Close Read: Nasreen’s Secret School | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA G3:M1:U1:L9

Close Read: Nasreen’s Secret School

In this Lesson

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These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

  • RL.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
  • RL.3.2: Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
  • RL.3.3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
  • RL.3.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
  • RI.3.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  • SL.3.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
  • L.3.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can refer explicitly to the text to answer questions about Nasreen's Secret School. (RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3, RL.3.4, L.3.4)
  • I can explain how the central message, lesson, or moral is conveyed through details in Nasreen's Secret School. (RL.3.1, RL.3.2)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School (RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3, RL.3.4, L.3.4)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Research Reading Share (15 minutes)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Close Reading: Nasreen's Secret School, Pages 1-11 (30 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Overcoming Learning Challenges (10 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.

B. For ELLs: Complete the Language Dive: Part II Practice in your Unit 1 homework.

Purpose of lesson and alignment to standards:

  • In Opening A, students are guided through a research reading share. Consider using the Independent Reading: Sample Plans (see the Tools page) if you do not have your own independent reading review routines. This review is designed to hold students accountable for their research reading completed for homework. This volume of reading promotes students' growing ability to read a variety of literary and informational texts independently and proficiently (RI.3.10, RL.3.10, SL.3.1).
  • In this lesson, students complete a close read of pages 1-11 of Nasreen's Secret School to better understand the lesson or message and how it is conveyed through the details in the text (RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3, RL.3.4, L.3.4). In preparation for the end of unit assessment in Lesson 11, students work in triads for this close read to answer the questions without teacher guidance. The questions are in a similar format to those on the assessment to provide students with adequate practice.
  • Continue to reinforce the habits of character introduced throughout the unit, particularly as students may be sensitive to the content of this story.
  • Continue to use Goal 1 Conversation Cues to promote productive and equitable conversation.
  • The research reading that students complete for homework will help build both their vocabulary and knowledge pertaining to overcoming challenges in access to education, books, and reading near and far. By participating in this volume of reading over a span of time, students will develop a wide base of knowledge about the world and the words that help describe and make sense of it.

How it builds on previous work:

  • In Lesson 8, students read Nasreen's Secret School for gist and to recount the story using their Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story note-catcher. In this lesson, they complete a close read to better understand how the central message, lesson, or moral is conveyed through the details in the text.

Areas where students may need additional support:

  • Some students may need additional support filling in their Close Read note-catcher. Consider using technology to support those students (see Technology and Multimedia). Consider also having students who will need a lot of support with both reading and completing their note-catcher work with you in a small group.

Assessment guidance:

  • Review students' Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School to determine what they may need to practice before the end of unit assessment in Lesson 11.
  • For ELLs: Collect Language Dive: Part 1 Practice homework from Lesson 8 for assessment.

Down the road:

  • In the next lesson, students will review how to write a short constructed response. They will then practice writing a short constructed response based on their work in this lesson.

In Advance

  • Predetermine triads for work in this lesson based on reading ability. Students will work in triads to complete their Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School, so each triad will need at least one skilled reader.
  • Review: Red Light, Green Light protocol. (Refer to the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
  • Post: Learning targets, Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart, Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart, Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart, and Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart. 

Tech and Multimedia

  • Work Time A: Students complete their note-catchers in a word-processing document, such as a Google Doc, using speech-to-text facilities activated on devices or using an app or software like Dictation.io.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 3.I.B.6, 3.I.B.7

