Introduction

A student's ability to use effective reading strategies has wide-ranging influence on their
learning performance in subject matters other than ELA. Social studies is one content area that
greatly benefits from a student's growth in reading ability. One way that educators can improve
upon their students comprehension skills is through specific reading strategies (Harvey &
Goudvis, 2007, pg. 14). The lesson I've designed was made with the intention of teaching &
practicing one specific reading strategy skill, which is summarizing.
This skill was chosen for a few reasons. Firstly, it's easy! Any effective reading strategy
should be straightforward for the students to grasp, and summarizing is something many of the
students will get right away. By asking them to write down the key points of the story, I'm
providing a method to measure students ability to pick out the most important points of the story,
something that is noted as important in the literature (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, pg. 198). It also
provides a direct way for students to interact with the text, which is pivotal for ensuring
comprehension (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, pg. 13). I also feel that this strategy is an appropriate
skill to introduce at the third grade level. The last reason I feel this reading strategy was a good
one to begin with is because it's one that is particularly well-suited for social studies, as students
will frequently be tasked with summing up the key points of historical texts.
The lesson I designed I originally taught live in class with students this March. It went
well, and I was pleased with the results. Keeping the originally lesson as is, I gave it again with a
classmate. Based upon that second lesson & the feedback I received, some revisions & additions
have been made. One of these changes was to include an "I notice/I wonder" element to their
note taking, a form of questioning which is supported by our readings (Koechlin & Zwaan, 2014,
pg. 8). The changes are marked in blue text, and below you will find my lesson plan with said
revisions.
The revisions I made were intended to increase student engagement, while also allowing
further opportunities for students to work deeper with the material. The graphic organizer was
added to help students organize their thoughts, and I decided to add a section where we discuss
each stage of the story (beginning/middle/end), in an effort to make sure students who are at a
lower level grasp the concepts of the lesson, while allowing the higher achieving students a
chance to show what they know. I feel like the changes I made after giving the lesson make it
more complete, and will lead to better student learning outcomes. The literature supports this
idea as well, as throughout the texts they mentioned that going deeper into a subject leads to
better outcomes than expanding a lesson's breadth.

Orignal Lesson Plan (modifications in red)

Candidate Name: Adam Gullen Host Teacher Name: Clint Shultz

School: TSAS Grade Level: 3rd # of Students: 20ish
Date & Time of Lesson: 3/26/21 Length of Lesson: 1 class
Topic of Lesson: Alaska's flag Content Area: Social Studies/History
Materials: Include all materials including types of technology used:
Computer, projector, paper, pencils

ALASKA CONTENT STANDARD

History B.2
Alaska Cultural Standard for Educators

B.3
TRANSFER GOAL(S) (transferability)

Students will understand the history of Alaska's state flag

STAGE ONE – Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings (meaning)

Enduring Understanding(s): What Essential Questions will be Considered?
Students will understand that….
Who designed Alaska's flag, and how was this
That a child designed Alaska's state flag design created?

STAGE ONE: Objectives STAGE TWO: Assessments

Evidence of Learning/Accountability -
Formative/Summative/Performance

Knowledge - What students should know…. Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

We can use different reading strategies to help us learn Formative assessment through discussion prior to
when we're reading a book for knowledge. One of these teaching.
techniques is making a summary.
Skills - What students should be able to do……. Assessment(s)/Other Evidence:

Summarize each page of the story as we go. Summative assessment- completed book summary

STAGE THREE: Opportunities to Learn (Acquisition)

Introduction/Hook

I'll put on this video to get kids thinking about Alaska:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZPGH4mjUcU
Processes and products for Learning Opportunities Strategies for Differentiation/
Multimodal Instruction/Universal
Design for Learning
Once we've watched the video I'll ask students if anyone
knows what Alaska's flag looks like. I'll pull up a photo to
show the class after. Then I'll ask if anyone knows how
Alaska got it's flag. I'll explain to them that it was created
by a boy, and that we were going to learn more about it.
Multi-modal delivery of information,
from visual, to auditory, to social.
Students have the opportunity to work by
their peers, allowing scaffolded learning.

I'll let them know that when we are reading to learn,

instead of just for fun, there are different techniques we
can use to help us retain the information. One of these is
to summarize the work as we go. I'll tell them that I'm
going to read them a book (Benny's Flag,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCDAa6ZnsQ4), and
I'd like them to summarize each page as we go by keeping
track of "I Notice/I wonder" in their journals as we go. This
is a good way to keep track of the story as we are going,
since we can decide what's important to keep in our
summaries at the end. As I read, I will help them by
summarizing making my own "I notice/I wonder" of the
first few pages in front of the class, then gradually release
them by calling on them to summarize for the next few
pages, before finally having them do it on their own.

I will pass out to them a summary graphic organizer, which

has three colums; one for each the beginning, middle, and
end of the story. Students can consult their "I Notice/I
wonder" notes from their journals to help them fill this in.

If students are done early, they may draw their own Alaska
flag on their papers. Once students are done with their
summaries, I'll lead a discussion where I ask students to
tell me what happened in the beginning, the middle, and
the end of the story. For each stage
(beginning/middle/end), I won't move on until every
student who would like to share can add their thoughts to
this section of the story. I will fill out my graphic organizer
with input from the students.

Once we finish our summaries, I'll have students design

their own Alaskan flags on the back of their graphic
organizers. Just like Benny's flag drew inspiration from his
own life, I will ask them to design their Alaskan flag
keeping in mind their own life story and what a good
representation of Alaska is to them.

Closure:

I'll Before I collect the papers, then I'll ask students to share their flags with the class. I'll call on some
students and have them hold up their papers to show us their design, while explaining why they chose
what they did.
References:

Harvey, Stephanie & Goudvis, Anne. Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for
Understanding and Engagement. Stenhouse Publishers. 2007.

Koechlin, Carol & Zwaan, Sandi. Q Tasks. Pembroke Publishers. 2014.