Katie Flamm

09/17/15

Teaching Reading Mini Lesson (Calkins 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Visualizing form a vivid piece of text
Grade Level: 4th
Objective: The students will be able to merge prior experience with the text to create visual images
Common Core State Standard/PASS:
Make connection between illustrations and print
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students can recognize/ create a vivid piece of text

Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary?
I noticed, when reading, that students are not realizing the importance of a vivid piece of text. They are
not using their prior experiences to make connections with the vivid pieces of text like they should be

Materials Needed:
Lesson from (Name your source including page number): STW P. 134-135
Mentor Text: Charlottes Web
Materials: Paper, colored pencils
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Whole/Individual/Partner
Mini Lesson Format:

Connect (Engagement):
Often, when students come across long paragraphs of vivid text, they skim over it quickly.
However, a piece of vivid text should be read carefully as it allows the reader to make connections
to the book. This is an important concept, so today, I am going to demonstrate to you how you can
merge your prior experience with a vivid piece of text in order to create visual images that will
enhance your connection to a book. We are going to read an excerpt from Charlottes web and
create our own visual images by connecting the text to our prior experiences.
Teach (Model/Explain)
As I read, close your eyes and imagine the barn in your mind. (Read excerpt). Now, tell me about

your barn. (Discuss for five to ten minutes). Notice how your barns are different even though you
all heard the same piece of text. Why is this? (Discuss). Since you were able to merge your prior
experience with the text, you were each able to create your own image thus allowing you to
connect to the text in a unique way.

Active Engagement (student(s) try it out):

Now, I am going to give you each a piece of paper. On the front of the paper you are going to draw
your barn. On the back of the paper, you are going to write any prior experience you have had with
barns. For some of you, that may not be any. You may not have any prior experience with a barn
and that is okay. All that means is your picture will probably rely more heavily on the text. Once
you are finished, you will share you work with a partner so we can see how each of us connected
differently to the text.
Link/Closure (Articulating the expectation that students will now use this skill/strategy when
reading or writing)
Today we learned the importance of merging our prior experience with a text to create our own
visual images. If your future readings I expect you to pay close attention to the vivid descriptions
so you can form a deeper connection to the book.