Read Better. Dream Bigger. Unit 3 Tutor Lesson Plan 2020-2021 © 2020, STAIR of Birmingham. All rights reserved. Table of Contents Quick Reference Guide…………………………………………………………….1 First Call Instructions……………………………………………………………....8 Book List………………………………………………………………………….10 Lesson 3.0…………………………………………………………………………11 Lesson 3.1…………………………………………………………………………16 Lesson 3.2…………………………………………………………………………20 Lesson 3.3…………………………………………………………………………24 Lesson 3.4…………………………………………………………………………28 Lesson 3.5…………………………………………………………………………31 Lesson 3.6…………………………………………………………………………34 Lesson 3.7…………………………………………………………………………37 Lesson 3.8…………………………………………………………………………40 Lesson 3.9…………………………………………………………………………43 Lesson 3.10………………………………………………………………………..46 Lesson 3.11………………………………………………………………………..49 Lesson 3.12………………………………………………………………………..52 Lesson 3.13………………………………………………………………………..55 Appendix………………………………………………………………………….59 Quick Reference Guide Unit Three Thinking Strategy Goals: By the end of Unit 3, students should be able to demonstrate four thinking strategies that lead to independence with text. Unit Three Thinking Strategies 1. To figure out what the author wants me to know, I look for clues and think about the story (infer what is not directly stated in the text). 2. To figure out what the author wants me to know, I use the words to make a movie in my mind (use descriptive, action, and sensory words/images to create a mental “video” of a story). 3. To figure out a word I don’t know, I can use word chunks. 4. To figure out a word I don’t know, I look for small words inside of big words. Lesson Components & Approximate Times Prepare the Lesson: 5 minutes Review notes from the previous lesson and prepare for today’s lesson. Based on the previous lesson, prepare a list of words for today’s Word Boxes and/or Word Ladder activity. Initiate the Session (virtual tutoring only) 2-3 minutes For virtual tutoring, you will need to establish contact with the parent/caretaker by phone, Zoom, Google Duo or your agreed upon method of communication. Use this time to say something positive about your student, talk about progress and goals. Then have the student get ready for learning and fun. Set the Goals: 2-3 minutes Take a few minutes to ask your student about their day or week. Tune in to how they are feeling because it will affect their learning. Then go over the goals for the lesson, using the information provided in the lesson plan. Warming Up: 5-7 minutes Word Work should be quick, fun, and confidence building. The goal of Word Work is not to cover every spelling in the English language, but to firmly establish the understanding that words and language have patterns, and each pattern can help us read and write more words. Word Boxes and Word Ladders are word play activities designed to help students learn common patterns in English words. 1 Word Boxes: It’s more important that the student understand HOW to “solve” words than memorize every single combination. The goal of Word Boxes is to get students to change words to new words by exchanging letters. This activity provides learners with an opportunity to physically manipulate letter sounds to discover patterns which they can reuse to make new words with up to four sounds like b-a-ck or t-r-ai-n. Students have the set of “sound cards” you see below as well as the Word Boxes “mat”, all in the “Word Boxes and Sound Cards Kit included in their STAIR bag. You can also download a kit of your own on the Curriculum page found under the Tutor Resources section of the STAIR website: stairbirmingham.org/curriculum 2 Word Ladders: The goal of Word Ladders is to write new words using a rhyming word family or letter pattern the student has learned. In addition, Word Ladders offer the opportunity to challenge the student by not only exchanging beginning sound s, but also manipulating middle and ending word sounds to review and combine word knowledge. Word Ladders can be used to write the words created in a Word Boxes session, or on its own to build more complex words that share characteristics when students move beyond the need for Word Boxes. See the demonstration videos at stairbirmingham.org/trainings under Tutor Resources. How to know what words to work on: You can use the example word families in each lesson, but you may also use the Word Family Chart in the appendix of this booklet to create or extend your words based on a book you are reading, or a writing activity you may be working on. Using word families tends to be the best way to get students to recognize the most common patterns in English words. Reading Together: 20-30 Minutes This is the heart of a STAIR lesson. A “just right” book for Reading Together is a book that is worth revisiting. It is engaging to the student not only in its content, but in its