Teacher: Fatima
Course Title: Reading
Session: 60 min
Class: 7th grade
1) Unit: 5 We Can Be Heroes
2) General Instructional Objectives: The student will know how to make an inference from a set of information and to preview a reading text.
3) Learning Outcomes:
a) Student will be able to use the two reading strategies: previewing and making inferences from a reading text.
b) Student will be able to use 6 new words in their writing (beliefs, deeds, imprisoned, passive resistance, social justice, tolerance)
4) Rationale: It is so important for the students to know the two reading strategies which are making inferences and previewing a reading text. Making assumptions based on set of information will help the student improve his critical thinking abilities and get out of the text important info. Regarding previewing the text, it is an essential tactic that students can use because it helps them understand the reading text and knows what the text is going to talk about just by previewing the title of the text, headings, photographs, or illustrations.
5) Materials: Pictures, reading text
6) Instructional Procedures:
Welcoming: I welcomed the student. I asked him about how well he is doing in the school and if he is interested and waiting for the new lesson to begin, he said that he is really getting excited about the lessons. I told him that the session is going to be a reading one so he was at first somehow expecting it is going to be a boring session because he will read and this is what he doesn’t like but I promised him that I will try my best not to make it boring.
a) Focusing Event: I presented for the student pictures of different people (Haj Imaad Mogniyi, Ahmad Kaseer, Sayid Hassan, Che guevara, Imam Khomeini). First I asked him if he knows them all and he said yes. Then I asked him about the common thing between all these people. The student said that all of them made a change in their eras. I said “OK, since all of them made a change how can we describe them using a single adjective?” The student said that they all are heroes and brave people. I said “Excellent!” Thus after this illustration can you predict what will our lesson be? The student said that he thinks it is about heroes and brave people.
b) Teaching procedures:
Making Inferences: Then I told the student that what he has done that is he guessed from what I had done that the lesson will be about heroes is a strategy that good readers use while reading and it is “Making Inferences”. I asked the student if he knows this word. He said that he doesn’t know it but he linked what he did with my naming of his action and he said:”Is it drawing conclusions?” I said: “Here you go! Very good!” I added that making inferences means combining the information in the text with your own knowledge and experience so when you make inferences, you make logical guesses and assumptions. After that, I gave him some examples:
- When the firefighter saw the burning house, she ran in without hesitating.
- She always tells them things which are not true.
- Yesterday, Sara felt uncomfortable. She started vomiting and then slept for the whole day.
I asked the student if he can infer something from the above sentences and he made the correct inferences. He said that the first sentence means that the firefighter is a hero. The second one implies that the girl is a liar. In addition, Sara in the third sentence is sick. Then I told him that this strategy can be used by him whenever he reads because it helps him understand the text.
Prepare to read: I presented for the student another 4 pictures of different people who are doing heroic acts. I asked the student:
1- What is happening in each picture?
2- Why is each person heroic?
3- What are some other ways that people can be heroic?
Vocabulary: There are main words that the student must know their meanings while reading because they are key words. In order to explain all the words I provided the student with 6 sentences that help him understand the meaning of each word.
1. Nelson Mandela lived by his beliefs. Because of his refusal to abandon these ideas and values, he went to jail.
2. Mandela is internationally famous because of his brave deeds. He took these actions to help his people.
3. Some heroes, such as Mandela, Gandhi, and Joan of Arc, have been imprisoned and have spent years in jail.
4. Gandhi taught people how to show their objection to something through passive resistance, or nonviolent confrontation.
5. Benito Juarez was interested in social justice, especially the rights of native people.
6. People all get along better if they have greater tolerance for others. We have to accept other people’s right to be different from us.
I asked the student to read these sentences and use the context to figure out the meaning of the bold words then write each word and its meaning in a notebook.
Previewing: Now after the student had understood the meaning of the key words I told him that in any text he wants to read he should preview the text before reading and I explained to him what we mean with this reading strategy. I said that in any text if the reader looks at the title, headings; titles of different sections of the text, and the photographs and illustrations he will understand the text much better and he will have an idea or a “preview” of what the text is going to be. Previewing will help the reader infer the type of the text. This will help him set a purpose that let him focus on certain details in the text rather than others so he will be able to skim the text efficiently.
Then I told him “Let’s try you and me to apply this to our reading text.”
We started previewing the text. Title: “Heroes: Yesterday and Today”, headings, pictures and subtitles under the pictures.
