Shared reading with Soñar un Crimen

This lesson focuses on basic pronunciation and comprehension skills while reading the first chapter of the mystery Soñar un crimen by Rosana Acquaroni Muñoz. Students will also practice the use of interrogatives. As an end result, students will produce crossword puzzle clues that review key elements of the first chapter.

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 Second Languages

By Rachel Casady

Learn more

• Puzzlemaker Use this website to combine the puzzle clues into puzzles. Some cutting and pasting in word might be necessary to print as desired.

Related pages

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Related topics

• Learn more about Spanish, interrogatives, literature, questions, reading, second languages, and shared reading.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• begin to understand how to process and comprehend a reading selection through modeling during a shared reading, interrogative review and shared writing activities
• gain increased phonemic awareness leading to better pronunciation
• use a pronunciation chart to sound out unfamiliar words
• participate in shared reading
• analyze comprehension questions for the purpose of placing interrogative words in them
• participate in a shared writing activity in order to produce crossword puzzle clues reviewing key elements of the first chapter

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

90 minutes

Materials/resources

• copy of the book Soñar un crimen by Rosana Acquaroni Muñoz for every student (available through most on-line bookstores)
• chalkboard, whiteboard, or chart paper
• Pronunciation guide
• Interrogatives notes
• Interrogatives worksheet
• paper and pencil
• dictionaries, as needed

Technology resources

Computer with internet access for teacher to combine clues into crossword puzzles using Puzzlemaker.

Pre-activities

To increase phonemic awareness: (15 minutes)

• Teacher models the pure vowel sounds. Students should be encouraged to locate the vowels and their sounds on the pronunciation guide.
• Teacher facilitates an activity called Popcorn Play to practice the sounds of the consonants in conjunction with the five vowels. This activity was provided by Laura Feregrino at the literacy conference. One student is chosen as the director and five others are the vowel sound actors. The director assigns each of the actors a vowel and decides which consonant letter will pop the corn. The director will pop the corn by pointing to each vowel actor. Each should say the sound the chosen consonant makes with their vowel thus popping the corn. The director can pop the corn (i.e. require a response from the vowel sound actors) in any order and at any speed he or she desires.
• Teacher models consonant sounds included on pronunciation guide. Students should be encouraged to look through the text for examples of the sounds. A classroom list should be made to be available while reading.

Activities

Connected shared reading activity

15 minutes

1. Teacher reads Chapter 1 dramatically as students silently read along.
2. Students chorally read the selection aloud as the teacher models correct pronunciation and dramatic presentation.

Interrogatives review

15 minutes

1. Students work in groups to complete the interrogatives worksheet using the text and the interrogatives notes.
2. As each group finishes, answers are reviewed by the teacher and suggestions for corrections are made.
3. Students who finish early should be encouraged to take turns reading portions of the text aloud.

Strategic shared reading activity

10 minutes

1. Teacher reads questions and answers aloud as student follow along, pausing to help students decode words and phrases.
2. Students pass questions and answers around the classroom. Teacher selects one student and asks them the first question. The student answers, reads the second question and selects another student to answer. When all questions and answers have been read, students continue with the activity using the questions at random.

Shared writing activity

35 minutes

1. Teacher reviews with students and models in Spanish the possible types of crossword puzzle clues: definitions, fill-ins, synonyms, antonyms, question/answer, etc.
2. In groups, students use the text, interrogative materials, and dictionaries to compose crossword puzzle clues to identify main characters, main events, and new vocabulary words within the text.
3. Teacher gathers clues from entire class and uses Puzzlemaker to compose the final puzzles. Teacher may need to make more than one puzzle (perhaps by characters, events, and vocabulary). It may also be necessary to cut and paste from this website into a word processing program in order to print the puzzles as desired.

Assessment

Informal comprehension assessments for use before continuing on to chapter 2: (25 minutes)

• Teacher reviews text by asking basic comprehension questions and eliciting short answer responses from students based on the text.
• Students should complete the student-generated crossword puzzles to review main characters, main events, and new vocabulary words.

Supplemental information

For additional information on shared reading, see this article from Eduplace.com, “Shared Reading: An Effective Model Instruction”.

Comments

This lesson plan was created as a result of the June, 2004 Foreign Literacy Institute hosted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The lesson reflects certain reading methods introduced at this institute, specifically those that deal with Alphabet, Phoneme or Phonics Awareness, Shared Reading and Shared Writing.