Day 1
- Focus Skills: Letter-sound knowledge, understanding of the text, the concept of a word, sight words memorizing, an ability to identify a “big problem,” make a prediction, and find a solution.
- Materials: “The Carrot Seed” (1973) by Krauss (a book with illustrations)
- Procedure: A teacher introduces a book to readers, forming their engagement and attracting their attention by asking questions related to the book’s illustration, such as “What do you see on the cover?” “What do you think this book is about?” “What made you think that?” persuading them to make their predictions and express their prior knowledge about the book’s topic (Templeton & Gehsmann, 2014). When students answer, a teacher introduces questions related to words – she asks to find particular words, emphasizes their sounds, and identifies syllables. A teacher continues this practice by paraphrasing the story and using the book’s illustrations. Subsequently, a teacher reads the whole text paying attention to new sight words (Templeton & Gehsmann, 2014). A teacher helps students to identify the main problem of the text and asks them to suggest a potential solution if it is available.
Day 2
- Focus Skills: Letter-sound knowledge, understanding and memorizing the text, the concept of words, sight words memorizing.
- Materials: “The Carrot Seed” (1973) by Krauss (a book with illustrations), highlighter tape
- Procedure: A teacher rereads the text twice to ensure readers are familiar with the words. She introduces new tasks to ensure the awareness of the concept of a word – she asks students to identify letters, sounds, and words (Templeton & Gehsmann, 2014). Familiar sight words are recognized, and new sight words are introduced as well underlined in the text with highlighter tape. Finally, students are asked to come to the easel one by one and point to the text while others are reading aloud.
Day 3
- Focus Skills: Letter-sound knowledge, understanding and memorizing the text, concept of word, sight words memorizing, retelling skills, echo, choral, and finger-point reading.
- Materials: “The Carrot Seed” (1973) by Krauss (a book with illustrations), highlighters, sentence strips, and copies of the text.
- Procedure: Readers are provided with sentence strips that exactly match the text’s sentences and asked to compare them with the text. A new version is read altogether with the use of echo reading. Subsequently, it is read chorally before every student practices the finger-point reading. After this, students are asked to retell the story using the plan that includes the introduction, characters, settings, sequences of events and actions, the main problem, and potential solution. Later, the students are asked to retell the stories presented by their peers for better memorization. After the retelling session is finished, the copies of the text are distributed among readers to read for partners. During reading, a teacher pays attention to students’ voice-print match. In addition, readers are encouraged to find and highlight all familiar sight words. All individual copies, the copies of the book, and a recording will be available in a learning center. Students are asked to read the text during their independent reading time.
Day 4
- Focus Skills: Letter-sound knowledge, understanding and memorizing the text, the concept of word, sight words memorizing.
- Materials: “The Carrot Seed” (1973) by Krauss (a book with illustrations), word cards, copies of the text.
- Procedure: Students reread their text copies, ensuring that they are familiar with the words. Children are helped to identify sentences, and a teacher explains how to do it, reminding them about capital letters and periods. New tasks, such as counting word numbers in sentences, are introduced to strengthen the understanding of the concept of a word. Subsequently, a teacher distributes word cards in which sentences are divided into two parts. Readers are asked to read words separately and, after this, the whole sentences. Finally, all cards will be scrambled, and students should match them to reconstruct sentences and the whole text. When a teacher knows that students are familiar with all sight words related to these days’ text, she distributes copies of them for the children’s word bank. These words may be practiced in reading outside the classroom and used in games for memorizing.
Day 5
- Focus Skills: Understanding and memorizing the text, concept of words, sight words memorizing, an ability to identify a “big problem,” make a prediction, and find a solution, writing.
- Materials: “The Carrot Seed” (1973) by Krauss (a book with illustrations), copies of the text, a chart, a pen, and drawing kits.
- Procedure: After the rereading of the text for the last time, students are asked to share their opinions concerning the story’s meaning as a deep understanding of it may impact the initial response given on the first day. In addition, a teacher makes sure that all students understand the plot. After this, students are asked to write familiar words in a chart using a pen to ensure that they spell words correctly. Other tasks may include answering questions related to the text using words that are familiar or writing short sentences. At the end of the lesson, children are suggested to draw a picture dedicated to the book.
Reference
Templeton, S., & Gehsmann, K. M. (2014). Teaching reading and writing: The developmental approach. Pearson Publishers.