Students need to be able to: Comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines. Communicate effectively for varied purposes and audiences. Listen actively to engage in a range of conversations, to analyze and synthesize idea and positions, and to evaluate accuracy in order to learn, reflect, and respond.

Vocabulary specific to the lesson

Smart Partners - partner groups for think, pair, share

• S - Sit facing each other
• M - Make eye contact
• A - Ask and answer questions
• R - Respond appropriately and respectfully
• T - Talk about the topic

Turn and talk

eye contact

partner

retelling

main ideas

details

characters

setting

order (sequence)

beginning, middle, end

summary

picture clues

predictable text

prior knowledge or schema

fluency

volume

Vocabulary specific to the story

lullabies

insulting

extraordinary

constantly

pretend

doubtful

uncooperative chair

disgust

amused

dazzled

babbled

gurgled

exclaimed

lung capacity

restrain

verbal exuberance

opera

regret

invitation

glorious

ghastly

compliments

praise

niceties

antique

admired

stroked

festive celebration

apparently

relatives

hovered

beady eyes

twitched

narrowed

quivered

speechless

commanded

opinion

 

 

 

 

Students will:

• retell main events and key details in a sequential or connective manner through oral
  language, graphic and/or written representations
• engage in think/pair/share activity (Smart partners, turn and talk)
• use new vocabulary in oral language.
• identify and describe important story components (character, setting, plot, etc.)
• construct meaning and interpret text.
• improve their understanding through both large and small group collaborative
  conversations.
• demonstrate engagement in the learning activity appropriately by facing the speaker, making eye contact and responding appropriately
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2-3 instructional periods, 30-45 minute periods (integrating reading and writing)

Select three books by the same author for this unit

Sample lessons based on the following books by Kevin Henkes:

Chester’s Way, Julius the Baby of the World and Lilly’s Purple Plastic

Anchor chart for Good Listening (from lesson 1)

Ways We Can Partner Talk anchor chart

Smart Partners anchor chart

Beginning, Middle, End graphic organizer (from the first lesson)

Smarties candy (just for fun)

BMEBeginningMiddleEndStoryRetellGraphicOrganizer.pdf

Listening Labels for Anchor chart.pdfTurnandTalkProcedures.pdf

WaysWeCanPartnerTalkAnchorChartforReadingNotebook.pdf

TurnandTalkProcedures.pdf

W: Begin by reviewing the concept of a good listener with the anchor chart used during lesson 1 of this unit. Ask students to use the chart to review important details of a good listener. Work with students to review the 5 things a good listener does.

Remind students that good readers retell to show that they understand the important parts of the story.  Explain that during today's lesson, we are going to practice retelling again, but this time, we are going to build your speaking and listening skills as students work with a partner.  

 

 H: Engage students in the lesson with the interactive anchor chart, Smart Partner chart and chant, correct/incorrect modeling of Smart Partner behaviors, turn and talk.   

 

E:  The text used for this lesson will be connected to the story read yesterday as they are both written by the same author.  All
students will help in the creation of a group anchor chart and will engage in the Smart Partners strategy.  All students will complete a graphic organizer to demonstrate the ability to retell the main ideas from the beginning, middle and end of the story. 

 

R:  Support students as they work in partner groups and practice the Smart Partner, turn and talk strategy.  Also support students as they work to represent in pictorial and/or written format a main idea for the beginning, middle and end of the text in their graphic organizer.   

 

E: Pair partner groups to share their work and explain their thinking.  Students will use thumbs up/thumbs sideways to evaluate their work with Smart Partners.

 

T:  Have students choose the information from the text they want to connect.   Encourage students to express themselves in a manner of their choice. (verbal, pictorial, and/or written format) If students have difficulty, ask the child to focus on only one of the three areas (beginning, middle, or end) for the main idea/graphic organizer. 

 

O:   The learning activities in this lesson provide for large-group instruction and discussion, partner interaction, and individual application of the concepts.

