Lesson+Plan

**8th Grade Language Arts Literacy**
Skill: Reading Comprehension

Rationale: Each week we work on NJASK prep so that our students have an understanding of the state standardized test that they will receive at the end of the year. Instead of taking the traditional pen and paper format I have digitized the test so that the students can receive immediate evaluation on their responses.

Assessment Tool: Quizstar - Students will take an online version of the NJASK, created by the teacher.

National Language Arts Standards: RI--RI.8.1,RI--RI.8.2,RI--RI.8.3,RI--RI.8.4,RI--RI.8.5,RI--RI.8.6,RI--RI.8.8,RL--RL.8.1,RL--RL.8.2,RL--RL.8.3,RL--RL.8.4,RL--RL.8.5,RL--RL.8.6,SL--SL.8.1,SL--SL.8.2,SL--SL.8.3,W--W.8.1,W--W.8.3,W--W.8.4,W--W.8.5

Student Objectives:

SWBAT: recognize elements in a story. SWBAT: identify the appropriate strategies used in order to complete reading comprehension activities. SWBAT: analyze reading passages. SWBAT: support their short responses with details and examples from the story.


 * __Lesson Sequence__ **

1. Anticipatory Set -

Students will write the day's objective in the "Do Now" section of their Humanities binders and the word of the day in the "Word of the Day" section of their Humanities binders. Students will take out the lined paper of last week's (11/30/11) NJ ASK assessment. The lined paper has their multiple choice responses and their open-ended response written on it. This information and the reading passages associated with this information will be reviewed individually in order for the students to familiarize themselves with the work from last week. Today, again, the students will focus on reading passages and answering the associated multiple choice questions and the open-ended question during the day's lesson. In the "Do Now" section, students will write down reading strategies that are employed during the reading of a passage and the answering of the multiple choice questions and the open-ended questions that follow. This was done prior to last week's assessment on Wednesday (11/30/11). The information will be reviewed and discussed as a whole class prior to the day's lesson. Then, students will be asked the following 3 questions to assess their knowledge and understanding of routines, like last Wednesday (11/30/11): 1. What do you do first when presented with a reading passage consisting of multiple choice questions and an open-ended question? What do you do next? What do you do last? The students will be expected to answer the questions with the following responses: 1. Fully read the open-ended question. 2. Skim the multiple choice questions. 3. Read the passage while annotating, focusing on the key words and information as specified in the open-ended question and multiple choice questions. This information will be reviewed as a whole class prior to the day's NJ ASK lesson. Such information has been reviewed previously, but it will continue to be discussed as a way for such knowledge to be constantly reinforced.

2. Lesson Summary -

Today's NJ ASK assignment will be an assessment based on a previous NJASK sample booklet. Students will log into the QuizStar website and complete the task that is presented to them. Students will have 30 minutes to complete the reading comprehension portion of the activity, then an additional 20 minutes to complete the short answer portion. The goal of this task is to familiarize students with the NJASK and related activities that they will see later in the year.

 Afterwards, the questions will be reviewed and checked over together. Students will volunteer to give their responses to each question, including the textual evidence that was used to determine the answers to the multiple choice questions. The open-ended question will be reviewed and discussed as well. All the stories and questions will be read and answered in this manner for the day's lesson. The students did much work with multiple choice questions and open-ended questions. Therefore, they will be expected to carry out the necessary routines that can help enhance their knowledge, skills, and understanding of these two topics.

3. Closure -

A review of any multiple choice questions or any parts of the open-ended question that the students are still confused about even after checking over the work will take place at this time. This discussion will make sure that all the students understand effective reading strategies when answering such questions on this form of an assessment. These questions and answers will continue to be discussed until the end of the class period in order for the students to further their understanding of the highlighted topics.