Learning Experience Plan

Name: Rosa Kleinman

Content area: ELA, Shared Reading
Cooperating Teacher: Matthews/Lanza
Time and Date: Wednesday, 3/16/15, 9:05-9:50 a.m.
Grade: 4th grade
Central Focus/Essential Question
How can we develop a stronger understanding of our book through annotating?
Goal of Lesson
By the end of the lesson, students will have taken notes on the following aspects of
text: (setting, characters, feelings, mood, traits, character motivation, theme,
lesson, problem/conflict, etc.) in the story Lucky Beans by Becky Birtha.
Description of the book from Scholastics website:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/lucky-beans#cart/cleanup :
Like so many people during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Marshall Loman's dad has
lost his job. There's little money, but there are plenty of beans in fact, Ma cooks them
for supper every single night! Beans start looking better when Marshall sees the contest
posted in the furniture store window. HOW MANY BEANS ARE IN THE JAR? WIN THIS
BRAND NEW SEWING MACHINE!
Ma needs that sewing machine but how can Lomans possibly guess right? Then
Marshall remembers something he learned in arithmetic class. Becky Birtha's engaging
story, based on her grandmother's memories of Depression years in the African American
community, is illustrated by Nicole Tadgell's expressive paintings.
Common Core Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific
details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).
Prior Knowledge
The students in class 4-304 have been working on the essential skill of annotating both
fiction and non-fiction texts. They are creating a habit of writing down important details
and breaking text into chunks as they read, which helps them to answer questions
following the text (although we will not be answering any questions today). These skills
will be especially helpful for them as they begin reading longer, more complex texts in the
higher grades.
The students are familiar with this textI read it aloud to them a few weeks ago as a
casual read aloud and it seemed like they enjoyed the text. I hope that being familiar with
the text will help them to feel comfortable jumping into annotating as we read.

Materials & Resources

Book, document camera, pen/pencil, post-it notes, graphic organizer
Lesson Development
In this lesson, I will begin by introducing the students to the text that we will be reading,
Lucky Beans by Becky Birtha. Ill remind them that they heard the story in a read-aloud
a few weeks ago. Then, Ill explain to the students that we will be doing a shared reading
of Lucky Beans and that as we read, we will be taking notes on setting, character,
feelings, traits, problem/conflict, turning point, themes, and lessons in the story, as well as
noting any special connections, questions/wonderings, or something that we found funny,
shocking, or that we loved. I will ask the students to take their notes on a graphic
organizer while we read together (I will be using post it notes). I will walk the students
through how to use the graphic organizer (8 minutes)
I will begin by reading the first page of the book out loud under the document camera
(students will follow along). I will think out loud and ask myself: what important
information can we annotate on this page?. I will then model my annotation on a post-it
note and ask students to take notes on their paper on the box that says Page 1. (2
minutes)
As we move onto the second page, I will continue to read. Page 2 has much more text
than the first, so Ill model breaking the text into 2 chunks (something the students are
working on). Ill ask them to think about any important annotations they might make for
the first chunk and then ask the students to turn and talk so that they hear the whole
question. After a few minutes Ill ask students to share what theyve written down and to
help me create annotations for the first chunk. Well do the same thing for the second
chunk. We then will repeat the process for page 3. (20 minutes)
After that, Ill hand out copies of the pages 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 ask the students
to continue annotating the text in the boxes and then ask them to complete it
with a partner. 7
For the culminating activity, Id like a few students to share their notes/observations for
the last page and then Ill ask them to post it on the bulletin board where their names are
when we are finished before moving on to the next lesson. 5 minutes before the lesson
ends, I will pass out post-it notes and then ask the students to hang it on the
board when they are finished with it. (5 minutes)
Differentiated Instruction
I will differentiate in this lesson in a few ways. First, I will be reading the text on the
document camera and showing the text and the pictures, as well as modeling the note
taking for the students while they do it, too.
We have students at a wide rang of reading levels in this classroom and Lucky Beans is
a level O book, which will be accessible to our students at the lower end of the range. It is
always a good idea to practice annotating (or any other skill) on an easier text first, and

then increase the level of difficulty as students begin to master the skill.
I will give out copies of the entire text for some of our students to look at while
we are reading.

Assessment
I will be informally assessing students level of understanding during the lesson as they
share their responses and Ill be looking at the students post-it notes from the final
activity to assess their level of understanding on annotating texts.