Prior to the lesson:

Prepare the Ways We can Talk Anchor Chart

• use the clip art of partners provided or draw your own graphic
• use the Ways We Can Talk Anchor Chart speech bubbles (You may want to have the students add these bubbles during the beginning part of the lesson.  Select a few to start with for this lesson and more to the anchor chart as you review and practice the strategy with subsequent texts)

Make copies as needed of the BME foldover graphic organizer

Determine how you want to assign Smart Partners.  You may want this to be random by proximity of seating or you may want to have students sit next to your predetermined partner groups.

Determine the procedures you want to follow for turn and talk including a signal to bring the group back together after turning and talking.

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Begin by reviewing the concept of a good listener with the anchor chart used during lesson 1. If the anchor chart was created with removable pieces, have students help you rebuild it appropriately. Ask students to use the chart to review important details of a good listener. Yesterday, we talked about the importance of being a good listener.  Listening helps us learn.  Let's work together to review the 5 things a good listener does. 

Yesterday, we practiced our listening skills during our reading lesson with the text, Chester's Way.  We learned that good readers retell to show that they understand the important parts of the story.  Today, you are going to practice retelling again, but this time, we are going to build your speaking and listening skills as you work with a partner.  We call this activity, Smart Partners, because we can learn a lot from each other when we listen. 

Show the anchor chart with the graphic of two people talking.  Prepare the speech bubbles from the Ways We Can Partner Talk anchor chart ahead of time.  Use the "I'm thinking.." speech bubble for today's lesson. Save the remaining speech bubbles to build and extend the Smart Partner strategy throughout the year.  

We are going to use all of the good listening skills we practiced yesterday during today's lesson.  This time, you will work with friend as our Smart Partner.  The letters in the word 'SMART' will help you remember what to do as you listen and learn with your friend.  'S' reminds you to sit facing your partner.  The letter 'M' reminds us to make eye contact.  That is a sign that we are really listening and paying attention to our parnter.  We will need to turn so we are eye to eye, knee to knee. Let's all practice this right now.  My cue to you will be to say, 'turn and talk'...when you hear these words, turn to your partner and show me eye to eye, knee to knee.  When I clap three times,(or any signal you choose) that is your signal to end your conversation, turn back and face me.  Practice this with the entire class participating.  Work with the students to problem-solve any issues that may arise such as an uneven number of students or how you want them to choose partners. The main idea is to get kids talking.  Do not belabor the issue of choosing a partner.  Proximity works best to reduce movement and distraction.  Some teachers may already have study buddies or partners assigned and then should have students sit with those partners for the lesson.

After practicing the correct way, allow the students to demonstrate incorrect models of the strategy.  Keep this short, but allow all kids to engage and be a little silly. Be sure to immediately return to the correct model to reinforce that learning.

 

We are up to the letter 'A'.  'A' reminds us to ask and answer questions.  I will help you by telling you how to start your conversation, but you need to listen and support your partner if he/she has any questions.  Remember, our goal is to work together to help each other learn. 

'R' reminds us to respond appropriately and respectfully.  I want you to turn and talk to your partner about what you think the word 'respectful' means.  What would it look like and what would it sound like?  Remember to listen for my three claps to know when to end your conversation and turn back to listen to me.  Turn and talk!

Allow kids to talk with their partners with the new expectations in place.  Signal to regroup and discuss the word 'respectful.'  Prompt as needed to be sure that the following areas are included in the discussion:  taking turns, nodding, disagreeing kindly and explaining why, using a kind tone of voice, etc.  You may need to follow-up this lesson with some mini-lessons throughout the year.

