Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

Lesson Plan 1: The Five Ws and an H

I.
II.

Grade Level: 2nd Grade

Objective(s):

R.2.1: Ask and answer who, what, when, where, why and how to demonstrate
understanding of key details in a text.

III.

IV.

Materials:

Ellison the Elephant by Eric Drachman

Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman

Whiteboard/Smartboard/something for teacher to write on for all students to see

The 5 Ws and an H worksheets

Markers

Pencils

Procedures:
1. At first I will introduce to the students that we will be talking about the key details
of a text. "You all know how we ask questions to find out more about something.
What are some question words that we know? Some of the words that start at the
beginning of a question sentence?" I'll write the following on the board in
columns as the students say them:
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
2.

I'll tell the students just like how we ask these questions to know things, it is the
same way when we read a book. "Who is the story about? What is the story
about? Why does that happen? How does it happen? We ask questions in order to
figure out what happens. These are key details in a story."

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

3. I'll ask if there are any questions before I begin reading Ellison the Elephant, and
then I'll tell the students that I'll write the "Who, What, When, Where, Why and
How" on the board as I read the story, finding the details about what the story is
about. I'll tell them that sometimes I don't know all the details until I completely
finish the story, I may know some information from the back cover of the book, or
even the title, and I can write the details.
I'll also tell the students that not every question may be answered. There
may not be a specific setting to the story, but that's ok.
4. As I read the story I'll write below my 5 Ws and H with the details I find from the
text. The board will look like the chart below:

Who

What

When

Where

Why

Ellison the
elephant

Ellison can't find his

trumpet sound

When Ellison is a
young elephant
(doesn't have specific
date)

A place where
elephants roam
(doesn't have specific
location)

We don't know
why he can't
trumpet

How

He finds inspirati
from his imagina
friend Weasel

As I read and fill out the chart I'll ask the students what they see me doing,
to make sure they understand how to use the question words to pinpoint
the details of the story.
5. After I finish reading the book, I'll ask the students why they think it would be
important to know these details. "Does knowing the details of the book help me
in any way?"
6. When the students have responded, I'm going to tell them that its now their turn to
think about key details in a story. I'll have the students return to their desks with
the 5 Ws and an H worksheets, and have them fill out the worksheet as I read the
next book, Leo the Lightning Bug. I'll remind the students that if they aren't sure
about one of the details, they don't have to write it down or to simply say I don't
know, like how I said in the "When" and "Where" sections. If they want to they
are free to write comments in the blank spaces of the paper, just to write details
they find interesting.
7. After reading the story, I'll let the students pair up with a peer and share what they
wrote down. I'll make sure they know its ok to have similarities and differences in

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

the details each person noticed-everyone is different, so it wouldn't be a surprise

to see someone wrote something different from someone else.
8. I'll bring the group back together and ask if there are still any questions on what
happened, and to ask again why it's important for us to know key details of a
story. I'll tell the students they don't have to do this for every story, but it's good to
organize this way if its there's lots of information in a story that they might be
confused with.
9. As a concluding activity I'll have the students read a book of their choice, and I'll
give them more of the 5Ws and an H worksheets. They are to fill out the
information on their own with their book, and they can freely write down the key
details in their texts that they realize help them with the book.
10. These worksheets will be my assessment on if the students understand about
finding key details in a text. I will also take what they talked about during class as
an assessment as well. If they do not completely understand what's going on, I
will do a future lesson like this again but find a different way to present the 5Ws
and the H. If they are just beginning to grasp the concept we will discuss it in
future reading lessons.
V.

Differentiation:

Struggling: For the struggling students I will provide the 5Ws and an H
worksheets that have specific descriptions of what each word means. I may also
even include actual book examples on it to help.

Gifted: For the gifted students I will give them the 5Ws and an H worksheets that
will not have a description of what the words mean-instead I'll have them define
the words in their own way, as well as filling out the information from a book
they're reading.

