Katie Flamm

10/29/15

Teaching Reading: Mini Lesson Format (Calkins, 2001)

Targeted Literacy Strategy or Skill: Reading Opposing Perspectives to form an Opinion
Grade level: 5th
Objective: The students will be able to read persuasive material carefully to make an informed judgment.
Common Core State Standard/ PASS Standard: 5.3-4f
Distinguish among facts/inferences supported by evidence and opinions in the text.
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students know what a fact, inference and opinion is.
Students are familiar with persuasive writing.
Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary? (This will be an approximation this semester.)
When reading persuasive material, students are often quick to agree with the authors opinion. They are
not reading carefully and weighing the facts.

Materials Needed
Lesson from: Strategies That Work (Page 169)
Mentor Text: Junior Scholastic News Debate
Materials: Junior Scholastic News Debate handouts, readers notebook, highlighter, pen/pencil
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Whole/Individual/Small/Whole
Mini Lesson Format:
Connect (AKA~ Anticipatory Set, Engagement/Pre-reading):
Good morning class! So during these past few days, we have been reading persuasive writings
and then you have been providing feedback either agreeing or disagreeing with the authors
opinion. I have loved reading your feedback but what I have noticed, is that most of us are
agreeing with the authors opinion. While it is perfectly okay to agree with the authors opinion, I
want to make sure we all know how to make our own informed opinions because it is our job as
readers to read carefully and then weigh the evidence to make our own thoughtful opinion. So
today, I am going to demonstrate to you how to make an informed opinion when reading a piece of
persuasive writing.

Teach (Model/Explain)
Im going to read the article Should Orca shows be banned? aloud. As I read, I want you to pay
attention to evidence that supports the banning of orca shows and evidence that is against the
banning or orca shows. Read the article. Stop after the first paragraph. Okay, so one thing that
helps me form an informed opinion is by looking at the facts. As a reader, it is sometimes easy to

get influenced by the authors opinion. However, I want to form my own opinion so its important
to focus on the facts. One way to help me focus on this is to highlight the facts as Im reading. So
as I continue reading, I am going to highlight facts along the way that stand out to me. Continue
reading. Stop and highlight facts as I go. Now that I have finished reading I am going to go back
and complete the chart (first two columns). Display my chart and my thinking. Ask is anyone else
has anything to add. Now, I am going to give you guys about a minute to look at the chart ,talk to
you table and create you own personal opinion. Let students discuss. Okay, time is up. I am
going to share with you my opinion. Read opinion. Would anyone else like to share their
opinion?

Active Engagement (AKA~ Check for Understanding: students try it out, teacher observes):
You guys did a great job forming opinions form the facts. For further practice I am going to give
each table an article but I want you to be able to pick an article your interested in so what I need
everyone to do is stand up along the perimeter of the classroom. Place article at each table and
give brief description of article. Now go sit at the table that has the article you are most
interested in reading. Once everyone sits down I will explain the assignment. I would like you to
read the article either independently or as a group (your choice) and then as a table you can fill out
the first two sections of the chart together. Make sure you each form you own opinion and
remember it is okay to have different opinions from your classmates. You will have about seven
minutes to complete this assignment. I will leave my chart on the screen so you can see the layout
but remember its just three columns: evidence for, evidence against and my personal opinion. I
will be walking around the room if you need any help. Remember to highlight the facts as you
read. Does anyone have any questions? Let the students work for seven minutes. Class, Class.
Now, that we have all finished I would like for one person at each table to summarize their article
and then to share their opinion. If you dont fell comfortable sharing your own opinion you can
share the majority opinion at you table. Let the students share.

Link (AKA~ Closing the Lesson [with accountability for the skill/process])
Okay class, you did a great today. I was very pleased to see you make informed opinions based
off facts. As we continue reading persuasive material, I expect you read carefully and be mindful
of the facts presented so you can make an informed judgment.