Anastasia Krylova

Literacy with Ellen Ellis

Spring 2014

Reading Minilesson Tryout

Connect and Compliment: Readers, you have been doing some amazing hard work of locating
unfamiliar words in your nonfiction texts and using your own knowledge to figure out what the
words mean. Today we will learn how to locate the definition of some of these unfamiliar words
in our books by using the glossary as well as looking for the definition within the text.

Teach: Today I want to teach you that readers take the time to figure out the meanings of
unfamiliar words, which helps them to better understand the text. Once they find the definition,
they restate it in their own words, and with this meaning in mind re-read the sentences in the text
that have the unfamiliar words in them, in order to understand the meaning of the sentences
better.

Model: Let me show you how I would go about doing this work in my nonfiction book. Read a
part of a nonfiction big book with bolded words that are found in the glossary. Model how I
found the definition in the glossary, restated it in my own words, and reread the sentence. Fill out
the graphic organizer on chart paper.

Engage: Sometimes, unfamiliar words are not bolded but they might still be in the glossary. Put
your thumb up if you have ever noticed that a word that was not bolded was in the glossary of
your book. Have students help go through the process with a word from a different book.
Other times, the definition to the unfamiliar word is provided within the text. Put your thumb up
if you have ever noticed the definition of new words in the actual textmaybe even right next to
the word, in your books. Have students help go through the process with a word from a different
book.

Link: Readers, today we will practice this process as we go off to read our nonfiction books with
our reading partners. Use the graphic organizer and the checklist to help you. You can also use
post-it notes to mark the words in the text. When we come back together, we will share about
how learning the definitions of unfamiliar words has helped us to better understand what we are
reading. Who can tell me what we are going to be learning/practicing today? If you know what
do: GO! If you are not sure what to do or have questions, stay in the meeting area.

While students work with partners I will confer with individual students and partners. (I will
begin conferring with Emily, Patricia, Brandon, Jackson, Claire, Jasper and their partners
names have been changed) I will also keep in mind which students I would like to have share at
the end of the lesson.

Share: A few students share how they went through the process of identifying unfamiliar words,
locating their definitions, restating the definitions in their own words, and rereading the sentence
with the unfamiliar word with the definition in mind. Students will explain how this process has
helped them to understand the meaning of their texts.

