Lesson II
Reading Encounter
An Integrated Lesson focusing on Timeless/Ageless Literature for Enjoyment
MATERIALS
In a Dark Dark Wood, a folk tale, typed on a single sheet of paper
to look more adult-like. See attachment.
*You may want to use the actual children's text.
A copy for cutting up (to use in sequencing)
A copycat story, The Doorbell Rang Again based on The
Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchens. See attachment.
The copycat version, The Doorbell Rang Again, was created
to reflect more adult content.
Job Shadowing Monologue
Sentences
Note cards for word activities
Math manipulatives to show 1/2, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/12 (paper cut-outs or chips)
ENGAGING LEARNERS
Begin by engaging students with the material through a pre-reading activity.
Talk about the order of a person's day, what is done
first, second, third, etc.
Provide each with a section of In a Dark Dark Wood,
keeping the first, second and last sections. Tell the
learners that the author of this story organized these
sections in a way that made sense.
Get them started by sharing the first two sections.
Tell them that the first section is "In a dark dark
wood, there was a dark dark path." and that the
second section is "And up that dark, dark path, there
was a dark dark house." See if one of the members
thinks his part came next. If no one is sure, have
each person read his part and lay the parts out.
The group works together to organize the story.
Alternative:
Have two sets of the cut-up story. Have pairs work together to put the sections in order. Give them a hint that the last key word in one section is one of the first key words in the next section. Even if they can't read all the words, they should be able to put the sections in order.
Students could work on this activity while the teacher attends to others in the class.
WHOLE LEARNING: EXPERIENCING THE TEXT AS A WHOLE
Give each the whole selection and chorally read it.
As teacher, fade out when you think the students can
read unassisted.
If students would be embarrassed by reading aloud,the
shared reading could be done individually.
You could read the selection aloud, having ones who
want to join in.
Or members of the group could take turns reading,
each reading one of the short parts.
COMPLETE WORD STUDY ACTIVITIES
Learners will be using their individual stack of word cards. Each session the learner adds several cards to his stack, with one word printed centrally on each card.
The stack for a student might include the following words:
car, arm, dad, kick, dinner, open, stop, sale, Darling,
Darnell, heart, beans, Kirk, dirty
Have students add dark to their stack of word cards.
Do Word Sort activities. Give students the following
directions:
- Find words in your stack that begin the same way as dark. (dad, Darling, Darnell)
- Find words in your stack that have the same sound that you hear in the middle of dark. (car, arm, Darling, Darnell, heart) Notice that heart doesn't have the same spelling.
- Find words that end the same way as dark. (kick, Kirk)
- Find two words that describe what something looks like (dark, dirty)
KEY ACTIVITY: WRITING (incorporating COOPERATIVE LEARNING)
Talk about the pattern of In a Dark Dark Wood.
Talk about how you might make some changes but still keep the pattern of the story the same.
One simple idea would be to have something different in the box.
Or you could have the story begin in a meadow and use the phrase bright bright.
Or the story could begin in a town and use the phrase old old.
Whatever form is used, the idea is going from bigger to smaller; however, the story could be changed to go from smaller to larger.
Students can work on this activity while the teacher circulates to others.
MATH ACTIVITY
Tell learners about a book that has a different kind of pattern, The Doorbell Rang.
Tell them to follow along in their copies while you read it through the first time.
Tell them to listen for how math ideas are an important part of the pattern of the book.
Read the story a second time, figuring out the math equations. See work sheet.
Have the students use the manipulatives to come up with _ equals 6/12,
1/4 = 3/12, 1/6 = 2/12, and that if there are 12 people and 12 brownies, each person gets 1/12 of the pan. Ask students how many brownies would equal 1/3 of the pan.
This might be a good activity for pulling in others needing work on fractions.
TECHNOLOGY
The Discis CDs are interactive storybooks. The reader can read, getting help when needed. There are 12 books in the series, with one interesting one being "Rotten Poems for Rotten Kids." Adult learners could evaluate whether or not they think kids might like this.
Triple Play Plus is a new CD developed for ESL learners but which is good for all beginning adult readers.
Some software designed for beginning readers is useful for adults to use independently. See attachment.
You can download Readers' Theaters from the Internet. Some of them are written for beginning readers and some for more advanced readers. The first web address listed below provides information about Readers' Theaters while the second is an actual Readers' Theater that can be downloaded and used.
Aaron Shephard's home page: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt
Readers on Stage is a guide to scripting, staging, and performing Readers' Theaters
The actual script for Lightning Larry http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE01.html
EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS
This activity presupposes that students have been involved in doing some individual job shadowing, observing a worker for the 1st hour of his/her shift. To hypothetical worker reports clarify how this activity might be used.
In the last several weeks, some of you have done some job shadowing.
At our last session John talked about what he had observed as he shadowed Bill at the beginning of his shift at Greenspan, a greenhouse on the north side of town. After John's report, we wrote down four sentences about what John learned.
Hand each a sheet of paper with the following information, but with a line
in between each sentence.
- Bill clocked in at 7:50 a.m. He was early.
- Bill worked outside for an hour.
- The hardest thing he did was move heavy bags.
- Bill likes his job a lot.
Sandy did some job shadowing this week. She spent the first hour of work with a person who works in a restaurant.
Sandy's report:
"This girl I was going around with was supposed to get to work at 11 o'clock, but she didn't show up until about 11:15. Her name was Jean. The boss told her that this was the third time she'd been late. He was upset with her but let me hang around anyway. He told me to take a seat where I could watch her take orders from the customers and go back to the kitchen area. I stayed out of everyone's way. It got real busy about 11:30. She was going from one table to another and back to the kitchen and back out to the tables. She finally had a few minutes to talk to me. She said that she's been a waitress long enough to be good at remembering who ordered what but that she hates to carry heavy trays and still remembers when she dropped one. She's worked there for 5 years and said the money was pretty good. I didn't see her smile much while she was working."
Students complete a four sentence summary for Jean and use the same pattern that was used to review what Bill did. See attachment.
Read the sentence for Bill; then talk about what the sentence would be for Jean, making just a few changes in Bill's sentence.
The report about Jean:
- Jean clocked in at 11:15 a.m. She was late.
- Jean worked inside the restaurant for an hour.
- The hardest thing she did was carry heavy trays.
- Jean likes her job a little.
Write the new words on cards for the students to copy - or spell the words aloud.
Students choose 2 words from the patterned sentences to add to their stack of word cards.
PAIRED/INDEPENDENT LEARNING
Have students work in pairs on Word Sort Activities.
Give the following directions:
Sort through your stack of cards and find two or three words that you think go together.
Show them to the other group, but don't tell them why you selected the words.
Example words: car, arm, dad, kick, dinner, open,
stop, sale, Darling,
Darnell, heart, beans, Kirk, dirty
See if the other pair can figure out what your two or three words have in common.
Each pair should do this two times.
Possible pairings:
arm and heart - body parts
Darling, Darnell, and Kirk - people
stop and kick - I want my kids to stop kicking each other
beans and dinner - I hate having beans for dinner; beans are something to eat for dinner
arm, beans, car, and dad - one word for each of the first four letters of the alphabet
Have students reread In a Dark Dark Wood and underline all the words they're sure they've read correctly.
Have students write a hypothetical Job Shadowing summary, using some of the ideas about Bill and some of the ideas about Jean.
Teaching Strategies
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