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*This lesson meets the following curriculum standards as defined by the
National Council for the Social Studies: Culture, Global Connections,
and People, Places & Environment.
Before Reading
Motivation
“As we continue studying Japan as part of our social studies ‘Around
the World’ unit, we’re going to begin looking at some of the
family traditions that are popular in Japan. As we continue working on
our letters to send to our Japanese pen pals, the information we discover
could help us understand more about the questions we would like to have
answered. In addition, what we learn today about family traditions in
Japan will help us when we present what we have learned during our ‘Culture
Night’ open house. Today, specifically, we’re going to be
learning about Japanese family crests. After we read our text, you’re
going to have the opportunity to design your own family crest and write
a simulated journal entry.”
Prior Knowledge
“Because we’re going to be talking about some family traditions
that the Japanese share, we’re going to start today by completing
a quick-write about our family traditions. Remember, when you’re
working on a quick-write you don’t have to worry about spelling
or grammar mistakes, just try to get as many of your thoughts as you can
on your paper. You won’t be graded or given any points for your
quick-write. However, coming up with as much knowledge as we can about
family traditions will make our learning today a lot easier, so everyone
needs to contribute with their best effort. Once everyone has finished,
you’ll have the opportunity to share your family traditions with
a partner, then with the rest of the class. Today we’re going to
spend about 7 minutes on our quick-write. Take out a blank piece of notebook
paper and a pencil. Before you begin writing, I am going to share a quick-write
I completed earlier. Hopefully, this will help you understand what I expect
of you while you write.
My family has lots of traditions. Most of our traditions are based
around holidays. For example, my family has several traditions that are
specific to Christmas. After the Christmas tree has been decorated, my
mom always hides a green pickle ornament among the rest of the ornaments.
The first person to find the pickle gets to open the first present on
Christmas Eve. My family also has several foods that we always eat at
Christmas. Before we go to church on Christmas Eve, we always eat finger-food
and drink hot apple cider. Plus, Dad always makes oyster stew. Dad's soup
isn't one of my favorite traditions- it smells!
Does everybody understand what they are going to be doing? When you are
ready, you may begin.”
*While the class works on their quick-writes, circulate the classroom
making sure that students are writing as much as they can. The objective
is to have the students record as much of their prior knowledge about
family traditions as they can in the time allotted. If some students seem
to be stuck because “they don’t know what to write about,”
encourage them that anything is alright, so long as they’re recording
their thoughts.
“Great work everyone! Now, I’d like you to work with a partner
and share what you’ve written with them. When you’ve finished
sharing with your partner, find another group of two and share your traditions
with them. When all of the groups of four have finished, we’ll make
a class list of the different traditions that we know of. Then, we’ll
predict what kind of traditions Japanese families might have. Please find
a partner and begin sharing your traditions.”
*While the students share their traditions, circulate the classroom asking
questions and making sure everyone is participating. Students may need
prompting to find another group of two to share with. If this is the case,
pair groups up. Monitor how far in the process students are getting. When
it seems like the majority of the groups are finished, announce that there
is one minute left for sharing.
“As I was walking around the room I heard a lot of really good traditions
being shared. Now we’re going to make a list of all the traditions
that we celebrate on the board. (Allow all students to share their traditions.)
Wow! We have made a wonderful list of traditions. Now let’s try
and think, using what we already know about Japan, of what traditions
our pen pals might have. Raise your hand if you have an idea and I’ll
add it to our new list.”
**I predict students will offer traditions about the Cherry Blossom Festival,
which was studied in the previous lesson. They may also offer traditions
about traditional tea ceremonies, as they were also discussed during the
first lesson. However, recall is not the purpose of this activity. Because
of this, I would also encourage students to think about what values Japanese
families might have to stimulate contributions about other traditions.
Based on these values, students may be able to offer more in-depth predictions
about Japanese traditions.
Purpose
“I am really impressed! We came up with a great list of the traditions
that we have, and an amazing list of predictions about what traditions
our Japanese pen pals might have. Today, however, we’re going to
be learning about one Japanese tradition in particular-family crests.
We’re going to be reading an informational text, sometimes called
expository text, to find out as much as we can about the tradition of
family crests.”
