Choice Literacy Minilessons

1. Planning Minilessons

3. Thinking About
Minilessons:
Keeping Our Eye
on the Big Picture

4. The Book Whisperer by
Donalyn Miller
You see, my students are not just
strong, capable readers, they love
books and reading.
Building lifelong readers has to start
here. Anyone who calls herself or
himself a reader can tell you that it
starts with encountering great
books, heartfelt recommendations,
and a community of readers who
share this passion.
I am convinced that if we show students
how to embrace reading as a
lifelong pursuit and not just a
collection of skills for school
performance, we will be doing what I
believe we have been charged to
do: create readers.

5. Ohio Content Standards
 Phonemic Awareness, Word Recognition and Fluency
Standard
 Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard
 Reading Process: Concepts of Print, Comprehension
Strategies and Self-Monitoring Strategies Standard
 Reading Applications: Informational, Technical and
Persuasive Text Standard
 Reading Applications: Literary Text Standard

6. Minilesson Cycles Can Be
 Strategies—comprehension, word work
 Behaviors and Habits—book choice, stamina
 Literary Elements—character, theme
 Genre—nonfiction, mystery, historical fiction
 Management

8. Big Questions for Planning
 Why do we teach this? How does it fit into the bigger
picture?
 What are the big goals I have?
 Which books might I use?
 How will I provide for students to enter at own level?
 What will I be assessing? Does assessment match the
big picture goals?

9. "If you only do something
for one reason, don't do
it.”
Samantha Bennett, author That Workshop Book

10. Remembering the Big Picture
of Minilesson Work

12. A Lifelong Conversation
Around Books and Reading

13.  "Learning is not about one great lesson or one great
activity teachers design for students to do. It is about
the little things teachers ask students to do every day
like, read, write, and talk that add up to the big things
like meaning from text and adding meaning and
purpose to life,”
 Samantha Bennett, THAT WORKSHOP BOOK

14. Building an identity means coming to
see in ourselves the characteristics of
particular categories (and roles) of
people and developing a sense of
what it feels like to be that sort of
person and belong in certain social
spaces.
Choice Words, Peter Johnston

15. A Student’s Role in Learning
 “Expert teaching invites students to
act with initiative and intention in
shaping what happens to them
throughout the day.”
 Katie Wood Ray, Educational Leadership, 2006

16. Someday by Eileen Spinelli
Someday I will be
An artist
I will wear a blue smock.
I will carry my paints
to the beach
to paint the sea.
A very rich person
will offer to buy my painting
for two million dollar.
But I will smile.
And I will say: “I’m sorry, this painting is not for sale
It is a gift for my art teacher.”

17. Today
I am off to
help my dad
paint the shed.
Green.
(It’s where I keep my
bike.
I just might paint that
too!)

18. The ok Book
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
The world is just full of
things to do.
And it’s fun to give them
all a go.
But what if you’re not
good at everything
you try?
What if you are just ok?
What then?

21. Fiction Minilessons

22. What are we teaching?
What are we assessing?
What are your beliefs about
minilesson work?

23. What we don’t do, however, is
use our experience to direct
or guide towards our own
understanding of any given
text…..we need to teach each
student the way readers think
as they read, not what to
think, helping them to
experience texts as readers,
rather that putting specific
thoughts about texts into their
heads.

24. The Stranger

25. Looking at Plot
 K-Retell or re-enact a story that has been heard.
 1-Retell the beginning, middle and eding of a story
including its important events.
 2-Retell the plot of a story.
 3-Retell the plot sequence.
 4-Identify the main incidents of a plot sequence,
identifying the major conflict and its resolution.
 5-Identify the main incidents of a plot sequence and
how they influence future action.

26. 6th+
 Distinguish between main and minor plot incidents.
 Pace, subplots, parallel episodes, and climax
 Compare and contrast stories/characters with similar
conflicts
 How do voice and narrator affect plot

27. Unpacking the
Common Core

28. How do we create
minilessons that
support readers of
today?
How do we move
beyond the surface?

29. Plot
A fun way to
introduce plot and
part story.

30. Plot
Spot the Plot: A
Riddle Book of
Book Riddles

31. Plot
A story with very
obvious problem
and solution

32. Plot
Two stories with
similar plots to
discuss parts of a
story.

33. Plot
Same Problem
Different Solution

34. YouTube Video Clips

35. A Circle of Friends
Wordless Book
A Good First Look at Title
Significance of word “circle”

36. Pete the Cat
36

37. 37

38. Walk On!
A Guide for Babies of All
Ages
By Marla Frazee
Dedication
“to my son, Graham, off to
college”

39. How to Heal a
Broken Wing
Plot vs. Theme
Retell the story but what is
the bigger message?

40. Theme
What else can this
mean?

41. Artie and Julie
How do Storylines come
together?

42. Wanda’s Roses/The Curious
Garden

43. The Enormous Turnip
 Traditional Tales with
obvious and
accessible themes
are a great way to
introduce the
concept of theme as
well as universal
themes to students.