Modeling: Of course part of the previewing was a modeling because I analyzed with the student what info he can get from the title of the text and he did the rest of the previewing. Regarding making inferences I read with him the first part which is about Gandhi and applied this reading strategy. I read with the student the first paragraph and we started analyzing it. I told the student that the lesson is about heroes so after reading the first paragraph can you infer what would make Gandhi a hero? The student said that may be Gandhi worked against the British. I said let us continue reading to find out. In the second paragraph I stopped while reading at the part where Gandhi was attacked. I asked the student after reading this you should directly think that why would the white Africans attack Gandhi? A high probability is that he must have had certain beliefs or had done something that these people are against especially that they are with the apartheid. Then I asked the student after reading the part which is related to Gandhi to try to infer some characteristics of that person. The student said that Gandhi is a true hero, peaceful because he supports passive resistance.
Reading on his own: Then I asked the student to read on his own the other parts by applying the same strategy.
Grammar: While the student was reading I asked him to analyze the tense of the verbs used in the text. He said that all the verbs are in the past tense. I asked him if he knows the reason behind that. He said past tense is used to refer to actions that took place time ago and all the information presented about these people includes acts and deeds that happened years ago. I said to him "Excellent!"
After he finished reading I asked him why is Nelson Mandela a hero? What are some questions would you like to ask Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela?
What is the type of this text?
-The student knew that this text is an informational text but I emphasized on the specific type of it which is biography.
Comprehension: I asked the student to say for me why these three people are heroic using some of these words: beliefs, deeds, imprisoned, passive resistance, social justice, tolerance.
Then I asked the student this question: Gandhi believed that passive resistance is a good way to protest against something that is unjust, or wrong. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
The student said that he does not agree with Gandhi because sometimes people need the active resistance to make a change or to defend their country.
Extension: Then I asked the student to think about someone he believes is heroic and to write three sentences telling about the person.
The student wrote the following: Sayid Hasan is for me a true hero. He is intelligent, faithful, and honest. Sayid Hasan is my leader because of his great beliefs and sacrifices.
c) Closure: At the end, I told him that I hope you didn't get bored during the session and I reminded him of the two reading strategies. I advised him to read more on his own because this will benefit him a lot.
7) Assessment: I couldn't assess the student's achievement in the same session because I needed to provide him with another text.
8) Evaluation for myself: I can say that the whole session was not a teacher-centered one but it was totally a student-centered because he must do all the work. My role was only to explain the two reading strategies and the student applies them. I think I should have focused more on the application of the making inferences strategy.
Report
I started the lesson with the pictures because in this way the student will be the most important factor in the learning process he will think that he is explaining the lesson but not the teacher. Inferring common points between things is a challenging activity that students like to engage in because they won't be passive learners; however, in the case of my student he learned by himself. The only thing that I provided him is the probing questions and the new terms that he hadn't known before. I just showed him the pictures, asked him about the common thing between them and then from this activity I explained for him the reading strategy "making inferences". I could have just explained the strategy by defining it and directly give the student the examples but I chose to start in that way because it will also introduce the topic of the lesson. In all the session I was trying to apply the principles of the communicative approach because the student had the chance to express different ideas in his own words and at the same time I focused on his pronunciation.
Then I also presented other photos where the student can communicate with me much more and express his thoughts. After that, I explained for him the second strategy which is previewing. It is very important in a reading session to teach the student different strategies that he can use to help him in later readings. The reading session should not include only a reading text with a number of comprehension questions because if the student has a certain problem in reading he will make many mistakes in the comprehension questions and he won't learn because nothing is provided for him to teach him something new. Thus I chose these two strategies because I find them crucial and helpful for the students.
Of course, before leaving the student read alone I should model in front of him and try to apply the strategies on part of the text because in this way he will learn better. I think I also applied the affective-humanistic approach because I was a facilitator for the student. I chose a text that the student can be interested in it and excited to know the info in the text. I tried to let him be a critical thinker by asking him the question whether he agrees or disagrees with Gandhi's belief. I wanted him to express his ideas not only in oral communication but also in writing and that is why I asked him to write about someone who he considers heroic. Regarding the vocabulary part, I didn't give the student direct definitions for the key words; however, I gave him sentences that he should derive the meaning from the context. I prefer teaching the student not by giving him all the information directly but by letting him learn by himself.
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