Magee Kloepfer

EDSL 660, Prince William Cohort

February 23, 2014
Reading Comprehension Strategies
SOL Data
After analyzing my 9th grade World History I Spring 2013 SOL data, I realized that the students
struggled most with Postclassical Civilizations. The pass rate for this group of students was
an 81% for Postclassical Civilizations. This was a significant drop from the previous year and
a significant difference between the other 5 categories tested. The overall pass rate for the test
was a 95%. Postclassical Civilizations includes the Byzantine Empire. I believe that in order to
truly understand and appreciate the significant accomplishments of this empire the students need
to be able to create mental images. I believe that if students have an opportunity to sketch out
what they read and to share with their peers will help them remember the information better.
Therefore, for my lesson I will be focusing on visualization.
Description of Learners
Last year I had 158 students in 9th grade that took the test for the first time, 42 of them were
special education students, and 5 were ELL students, level 3. They were in a team taught class
that includes 2 teachers, a general education teacher and a special education teacher. The
majority of the students read at an 8th grade level or higher. However, there were a few special
education students who were also taking a supplemental reading course because they read at a
5th grade level or below.
Context of the Lesson
Based on my assessment of the SOL data for World History I, students struggled the most with
Postclassical Civilizations. This includes the following:
Byzantine Empire & Russia
7a) Establishment of Constantinople
7b) Contributions of Justinian
7c) Characteristics of Byzantine Art & Architecture
7d) Disputes Between Roman Catholic Church & Greek Orthodox Church
7e) Impact of Byzantine Influence & Trade
The lesson I planned would have had the students coming to the library after the classroom
teacher has taught the standards to the students. The lesson would best be post instruction and
pre-final assessment and will take approximately two, 90 minute blocks.

Reading Comprehension Strategy

This lesson will focus on students creating a mural on the sidewalk or in a parking space with
sidewalk chalk. I chose visualize because it focuses on creating sensory mental images from
written text to help the readers remember the information. Whether my students are auditory,
visual, or kinesthetic learners this lesson will address them all. It is the hope that by sketching
out a scene from what they read will help students remember the information better.
Materials
This lesson requires students to do some research. As the librarian, I would pull out some
nonfiction books on the Byzantine Empire. Hopefully, the library I teach in would have books
on various reading levels for the range of students. Some books that I would use include Daily
Life in the Byzantine Empire by Marcus Louis Rautman, A Short History of the Byzantine
Empire by John Julius Norwich, and Life During the Great Civilizations: The Byzantine Empire
by Don Nardo, just to name a few.
Other materials needed include sketch paper, sidewalk chalk, and a location such as the sidewalk
or parking lot to create their mural.
Students would also need to take a pretest on the Byzantine Empire. I believe that if the students
are assigned the topic or standard they are weakest in, the presentation will be most beneficial to
them.
Finally, they would need the instructions and rubric for the project, both of which would be cocreated by the classroom teacher and I.
Lesson Activity
After the classroom teacher has taught all 5 SOL standards they will give their students a pretest.
This will determine what groups the students are assigned to. The pretest will consist of
approximately 5 questions from each standard. After the pretests are graded, the students will be
assigned to the standard they did the worse on. Depending upon the amount of students, those
who earned a 100% could either be divided amongst the groups to act as a support or (if there is
enough) they could create their own group. If there is enough to create their own group, they
could create a mural that represents what they think was the most significant achievement or
accomplishment of the Byzantine Empire.
Once the groups have been decided they will come to the library. There I will give each group a
variety of nonfiction texts on various reading levels. The groups will have time to read up on
their standard. Due to the average size of a high school history class being 25 or above, it is
unlikely the library will have 25 books just on the Byzantine Empire. If that is the case the
groups will have to share their books.

As the students are reading they will be instructed to write down any key terms or ideas that
come up. They should also be writing down any visuals that come to them as they reading.
Once the groups feel they have enough information (approximately 30-45 minutes) they will be
given time to sketch out their mural. Their murals will either be the size of a parking space or a
space blocked off on the sidewalk. The murals can only include pictures and some dates- if
necessary. The entire space should be filled up and the pictures must be detailed. All sketches
must be approved by the classroom teacher or I before they can create their final mural.
Once the sketches are approved, students can start to create their mural. For classroom
management purposes, it would probably be best if the entire class goes outside together to
create their murals. Their murals should be colorful and very detailed. Once all the groups have
finished their murals, the entire class will do a gallery walk. During the gallery walk the students
should try to guess what standard belongs to which mural. Once the gallery walk is complete
and if there is time, the individual groups can explain their murals to the group.
Assessment
The final product of the mural will be part of the assessment. The pictures in the mural should
represent the students understanding of their assigned standard. In addition, when students take
their final unit assessment their scores will hopefully be higher than the pre-assessment scores.