Strategy Instruction (Reading Roadmap)
“Today we’re going to be using a special map to help us with
our reading about Japanese family crests. Just like a highway roadmap
shows you how to get places by traveling, a reading roadmap will show
you how to get places by reading. More specifically, the purpose of a
reading roadmap is to help us understand the text we are reading by pointing
out places that we should stop and read again, or stop and take notes
on. The reading roadmap I will give you today will tell you what portions
of the text you need to read more carefully, what portions you will need
to reread, and what portions you will need to stop and take notes. Before
we get started, however, we need to know what steps we will need to follow
to complete our reading roadmap.”
Step 1: Choose a text.
“Today your text has already been chosen for you, so you won’t
need to worry about selecting your own text.”
Step 2: Provide students with a structured
roadmap.
“I will give you a roadmap that will describe what you should do
as you read each paragraph. Some paragraphs might instruct you to stop
and reread. You may also have to slow down. Follow the road signs and
you’ll be able to pick out the important information.”
Step 3: Have students write about the events on their roadmap as
they read them in the text.
“At each stop sign there is a box for you to write down what you’ve
read in the paragraph. You’ll have to write down the main points
for each paragraph using the summarizing skills we working on during our
last lesson about Japan.”
Step 4: Share roadmap with a partner.
“When everyone has finished reading, you’ll find a partner
and share what you wrote on your roadmap with them. If there’s something
you think you left out that your partner has, you can go ahead and write
it on your roadmap. Make sure to share as much information as possible
with your partner since the information you gather will help you later
on."
Step 5: Follow up with questions about
the story.
“After everyone has had a chance to share their roadmap with a partner,
I’ll have some questions about what you read. This way we can gather
information about the two different texts being read and combine our knowledge
to help us learn even more about Japan and family crests.”
Sample Reading
Roadmap Worksheet
*Note: In order to make this
strategy more accessible to all students, teachers may wish to differentiate
the difficulty level of the roadmap worksheets. To make using the worksheets
easier, fill in some of the summaries, or partial summaries, for the students.
To make the roadmap more challenging, ask students to limit their summaries
to a certain number of words. For students who are familiar with the GIST
strategy, have them write summaries of 20 words or less.
*Additionally, the easy/average
text for this lesson only requires two summaries, while the more difficult
text requires three. Be sure to inform your students of this before distributing
the roadmaps.
Modeling
Step 1- “Now I’d like everyone’s
attention as I demonstrate how to use the reading roadmap. The text I’m
going to be using is called Africa is Not a Country. Since my
text has already been chosen for me, I can move on to step 2 and get my
roadmap."
Knight, M. (2002). Africa is not a country. New York: Millbrook Press.
Step 2- “I’m going to demonstrate
on the same roadmap that you will be using. Looking at the roadmap, I
see that I’ll have to write a summary for every paragraph, or in
the case of my book- page, that I read. I also see that in certain places
the roadmap tells me to slow down and read carefully. I also have stop
signs, which mean that I need to stop and reread my text before writing
a summary. Okay, now that I understand what I need to do for my roadmap,
I can move on to step 3.”
Step 3- “Now I need to get started
on my roadmap. It says that I need to carefully read the first page, then
stop and write down the main points. Here is the first page of my text:
‘Africa is not a country- it is a vast continent made up of 53 nations.
If you took the land of the United States and added it to the lands of
China, Japan, and Europe, Africa would still be bigger. From the tiny
island nations of Comoros, Seychelles, and Sao Tome and Principe, to its
largest country (Sudan), Africa is the only continent with land in all
four hemispheres. Unlike any other continent, it is divided into two almost
equal lengths by the equator, and it is nearly as wide as it is long.’
Now that I’ve read my text, my roadmap says to stop and write a
summary. Using what I know from our last lesson about summarizing, I think
a brief summary might sound like this:
‘Africa is a continent, not a country. It is very large and has
land in all four hemispheres. Africa is divided almost in half by the
equator and is nearly as wide as it is long.’”