rhythm, relatability, familiarity, humor, new knowledge, new vocabulary, or any other literary structures that an author uses to engage us either in reading, listening, thinking, or speaking. Your first priority here is to enjoy the book, but Reading Together also offers opportunities to learn critical strategies to comprehend and figure things out by solving problems when we get to words we don’t know or when something isn’t making sense. Thinking Strategies: The goal is for readers to recognize when something isn’t making sense and figure things out, taking the initiative to solve problems. To do this they need to realize that they can go back to what they already know and make connections. For a student who doesn’t believe that they can do this, they will need to see you demonstrate. Many kids don’t even realize they can and they feel like they need permission to do their own thinking. GIVE THEM PERMISSION, GIVE THEM CREDIT, and SHOW THEM HOW whenever necessary! The thinking strategies are spread over the Unit, but some kid will already be using some of them and you can mix and match, starting with the ones they may already use instinctually (like “reading” the pictures). If the strategy is new to the student, first introduce and explain the strategy. Then while reading, Think Out Loud and Model the strategy so the student can see clear examples. Eventually encourage your student to take over the strategy with support until they use it independently. First introduce and explain the strategy. (see Tutor Tools Glossary in this Quick Reference Guide to learn how to Introduce, Think Out Loud, Model, and Practice). To simplify: Teaching a new Thinking Strategy (or any new concept) in Four Steps: 1. Introduce, explain the purpose / use of the strategy 2. Model, demonstrate, think out loud about how you (the tutor) do it 3 3. Guide: Let them try with your support (think training wheels) 4. Release: when they are ready, let them try on their own (remove the training wheels) Reading Together--Different Approaches for Different Purposes: If the author is talented, even a simple book can with few words can contain depth and messages beyond the text alone. This is where the magic of reading occurs: not in the literal words on the page, but in those ah-ha moments when readers figures out the message that goes beyond the page. For this part of the lesson, you will explain that some books will be full of words the student already knows, and others will have new words to figure out. No matter what though, the goal of reading is to get information from the book or text! The purpose is for the author to communicate with the reader. Collaborate with the student to choose the best approach to get information from the text. Sometimes the student will be highly motivated to get into a book that you know is much too challenging for them to read on their own. However, there are many clues and book features that help us access understanding before you even approach the words. Always start with what the student already knows and can figure out. See if you can figure out what the book is all about together. Then read it to them and let them fill in some words using what they know about prediction and letter sounds. Also keep in mind that if the book is challenging but not of high interest, you are in for a struggle and you should agree on a different book if possible. Each text will be utilized for at least two or three sessions and can be extended to more depending on the length, depth, and level of the book. You are free to change the approach as they become more and more familiar. Remember, reading the words on the page is only the surface level of reading. Repetition and familiarity are absolutely essential to a deeper understanding of language patterns and the author’s message. Remind students that you can learn something new every time you read a book again. Here some ways to talk to students about how to get information from a book whether they can read all the words or few. Kids who aren’t afraid of challenging books are the same ones that become independent readers later. Ways to get information from a book: ● Check it out (explore the features to see what we can figure out: pictures, title, headings, author/illustrator, table of contents, words we may know or can figure out using the picture or first letters in the word) ● Listen to it (tutor reads and student can predict some words if they want) ● Echo Read (see Tutor Tools Glossary in this guide) ● Read it / Read it again (student reads with help if needed) ● Ask and answer questions Student Workbook Version looks like this: Ways to get information from a book: ● Check it out ● Listen to it 4 ● Echo Read ● Read it / Read it again ● Ask and answer questions It’s OK to change the approach if it's not working.