Diana Guillen-Chavez
ENG 4660 Teaching Lit. & Language
Dr. Kathleen Deakin
15 April 2015
Grade: 4th
Anchor Text: The Three Pigs by David Wiesner
Common Core Standards for Unit:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.4.A: Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in
text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what
the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7: Interpret information presented visually, orally, or
quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on
Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which
it appears.
CCSS.ELA.LITERACY.RF.4.4.C: Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and
understanding, rereading as necessary.
Essential Question: How do authors help shape context?
Big Idea: Representing environment/context
Common Core Standard Specifically Addressed:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.4.A: Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in
text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
Objectives:
Students will analyze a visual from the anchor text to better understand the importance of context
and will recognize and use context clues such as examples, explanations, synonyms, or antonyms
to determine the meaning of a new/unknown word.
Statement of Rationale:
My goal is always to prepare students for lifelong learning. That means teaching them the
strategies they need to know in order to be more effective learners. In this case, the nearly blank
pages in The Three Pigs would help my students truly visualize context in a text. A lot of the
time we tell students to use the context to find the meaning of a word and set them loose on a
confusing statement. Well, yes, use context, but what exactly do we mean by context?
Sometimes we have to be missing something so that we can know what we are looking for and
understand its importance. The pages selected from the anchor text actually have much of the
“background” or context missing. Students could easily see what the image is lacking and
understand how valuable that background information truly is when trying to fully grasp an
image or text. In this lesson, the visual sets the stage for discussion, comprehension, and practice
with analyzing and effectively using context clues in everyday reading. This is just another
strategy to add to their learner’s toolbox.
Part I: Hook/Anticipatory Set:
Display image from anchor text where three pigs are on what appears to be a plane, with a
speech bubble saying “uh-oh.”
Teacher asks students to pull out reader’s notebook and write down a quick
explanation/summary of what is happening on the page. Allow 4-5 minutes to write.
Have a few students share aloud (capitalize on the moment if a student says they didn’t have
much to go off of or not enough information is depicted).
Scaffolding: “Did any of you find it easy to explain what was going on? Was it difficult for
anyone? Why would someone find it difficult to explain this picture? What is missing?”
Look for answers that go back to the lack of detail on the page, mostly blank space so we
don’t know where they are or what they might be seeing.
Teacher: “We all seem to come to the same conclusion. We need more information, without the
rest of the picture, the context or background surrounding the three pigs, we cannot make
meaning of it. We can try and add our own background to better explain the situation.”
Ask students to fill in the picture (draw one under their writing in their reader’s notebook).
Allow 2-3 minutes to draw. Pair-share for 1 minute.
Teacher: “Now we have filled in the context so that we can better understand the picture of the
three pigs. Can anyone make a connection to reading and how this strategy may apply?”
Scaffolding: “When would it be useful to have a lot of background or context when reading a
book? Are there times where we need to re-read a sentence to make better sense of a word? How
can we figure out the meaning of a word from looking at the rest of the sentence? What, in the
sentence, helps us make sense of the word? When we re-read, aren’t we using the context around
the word to make meaning, just like we did for the picture?”
Teacher: “Let’s explore this a bit further.”
Part Two: Modeling
Display sentence on board for students to see:
The fox raced swiftly through the trees and flew out of sight.
Teacher: “Here is a word that I don’t really understand. So, just like the pigs on the paper plane,
it is something I cannot make meaning out of. But, unlike our picture where we were missing so
much, I do have the rest of the sentence and can use context clues to figure out what ‘swiftly’
means.”
(Point to or highlight clues on the board for students to see)
“What do we know about the fox?” He is racing. He is racing through the trees.
“What else do we know about this racing fox?” He flew out of sight.
“So he raced ‘swiftly’ and flew out of sight. Hmmm, can anyone start to make any guesses as to
what swiftly means after all this information we already have?” Allow for a couple of answers
shared aloud. Follow-up question: “What specific word or phrase in the sentence helped you
understand what the word ‘swiftly’ means?”
Lead conversation into paying close attention to ‘flew.’ Make a special annotation around the
word and explain that it is a synonym for the word ‘swift’ which means quick or fast, just a flew
would entail speed or quickness.