The last letter in Smart is the letter 'T.' This reminds us to only talk about the topic or to stay on task.  If I ask you to talk about the story, you shouldn't talk about what you are going to do at recess later today.  Staying on the topic is important to help you learn and stay focused.  Let's quickly review...with a chant!  Everybody stand up and echo after me:

S - sit facing each other

M - make eye contact

A - ask and answer question

R - respond appropriately and respectfully

T - talk about the topic

Now, we are going to put all of these letters together as we practice using the Smart Partners strategy during reading.  Remember, we are working on the strategy of retelling.  Good readers show they understand when they are able to retell the main events of a story.  Today's story is another great book by Kevin Henkes.  It is called, Julius, The Baby of the World.  You will recognize one of the characters...look carefully at the cover.  Who do you think is wearing this nifty disguise?  Allow students to respond. 

Today, I am going to stop a few times as I read the story and then ask you to turn and talk to your partner.  Your Smart Partner job will be to share one important event from what you just heard in the story.  You and your parnter may choose different events or might have the same idea.  Either way is fine.  I want you to start your conversation with this thinking stem, 'I'm thinking...'. Add this speech bubble to the Smart Partners anchor chart if it isn't already there.  My job is to read the story.  Who can remind us of what your job is?  Allow student responses about the task and being a good listener/partner.  Let's get started.  Listen carefully as I read.

Begin reading and stop after reading the first 5 pages of the text.  (after the line, "He stayed and stayed and stayed."  Are you ready for your job?  Take a minute and think.  Choose one event that you think was very important in what you just heard.  Pause for about 10 seconds for think time. Now, turn and talk to your partner starting with the words "I'm thinking ____ was important because..."  Turn and talk. Allow time for students to turn and talk.  Monitor some of the pairings and support the interactions as needed. Signal for students to regroup and invite a few students to share their thinking with the entire group. 

Continue reading up to page 21.  Page numbers are not marked.  Stop after reading the page of text that reads; "But her parents loved him.  They kissed his wet pink nose.  They admired his small black eyes.  And they stroked his sweeet white fur.  Julius is the baby of the world, chimed Lilly's parents.  Disgusting, said Lilly."  Continue with the turn and talk procedure as used for the first part of the story.

Read the remaining section of the text and practice turn and talk one final time. 

Now that we have finished the entire book, we need to retell the whole story to be sure we can remember the most important events in order.  Hold up 3 fingers.  Touch one finger for the beginning of the story.  One for the middle of the story and the last one for the ending part of the story.  Turn and work with your partner to determine how you want to retell the story.  Use your fingers to remind you to choose three main events.  Turn and talk.  

Signal for students to regroup, but instead of a whole group sharing, present them with a blank copy of the BME fold-over graphic organizer used during yesterday's lesson. To promote engagement, provide each student with a graphic organizer and explain that partners should work together to depcit the main events in the story on their papers.  Each child should draw a main event from the beginning, middle and end of the story to visually represent their retelling.  Partner work can be, but does not need to be identical as we want to promote divergent thinking. 

Provide ample work time.  Upon completion, pair students with new partners to share their work.  Remind them of the Smart Partner letters prior to the sharing. 

 

For closure, have all students stand and chant the Smart Partner letters again.  Also remind students about the importance of retelling.  Remember boys and girls, good readers retell to show that they understand what they read!  Keep practicing this strategy as you read books at home and in school.

 

 

The beginning, middle and end foldable will serve as the formative assessment of the students’ understanding. 

 

Teacher observation of Smart Partner interactions will guide further teaching needed in this area.

 

Student self-assessment of their work in Smart Partners as a review of the anchor chart.  Students signal with thumbs up for areas of strength and thumbs sideways for areas for improvement.

other lessons in this unit and their related materials

Retelling Fluency Main Ideas Details Volume Character(s) Setting Order (Sequence) Summary Beginning Middle End Turn and talk Think pair share Smart partners Picture Cues Predictable text Prior Knowledge Schema

John F. Berry, Kindergarten teacher, Penn Manor School District Susan M. Groff, First grade teacher, Boyertown Area School District Sara E. Obarow, Reading Specialist, Boyertown Area School District

January 17, 2013