some of this higher level vocabulary in their work.