Understanding Sequence

Building academic language

Word

• Write the words embarrassed, one-on-one, scolded, and court on the board and distribute the On the Court worksheet. Have the students find the new words in the text and circle the words.
• Distribute the Context Clues Table worksheet and review the directions. Model finding the meaning of the word embarrassed and complete the first three rows of question number one with all the information about the word.
• Allow students to complete the first three rows for the next three questions with the words one-on-one, scolded, and court in partners.
• Ask students to say new sentences using the new vocabulary words in their groups. Then, have them write them down in the fourth row of each question in the Context Clues Table worksheet.
• Distribute the vocabulary cards and ask students to review their Context Clues Table in partnerships. Circulate through the groups to offer praise and correct misconceptions.

Sentence

• Tell students they will now learn some transition words when discussing the sequence of an everyday scenario so they can do so with fictional texts. Write the following sentence stems on the board:
  • In the beginning, _____.
  • After, ___.
  • Next, ____
  • In the end, ____.
• Provide the definition for sequence and model creating sequence sentences in an everyday scenario. Use some of the new vocabulary words in your examples, and encourage students to do so as well.
• Distribute the white boards and allow them to say the sentences to a partner before writing them on their whiteboard.
• Have them switch partners and share their sentences about an everyday scenario. Allow them to adjust their sentences based on their second partner’s feedback.

Discourse

• Reread the story in the On the Court worksheet.
• Conduct a group discussion around the setting and details surrounding the text. Ask, "What is happening in the text? What details give you information? What is the setting and how do you know? Who else is in the story besides the main character and Santiago?"
• Reread the sentence stems from the Sentence Level Focus and provide some examples using details from the text. For example, "In the beginning of the story, there were only 10 seconds on the clock and the main character was nervous."
• Separate students into pairs and ask them to read the text to their partners. Then, have them tell the sequence of the story using the sentence frames for assistance. Allow them to use their white boards to jot information or sketch the story.
• Allow two groups to share their oral retelling of the text.