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

Lesson Plan 2: Text Features in an Informational Text

I.
II.

Grade Level: 2nd Grade

Objective(s):

RI.2.5: Know and use various text features (captions, bold print, subheadings,
glossaries, indexes, etc) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.

III.

IV.

RI.2.7: Explain how specific images contribute to and clarify a text.

Materials:

Science books (Gail Gibbons is a great author for something like this)

Owls by Gail Gibbons

Student Journals

Procedures:
1. Introduce to the students that we're going to discuss informational/non-fiction
texts, and talk about how we can use images and certain text features to help us
when we read these kinds of texts.
2. I'll start by reading Owls by Gail Gibbons and just tell the students that this author
writes a lot of non-fiction books that have facts in them. They may have already
read some in the classroom library by this author. I will only read the text, not the
captions that appear in the images.
3. After I read the book, I'll ask the students what they were looking at when I
showed them the pages. I'll hope to get some of the following responses:
The pictures
Trying to read the captions
Comparing the captions with what was mentioned in the text
Comparing the captions with the pictures
4. After getting some responses, I'll go back and reread the book, reading the
captions that go along with the pictures too. I'll even read the "Fun Facts" page at
the very end of the book. I'll ask the students what happened when I read the
captions. I'll have them discuss with a partner next to them, share an idea they

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

have, and then bring the group back together, and I'll ask the students to talk about
what they shared. Some responses I'd like to see:
We got more information
We learned more about owls than before
The captions and pictures helped with the text
5. After our discussion, I'll tell the students that we are going to be focusing on text
features, and that what happened with the captions that appeared in the Owls
books, that is an example of a text feature. I'll continue to explain that
informational texts holds facts, and these text features help us to understand these
facts. Like when we read about owls, there were so many facts to take in. It was
easier to write a caption in a picture instead of in the actual text. I'll begin to talk
about other text features and introduce those to them: a glossary that has words
that they may not be familiar with, and will help their understanding.
Note: The Owls book does not have a glossary. Another nonfiction text
should be used to fully introduce a glossary, and show that bolded words
throughout the text will be in the glossary. For the purpose of just
beginning to introduce students to text features, we will only focus on
captions and pictures for this lesson.
6. Next, I'll have the students take their Journals and choose a non-fiction book of
their choice from a box of books I've provided. I'll have them write the date and
the title of the book they've chosen on a new piece of paper in their Journals, and
I'll have them just read the book. If they notice anything about their reading, they
are to write it in their journal.
I'll go around and have personal conferences with the students, asking
what they are finding about the text.
1. "What do you notice about the pictures? How do the pictures
connect with the text?"
2. "Do you think you're using any text features when you read? Why
or why not?"
3. "Are there any other text features that you noticed we didn't
discussed that helped you find out information?"

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

7. One of my assessments will be listening to their answers when I come around and
talk to the students as well as the group discussion.
8. After I've given the students time to read and write in their Journals, I will meet
with them in a group again, and I will ask students to share with the whole group
what they found when they read. I'll ask about text features and the images again,
and if new text features are brought up I will write them on the board and describe
briefly what each one is, but will get into them more deeply and specifically in a
later lesson.
9. Another assessment will be looking at their Journals at a later time, and see what
they wrote down about their findings. I will be looking to see what students said
about the text features as well as what the pictures/images in the book do to help
them. If the idea of text features wasn't really strong I will bring it up again in
another lesson.
V.

Differentiation:

Struggling: For struggling students I'll provide a worksheet that describes what
text features there are as well as provide pictures/examples of what each feature
is. I'll tell them we're only focusing on captions and pictures this lesson though
and they can look at the other features soon.

Gifted: For the gifted students I will ask the students to describe what a text
feature is, and how it can help us when we read.

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

Lesson Plan 3: Ingredients to Writing a Story

I.
II.

Grade Level: 2nd Grade

Objective(s):

W.2.3: Write narratives in which they recount a well elaborated event or short
sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts and feelings, use
temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

W.2.5: With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and
strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

III.

IV.

