Guided

Reading Lesson December 10th, 2014

Reading Street Unit 3: Patterns in Nature

Story: Adelinas Whale
Comprehension skill: Fact and Opinion
Common Core: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5
Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect,
problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a
text.

Group: Abdellah, Nick, Nelson, Giacobbe, Breeanna
Time: 45 minutes
Activity: Guided reading using leveled readers
Materials: onion papers, yellow Post-Its, blue Post-Its, 2 whiteboards

Introduction (5-7 minutes)
-Ask students to read the title and table of contents and make a prediction on what
the book will be about. Ask students if they can gauge whether this text is fiction or
nonfiction (provide reasons).
-Invite students to make connections to what they predict the story might be about:
encounters with whales
-Introduce crucial vocabulary: migrate and lagoon. Have students be comfortable
with the words so they dont get stuck as theyre reading.
-Point out that migrate occurs 5 times in the story (have students flip to page 2 to
see the word). Ask students if they can figure out the noun form of migrate.
-Ask students to point to migrate and the definition it gives. Challenge them to think
about how we can create a better definition by the end of the book.
-Point out the word lagoon. It means a body of water close to the shore. Have them
say the word out loud. Point out that lagoon helps us with the pronunciation of the
word Laguna. Ask students to see if they can figure out what language the phrase
Laguna San Ignacio is in based on the context clues.

Mini-Lesson (7-10 minutes)
-Reading comprehension skill is fact or opinion
-Remind students that the genre of this book is nonfiction/informational. Might give
us a clue that there could be a lot of facts in the story
-Have students define what a fact/opinion is. Fact is something that is true or has
happened. Opinion is something that you believe is true or believe has happened.
-Example: Barack Obama is the President is a fact. Barack Obama is the best
President is an opinion.
-Play the onion game: write 3 facts and 3 opinions on pieces of paper and crumble
them up so its layered like an onion. Pass the onion around in the group until
instructor says, stop. That person peels off the first layer and reads the statement
and describes whether or not its a fact or an opinion. Keep going until everyone gets
a turn. If someone gets the onion passed to him or her twice on the stop call,
allow him or her to pass it to someone who hasnt gotten a turn yet.

-After the game, tell students that I put sticky notes on each persons page. Blue is
for fact and yellow is for opinion. If they see an interesting fact on their page, have
them write it down as a fact. If they see an example of an opinion, have them write it
down on the yellow sticky note.
-Set expectation that they should write at least 2 facts and 2 opinions.

Reading (10 minutes)
-Reading should be done silently. If theyve finished reading, re-read again to better
understand the story. Remind them to think about the word migrate and if they
can give us a better definition.
-Let students know that Ill be going around listening to you read. Whisper read if I
indicate that I want to hear you read out loud.
-Ask individual students to see if they can give me a better definition of migration
after their first read through.
-After reading and bringing group back together, ask students why do whales
migrate to the lagoon?

Activity (7 minutes)
-Have students post their sticky notes on either the Fact whiteboard or the
Opinion whiteboard.
-Students on one side of the table can look at the facts whiteboard. Students on the
other side of the table can look at the opinion whiteboard.
-Students should discuss amongst themselves if they think of the sticky notes should
be put on the other side. If they do, just keep them in mind (theyll be allowed to
move them over later).
-Have students switch whiteboards after 2 minutes looking at each.
-Do the same with the other whiteboards.
-Give students an opportunity to first share one of their favorite facts from the story
(one per student)
-Let students have an opportunity to adjust the sticky notes so that they belong in
their respective sections. Ask students for reasoning behind their switches.

Conclusion (1 minute)
-Highlight the importance of knowing the difference between fact and opinion.
-Think about going on a vacation: if you read an ad or a review that says Boston is
so warm in December! Their food is amazing and there are so many fun things to
do, its important to be able to tell that this is an opinion. From the review, if you
believed this as a fact, youd probably have a horrible vacation.
-Being able to tell a fact from an opinion allows us to interpret information more
intelligently.