Teacher: “Synonyms in a sentence are one of the clues we can use in a sentence to determine the
meaning of a new or unknown word. We will be learning about three more categories of context
clues we can use when reading.”
“Here is an awesome video that goes over context clues such as synonyms, antonyms, examples,
and explanations. Make sure you are listening closely, as these strategies will be extremely
helpful to us when we need to figure out what a word means.”
Context Clues- Word Detective Video:
https://www.flocabulary.com/context-clues/
Conclusion/Review:
After video, review four categories of context clues. Write and display them on board. Have
students write along in their reader’s notebook under ‘strategies’ section or flip side of pages.
Title of page: types of context clues.
Synonym: similar word or a word with the same meaning
Antonym: opposite word or a word that means the opposite
Example: specific examples that illustrate how to define the word
Explanation: the word is defined or described thoroughly
Part III: Application
Distribute graphic organizers to students, instructing them to paste the log onto the next blank
page in reader’s notebook (preferably in the ‘strategies’ section or the next available page on the
flip side of notebook). This log is to be utilized during independent or group reading, whenever
they find a new or unknown word, they can write it down and keep track in their working log.
Go through each section of the new vocabulary log using the model word ‘swiftly.’ Write word
in word section, no page or book title for this example, but they should be filling these sections
in. Write the entire sentence (or two) in which you found the word or phrase in the first section
and circle which context clue category helped to determine the meaning of the word. Using the
context clues, fill in the next section with what you think it means. Now, the last section should
not be filled in until the rest of the sections have been filled in. Looking up the word in the
dictionary is a way of double-checking our definition and a way to use our references as well.
*This would also help the teacher and students gauge where they are in reading. Students should
be reading books that challenge them and finding new words to expand vocabulary is one way to
do that. If students are noticing they encounter only one new word a week from their
independent reading book, they should consider looking into higher-level reading books.
Likewise, if they are noticing they find ten or more words in a 20-minute reading session, they
can gauge whether the challenge is worthwhile and they are still understanding the text or if the
multitude of new words is hindering comprehension.
NEW WORDS I LEARNED
W ORD OR P HRASE:
W RITE IT OUT :
CIRCLE O NE: SYNONYM
A NTONYM
MY D EFINITION/WHAT I THINK IT MEANS :
E XAMPLE
E XPLANATION
E XAMPLE
E XPLANATION
E XAMPLE
E XPLANATION
E XAMPLE
E XPLANATION
BOOK T ITLE:
DICTIONARY DEFINITION:
PAGE #:
W ORD OR P HRASE:
W RITE IT OUT :
CIRCLE O NE: SYNONYM
A NTONYM
MY D EFINITION/WHAT I THINK IT MEANS :
BOOK T ITLE:
DICTIONARY DEFINITION:
PAGE #:
W ORD OR P HRASE:
W RITE IT OUT :
BOOK T ITLE:
CIRCLE O NE: SYNONYM
A NTONYM
MY D EFINITION/WHAT I THINK IT MEANS :
PAGE #:
DICTIONARY DEFINITION:
W ORD OR P HRASE:
W RITE IT OUT :
BOOK T ITLE:
CIRCLE O NE: SYNONYM
A NTONYM
MY D EFINITION/WHAT I THINK IT MEANS :
PAGE #:
DICTIONARY DEFINITION:
Adaptations:
Visual: Can draw picture in word box of log to help retain information or understand definition,
model example with first word on the board, and everything discussed is written and displayed
on the board.
Auditory: During independent reading conferences, have students say new words aloud, practice
using symbols or can use Google dictionary or dictionary.com to hear the word as it is said.
Kinesthetic: Free movement around the classroom for independent reading. Allow periodic peer
interaction to teach new or interesting words or simply talk about books they are reading. They
will also have access to resource center (dictionaries and computer access).
Evidence of Understanding:
Continued use of word log in reader’s notebook during independent reading. Making sure they
are making an attempt at defining before looking up the word.
Log to be used as a formative assessment to gauge where students are in terms of difficulty of
reading material. Students can learn to self-asses with this tool as well. For example, if they are
reading a book from beginning to end without encountering a single new word, they may need a
more challenging book. Later discussions could include expanding on the categories of context
clues which could often stem from student inquiry.