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Running Head: Reading Magicians

Reading Mini-Lesson:
Reading Magicians
Gretchen Krieg Mathews
Teachers College

Running Head: Reading Magicians

Mini-Lesson Reading Magicians

Objective / Overview
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As a part of a unit on being the boss of ones reading, students will practice using
words they know, in order to figure out tricky words that are less familiar.

Lesson Sequence
-Hook / Connection to Prior Knowledge (3 minutes)
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Teacher will begin the lesson by saying, Readers, I really like

magic, can you put your thumb up if you like magic too? Once
students have put their thumb up, shell ask them to keep their
thumb up if theyve ever seen a cat turned into a hat. Well,
readers, shell say, Guess what?! Today, I am going to show

you exactly that. Nod your head yes if youre ready.

Once students have nodded, shell click to a PowerPoint
presentation with the word CAT projected with a picture of a
cat (see presentation attached in email). She will confirm that
they agree that there is a CAT on the screen. Then, shell get
her arms ready, and say, Okay, readers, here I go. Hocus Pocus
alakazam! As she says those words, shell click to another slide
where the word HAT is projected with a picture of a hat. She
will continue this trick by asking students if theyve ever seen
a HAT turned into a RAT. Shell prepare with her magical
chant, hit the slide, and then show another trick in which she
turns RAT into a SPLAT.

Running Head: Reading Magicians

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Shell end the hook by saying, Readers, did you notice how I was
turning my cat into hats and rats into splats by just
changing the letters that started the words? You can be
magicians in your reading too, and do the exact same thing to
figure out tricky words!

-Setting up the Teaching Point (1 minute)

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Shell then introduce the teaching point (which will also be posted on a
SmartBoard slide see attached document) by saying, Today I want to
teach you that readers use words they know, to read words they
dont know.

-Teach / Practice (5 minutes)

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The teacher will continue, Let me show you what I mean. Ive come up with a
few words we know, can we read them together? On a slide within the
PowerPoint presentation, she will have Car in a box at the top of the slide,

Back in a box next to Car, and Will in a box next to Back.

After reading the three words, she will explain that she is going to pull up a new,
more difficult word, and the class needs to figure out what the word is, using the
words they already know. Shell remind them not to shout it out, but to raise their

hand.
First, shell pull up the word, Stack and call on a student to name the new word,
and explain how they found it using words they already knew. Then, shell pull up
the word, scar and will do the same, emphasizing after each student response
how the known word helped the class figure out the unknown word. She will do

Running Head: Reading Magicians

the same with sharpen, pill, and thrilling, before saying, Okay, you
reading magicians, I think we are ready to try this in a book. First, I am going to
show how we might do this in Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways (a mentor text), and
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then I am going to have you try it out, too.

We left off in the story, when the Fox sisters were putting on their pjs, so well
start off here. The teacher will then begin to read via the Elmo (so all students

can see). After reading a few lines, shell stop at the word, hear.
Oh, no readers, shell say. This is a word, (shell point so all students can
see), Ive really been struggling with. But, because I am being a magician, I
think I am going to give it another try. So, as a magician, I am really thinking
about words I know (shell point to her head as she is thinking). Hmmmm. Well,
this kind of looks like the word fear, and I know the word fear pretty well. So,
hmmm, well if I practice doing the magic work we did before reading, all I need
to do is take off the /f/ sound, and add and a /h/ sound. Okay, I am going to try it.
Here goes!. F-ear. Wow! Fear. That makes sense it sounds rightand it looks
right. I am a word magician! And if I can do it, you can definitely do it!

--Active Engagement / Link to Reading (5 minutes)

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Shell then continue, Readers, do you guys think youre ready to be magicians?
After the students respond, shell say, Great! and start reading again. Shell stop
at the word packed and say, Ugh.., readers, this is another word Ms. Mathews
was really struggling with. Do you guys think we could be magicians, and think
about words we know, in order to figure out words we dont know? (pause) Okay,
nod if you feel like youve had a second to think. Now, turn and talk to your
partner about how being a magician helped you figure out this new tricky word.

