Making Connections Lesson

So this week... we had our seasonal principal observations as a staff. I was observed during a literacy lesson on making connections. I thought that I'd post my write up. Its a pretty good indicator of a typical literacy lesson in my classroom. (Although the write up is definitely more in depth. I normally shorten my write ups by abbreviating a lot of what I do)

Also if you scroll down to the bottom, you can download the graphic organizer I used for the independent practice portion of the lesson. 

Long-Term Target:

·      I can use reading strategies to help me understand what I’m reading.

Today’s Supporting Target

·      I can make connections when I read.

Today’s Target Assessment  

·       I can record a connection I made while reading onto a graphic organizer.  

Some things I am thinking about: Lately we’ve been working on using different reading strategies to help us comprehend better. This week we learned about how making connections helps us understand. This lesson is going to be a quick review of what we’ve been working on and a chance for my students to prove to me that they know how to make connections. We are going to read the book, “Butter Battle.” Then students will make connections to themselves, to other texts and to the world.

My Plan:
Introduction and Hook	TW introduce the learning target. TW break down the target together. TW remind student of their hand signal for making connections.
Mini Lesson	TW have students reflect back on their learning. They will look over their anchor chart and discuss the reasons its important to make connections, especially how it helps us understand. TW then have students reflect back on the 3 books they read that week to help them make Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World.
Guided Work	TW then pull out the Sneetches book… She will have students reflect back on that story and together as a class.. TW model making a connection to the story. Then SW help the teacher make Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World connections for that book. TW then explain how today they are going to be responsible for making new connections for a new book. TW read, “The Butter Battle”
Independent Work	TW quickly model how to use the graphic organizer, despite them having used it before… TW give students time to work on the independent work… then SW turn in their independent work and assess themselves on the target.
Share and Debrief	TW have students meet her on the carpet. SW share some of the connections they made in “The Butter Battle.” TW ask for volunteers to share why they chose to place their magnet where they did on the assessment target. TW share next steps with the kids….

Next Steps: During our afternoon literacy block, students are going to make connections to the books they choose to read on their own. Furthermore I used and analyzed their independent work to group them for the afternoon differentiated lessons during our Daily 5 Block.

Over the next few days... we’re going to spend a few days reading different mentor texts and making connections. Finally we’re going to transition from making connections to being able to give an example of a time when making a connection personally helped us understand as a reader better.

Butter Battle... Making Connections PDf

Hope you enjoyed a look at direct instruction lesson in my classroom!