Important points in the lesson itself

  • The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to celebrate cultural and educational diversity; deepen their understanding of Nasreen's Secret School by participating in a close read using a supportive note-catcher; and practice responding to questions that have a similar format as the questions on the End of Unit 1 Assessment.
  • ELLs may find it challenging to understand the language that describes the lesson of Nasreen's Secret School as well as the language in the details that support the lesson. First work with them to make sure they clearly understand the meaning of the lesson and the meaning of one or two details by discussing, sketching, and acting out key phrases. Then help them draw connections between the details and the lesson, using Goal 1 Conversation Cues to prompt them to explain why the details convey the lesson. To contrast, consider discussing a detail that does not directly support the lesson and why it doesn't directly support the lesson (e.g., "when we were girls" on page 3 of Nasreen's Secret School). Refer to the levels of support and the Meeting Students' Needs column for additional suggestions.
  • In Work Time A, ELLs are invited to participate in the second of two connected Language Dive conversations (optional). The conversations invite students to unpack complex syntax--or "academic phrases"--as a necessary component of building both literacy and habits of mind. This second conversation helps them investigate and practice the subject-predicate structure and the use of because in Nasreen's Secret School. Students may draw on this sentence when writing about challenges later in the unit. A consistent Language Dive routine is critical in helping all students learn how to decipher complex sentences and write their own. In addition, Language Dive conversations hasten overall English language development for ELLs. Review the Language Dive Guide and consider how to invite conversation among students to address the questions and goals suggested under each sentence strip chunk (see supporting materials). Select from the questions and goals provided to best meet your students' needs. Consider providing students with a Language Dive log inside a folder to track Language Dive sentences and structures and collate Language Dive note-catchers.

Levels of support

For lighter support:

  • Encourage students to independently create their own Nasreen's Secret School note-catcher with questions and organizers that target the meaning of unfamiliar words; the moral or lesson and how details convey it; and the challenge and how it is overcome.
  • Help students deepen their reasoning as they complete the note-catcher. (Example: "How did you come to that conclusion? I'll give you a minute to think and write.")

For heavier support:

  • When possible, read aloud and rephrase the questions and answers on the Close Read note-catcher, pointing to key elements of the corresponding pictures in Nasreen's Secret School. Partially fill in the lesson/moral/message portion of the Close Read note-catcher with sentence starters. Alternatively, complete the Close Read note-catcher, cut it into strips, and allow students to match the detail to how it communicates the lesson as you complete the close read.
  • Focus on one page of Nasreen's Secret School (e.g., page 3), helping students understand the text and the note-catcher. Focusing on a smaller amount of text will help students develop the habits of mind necessary to work with the text while keeping the volume of unfamiliar language more manageable.
  • Model and think aloud the strategies on the Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart as students complete the close read note-catcher.

Universal Design for Learning

  • Multiple Means of Representation: Students who may need additional support with memory can benefit from generalizing information across multiple lessons. Prepare students for the end of unit assessment by telling them that the targets on Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Nasreen's Secret School are the same as those focused on in the End of Unit 1 Assessment. Answer any clarifying questions and consider re-teaching any areas that still seem unclear.
  • Multiple Means of Action and Expression: Students' expressive language skills may be a barrier to recounting for some. Consider allowing them to recount in a nonverbal way (e.g., miming, acting out the story, writing a graphic novel). Offering choice of representation will also build students' engagement.
  • Multiple Means of Engagement: Build engagement by helping students to connect to Nasreen's challenges. During the Closing and Assessment, have students think about challenges that they will need to overcome or have already overcome and how it relates to the story. This will help make the themes of the story more relevant to all students and facilitate enhanced comprehension.

Vocabulary

N/A

Materials

  • Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart (begun in Lesson 2)
  • Independent Reading: Sample Plans (see the Tools page; for teacher reference)
  • Nasreen's Secret School (book; from Lesson 8; one per student)
  • Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Nasreen's Secret School (from Lesson 8; one per student)
  • Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School (one per student)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (from Lesson 3)
  • Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3)
  • Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School (answers, for teacher reference)
  • Equity sticks (class set; one per student)
  • Red, yellow, and green objects (one of each per student)
  • Language Dive Guide II: Nasreen's Secret School (optional; for ELLs; for teacher reference)
    • Language Dive Sentence strip chunks I and II: Nasreen's Secret School (optional; for ELLs; from Lesson 8)
    • Vocabulary Log (from Lesson 5; one per student)
    • Language Dive Note-catcher I and II: Nasreen's Secret School (optional; for ELLs; from Lesson 8; one per student and one to display)
  • Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart (begun in Lesson 3; added to during Closing and Assessment A)
  • Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart (example, for teacher reference)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New Materials

