Sara Eilers

EDR 627
Strat Chat Lesson #2

Section One:
Strategy: Guess the Covered Word
Source: Guided Reading the Four-Block Way (pppst.com)
Purpose: This strategy builds students decoding skills by teaching students
to use context clues and prior knowledge to guess the covered word. The
goal is for students to ask themselves, Does it make sense? and What
looks right? while decoding independently.

Section Two:
2
nd
Grade- whole class group or small group

Section Three:
Text and Materials: A Pets Life: Dogs by Anita Ganeri



G uess t he Co ver ed Wo r d

Name: _______________________
!
!

My G uess:
!
Ho w d i d yo u d o ?
Wr i t e t he cor r ect wor d
OR
Put a i f you wer e cor r ect .

! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
! !
!


















Section Four:
Introduction/Activating Prior Knowledge:
I will introduce the text to students by telling the students about my dog,
Sianna, and sharing a story about her. I will then ask if anyone would like
to tell us about a dog they have or have met before. I will show the
students the cover of the book, A Pets Life: Dogs by Anita Ganeri, and
explain that we will be reading all about dogs.
I will let the students know that while I am reading, we will come across
covered words---You are to act as detectives as we read! When we
come across a covered word you will use the clues on the page and your
prior knowledge to guess what word is covered. After each student
records a guess, I will pull back the tape to see the first letter. If it matches
a guess then I will take the take off, but if it doesnt then students will
continue to guess and I may pull back the tape to reveal the next two or
three letters.
Put on your disguise and lets crack the mysteries!

Modeling:

I DO:
After reviewing the table of contents together, I will open up to the first
page. On this page (page 4) will be a sentence that contains a covered
word: Most dogs have ______ that they can wag.
Teacher: Humm I am going to have to use what I know about dogs
and use the picture to help me guess the word. I know that my dog wags
her tail and in the picture are two dogs showing their tails so I am going to
guess tail. (Uncover first letter---since its correct remove tape) Yes, my
prior knowledge helped me guess correctly!
Continue to page 6 where there will be a sentence that contains a
covered word: ______ dogs are called puppies.
Teacher: Humm I see in the picture a mother dog with her puppies. I
see that they are very little so I am going to guess little. (Uncover first
letter---since its incorrect guess again) Humm the word starts with a b.
I know that puppies are dogs that are just born which can also be called
babies so I am going to guess baby. Yes, the word is baby!

WE DO:
I will continue reading to page seven where we come across another
covered word. Together students will name guesses and I will record their
guesses. If needed, I will guide them by encouraging them to look at the
picture and/or think about what they know about the particular topic. I
will take off the tape to show the first letter. If it matches the first letter of a
guess then we will uncover the word.

YOU DO TOGETHER:
The next covered word will probably be a new vocabulary word for the
students. The sentence is, Animal _______ (shelters) have many dogs and
puppies that need loving homes. Students will record guesses. I will reveal
the first letter---if students have not recorded the correct guess then I will
pull back the tape to show she-----. Students will work as a group to
determine the word. Since its a new vocabulary word, its okay if they
dont get it. I will pull the entire tape off and we will discuss the word.

YOU DO ALONE:
I will continue reading the book as students record their guess for the
covered word. I will reveal the first letter and then the remainder of the
word. Students will write a star if they got it right or record the correct word
next to their guess.

Lesson Wrap-up:
We will celebrate how students did as detectives! I will ask students if
theyd like to share a point where they used a picture to guess or their
prior knowledge. After students are finished sharing, I will collect their
response sheets for assessment.

Section Five:
Assessment: I will use the response sheets as a formative assessment to
assess students ability to use their prior knowledge and context clues to
decode.

Section Six:
I feel like this strategy was highly effective with my students. They loved the
idea of acting like detectives while reading. The students were engaged
throughout the lesson and actively listening as their task did not allow
them to drop focus. Encouraging the students to use their prior knowledge
and the clues on the page really helped the student come up with a
thoughtful guess. In the beginning, one of the students just wanted to
shout guesses quickly, but slowed down after my prompting to use his prior
knowledge, the words on the page and the picture. I can see how with
more guided practice, students will be crosschecking during their
independent reading.

Section Seven: Peer Feedback
Ashlie Szatkowski
Strengths
1. You did a great job modeling your strategy. You made it very clear
what the expectation was for the strategy. I also liked how you included
thinking aloud.
2. I like how you brought up how they can use this strategy during reading.
3. I like how you included starring words to check for comprehension.

Suggestions
1. Could you have students run guess the covered word?
2. Could also do whole group and make into a game.

Question
1. How would you differentiate for your different levels of readers?

Jennifer Smith
Questions:
1. What would you do for the words that the students produced that
did not make sense?
2. What background knowledge would you need to build for the
students that do not own pets for example?
Positives:
1. Great age appropriate book and strategy, the graphic organizer is
perfect!
2. I liked the idea of you starring the words to check for
understanding.
3. You did a wonderful job of modeling how students should go about
guessing at the vocabulary if they did not know it.
Suggestions:
1. I was so impressed, suggestion, use these daily in your paired readings!
2. In pairs have students cover words they dont know and trade book
with their partners, to see if they could discover and solve the word
mystery together.


Section Eight:
Next time I use this strategy I would most of the lesson the same. One part I
would change is to make a book choice where the students had fairly
equal prior knowledge on the topic. With these two boys, one owned four
dogs and the other did not own any. The students who owned dogs
clearly had more background knowledge on the topic. Other than that
change, I would keep the lesson the same. The boys were excited,
engaged and apply what I was teaching them in the lesson.