Materials:

Paper

Markers (Black and red)

Board

Pencils

Pens

Procedures:
1. I will begin by telling the class that we will be working on publishing our own
stories, just like an author. I'll ask the students what they think makes a good
book, and write those on the board. From example responses I may get:
Good characters
Story catches our interest.
Plot
Action keeps us glued
2. Keeping this list somewhere visible for the students to see, I will then write on
another section of the board and write with a black marker "Beginning" at the top
of the board, "Middle" below that and then "End" at the bottom of the board. I'll
ask the students "What happens in the beginning of a story?" I might get
responses like "You get introduced to the setting/characters/etc", and I'll write that
down next to "Beginning" in a different marker color(we'll go with red for this

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

lesson). Then I'll ask about the middle of a story, and I might get responses like,
"a problem, events in the story happen, leads up to the end, etc." Like before I'll
write these responses next to Middle in red. Lastly I'll do the same thing with
End, writing the responses on the board with a red marker, I may get responses
like, "A conclusion, the problem is solved, etc."
3. I'll look over the whole board and I'll say "These are the ingredients to making a
story. The words in black are what every story has: a Beginning, Middle, and
End. The words in red are the little ingredients-you don't need all of the red
ingredients, but you need at least a few of them to make the black ingredients.
For example, you can't have the beginning of a story without telling us who the
characters are. If you don't describe the setting of the story, how will the reader
know where your story is taking place? An author needs to include as many
details in their story to help readers know what's going on."
4. I'll tell the students their goal is to include a Beginning, Middle and End to their
stories, and they will be given a sheet that can help them. When this is completed,
they are to come find me and have me read their ideas, and if I write on it for the
student to change, the student is expected to make that change when they write
their rough draft of their story.
I will be looking to see if students have successfully created events and
sequences in their stories that have a beginning, middle and end, and the
ending makes sense.
5. After completing their Beginning, Middle and End worksheets and having me
look over them, I will have the students start their rough drafts, have them just
free write what they wrote on their worksheets, adding details and adding their
voice to create a story. I will answer any questions the students have and
encourage them to talk about their stories, for talking about the stories might
encourage them to write more details.
6. After they are finished with their rough drafts, students are to read each other's
work, peer reviewing, and have the students ask questions about their writing or
what sounds confusing, etc. I'll check around too, but I want students to try and
give their own feedback.

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

I'll bring the class together and tell them "It's ok to give feedback-it helps
the author improve their work. So don't be afraid to say something if it's
bothering you when you read something."
Let the students who are reviewing their peer's work write in red ink on
the paper, to write down how they think their peer can improve their work.
They can also verbally tell them.
When the students have at least two peers who have read their work, they
are to check back with me and I will make my own marks. I will then tell
the student to revise their work one more time, their second draft.
7. The students will write their second draft with the edits and revisions they've
made in black pen (in a later lesson the class will continue to type up their stories
from their final writing draft on computer).
8. When the students have finished, the students will present their stories to the class
after I have one final look at the final draft. We will clap after each student has
presented, because every author should be proud of their work.
9. In the end I will have all the students turn in their Beginning, Middle and End
worksheets, their drafts and their final copy, and I will look them all over to see
how they've improved. I will use the assessment attached to see how each student
did throughout the writing process.
10. As a concluding exercise, I will ask the students what they learned through this
experience, and if they feel their writing improved. Having the students share
their thoughts on the lesson will also be an assessment, so I can hear what they
think.
11. After I'm done assessing all the stories, looking over the drafts and the final story,
I'll give each student a folder with their worksheet and drafts in them, and I'll tell
them this is how we created our book: we thought about the ingredients to our
story, we wrote it, edited and revised, and then published it. I'll remind them that
this is how authors write, and not everyone write a perfect draft the first time they
put it on paper.
V.

Differentiation:

Katie Risvold

EDUC 170

Struggling: For struggling students I won't have them write as much, maybe a few
events for each category (beginning, middle and end).

Gifted: For the gifted students they will be free to write how much they want as
long as they don't take too much time writing.