Step 4- “If I were actually doing
this assignment, instead of just demonstrating how to do it, I would keep
doing reading and following my roadmap until the entire text had been
read. However, right now I’m going to move to step 4. At this point
I would need to share my roadmap with a partner. I would read to my partner
what my roadmap said, then they would read their roadmap to me. If they
had something in their roadmap that I didn’t, I would add it to
mine. For example, after listening to my partner, I might add that Sudan
is Africa’s largest country. My partner may need to add that Africa
has land in each of the four hemispheres.”
Step 5- “After I had finished
sharing my roadmap, there would be questions for me to answer. Questions
that I might be asked would include:
- How big is Africa? (Bigger than the United States, China, Japan,
and Europe all put together!)
- What is something that is unique only to Africa? (Africa is the
only continent to have land in all four hemispheres.)
- What is Africa’s largest country? (Sudan is Africa's largest
country.)
Guided Practice
“Now we’re going to practice using our reading roadmap as
a class.”
Step 1- “We’re going to
be using the same text for our guided practice that I used to model the
strategy to you. However, since I’ve already completed the reading
roadmap for the first page, we’re going to start by reading the
second page.”
Step 2- “I’ve just handed
out a copy of the reading roadmap that you will be using. I’d like
you all to look over it as I discuss it out loud. Notice that there are
stop signs and instructions for reading on your roadmaps. These will help
you decide how to read the text. Notice that for the second page (you’ll
be using paragraphs when you do this on your own) we are given directions
to read carefully, followed by a stop sign. Who can tell me what this
means? (Read carefully then stop and write a summary.) Great! It looks
like we’re ready to start reading.”
Step 3- “Let’s all silent
read the second page as I read it aloud:
‘The sun is just rising as Arim and Efrem get up to prepare for
school. They take showers, change into uniforms, and comb their hair while
listening to the children’s programs on the radio. After a breakfast
of sweet, hot tea and bread with butter and marmalade, they put on their
book bags. Their parents gently place their hands on their heads and say,
“May God be with you the whole day.” The boys kiss their parents’
hands and respond “Yekenielai,” which means “thank-you”
in Tigrinya, a widely spoken language in Eritrea. Before they walk out
of the door with their father, who is going to his office in downtown
Asmara, the boys are reminded by their mother to always respect their
teachers and elders.’
Now that we’ve finished reading, we need to write our summary. Please
write a summary in the space provided on your roadmap. When you’re
finished, give me a thumbs-up so that I know you’re ready to move
on.”
Step 4- (Begin this step when everyone’s
thumb is up.) “Now that we’ve all written a summary, we need
to share our summary with a partner. Please find a partner and share what
you’ve written on your roadmap now. Remember, add information if
you need to.”
“Who would like to share a summary that they have that they’ve
added to by working with a partner? (Have a student share. Instruct the
rest of the class to listen for things they don’t have in their
summary. If they need to, instruct them to add that information to their
roadmap.)”
Step 5- “Now I have some questions
I’d like to ask about your reading. Please raise your hand if you’d
like to share your answer.
- What might you eat for breakfast if you were in Africa? (Breakfast
in Africa might include sweet, hot tea and bread with butter and marmalade.)
- How is how children get ready for school different in Africa than it
is in the United States? (Children in Africa listen to the radio and
have to wear uniforms. We don't have to do that.)
-What language is spoken in Eritrea? (Tigrinya)
- Why do you think it is important for students to respect their teachers
and elders? (Elders have a lot to offer. They have been around for
a long time so they know alot. I do think it is important to respect elders.
Also, teachers have a lot to teach us as well. By being respectful to
teachers, we can learn a lot. Because of this, being respectful to teachers
is also important.)
Great job everyone! Now we’re going to get started on the real text
we’re going to read for today’s lesson.”
“Today we have several different texts to read to get all of the
information we need from our reading. I’m going to give you a number
that is either a 1 or a 2. All the 1’s need to meet in the back
of the room, and all of the 2’s need to meet at the front of the
room. Once I see that all of my groups are ready to read, I will bring
you the text that you will be reading. Remember, if you don’t understand
what you are reading you can do one of the following things: reread, read
ahead, look for picture clues, ask your partner, or ask me. Also, remember
that as you read you will need to be filling out your reading road maps
so that you can easily use the information from the reading at a later
time.”
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