Comprehension Minilesson

For my comprehension minilesson I chose to do a read-aloud to each reading group.

According to Patricia M. Cunningham and Richard L. Allington, comprehension is the ability to
think while you read. They discuss four important qualities students must do to learn how to
think while they read. First, students must be able to quickly identify almost all the words.
Also, they should have sufficient background knowledge that they can connect to the new
information. They need to be familiar with the type of text and be able to see how the author
has organized the ideas. Finally, they should have a mindset that reading is thinking and know
how to apply their thinking in comprehension strategies. (2011, p 120).
I chose the book Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell to read to the small groups. I chose this
book because of a few different reasons. First, it is relevant to the time of the year. Also, I
chose this book because it had a great story line. Finally, the last major reason I chose to read
Pumpkin Jack to the students is because the illustrations are amazing. They are extremely indepth, and I thought the students would enjoy them. I chose to do a story word activity as the
pre-reading strategy, a directed reading thinking activity (DRTA) for the during-reading strategy,
and a story map worksheet as the post-reading strategy.
For the Story word activity, I chose sixteen different words that appeared throughout
the book that seemed interesting. Then, I had the students predict what they thought the title
of the book was going to be, and I had the student write a paragraph prediction of what they
thought the book would be about. This allowed the students to use their creativity and
imagination to form ideas of what they thought they were about to learn. Also, it made the
students critically think. They had to use prior knowledge on what each word was and meant

to create a synopsis. This activity went well for the middle reading group and high reading
group. The lowest reading group had a few difficulties when completing this activity. A few
students thought these words were from the book they were reading during their directed
reading instruction (DRI) time. Therefore, I got a few predictions that involved the characters
from the Magic Tree House series.
During the reading I posed questions that would help the students critically think about
what was going on in the story. I asked around six questions throughout the read aloud. It was
interesting to hear what the students predicted was going to happen. They came up with some
very interesting answers that were not always correct, but it allowed them to be creative. The
more important thing during the DRTA was not if the students correctly predicted the answers
to the questions I was asking them, but that they were critically thinking and comprehending
what had happened thus far in the book to create ideas that were relevant to the story.
Overall, this part of the lesson went very well with all three reading groups. I had trouble
getting a few students to be involved in answering the questions. However, I still think they
learned a lot while listening to other students predictions.
Finally, for the concept map activity, I had the students fill out a Somebody Wanted
But(problem) So(solution) table. We filled these worksheets out as a group because I
wanted to hear what they thought was the correct answer to go into the different sections.
The middle and high reading groups did very well on this activity. The lowest reading group
struggled some when it came to the problem and solution sections. However, I helped guide
them to the correct answer by going back to the pages that answered those questions. This

allowed the students to not only see what happened again, but they were able to hear the
answer again as well.
Overall, I think my comprehension minilesson went extremely well. There are a few
things I would do differently next time. First, I would not do this activity in small groups. I
would make it a whole group lesson. The students who were sitting at their desks working on
their response journal could hear everything that was going on. Therefore, they knew some
details about the lesson before they even sat down to partake in it. Another adaptation I would
make is to not have the students fill out the concept map themselves. Even though they are in
second grade, some of the students still have trouble writing. Also, I felt that the students were
more focused on writing what we discussed word for word then actually comprehending the
answer. I would, as the teacher, ask the four different questions and write the answers up on
the board. This way, the students are only focusing on what the book is about and not if they
are writing word for word what I say.
I will incorporate comprehension into my own classroom by doing pre-reading, duringreading, and post-reading strategies with my class. This will allow my students to gain
comprehension in a fun and interactive way. I will either do a whole group read-aloud or have
a different book for each reading group. This way the students are not over hearing what is
happening in other groups before it is their turn. I will schedule comprehension lessons within
the school day by setting out a certain time to focus on this topic, such as DRI time during
reading groups. Materials I will need are fun and interesting books and the different strategies I
will use for the pre- during- and post-reading. Hopefully, through this practicum experience I
can find the best practice for teaching comprehension.

Story Words
Tim
jack-o-lantern
Jack
pumpkin
rot
garden
wrinkled
colder
winter
melted
seed
tiny sprout
changed and grew
ripened
circle
welcome back

Story Title:
Paragraph prediction:

DRTA:
1. Now that you have seen the title, what are some thought on what this story may be
about?
2. What do you think will happen?
3. What spell do you think was broken?
a. What do you think happens to make the spell broken?
4. What do you think is left of Jack?
a. Its been about 5 months since Jack was put into the garden.
5. What is this sprout of? How did it happen?
6. Why do you think there are no pumpkins?
7. What do you think Tim does with the pumpkins?
a. What would you do with the extra pumpkins?

Name: _____________________
Book: _________________________________________

{Somebody}

{Wanted}

{but(problem)}

{So(solution)}