44. Many Stories of Friendship

45. Theme
Titles are often a
metaphor and a
clue into the theme
of the story.

46. Theme
Looking
Closely at
Text

47. Theme
More complex
themes in picture
books

48. Theme
Obvious themes
Supporting
thinking with
evidence in the
pictures

49. Theme
How do these
stories go
together?

50. The Table Where Rich People
Sit

54. “Any of these details….are, in effect,
entryways into deeper meanings of the
text. None is inherently more important
than the other and no one inference
about them is necessarily
“right”…What’s important is not which
detail readers notice but what they do
with them…..what they can make of
what they notice.”
What Readers Really Do

63. Theme
Titles are often a
metaphor and a
clue into the theme
of the story.

64. Theme
Looking
Closely at
Text

65. Theme
More complex
themes in picture
books

66. Theme
Obvious themes
Supporting
thinking with
evidence in the
pictures

67. Theme
Thinking About
Word Meaning in
Titles

68. Theme
How do these
stories go
together?

69. Character Cycle
Big Goals/Learning
 -Authors let us get to know characters in a variety of ways.
 -The more we know about a character, the better we can
predict and understand his/her actions.
 -Important characters often change over time.
 -Understanding how a character sees the world is critical to
understanding their thoughts, relationships, and actions.
 -There are words that readers use when they think and talk
about characters in fiction. These words give us ways to
think and talk at a deeper level.

70. The Right Books
A book that is more character-based than plot based and
might be a good one for this cycle.
 Several books that focus on the same character/characters
 Books with 2 characters who are great friends or who are
siblings. These often make for the best conversations about
relationships.
 Books that include several short stories about the same
character(s)
 Characters that the students love and talk about on their
own.

71. Characters
We learn about
characters through
their relationships
with others.

72. Character
We learn about a
character from the
way he/she
behaves and
reacts in a story.

74. Character
Readers learn
about characters
by the things they
say. (voice)

75. Character
Readers learn
about characters
by the things they
say. (voice)

76. Character
The more we know
about a character,
the better we can
predict and
understand his/her
actions and
behaviors.

77. Character
Important
characters in a
book often change
over the course of
the story.

79. TRUCKTOWN
BY: JON SCIESZKA

80. Strategies and
Behaviors

81. Book Choice

84. Strategy Minilessons:
Inferring
Short video clips
can help students
understand the
strategy you are
introducing.

85. How do we choose a book for reading
comprehension and strategy work?
 We look for high-quality books about life experience. We find we
can choose a wide range of multicultural books, because the
themes and experiences are important and transcend culture.
 We look for high quality in both words and illustrations. We want the
books themselves to be an aesthetic experience, with engaging
images and poetic, interesting word choices.
 We look for story lines with a tension-one that will draw in children
and adults, and keep the reader involved. We look for books with
many potential entry points.
• Choosing New Books for Comprehension Strategy
Studies With Young Children by Andie Cunningham
and Ruth Shagoury

86. Strategy Minilessons:
Inferring
Wordless picture
books give
everyone a chance
to practice strategy
and behaviors.

87. Inferring
Wordless Picture Books
What are you thinking?
What in the text makes
you think that?

88. Inferring
Sticky Notes to
Track Thinking

89. Inferring
Wordless books to
begin to monitor
thinking.

90. Wordless Picture
Books
What in the book
makes you think
that?

91. Inferring
How does
background
knowledge help you
make inferences to
better understand
text?

92. Inferring
How do you know
even though it is not
explicitly stated?
What in the text
makes you think
that

94. Reading Group on Fluency
•Student initiated
•Student goals
•Student directed (What
about reading aloud is
challenging?
•Charted “Words That
Stump Us”

95. Nonfiction
Minilessons

96. More Than Text Features

97. “Just get rid of the
crappy stuff and
focus on the
good stuff.”
Steve Jobs

98. More Than Text Features

99. Click and Skip…..
Wasn’t
sure
when on
site
Difficulty
connecting
various types of
information

100. Judi Morellian, #SLJ10
 "Ubiquitous information & devices give skimmers a
false sense of comprehension."
.
 "Intellectual access is a different challenge then
physical access. We want them to make meaning.”

