2nd Grade · Reading · RL.2.1, RL.2.3, RL.2.9
Comprehension Exercises Lesson Plan for 2nd Grade
A ready-to-teach comprehension exercises lesson for 2nd Grade, built around characters and traits, setting, plot, sequencing, cause and effect, compare and contrast, the 5 w's, fact vs opinion, author's purpose, main idea and predictions. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.
Approximately 47 minutes
Learning objective
- Choose the sentence that tells the main idea of a passage
- Write three details that support the main idea
- Pick another good title for a nonfiction passage
Materials
- Reading for the 5Ws
- Characters
- Compare & contrast
- Setting
- Plot
- Prediction worksheets
- Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples
Lesson steps
1. Build the background (5 min)
Connect comprehension exercises to a book the class already finished. Prior knowledge is doing most of the work in comprehension, so spend the time here.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Read a short passage aloud and stop twice to narrate your own thinking about comprehension exercises. Students are learning the move, not the answer.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Reading for the 5Ws". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate comprehension exercises one final time in the students' own words, not yours.
Check for understanding
Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned comprehension exercises.
Differentiation
Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild comprehension exercises with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.
Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own comprehension exercises problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand comprehension exercises.
Skills covered in this lesson
Main ideas & details · Reading for the 5Ws · Characters · Compare & contrast · Setting · Plot · Sequencing · Cause and effect worksheets · Conclusions & inferences · Prediction worksheets · Fact vs fiction · Fact vs opinion
