Samantha Malotke

Penguins and Gerbils reading group

1. Objective: Students will be able to use context clues within sentences and paragraphs to determine the meanings of unknown words. Students will be able
to demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge through the use of context clues when considering a word or phrase important to
comprehension or expression.
2. Materials: Paper, pencil, and context clues worksheet
3. STANDARD: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topics or subject area
(5.2.4.4).
4. Motivation or Anticipatory Set:
a. Have you ever read a sentence and didnt know what one of the words meant?
b. What did you do to figure out what that word meant?
c. Today we will learn about context clues and how they are used to help us understand what a certain word means by looking at the whole sentence.
d. We will start by looking at what a context clue is and how we are able to use them while reading.
5. Procedure or STEPS:
a. Modeling/Input:
When you come across a word you don't know, dont stop reading. You can often figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word by using the words
around it. The surrounding sentence or paragraph is known as the context.
Context clues are bits of information from the text that, when combined with prior knowledge, allow you to decide the meaning of unknown words in
the story or article you are reading.
Textbook writers and authors include words or phrases to help their readers understand the meaning of a new or difficult word.
These words or phrases are built into the sentences around the new or difficult word. By becoming more aware of the words around a difficult word,
readers can make logical guesses about the meanings of many words.
b. Check for Understanding: Asking students what context clues are and how they help you while reading a book with difficult words that may be hard to
understand.
c. Guided Practice: As a group we will work on a few examples of context clues until it seems that students are understanding how to identify unknown words
by using context clues.
d. Independent Practice: Students will work on a few examples while we are still in the small group. After students have finished the first three problems we
will go over the answers as a group and explain how we got that answer.
e. Closure: Tell the students to work on the context clues worksheet and we will go over the answers later in the week as a small group.
6. Formal and Informal Assessment: I will be able to see that my students have met the objectives by observing them work during small group time and by
checking in with them later in the week to see how the context clues worksheet went.