Standard Lesson
Guided Reading Strategies with Henry and Mudge
Grades
1 - 3
Lesson Plan Type
Standard Lesson
Estimated Time
Five 50-minute sessions
Author
Publisher
NCTE
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Overview
In this lesson, students read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night as a whole group. During the whole group instruction, the teacher introduces the story and models a questioning strategy. In later sessions, students apply the questioning strategy they have learned and reread for fluency. An extension describes how students can get additional practice with the strategy in small guided-reading groups. While this lesson focuses on Henry and Mudge books, other books can also be used.
Featured Resources
Henry and Mudge Questions Interactive: Students use this interactive to guide them through the question writing process.
Sample Questions for Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night: Sample quesitons and answers provided for teaching about questioning in the book.
From Theory to Practice
Reading comprehension in early readers is influenced by the fluency of their reading, as well as their use of effective comprehension strategies. Young readers who are given explicit instruction in comprehension strategies can apply those strategies to new texts, improving their comprehension. Reading fluency also impacts comprehension. Rereading can help to improve reading fluency in young readers and allow opportunity for independently applying comprehension strategies they have learned through direct instruction.
Further Reading
Common Core Standards
This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.
State Standards
This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.
NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts
- 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
- 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
- 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
Materials and Technology
- Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night by Cynthia Rylant
Printouts
Preparation
- Obtain a copy of Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night for each student or pair of students.
- Make one copy of the Henry and Mudge Questions for each student.
- After Session Four, create a quiz about Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night from students’ questions and make one copy for each student.
- Test the Henry and Mudge Questions Interactive on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the Technical Support page.
- Gather several copies of Henry and Mudge books of various levels (optional; for extensions).
Student Objectives
Students will
- practice rereading for fluency.
- provide questions to ask each other about Henry and Mudge books.
- write questions with capitals and question marks.
Session One
- Introduce Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night to the class. “Picture walk” the story together by looking at the pictures and asking students to predict what will happen in the book.
- Read the story aloud to students. As you are reading, stop every few pages and ask the students questions about what happened on those pages. Sample questions can be found in the handout Sample Questions for Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night.
- Explain that sometimes asking questions about what you are reading helps to check for understanding. If you are unsure what the answer is, maybe you need to go back and reread. Tell the class that they will be creating their own questions while reading Henry and Mudge and the Starry Sky in the upcoming lessons.
Session Two
- Review the questioning strategy with the class. Remind students that asking questions while reading can help them to be better readers and to understand what they are reading. Explain that they will all think of questions while they read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night together again.
- Hand out copies of Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night to each student or pair of students.
- Read the story together aloud. Stop every few pages and model how to ask a question about the story. At each stop, ask for a volunteer to think of another question to ask the class.
Session Three
- Make sure that each student or pair of students has a copy of Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night.
- Explain that the students will be the teachers today. Everyone will reread the story Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night with a partner. Each student will take turns asking his or her partner a question about the story.
- Remind students that we reread to work on fluency. Students should read with feeling and make their sentences flow.
- Model fluency for the class with a passage from Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night.
- Practice reading the passage chorally as a class, focusing on fluency.
- Then have students read the book aloud quietly with a partner, paying particular attention to fluency. Ask them to stop after every two pages and take turns asking each other questions about the pages they just read.
- Circulate around the room as students read, monitoring for fluency and use of the questioning strategy.
Session Four
- Remind the class that they have been working on their questioning strategy in previous lessons as they read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night several times. Explain that they will now write their own questions about the book.
- Ask students to suggest two or three questions about the book. Write the suggested questions on the board or on chart paper. Point out that each question starts with a capital letter and ends with a question mark.
- Show the Henry and Mudge Questions Interactive to the class. Demonstrate how to scroll through the screens, writing one question on each screen. Demonstrate how to print the flash cards. Alternatively, give each student a copy of the Henry and Mudge Questions.
- Ask each student to write three questions about the book, using either the Henry and Mudge Questions Interactive or the handout. If desired, students can reference the book to write their questions. They can also work in pairs to think of the questions, but each student must write three. Remind students to use a capital letter at the beginning of each question and a question mark at the end. If students are using the interactive, be sure they print their work before closing the window.
- When students have finished writing their questions, ask each student to share one of their questions with the class. If students used the interactive, they can each pass one flash card with the question on it to the front. Write the suggested questions on the board or chart paper with the questions from step 2.
- You will need at least ten questions, although between fifteen and twenty would be better. Since students’ questions may overlap, brainstorm with the class to come up with more questions, if needed.
- Explain that the class will get to write the reading quiz for Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night. Let the class vote for the best 5–10 questions to be included on the reading quiz the following day.
- Pass the flash cards back to students and ask them to write the answer to each question on the back of the flash card.
- Then, have students practice for the quiz by exchanging cards and trying to answer each other’s questions. Circulate around the room as students work, checking to see that the answers to the questions are correct. If students used the handout instead of the interactive, they can take turns asking each other questions from the handout.
- Use the selected questions to create a quiz prior to the next session.
Session Five
- Review with the class the questions students created and selected in the previous session.
- Explain your expectations for answers (whether you expect complete sentences, capitals, periods, etc.).
- Have students take the quiz.
- When students have finished, discuss the answers as a class. Reread the applicable passages from the book as you answer each question.
Extensions
- Give students additional time to practice the new questioning strategy in small guided-reading groups. Assign each reading group a Henry and Mudge book appropriate for their reading level. Meet with one group each day and listen for miscues as students “whisper read” the book aloud. Have students think of questions about the text as they are reading and write them down. At the end of the session, students can take turns asking and answering each other’s questions.
- Provide several Henry and Mudge books for students to read independently, in small groups, or in listening centers. Have students draw a picture from their favorite Henry and Mudge book and share it with their classmates. Students may then pick another Henry and Mudge book and read it quietly on their own or with a classmate.
- Have students do a “book talk” about their favorite Henry and Mudge book. They should explain why the book was enjoyable and persuade others to read it. Students may then pick another Henry and Mudge book and read it quietly on their own or with a classmate.
- List all the Henry and Mudge book titles that were available in the classroom and have students vote for their favorite. The whole class can make a book graph to display.
- Have students pick their favorite Henry and Mudge book and design a new book cover for it with ReadWriteThink’s Book Cover Creator.
Student Assessment / Reflections
- Monitor and observe students’ participation in creating questions during whole group instruction.
- Monitor students’ fluency while rereading the text with a partner. If desired, use the Oral Reading Rubric for a more formal assessment.
- Assess students’ written questions for use of the questioning strategy as well as use of capitalization at the beginning and punctuation at the end of the question.
- Assess students’ comprehension of Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night with the student-created reading quiz.
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