Assessment

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Opening

OpeningMeeting Students' Needs

A. Research Reading Share (15 minutes)

  • Focus students on the Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart. Remind them of the criteria: I behave with integrity. This means I am honest and do the right thing, even when it's difficult, because it is the right thing to do.
  • Remind them that this includes doing homework even when there may be other things they want to do after school. Remind them that the purpose of research reading is to build background knowledge and vocabulary on a topic so that they can gradually read more and more complex texts on that topic.
  • Refer to Independent Reading: Sample Plans to guide students through a research reading share, or use your own routine.
  • Build excitement about research reading by reminding students that they get to become an expert in something that is really important to them. Then, they will get to share this expertise with others. (MME)

B. Reviewing Learning Targets (5 minutes)

  • Direct students' attention to the posted learning target and select a volunteer to read them aloud:

"I can refer explicitly to the text to answer questions about Nasreen's Secret School."

"I can explain how the central message, lesson, or moral is conveyed through details in Nasreen's Secret School."

  • Remind students that they saw these learning targets in Lesson 5 when they closely read Rain School. 
  • Review the meaning of the word explicitly. Remind students that they must use evidence from the text to answer the question. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: Underline the -ly in explicitly and invite students to retrieve their Affix List. Ask:

"What does the -ly ending mean in explicitly? (It means having the qualities or characteristics of. It shows we are describing a verb or action. We are describing how we do the verb or action. We "refer explicitly.")

Draw a line from explicitly to refer.

Display the sentence frame: "I answer questions _____."

Ask:

"How do you answer questions? Can you use an -ly to describe how?" (explicitly, quickly, clearly, quietly) 

Work Time

Work TimeMeeting Students' Needs

A. Close Reading: Nasreen's Secret School, Pages 1-11 (30 minutes)

  • Group students into predetermined triads for the close read and invite them to label themselves A, B, and C.
  • Focus students on the Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart and remind them specifically of respect, empathy, and compassion. Remind students that sometimes people make connections between stories and things from their own lives or stories they have heard from their families and that this can be upsetting, so they need to remember to practice respect, empathy, and compassion.
  • Remind students that in the previous lesson, they read Nasreen's Secret School, recounted what happens in the story, and determined its central message or lesson.
  • Invite students to retrieve their copies of Nasreen's Secret School and Reading for Gist and Recounting the Story: Nasreen's Secret School.
  • Explain that students are going to recount the story in their triads using their note-catcher. Give students 2 minutes to look through their book and note-catcher and to think silently.
  • Tell students that each partner will have 1 minute to recount the story, and partner C will go first.
  • Invite partner C to begin sharing.
  • After 1 minute, repeat this process with the remaining partners.
  • Refocus students whole group.
  • Distribute the Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School. Inform students that they are going to complete the note-catcher with their triad. Point out that this means they will have to read the questions and possible answers carefully. Remind students that they will record notes on this note-catcher, and that notes help them remember their thinking and do not have to be full sentences.
  • Focus students on Nasreen's Secret School. Invite them to follow along, reading silently in their heads, as you reread pages 1-11 aloud.
  • Invite students to place a marker on the last page (11: ending on "Luckily, no soldier saw us.")
  • Direct students' attention to the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart and quickly review the bullets.
  • Also remind students of the Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart, as there are many selected response questions on the Close Read note-catcher.
  • Invite triads to begin completing the Close Read note-catcher.
  • Circulate to support triads as they reread the text and complete their note-catchers. Refer to the Close Read Note-catcher: Nasreen's Secret School (answers, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Refocus whole group. Tell students they will review their responses in the next lesson.
  • Focus students on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart.
  • Invite students to turn and talk with their triad. Then, using equity sticks, invite responses from the group:

"What did you do today to answer the questions?" (went back to the text to answer questions; wrote notes or answered questions about the text; talked with my triad about possible answers)

"How did these strategies help us better understand the text?"

