Reading and Comprehension: The Tale of Despereaux

TEACHER

DATE : 

SUBJECT : English

GRADE LEVEL: Three

UNIT OF STUDY : Reading and Comprehension

LESSON TITLE : The Tale of Despereaux

TARGETED STATE CONTENT
3RF3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
3RF4: Read grade-level text with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
3W1a: Introduce a claim supported by details, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.
3W1b: Use precise language and content-specific vocabulary
3W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to explore a topic and convey ideas and information relevant to the subject
3SL1: Participate and engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse peers and adults, expressing ideas clearly, and building on those of others.
3SL4: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace (NYSED, 2017).

CENTRAL FOCUS
The purpose of the content is to improve students’ capacity to read fluently using a broad range of identification strategies to draw meaning from the text, over and above, comprehend reading material sufficiently enough to remember, assess, and discuss critical ideas and events as well as apply and extend the same to other texts and real-life situations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1 Read fluently and with adequate accuracy to aid comprehension
2 Apply a variety of word identification strategies to draw the meaning of unknown words
3 Discuss critical ideas and events and apply them to other texts as well as real-life situations

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE DEMANDS/LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS
Relish, scurry, adhere, ominous, litter, indisputable, anxiously, endanger, perfidy, consort, repent, egregious, implications, dungeon, speculation, covert, beleaguered, access, and renounce.

LESSON TIMELINE/INSTRUCTIONAL PATHWAY
* Students will be oriented to the lesson by engaging in a pre-reading activity aimed at supporting beginning and struggling learners in actively forecasting, engaging, and problem-solving the text for the first time. The instructor will ask learners to look closely at the mouse printed on the book cover before being invited to hypothesize orally about the illustration: Is there anything special you notice about Despereaux? What do you think he is doing with a needle? What are the expressions on his face, and do they reveal anything about him? The instructor will then solicit additional questions as well as responses from the learners.
* Some of the focus questions to generate interest in the topic and help learners focus on important aspects of the text include:
* Who is your favorite hero or heroine?
* What does it mean to be a hero or heroine?
* What are the characteristics of your favorite hero or heroine?
* When is it essential and not essential in the lives of learners or characters you are familiar with to conform?
* What are your thoughts and feelings about what it means to despair or be desperate?
* I will assess, review, or draw on prior knowledge by first reading to the class the first few pages of the text before thinking ...