Finding the Key Details

First Grade Reading, ESL

Introduce students to fictional story elements with a book by first grade favorite, Mo Willems! This lesson plan
can be used alone or with the Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Key Details lesson plan.

Objectives

Objectives

Academic

Students will recall and comprehend key details and the story message.

Language

Students will be able to recall key details from a fiction text with grade level words using visual and written
supports.

Materials and preparation Key terms

Copy of the read aloud text Knuffle Bunny Too: TIER 2

A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems
Unlined paper key detail: important parts of the story
Chart paper or whiteboard with KWL chart pre-
written TIER 3
Teacher copy of the Teach Background
Knowledge Template character: the person or animal in a story
Teacher copy of the Write Student-Facing
describe: to tell or write about
Language Objectives Reference
Teacher set of the Vocabulary Cards supporting detail: information that tells more about,
Teacher set of the Glossary explains, or describes the main idea

Attachments

Vocabulary Cards: Finding the Key Details (PDF)

Glossary: Finding the Key Details (PDF)
Teach Background Knowledge Template (PDF)
Write Student-Facing Language Objectives Reference (PDF)

Introduction (2 minutes)

Display the read aloud text for today's lesson to the class.
Tell the class the title of the book and ask if they have any ideas or prior knowledge of what the book
might be about. You can ask guiding questions. For example:
What other stories have you read about similar characters?
What does "mistaken identity" mean?
What things do you notice on the cover of this book?
Record student thinking under the K column of a pre-written and posted KWL chart on the board.

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Building Academic Language

Word (8 minutes)

Introduce the tiered vocabulary words using the vocabulary cards and glossary.
Have students practice using the new vocabulary words by turning and talking to a partner using the
sentence starter, "The ____ means ____."
Explain that today students will practice finding key details in a read-aloud text using a KWL chart for
support.
Point to the KWL chart. Explain that the K means "What I already know," the W means, "What I wonder,"
and the L means, "What I have learned."

Sentence (10 minutes)

Read aloud one half of the book, Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity.
Pause midway through the text and ask the students to think about the key details that they have
learned so far. You can ask guiding questions to prompt student thinking. For example:
Who is the main character?
Where is the setting or where does the story take place?
What is the problem in the story?
How do you know?
Ask students to think about additional questions they have about the story. Invite students to turn and
talk to share the things they wonder with a partner.
Have students share out with the class and record their thinking on the W portion of the KWL chart.

Discourse (15 minutes)

Read the rest of the story.

As you read, pause to note additional key details in the story.
Have students turn and talk to share what they have learned about the story using the sentence starter,
"I learned ____."
Pass out papers to the students and have them write an L at the top of their page. Then have them
independently write or draw 2–3 key things that they learned from the story.

Additional EL adaptations

BEGINNING

Read an additional story with students and practice identifying key details from the beginning, middle,
and end of the story.

ADVANCED

Encourage students to write longer and more complex sentences about the key details in the story.

Formative Assessment of Academic Language (2 minutes)

Informally assess understanding as students are sharing their thinking to check if they are able to identify
key details from the text.
Collect student work samples and assess if students were able to identify key details in the text while
recording what they learned.

Review and closing (3 minutes)

Gather the class and have students share out one key detail they learned from the text. Record the ideas
on the classroom KWL chart.
Have students further reflect on the lesson by turning and talking to a partner to answer the sentence
starter: "I learned ____ today."

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Vocabulary Cards
EL Support Lesson Plan: finding the key details

character describe

a person or animal in a story to tell or write about

key detail supporting detail

important parts of the story information that tells more

about, explains, or describes
the main idea

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 Glossary for EL Support Lesson PLAN:
finding the key details

Word Definition Visual

character a person or animal in

a story

describe to tell or write about

key detail important parts of the story

information that tells more

supporting detail about, explains, or
describes the main idea

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 Teach Background Knowledge
Lesson Topic:
Choose a topic from the main content
lesson that will help ELs understand the
main content lesson. Your non-ELs will
already have knowledge about this topic.

Total Lesson Time:

(20 - 30 minutes)

Student-Facing Language
Objective:
Example: I can learn new vocabulary
using pictures and sentence frames.

Student ELP Level(s):

Consider each student’s ELP level and
their academic strengths when choosing
scaffolds for the lesson.

Groupings (pairs, small-groups, a teacher-led group)

Potential Scaffolds: Word banks, word wall, and bilingual glossaries
Choose some of these material supports
Sentence frames, sentence stems, and paragraph frames
and instructional scaffolds based on each
EL’s individual strengths and needs. Home language materials
Reduced linguistic load, repetition, rephrasing and modeling
Practice new academic skills with familiar topics

Materials & Resources List

List the materials you’ll use in the lesson.

Key Vocabulary Words (5-8 words)

List the words with student-friendly
definitions in English. Provide
definitions in student’s home language
when appropriate.

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Introduction
Access EL’s prior knowledge about the
lesson topic with a brief comprehension
check.

Potential activities:
Creating captions for images
Opinionnaires
Carousel brainstorming
Conversations with sentence starters
Time estimate for Introduction
(3 - 5 minutes)

Explicit Instruction of
Background Knowledge
Model a learning activity that embeds
the teaching of academic language and
background knowledge.

Potential activities:
Lunch brunch discussion
Teacher-created, adjusted text and
questions
Brief videos or visuals
Text-based instruction
Home-language connections
Pre-teach a small number of
vocabulary words
Show real-world objects
Complete word family or bilingual
glossaries
Word walls or word bank creation

Time Estimate for Explicit Instruction

(4 - 6 minutes)

Guided Practice
Provide an opportunity for students (in
pairs or small groups) to practice the skill
or information taught during Explicit
Instruction, offering appropriate
scaffolds as needed.

Time Estimate for Guided Practice

(5 - 7 minutes)
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 Formative Assessment
Ask students to show comprehension of
new background knowledge and
associated skills through an oral or
written task. Provide appropriate
scaffolds dependent on their ELP level.

Potential assessments:
Act out concepts
Hands on tasks
Drawings, models, or graphs
Graphic organizer completion
Captions of images
Reading response or content
area logs
Retellings
Role plays
Audio or video recordings
Oral interviews

Time estimate for Assessment

(5 - 7 minutes)

Review and Closing

Refer to the student objective and relate
information to future lessons. Allow
students to share thoughts about
whether they reached their objective
and/or mention lingering questions.
Provide sentence stems or frames for their
discussion.

Time estimate for Review and Closing

(3 - 5 minutes)

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 Write Student-Facing Language Objectives
A student-facing language objective: A teacher-facing language objective:
begins with “I can...” begins with “Students will be able to...”
is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and
promote their language development. promote their language development.
incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and
supports or scaffolds. supports or scaffolds.
is easy to understand for students at all levels of is intended to guide the teacher’s lesson planning
English proficiency. and instruction.

Steps to convert a teacher-facing objective to a student-facing objective:

1. Replace “Students will be able to” with “I can.”
2. Simplify challenging words but maintain key vocabulary words you’ll address in the lesson.

Students will be able to describe a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.
Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

I can talk about a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.

Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

Language Functions Grammar Structures Supports/Scaffolds

locate create identify nouns adverbs graphic organizers sentence starters

show describe infer modals academic vocabulary teacher modeling strategic grouping
sort ask questions interpret verb forms adjectives word banks/walls home language supports
tell brainstorm collect conjunctions phrases
contrast classify compare sentence structure prepositions
pronouns complex sentences
comparatives
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Copyright lessons
lessons
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Education.com & All
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at at education.com/resources
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2019 Education.com