students just sit and let the bossy ones do the work!
Purpose Setting and Vocabulary Building
The lesson begins with Miss G. working with the whole class. The student assistant for the day hands out the Guess Yes or No: Japan sheet to everyone so each student has a copy.
Miss G. then sets the purpose for the lesson.
She says, “Today we are going to be learning about Japan. I have written ten statements here about Japan, but some of them are not true facts. Before you read, you are going to guess whether each statement is true or false. You are going to write your guesses in pencil so that you can change them based on what you read in the article. It doesn’t matter how many you guess right before you read. What matters is that you can use your close-reading skills to figure out what the true facts are and change your guesses. Before we read, however, we need to read all ten statements together and make sure we know how to pronounce all the words and what they mean. Everyone read the first one with me.”
The students all read the first sentence: “Japan is on the continent of Europe.”
It is clear to Miss G. that some students don’t know the words continent and Europe because their voices drop off at those words. Continent and Europe are two key vocabulary terms Miss G. intends to focus on.
Once the class reads the first statement, Miss G. asks vocabulary-building questions: “Who knows how many continents there are in the world? Can we name them all? What continent do we live on? Has anyone ever been to another continent?”
The students share their accumulated knowledge about continents, and then Miss G. asks them to write yes or no to show whether they think Japan is on the continent of Europe. Some students are hesitant to guess and protest that they don’t know the answer. Miss G. assures them that they aren’t supposed to know and that that is why the lesson is called Guess Yes or No. She waits until everyone has written yes or no on the line before going to the next sentence.
When everyone has guessed, the class reads the second sentence together: “Mt. Fuji is a volcanic mountain in Japan.”
Again Miss G. asks vocabulary-building questions: “What is a volcanic mountain? Do we have any volcanic mountains nearby us?”
She writes the words volcano and volcanic on the board and asks if anyone has ever seen a volcano. She also helps students understand how volcano and volcanic are related, saying, “A volcanic mountain is a mountain that was formed by a volcano.”
She then waits for everyone to write his or her guess before having students read the next sentence chorally: “Japan has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.”
Miss G. helps students determine the meaning of life expectancy and makes the morphemic connection with expect. She then asks them what they think the current life expectancy is for them and their parents. The students have varied answers, and this question clearly intrigues them. Miss G. tells them that since what they are going to read is about Japan, the article probably won’t tell them about life expectancies in the United States. One student quickly interjects, “We can google it!”
The students write their yes or no guess, and everyone reads the next sentence chorally: “The capital of Japan is Tokyo.”
Miss G. asks students what the capital of the United States is and what the capital of their state is. She explains that the capital is the place where government happens. She writes the words capital and capitol on the board and helps students distinguish between these words that sound alike but have different meanings.
Students record their guesses and read the next sentence together: “Rice, fish, and seaweed are staples of the Japanese diet.”
Miss G. asks students to name some staples of their diet. Students express amazement that anyone might eat seaweed, but several students think Japanese people probably eat a lot of rice and fish. As they are making their guess, they want to know if all three have to be staples of the Japanese diet if they guess yes. She assures them that a yes guess has to include all three. It is clear from their response that they are eager to read the magazine article and see if Japanese people eat a lot of seaweed.
Before proceeding to the next sentence, Miss G. picks up the stapler from her desk and helps the students realize that they know another meaning for staples. One student chimes in that it can also be the store Staples.
The lesson continues as Miss G. leads the students to read each sentence chorally, builds meaning vocabulary, and has students guess yes or no for each of the remaining statements.
TIP
Have the less able reader hold the text and sit in the middle. This increases the chances that the student will be engaged, and holding the text confers status!
I Do, and You Watch
When the class has read all the statements, and Miss G. has developed all the key vocabulary, Miss G. asks students to gather in their assigned trios and hands the magazine to one student in each trio who quickly positions him- or herself in the middle between the other two students. Miss G. has learned that students work together and interact more when they have only one copy of the text to share. Even though she has enough copies of the magazine for everyone, students will only use one per trio for this lesson.
When the students are positioned in their trios, she has everyone turn to the page where the article begins and draws students’ attention to the map at the beginning of the article. She models how to determine if the first statement is true by thinking aloud about the map and letting them listen in on her thinking.
She says, “Here is a map, and I find Japan here. I see that Japan is in Asia, so the first statement must be false. Japan is not on the continent of Europe. It is in Asia. I will change the first statement to make it true.” (See figure 1.2.)
Figure 1.2: Sample Guess Yes or No sheet with revisions.
“Now, I will read this paragraph and see what I can find out about any of the other statements.”
She reads the paragraph aloud and then explains her thinking. “This paragraph tells us that there are many volcanoes in Japan, and that Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain and has not erupted in hundreds of years, but scientists think it could erupt at any time. I conclude that Mt. Fuji is a volcanic mountain, so I don’t need to change the second statement because it is true.”
I Do, and You Help
After modeling how to determine the truth of the first two statements, she invites students to help her with the next two.
“Let’s read the next paragraph together,” she says. “After we read it, we’ll figure out what it tells us about any of the remaining statements.”
Miss G. and her students read the paragraph and decide to make the third sentence true by changing lowest to highest. (See figure 1.3.)