  • If productive, prompt students to expand the discussion by asking:

"Can you give an example?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Distribute red, yellow, and green objects.
  • Tell students they are going to use the Red Light, Green Light protocol to show how close they are to meeting the learning targets. Remind them that they used this protocol in Lesson 2 and review what each color represents (red = stuck or not ready; yellow = needs support soon; green = ready) as necessary. (Refer to the Classroom Protocols document for the full version of the protocol.)
  • Focus students on each learning target and guide them through the Red Light, Green Light protocol, using the red, yellow, and green objects. Repeat, inviting students to self-assess against how well they showed integrity and respect.
  • For ELLs: During or after Work Time A, lead students through Language Dive: Part II (see supporting materials). Refer to the Language Dive Guide: Part II (for teacher reference). Display and have students retrieve the Language Dive note-catcher and sentence strip chunks from Lesson 8.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with memory: In preparation for the End of Unit 1 Assessment, point out that the three main targets of the note-catcher are: determine the meaning of unfamiliar words; discuss the lesson or moral and details that convey it; and identify the character's challenge and how he or she overcame it. Continually remind students that these are the same targets they will have to meet on the End of Unit 1 Assessment. (MMR)
  • For ELLs: Consider placing students with at least one partner who has more advanced or native language proficiency. The partner with greater language proficiency can serve as a model in the triad, initiating discussions and providing implicit sentence frames, for example.
  • Provide differentiated mentors by purposefully pre-selecting student groupings. Consider meeting with the mentors in advance to encourage them to share their thought processes with their partners. (MMAE)
  • Consider allowing students to recount the story in multiple ways. For instance, a student could mime the story or draw a graphic novel. (MME, MMAE)
  • For students who may need additional support with fine motor skills: Offer choice with the Close Read note-catcher by providing a template that includes lines. (MMR, MME)

Closing & Assessments

ClosingMeeting Students' Needs

A. Overcoming Learning Challenges (10 minutes)

  • Focus students on the Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart.
  • Invite students to Think-Pair-Share, leaving adequate time for each partner to think, ask the question to their partner, and partner share:

"What challenges did Nasreen face?" (Her mother and father were gone; she wasn't allowed to go to school, and she wasn't allowed to go outside alone.)

"How were the challenges overcome?" (Her grandmother found a secret school and took Nasreen there.)

  • If productive, cue students to expand the conversation by saying more:

"Can you say more about that?" (Responses will vary.)

  • As students share out, capture their responses on the Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart. Refer to the Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart (example, for teacher reference) as necessary.
  • Ask students to silently think about, write, or sketch:

"What do you think about Nasreen's actions?"

"How does what you know about Nasreen change what you think about challenges with accessing education?"

  • If productive, cue students to expand the conversation by giving an example:

"Can you give an example?" (Responses will vary.)

  • Ensure students understand that this was a very dangerous situation for Nasreen and her grandmother because they were breaking laws and that could have resulted in serious consequences and punishment.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with reading: Remind students that the end of unit assessment will require them to read an unfamiliar text, determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, and talk about challenges the main character faces and how the character overcomes them. To help them prepare, provide students with time to begin to discuss, in pairs, perhaps partnered by home language, what their short constructed response would be for Nasreen's situation, based on what the class records on the Overcoming Learning Challenges anchor chart. (MME)

Homework

HomeworkMeeting Students' Needs

A. Accountable Research Reading. Select a prompt and respond in the front of your independent reading journal.

B. For ELLs: Complete the Language Dive: Part II Practice in your Unit 1 homework.
  • For ELLs and students who may need additional support with writing: Discuss and respond to your prompt orally, either with a partner, family member, or student from grades 2 or 4, or record a response. Read the prompts aloud and brainstorm possible responses with your teacher. If you have trouble writing sentences, write words or make sketches in your responses, or your teacher can give you sentence starters. (MMAE)

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