Running Head: Reading Magicians

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After listening in on a few turn and talks, the teacher will then regain the groups
attention and explain how a partnership she was listening in on acted as magicians

in order to figure out the word, packed.

To ensure students are clear on the objective, the teacher will have students

practice one more example before independent reading.

Shell then note, Readers, you are doing such a wonderful job being magicians. I
think youre ready to try this in your dot books. I am going to call quiet rows to
get their book baggies, and then you can quietly tiptoe to your reading spot.
Remember, you dont need to use this strategy every time you come to a tricky
word, as we have lots of strategies (shell point to the reading suitcase listing the
strategies on the wall) to help solve tricky words. However, I do want you to try it
at least once today and mark it with a post-it to share after independent reading.

-Independent Work (10 minutes)

-Students will read independently with their dot books.
-The teacher will work with two students more closely on being a word detective.

-Mid-Workshop Share (5 minutes)

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10-15 minutes into independent work, the teacher will stop the class and say,
Readers, I have been working with xxx and xxx, and they did an excellent job
being magicians. Using words they know, they were able to figure out the word,
xxxx by using the known word xxx. Take five more minutes to see if you can
do the same in your work as you keep on reading, you can mark the spot where
you try it with a post-it. Then, we will share with our reading partners.

-Independent Work (5 minutes)

Running Head: Reading Magicians

-Partner Share (3 minutes)

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Teacher will regain student attention and say, Readers, you have been doing a
fantastic job today being magicians. Take a minute to share an example with your
partner, of when you used words you know, to figure out a word you didnt
know.

-Closing (2 minutes)
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After students have had time to share their work, the teacher will highlight a few
student pairs she listened to, and how they used their magician skills to figure out

tricky words.
The teacher will end by then exclaiming that she is really proud of
all of the hard magician works students did in class today. She
will say, Readers, weve have learned a lot of strategies to be
the boss of our reading. Today, we learned how all of the words
we know can help us figure out words that might not be as
familiar. Tomorrow, well continue our work and think about more
strategies we can use to be the boss of our reading.

Reflection
Overall, students were very engaged in the lesson. Learning from previous lessons
and observations, I really emphasized how excited I was about my magic skills, which in
turn made them very excited. Additionally, I think my hook about turning a CAT into a
HAT really intrigued them (except for the one boy in the front row who had said he had
already seen that ). While I noticed a lot of impressive examples of students using

Running Head: Reading Magicians

words they knew, to figure out words that werent as unfamiliar during the share, there
are still a few lessons I will take away from this tryout.
First, I felt as if the mini-lesson went a little bit too long. Though I wanted to
ensure I gave students practice with this reading strategy before jumping into a book and
trying it out, I could have considered breaking up the lesson into two days. Students
really seemed to enjoy the presentation slides where they had to figure out words they
didnt know, using familiar words across the top of the slide. I could have considered
introducing and practicing the strategy on one day, and then transferring the strategy to
books on the second day. Further, this could have given me more time to allow students
to practice on their own white boards with magnetic letters making it more interactive
for each student in the classroom.
The second learning I will take away from this tryout is being mindful of the
words that I choose during the practice and active engagement. While I chose words that
all students were familiar with, this would have been a great opportunity to utilize word
wall words. Not only would have they been top of mind for all students, but it would
have modeled how word wall words are important for reading, as well as writing.
The last major takeaway I had coming off of this lesson was how helpful
analogies can be in teaching reading. As I noted in the beginning of my reflection,
students were immediately excited when I said the word magic. Because I am
continually impressed with how smart my first graders are, I often forget how they are
still children, who get excited about the little things. Analogies are a great way to harness
this excitement and energy and use it towards engagement in lessons. Moving forward I

Running Head: Reading Magicians

will definitely continue to incorporate analogies like this one to make sure reading is fun
for all students.