103.  The new power of social media and networking
technologies is perhaps the least leveraged technology
in formal education systems today. Social networking
technologies are powerful tools for enhancing the
process of learning to be, of defining our identities.
Stephen Wilmarth, "Five Socio-Technology Trends
That Change Everything in Learning and Teaching"
(Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs)

104. Questions from 4th Graders
 The words are all squished together-There are a lot of words!
 You don’t know which information to read first.
 When you are watching a video, it’s hard to concentrate on the words and
information.
 You are looking for one thing and get distracted.
 What keeps you on the site and what doesn’t?
 How do you know which links to go to?
 Why are there little paragraphs and not big ones?
 Why are there pictures that don’t match the words?
 How do you figure out what they are saying without guessing?

105. Evernote

106.  How does web-reading fit into the bigger picture of living life as a reader?
 What does each group/child already have in place? What can I build on?
How do they currently approach web reading?
 How do they currently approach other nonfiction reading?
 Which needed skills cross over to other areas of reading?
 Big question—Is it right to teach web reading as a single unit of study?
 Does it stand alone?
 What was it that these kids needed right now to become better readers of nonfiction
text? Could I do a cycle of lessons that would help them approach not only webiste
reading differently, but all forms of nonfiction in a different way?

107. Questions I Asked Myself-
Web Reading
 How does web-reading fit into the bigger picture of living life as a reader?
 What does each group/child already have in place? What can I build on?
How do they currently approach web reading?
 How do they currently approach other nonfiction reading?
 Which needed skills cross over to other areas of reading?
 Big question—Is it right to teach web reading as a single unit of study?
 Does it stand alone?
 What was it that these kids needed right now to become better readers of nonfiction text? Could
I do a cycle of lessons that would help them approach not only webiste reading differently, but
all forms of nonfiction in a different way?

108. My Thinking-First Lessons
 Students were very interested in nonfiction topics. They are naturally curious and want to
know interesting information.
 What concerned me
 Students were consistently making incorrect inferences when they were confused.
Instead of digging in to find answers to their confusions, they often made things up.
 There was little connection to them between the text and the visuals. They were not
skilled at putting information from text and images together to create information.
 Students were doing very little cover to cover nonfiction reading
 Stamina
 When reading websites, they were eexperts at finding games and videos and unrelated
advertisements.
 Many students immediately browsed for an activity when visiting a new site, rather than
making sense of page
 In my professional reading on 21st Century Literacy, many experts seem to blame the
children for the fact that they cannot read deeply but it seems to be a teaching need to
me.

109. Classes Came With Different
Things
 Building on one another’s thinking
 Track thinking on text
 Support thinking with evidence from text
 Going back into the text to talk

110. Nonfiction
What do our students need to know and be able to do?
-context clues for unknown words, previewing-what order will you read
it?-nonfiction can be narrative, text structure, using pictures to make
inferences, personal connections, different fonts, different types of
narrative writing, acronyms,i finding details, different sized text, some
triva-did you know? How to use the table of contents, ability to read
maps, graphs, captions, isolated information, how to read—what order?,
how to ask the right questions—Is this fiction or nonfiction? Reading a
timeline,

111. Biographies
Helping kids
become fascinated
with stories of
people from
history.

112. Biographies
What are the goals
we have when we
ask kids to read
biographies?

113. Nonfiction
Sometimes the
organization
contributes to the
main focus of a
nonfiction piece?

114. Nonfiction
How do these
short pieces go
together? What is
the main topic?

115. Photo Essay
A photo essay can
begin the discussion
about the ways that
words and visuals
work together to
provide information.

116. Nonfiction
What do our students need to know and be able to do?
Authors often provide support—lots o different features
Texts and photos support each other
Read the captions
Read the large text and think about what you know about it before you
read the small text
If the small text doesn’t make sense, how do you make it make sense?
Possibly reading a few pages at a time—linking beginning to end
Title page/acknowledgement page
Outdated/credibility

117. Nonfiction
Some nonfiction tells
a story and is written
to be read in ways
similar to fiction—
from cover to cover.

118. Internet Reading
What does this
mean for nonfiction
reading and
viewing?

120. What do we want for our kids
as nonfiction readers?

125. Summary
Can you tell the
about your reading
in three important
words?

126. An Egg is Quiet
“An egg is clever.”
An egg might be
speckled to
resemble the rocks
around it….

127. Word Choice in Headlines

128. Transferring
Minilesson Work

129. Share Timeme

135. Series of Unfortunate Events

140. goodreads

147. Readicide by Kelly Gallagher
If we are to find our way again--if students are to become
avid readers again--we, as language arts teachers, must
find our courage to recognize the difference between the
political worlds and the authentic worlds in which we
teach, to swim against those current educational practices
that are killing young readers, and to step up and do what
is right for our students.
We need to find this courage. Today. Nothing less than a
generation of readers hangs in the balance.