I chose this story because it's a classic. The story line is engaging and simple and the kids can relate to a story about a character who wants to change her/his look. Because this story is older, there are lots of opportunities for vocabulary work. Some of the words are not used in our vernacular ('dandy'), but it was fun for the kids to read. They really love these classic stories - they are sure bet to gain their interest.
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)
Common starting point
My goal here is to engage the kids in the discussion about the text and give them a start on inferencing. This is the a lesson in the middle of my inferencing unit, so my kids have a good idea of how to use evidence and schema to inference, although they still need support write their inferences.
Give the purpose of the lesson
Introduce strategy - teacher models
Practice strategy - guided practice
Students are using a variety of ways in this lesson to determine or clarify the meaning of unknown words in grade 2 reading content (L.2.4a). The focus is using sentence level context as clues for meaning, but if they offer other ways of defining words (such as root word, prefix, synonym, etc), encourage this. The kids come with a variety of language levels and there are words that some will know and some will not. The goal of determining meaning of unknown meanings is to find what works for each student, those who can use root words, others that use schema, and some that use evidence.
Assign Task
Read and let students work
The emphasis on using text evidence to develop these inferences is really one of the cruxes of the the Common Core standards. Students are encouraged to answer questions, make inferences and summarize by going back to the text, looking at the author's original intention displayed in the words and illustrations. Asking and answering questions about 'who', 'what', 'where', 'why' and 'how' allow the student to use the information provided by the author to garner a deeper comprehension of the text. (RL.2.1)
Share what you know
Scaffolding and Special Education: This lesson could be scaffolded up or down, depending on student ability.
Students with language challenges may struggle more in this lesson due to the advanced vocabulary. I would suggest they sit with a partner or you write words on the whiteboard. They should try to make inferences, but may need help 'writing' out their schema or inference.
Students with higher vocabulary should be able to make good inferences. I would set an expectation of how many words they need to define because they may know most of the words. It's still a great expectation for them to cite the evidence or schema to support the inference. That is an expectation of the Common Core State Standards.