1

Taylor Goerlach
EDR 317 - Reading Practicum
Ms. Millette - Reading Specialist - Media Elementary
Tails
By Alex Gomez
Fountas & Pinnell - Level D - Book 32 - Blue System
1.1 Standards:
CC.1.1.1.C - Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds
(phonemes).
CC.1.1.1.D - Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in
decoding words.
CC.1.1.1.E - Read with accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
1.2 Objectives:
The student will be able to read this text fluently.
The student will be able to give an accurate, oral retelling of the story.
The student will be able to listen to the sounds and guess the word during the
blending sound activity.
1.3 Procedures:
Before Reading
Reread Clouds, our story from last week for fluency.
OR, instead of rereading Clouds, go over My Alphabet Book with student.
The book we are going to be reading today is called Tails. Does this book look
like it is a fiction or a non-fiction book? How do you know? [non-fiction because the
illustrations are real pictures]
Lets take a look at our cover page and our title. What do you think our book is
going to be about. [animals]
Our title Tails, could be a little bit tricky. Do you know which tails this book is
talking about? Right, the types of tails animals have. The other way to spell it is tale
which means a story such as a fairytale.
Good readers always begin a story by first taking a picture walk. Go ahead a go
on a picture walk, but do not turn to the last page, because we do not want to ruin the
surprise that could be waiting for us on the last page.
What do you notice in the pictures?

During Reading
Word Awareness:
As the student reads, they should be pointing to each individual
word.
After Reading
Comprehension Check:
Can you tell me what the story was about? [different animals such as a fish, a dog,
a horse, a snake,a monkey, a lion, and a squirrel, and how they each use their tails for
different things such as warning off other animals or keeping warm, etc.]
What are some things that the animals tails did for them? [for fun, to slap away
bugs, for warmth, etc.]
Why do animals have tails? [animals have tails for all different reasons, for
survival like warning off other animals, and keeping warm, for fun like the lions]
If you had a tail, what would you use it for?
Rhyming Words: Rhyming words have the same ending sound. Do these words rhyme?

tail/sail
fish/dish
wag/floor
stay/sting
slap/clap
sky/horse

Tell me a word that rhymes with:

Wag
Bug
Swing
Cub

Blending Sounds: Listen to these sounds and guess the word. When we put these sounds
together it will make the name of an animal from our story.

D/o/g
F/i/sh
S/n/a/k
H/or/s/e

1.4 Assessment:
Summative: Recording the childs retelling, looking for characters, main idea of
the story, problem/solution (if there is one)

Formative: Looking to see if the child was finger pointing, one to one ratio (if
finger pointing is needed)
Summative: If the child answered the comprehension check questions correctly
Summative: If the child was decoding, using picture words to decode, finger
blending to sound out the words if he/she is stuck
1.5 Closure:
I noticed you used the pictures to help you figure out some of the words which
were giving you trouble, that is a great strategy that good readers use.
You seemed to enjoy this book today. Would you like to read more books like this
one?
You did an excellent job with our rhyming words activity today.
1.6 Differentiation:

Prompts for decoding:

Try finger blending this word on your own.
To finger blend, start on your thumb.
This word is a bossy r word remember, so what does that mean?
Right, now try sounding out our word.
Look at the first sound, what is it?
What is the first letter? What sound does it make?
If you can not remember, lets look
back in our alphabet book. Good readers know they can always
look back in their text or refer to a resource to help them figure out

something they do not know.

Prompts for retelling:
What about tails?
What about the animals from our book?
What were some of the animals from our book?
What did those animals do with their tails?
1.7 Materials:
1. Tails (2 copies)
1.8 Reflection on Planning:
I planned this lesson for Colin, a first grade student from Mrs. Durnings class. I read
with Colin every morning before class starts. I do not have any specifics as to what led me to
plan this lesson for Colin. I chose the book at random from the bins in Ms. Millettes room. It
was a level D book from the blue system. I chose a D book to give Colin a little bit of a
challenge, since he seemed bored reading the level C books. I only see Colin in the morning

