Classroom Environment Lesson Structure Assessment Sample Comprehension Lessons

“Find Important Information”

Sample Lesson: Determining Importance Strategy
Grade 1

Determine Importance Prior to Viewing, See Introduction to Determining Importance

Purposes of the Lesson: Teach students to:

  • Understand the terminology of “important information” and “interesting details”
  • Identify important information to remember from a biography
  • Distinguish between important information and interesting details

Lesson Segment
(Video Clip)
Segment Focus
Questions to Consider While Viewing (Links to Facilitator Notes for PLC)
Teacher Commentary
(Video Clip)
Supporting Documents
Lesson Introduction Become familiar with the book and lesson plan
  • Read the book, George Washington Carver by Martha E. H. Rustad (Capstone First Biographies) or the book summary
  • Read the lesson plan
 Lesson Introduction (1:31)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Connect/Engage (5:49)
  • Explain the strategy focus of the lesson;
  • Build/activate background knowledge and motivation for reading the text;
  • Establish or practice procedures/routines
 What does the teacher do to set students up to be successful and engaged with the lesson? Connect/Engage (1:30)
Model (4:13)
  • Read aloud and stop at strategic points to think aloud
  • Model how to record thinking
  • Use turn and talk to assess understanding and involve students
 What is accomplished in modeling? Model (0:41)
Guided Practice (4:03)
  • Continue to read aloud or have children read in partners and turn and talk to identify what they think is important;
  • Students place sticky notes in the text at points of importance;
  • Confer with students as they work.
 Do you think it’s helpful to continue adding interesting details to the anchor chart as well as important information? Why or why not? Guided Practice (1:56)
Independent Practice (5:21)
  • Students work on applying the strategy(ies) on their own or with a partner
  • Teacher confers – listening, scaffolding, and teaching into each student’s needs
 In the video clip, we mainly see the teacher conferring with students who are having difficulty understanding what was important from the text. What does the teacher do to support them? What else might be helpful in subsequent small group lessons or conferring? Independent Practice (2:05)
Analyzing Student Work Teacher/colleague analysis of student work Use the “Analyzing Student Work Chart” to analyze Student Work Samples for strengths, needs, and next steps. (See chart under Supporting Documents. You may want to divide the student samples among colleagues.) Analyzing Student work (4:21)
Share and Closure (1:44)
  • Teach, reinforce, and/or utilize established routines to provide a respectful and supportive environment for sharing thinking
  • Reinforce important ideas from the lesson and encourage their future use
 What procedures are in place and how do they contribute to the sharing process? Share and Closure (1:11)
Small Group Follow-Up: Lesson Introduction Teacher/colleague discussion of the purposes and plans for follow-up View the Small Group Lesson Plan Small Group Lesson Introduction (4:21)
Small Group Session (6:44) Support children needing additional support in small group setting What are some of the benefits of the small group lesson? What are some of the challenges? Small Group Session (3:40)
Lesson Reflection Teacher/colleague discussion about the lesson Lesson Reflection (2:08)