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Madison Sullivan

Read Aloud Lesson Plan

Subject(s): ELA/Reading Date & Time: Friday, October 18 at 1:00PM

Grade: 3rd Group Size: Whole group (23 Students)

Instructional Focus

The central instructional focus of the read aloud portion of the lesson is comprehension. To address the
focus, a read aloud protocol will be used. A secondary focus will be vocabulary. Direct explanation of Tier 2
vocabulary words will be used as the instructional activity. For the sentence composing portion of the lesson,
the focus is writing. To address the focus, instructional activities will be used to help students expand brief
sentences.

Learners

This is a Tier 1 lesson delivered to the whole class. The group is a heterogeneous group of students with
various reading levels, and instructional needs. There are 23 students in the classroom with two ELL students
who may need extra support during the lesson. Circulating and listening to students’ responses during
discussions will help aid in the success of this lesson.

Common Core Learning Standard(s) Addressed:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.3
 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions
contribute to the sequence of events.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.7
 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a
story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

Learning Target(s)/Lesson Objective(s):

Students will engage in a read aloud lesson and a sentence expanding activity based on the text, Detective
LaRue: Letters from the Investigation. Through direct explanation and exposure in context, the students will
be exposed to 3-5 vocabulary words from the text. Students will listen to the text and see two instances of
teacher-modeled inference making during the reading. Then, collaboratively students will practice making an
inference based on a prompt. Finally, students will engage in sentence expanding using kernel sentences
from the text.

Resources and Materials:

 Teague, M. (2004). Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation. New York: Scholastic Inc.
Lexile: 950 (Grade 4 Lexile Band)
 Chart demonstrating Sequence of Events text structure (or Smart Board slide)
 Chart or cards showing vocabulary words
 Post-it notes showing where to stop in the book with questions listed
 Sentence Composing Tasks prompts and paper for students to complete independent work.
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Lesson Assessment(s):

Two types of assessments will be used for this lesson. One assessment will be informal and will involve
listening to students’ responses during the read aloud discussion. The second assessment will be the written
sentence that students expand independently.

Instructional Procedures
First
First
Lesson Introduction & Activating Strategies [3 minutes]
Next
Step 1: Introduction to Text Structure
Then
Today I am going to share a story with you that has a sequence of events. As Then
you know, that means that one thing happens, then another, and then another.
If we think about what happens first, and then next, and then next, it can help Finally
us to remember the story. After we finish it, we will discuss the main events.

Step 2: Activating Background Knowledge

Have you ever read a book that is a mystery? What about a book that has a crime that happened and there has
to be an investigation to solve it? What are some of the things that detectives do to solve crimes? Crimes can
be hard to solve. Detectives have to have a lot of clues and evidence to help them. This is the story about a
dog that is a detective that is trying to solve a crime that he was committed of doing! He said he did not do it
and now he is trying to prove that to everyone.

We will state the learning objective by explaining to students that we will be learning some new vocabulary
words that can directly relate to an investigation and detective’s work. This can even be compared to a real-
world application based off of crimes that some actual detectives solve. We will practice making inferences
when reading the text so that they can make an inference about what might happen on their own. Finally, we
will use a sentence expanding activity to help us discuss what happened in the story and to make sure that
everyone was able to comprehend it.

Teaching Strategies [13 minutes]

Step 3: Direct Explanation of Vocabulary (2 min)

Investigation: To observe or study something or someone very closely.

Interrogate: Ask questions towards someone in a close or formal way.

Deception: To believe something that is untrue.

Custody: To be in the protective care of someone, can mean being imprisoned.

Step 4: Read Interactively, Modeling Inference Making & Engage the Class (11 min)

(all questions are marked in the text with sticky notes and page numbers are listed below)
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Modeling 1 (p. 3-4): Hmmm. Detective LaRue is writing to Mrs. LaRue saying that the police continue to
interrogate him about what happened to the Hibbins’ cats. I wonder if he knows something that maybe he is
not telling them? I know that he was in the park the day that they went missing, so I am going to guess that
maybe he does have something to do with the cats going missing. He also said that they were not very good
cats so that could be a reason why he wanted them to go away.

Engaging Class 1 (p. 5-6): (After reading the page) Remember that deception is one of our vocabulary
words. Turn to a partner and talk about what you think it means that his kindness was repaid with deception.
(2 mins) Now let’s talk about what we thought as a group (2 min).

Modeling 2 (p. 17-18): Wait. Does that make sense? Are the cats really behind this string of other crimes? I
think that Detective LaRue might be on to something here. He has been investigating the Hibbins’ Cats and I
think he might be right – he really is innocent, and the cats framed him.