when we read one-on-one together, and briefly as we observe phonics instruction in Mrs.
Durnings class. I observed him work on tall friends and short friends, and other phonics
dictation, but other than that, I was not very sure of what he was learning in class, so I followed
the lesson plan format that Ms. Millette had given us.
I left some flexibility in my plan, and brought two previously read books and my alphabet
book with me, to allow Colin to chose what he would like to begin reading first. Both were
recommendations from my cooperating teacher, Ms. Millette. If Colin chose one of the books we
previously read together, we would be focusing on phrasing, and I would have been looking at
his phrasing and pausing. If Colin would have chose to go over my alphabet, we would have
been reviewing his phonemic awareness. Either way, both activities would have prepared Colin
to read our new book, Tails. My time with Colin is very short, and so I have to adhere to the
lesson plan format and activities that Ms. Millete provided us with. The leveled texts that we
read together do not provide a lot of material to really provide in depth, authentic instruction.
They lend themselves well to activities such as rhyming words, blending sounds, and scrambling
the sentences.
I read through the book, Tails, several times before I wrote my lesson plan. I thought
about introducing some vocabulary words to my student before we began my lesson, but I was
not sure on Cs background knowledge of animals, so I did not want to underestimate his
knowledge. I was also worried about our time constraint, and if I did introduce the vocabulary
and spend time on that, then I would not have time to reread a previous text or go over my
alphabet book. I also was not positive if C would enjoy this book since it was so different from
the previous two books we read together. I wish I could have thought about ways to incorporate
technology into my instruction. I will need to work on getting my iPad hooked up to the schools
wifi.
1.9 Reflection on Instruction:
I was observed on Wednesday morning during my one-on-one reading session with
Colin. I was a little nervous when Colin was not already in the hallway reading, but all of my
worries went away when Colin walked through the door. I said hello to him, and asked how he
was. We started with a picture walk as all good readers do, and Colin seemed to rush through the
pages, skipping many of the pages. While we were reading, we came to a page in the book about
a horse using his tail to slap away the bugs. Colin seemed to be very confused by the word

horse. Even after I tried sounding out the word horse with Colin, and looking at the
illustration of a horse on the corresponding page, Colin could still not figure out the word
horse. This could be due to several different factors. One question I had after seeing Colin
struggle with this word, was if he had ever been exposed to a horse. Had he ever seen a horse at a
farm or ridden a horse at a carnival or fair? Was it a motivational problem? Colin could have just
been tired, or losing attention at that point in the story.
Whenever Colin was stuck, he would look at me for the answer, thus I have come to the
conclusion that personally, I need to work on giving Colin more independence when reading. I
have a tendency to do a lot of the work for Colin. I think that I have a large repertoire of prompts,
but when it comes to using the prompts, I need to practice putting them to good use. There were
many times throughout my lesson with Colin where I could have used several prompts with
Colin instead of blending the sounds for him or giving him the word.
When we were completing our after reading activities, Colin showed that he had
mastered rhyming words. He was able to tell me whether each pair of words I gave to him
rhymed, and then was able to tell me several words that rhymed that were not on my worksheet.
Since I had the worksheet out in front of Colin as we were talking about rhyming words, he
could see their spellings. A future lesson could consist of working on the aspect of spelling that
leads to rhyming. We could also move on to vowel digraphs or long vowel sounds in future
lessons.
At the conclusion of our lesson, I asked Colin what topics he was interested in, so that I
can plan future lessons and readings that will interest him. Colin said he would like to read books
about spiders and tigers. I found many books about lizards, fish, and other animals, but none
specifically about tigers from the leveled book boxes in Ms. Millettes room. Hopefully the
books I have selected for the future will still peak Colins interests. For my future lessons, I will
close my lesson by either complementing Colin on one or two things that I noticed he did very
well during our time reading together, or one or two things that he can work on for the next time
we meet. I would also like to talk to his teacher, Mrs. During, and ask what Colin is learning
during phonics, so that I can better inform and differentiate my instruction to Colins needs.

Tale

Tail

Rhyming
Words
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

tail/sail
fish/dish
wag/floor
stay/sting
slap/clap

6.

sky/horse