Guiding Reading Lesson Plan
Ancient Giants of the Forest
Prepared by Meghan McGovern
Standards:
Reading
4.4 The student will expand vocabulary when reading.
c) Use word-reference materials, including the glossary, dictionary, and thesaurus.
e) Use vocabulary from other content areas.
4.6 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction texts.
a) Use text structures, such as type, headings, and graphics, to predict and categorize
information in both print and digital texts.
b) Formulate questions that might be answered in the selection.
Intended Audience: 5 groups of 4-5 students in Mrs. Katie Cole’s fourth grade class at Matthew
Whaley Elementary. Students will be heterogeneously grouped with some consideration for
personality type and learning needs. Mrs. Cole’s classroom has a wide range of abilities. 2
students have an IEP and 4 students are in the ESL program. Additionally, the individual
reading levels vary with students ranging in DRA scores scoring from level 16 to level 50.
Prerequisite skills of: nonfiction text features (from previous class notes and work on individual
project).
Background/Overview: The purpose of this lesson is for students to use nonfiction text features
to read a new text. Specifically, students will use the table of contents to predict what the
chapters will be about and use the glossary to expand vocabulary. Key skills and strategies:
making predictions, identifying and using nonfiction text features, using a glossary.
Behavioral Objectives:
 Given the table of contents, students will make predictions about the material in each
chapter of Ancient Giants of the Forest.
 Using the glossary and bolded text, students will identify the meaning of unknown words.
 Given orientation and reading, students will identify and use nonfiction text features to
aide comprehension of a new text.
 Given reading and table of contents, students will revise their predictions and ask
questions for chapter two of Ancient Giants of the Forest.
Resources/Materials, Time, Space: This lesson has been prepared for 5 groups of 4-5 students
and will utilize the back table of the classroom. The lesson will take approximately 21 minutes.
Time for each component of the lesson is indicated below. The following materials will be used:
a. Ancient Giants of the Forest (6 copies)
 Ancient Giants of the Forest documents various facts about trees. Chapter one begins
with an introduction on the importance of trees. Chapter two details the various
methods to measure trees and the difficulties faced in measuring very large trees.
Chapter three provides a list of champion trees and the characteristics of champion
trees. Chapter four discusses geocaching and the discovery of champion trees.
Throughout the text, various text features are utilized, which can help young readers
become familiar with nonfiction text.
b. Paper and pencil (for running record and comments)
c. Chapter two prediction sheet (for response)
d. Student pencil
The Lesson Proper
Introduction (3 minutes): Engagement (3 minutes): Without showing the students the cover of
the book say, “Today we are going to be reading a book called Ancient Giants of the Forest.
What do you think the author means by ancient giants?” Allow students to discuss potential
ideas. Then show students the cover and again ask, “What do you think the author means by
ancient giants?” Using the cover, students will be able to identify the ancient giants are trees.
Instructional Strategies (13 minutes): Orientation (5 minutes): Ask students what genre they
think this book will be and why. Once students identify that it is informational (nonfiction) text,
ask what text features do they expect to see? Answers may include: captions, table of contents,
glossary, headings, graphs, bold print, etc. Turn to the table of contents. Ask students how
many chapters are in this book (answer: 4 chapters). Have students predict what each chapter
will be about based on the chapter titles. Then do a quick “picture walk” of the book having the
students notice important nonfiction text features. Word (included in orientation): During the
“picture walk,” have students notice the words girth and crown on page 5 are bolded. Ask
students how they can figure out what these words mean. Direct the students to the glossary in
the back of the book. Review function of a glossary. Do the same on page 20 for the words
geocaching, longitude, and latitude. Latitude and longitude should be familiar words from
Virginia Studies. Reading (3 minutes): Read Chapter 1 as a group. Have each student read 1-2
sentences aloud. Collect individual running records during this time. Strategy Talk (2
minutes): Praise and prompt based on notes from running record. Discuss what the graph
represents. Comprehension (3 minutes): Ask students to return to the table of contents. Were
their initial predictions correct for the content of the first chapter? What nonfiction text features
did they notice in chapter 1?
Differentiation: Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences that will be addressed: visual/spatial
(picture walk, partner read); verbal/linguistic (small group discussion, independent read,
response); small group and independent work.
Accommodation/Modifications: No specific accommodations/modifications will be necessary
as students were placed in groups to best meet their learning needs. The same book will be used
for all groups. Students have been placed heterogeneously so they can help each other if needed.
Modifications will be made as necessary throughout the lesson to best meet the needs of the
students.
Closure (5 minutes): Response (5 minutes): Have students construct a quick response
predicting what chapter 2 will be about using the table of contents and what they read in chapter
1. With a partner, have students read the first paragraph of chapter 2 aloud. Then have students
think of one question they have about chapter two. Answer any remaining questions.
Assessment/Evaluation: Formative: Participation in small group discussion during engagement,
orientation, word work, partner read, and comprehension questions, focus during independent
reading time. Summative: Performance and analysis of individual running records, written
response for chapter two predictions.
Lesson Reflection
Overall, I think the guided reading lesson went very well. I had the opportunity to teach
the lesson to Mrs. Cole’s class in the morning. Mrs. Cole then asked me if I would like to teach
the lesson again in the afternoon as she teaches language arts twice per day. It was great practice
to teach the lesson to approximately 40 students in small group sessions.
I feel the lesson was effective in accomplishing the objectives. Students demonstrated
the ability to make predictions using the table of contents in our small group discussion and in
the students’ written responses for chapter 2 predictions.. Additionally, the students effectively
used the glossary to expand vocabulary and identified nonfiction text features throughout the
book. This was evident in the students’ performance during our small group discussion. One
area the students can still improve in is providing reasoning for their predictions
Throughout the lesson, the majority of students appeared to be engaged. In the morning
session, I had spent time planning the heterogeneously mixed groups. The groups seemed to
work well as the students helped each other when needed. For example, when a student
struggled to read a word, another student would step in and help. The students interacted in a
very positive and constructive way, which was great to see! In the afternoon session, I had not
prepared to teach the lesson to this group of students so the groups were randomly arranged. The
lesson still went well with the afternoon groups; however, I think the students could have been
more engaged if they had been grouped differently. In both the morning and afternoon, students
appeared engaged by my opening question, “Who or what are the ancient giants of the forest?”
It was a lot of fun hearing their thoughts. Every group was eventually able to predict that the
ancient giants were trees, which provided a transition into the text.
One change I would make to this lesson is to have the students take turns reading the
glossary definitions aloud during the word work portion of the lesson. Unfortunately, this
portion of the lesson often became rushed. Additional attention would improve familiarity with
the function of the glossary and also expand vocabulary.
Prior to the lesson I was worried about how the students would respond as they are not
used to doing guided reading groups. The students did a great job with the lesson and seemed to
enjoy the format. I think it was a nice change for them to work in heterogeneously mixed groups
rather than being grouped by level. Additionally, the format of the guided reading lesson seemed
to work well for the nonfiction genre. Guiding reading groups are definitely something I hope to
incorporate into my future classroom!