Modeling 3 (p. 21-22) Hmm. So now Detective LaRue has found that the first crime happened the night that
he went to jail for the cats being missing. There was another animal missing that night too – a canary burglary
at the Small Pet Emporium. It seems like the cats are definitely guilty, I think I believe Mr. LaRue.

Engaging Class 2 (p. 21-22): (after reading the page), I want you to think if the cats are truly the guilty ones
here. Raise your hand if you think the cats are the guilty ones. Now I want you to turn to a partner and talk
about why or why not you think the cats are guilty or not. (2 min). (Have a few partner groups share why or
why not – 1-2 mins).

Engaging Class 3 (p. 25-26): (after reading the page), So what do you guys think of Detective LaRue
“rescuing the cats?” Do you think he wanted to actually rescue them? Or did he want them to get in trouble?

Practice Activities and Formative Assessment (Check for Understanding) [25 minutes]

Step 5: Discussion of Text [4 min]

So let’s talk about the text structure and what happened. Turn and talk to
your partner. See if you can come up with what happened first, next, First
then, and finally in the sequence of events (2 minutes; if students
struggle, have partners discuss one at a time). Now let’s all talk together Next
about what happened. What happened first? Next? Then? Finally?

One more question that I want to discuss with your partner: Why do you Then
think Mark Teague wrote this book about a dog getting arrested for cats
going missing? (Prompts: Think about the characters. If this were real Finally
people, could this have happened? Do you think the author likes dogs or
cats? Why? What did he want readers to understand?) [Have students
discuss with their partners and then have a full class discussion

Step 6: Sentence Expanding Activities [25 min]

Modeling

The next activity we are going to do is called Sentence Expanding. I will give you a simple sentence related
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to the story. Then, we will think about four key questions – why? when? how? where? We will use the
answers to these questions to make the sentence longer. Watch me as I show you how:

Detective LaRue was in jail. [write on board and read together]

[Engage students in this discussion and make notes on the board about each question]
Why: Ok, so why was Detective LaRue in jail? (because he was accused of the Hibbins’ cats going missing)
When: When did he go to jail? (October 1, the night after the cats went missing)
How: How did he go to jail? (the police took him to jail)
Where: Where was he when he went to jail? (Gruber Park)

Ok, let’s use one of these ideas to make an expanded sentence:

I can add the answer to “why” at the end of my sentence. So my expanded sentence would be:
Detective LaRue was in jail because he was accused of the Hibbins’ cats going missing.

I can make another sentence using the answer to the “when” at the end of my sentence too. So my expanded
sentence would be:
Detective LaRue was in jail on October 1, the night after the cats went missing.

Guided Practice

Now let’s try it together. Let’s make another sentence using the answer to the “how” question. We said that it
took a long time to get dressed because she put on lots of clothes. So, turn to your partner and discuss how
you might expand the sentence, Detective LaRue was in jail using that information.
After students have some time to discuss say, now let’s share some of the sentences that you made, and I’ll
write them on the board. Once you have made an expanded sentence using “how,” try with your partner to
make an expanded sentence using the answer to the “where” question. We said he was in Gruber Park when
he went to jail, so turn to your partner once again and discuss how you might expand the sentence, Detective
LaRue was in jail using that information.

Independent Practice

This time, I want you to expand a short sentence on your own. Let’s use the sentence, The cats were found.
First, let’s talk about the four questions we might ask about the sentence, and I’ll write our answers on the
board. Then I’ll ask you to choose one to expand the sentence.

[Engage students in this discussion and make notes on the board about each question]
Why: Ok, so why were the cats found? (Detective LaRue had been searching for them)
When: When were the cats found? (October 11 at night)
How: How were the cats found? (Detective LaRue knew the cats would return to the scene of the crime)
Where: Where were the cats found? (on the fire escape outside of the Small Pet Emporium)

Now I take one of the answers to these questions and use it to expand our sentence—The cats were found.
Write your expanded sentence on the paper so I can see your expanded sentence.

Lesson Closing/Summarizing Strategies [1 minute]

Thank you for working with me today. When we read Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation we
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practiced the comprehension strategy of making inferences, and even talked about why Mark Teague wrote
the book. In the sentence expanding we were able to use sentence and ideas from the books to expand short
sentences. Thank you for your attention and being on task with this work!

References

Dean, D. (2008). Sentence combining: Building skills through reading and writing. Classroom Notes Plus,
26(1), 6-11.

Walpole, S., McKenna, M. C., & Philippakos, Z. (2011). Differentiated reading instruction in grades 4 and 5:
Strategies and resources. New York: Guilford Publications
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