Reflection on Reading Minilesson

Strengths Areas of Improvement Goals
Connect and Compliment:
I was able connect the
teaching point directly to
something that the students
have already been doing in
their nonfiction texts: finding,
taking note of, and trying to
define what my CT calls
lingo words: words that are
particular to a discipline (aka
vocabulary words). The
students have been using
context clues, pictures, and
their background knowledge
to try to determine the
meanings. I complimented the
students by emphasizing the
effort and work that they have
been engaging in by referring
to it as hard work, per Peter
Johnstons recommendation to
praise effort and work instead
of smarts or even the final
product. This encourages
students to continue to engage
in the process of thinking,
learning, and doing, as
opposed to getting caught up
in worrying about the final
product, or having anxiety
about proving or disproving
that they are in fact smart
with their work.
Teaching Point:
I realized after teaching that
my teaching point did not
need to include all of the
different steps of using the
definitions of the unfamiliar
words. The teaching point can
be more openI could have
simply stated Today I want to
teach you that readers take the
time to figure out the
meanings of unfamiliar words,
which helps them to better
understand the text. I did not
need to go into the specifics:
Once they find the definition,
they restate it in their own
words, and with this meaning
in mind re-read the sentences
in the text that have the
unfamiliar words in them,
since this was too much
information for students to
grasp all at once. It was also
unnecessarily repetitive, since
I went into teaching the steps
in the Modeling section. The
graphic organizer and
checklist also outline the
steps, so it would make sense
to keep the teaching point
more succinct and
transferrable by omitting the
specific steps.
Teaching Point:
Something that I have realized
is that I have been
approaching teaching points
from the SMART Goal
perspective (e.g. a Specific,
Measurable, Action-oriented,
Realistic and relevant, Time-
bound Learning Objective),
which I owe to my Teaching
Fellows preparation, no doubt.
It has taken me some time to
understand that Teaching
Points are not that. Unlike
SMART goals, Teaching
Points are invitations, they are
also more open-ended and are
transferrable to other contexts.
One goal that I have is to
make sure that my teaching
points are indeed teaching
points. For example, the
teaching point in this
minilesson should have simply
been Today I want to teach
you that readers take the time
to figure out the meanings of
unfamiliar words. This is
open-ended and therefore
transferrable to different texts
and even various genres. It is
also an invitation, and not
Students will XYZ by the
end of the lesson.
Teach:
One big strength of this lesson
was the use of the graphic
organizer that I developed to
help students keep track of the
steps and to support students
who are visual learners and
benefit from having
The Engagement:
After teaching, I realized that I
should have only engaged the
students in one process of
going through the steps to
define, restate, reread, and
think about how it helped
comprehension. Having the
Time management:
A big goal of mine this year,
and a need that is evidenced
by this minilesson, is to
manage time better so that
minilessons really do stay
Mini: 10 minutes at most.
This lesson was much too long
information clearly visually
organized. As evidenced by
the student work, the graphic
organizer served as an
effective tool for students to
organize their information and
keep track of every step. [The
graphic organizer included
boxes for the Word, Sentence
with the word in it, Definition,
Definition in my own words,
and Picture. A checklist
promoted students: I re-read
the sentence with the meaning
of the word in mind and I
understand the meaning of the
sentence better now! (Y/N)]
students actively engaged in
two rounds of this took a lot of
time and was unnecessary: one
guided practice with the steps
is enough to familiarize
students with the process.
Also, I have recently been
thinking a lot in terms of
prioritizing time, always
asking myself now Where is
it more important for students
to spend their time? After
taking part in a quick guided-
practice, the students should
spend more time
independently practicing the
strategy.
at almost 17 minutes. Some
actionable steps to take in
order to ensure well-timed s is
to pare down each section, to
develop succinct language use,
and to practice the minilesson
more than just a few times
prior to implementation, so
that it flows smoothly and
efficiently. One example of
how I could have pared down
this minilesson is by limiting
the guided practice to just one
round of going through the
steps together as a class,
instead of twice.
Engagement:
Even though it was often
challenging for students to
restate the definitions of
unfamiliar words in their own
words, including this element
in the lesson was a big
strength of its effectiveness.
This step really challenged
students to turn the meaning
of the unfamiliar words in
their minds and consider how
it could be explained
differently. Even in cases
when it was very difficult to
think of an alternative way of
saying the same definition, the
mental process of thinking
about it and trying on different
words allowed the definition
to marinade in his/her mind
aiding in comprehension and
memory. This was evidenced
by the fact that I noticed many
students using the newly
learned words in other
contexts.
Link:
I wanted to provide the post-it
option as a scaffold for
students who are
tactile/kinesthetic learners and
those who struggle
transferring information from
the book to another sheet.
However, I did not teach into
how to use this scaffold during
the minilesson, and only
mentioned it in the link. I
noticed that few students used
this scaffold, especially those
who could have benefitted the
most from using post-its to
mark the words in their books.
This scaffold should have
been explicitly modeled in the
teaching part of the
minilesson, as well as used
during the engage segment so
that students are familiar with
how to use it if they choose to.

Model:
If I incorporate a scaffold into
instruction, such as using post-
it notes, I need to teach how to
use the scaffold either during
the minilesson, during a small
group immediately after the
minilesson with a group of
students who I know will
benefit from its use, or
perhaps even prior to the
lesson altogether (perhaps on a
different day or earlier in the
day during a few free minutes
in between activities). I could
even have a mini minilesson
on the various use of post-its
for marking in books. For
example, I could say Readers
use post-its in many ways
when they read. One way
readers use post-its is to take
note of unfamiliar words.
Then model how one might do
that.