Exploring Seahorses

Lesson Overview

This lesson is designed for Year 3 students in Australia and focuses on the essential literacy skills outlined in the Australian Curriculum: English, specifically:

• Curriculum Area: English
  • ACELY1680: Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas across texts.
  • ACELY1677: Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations.
  • ACELY1678: Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence.

The lesson uses a modelled and guided reading approach to help students develop comprehension strategies while engaging with an informative passage on seahorses. It focuses on reading aloud, understanding different types of questions, and answering them using explicit techniques. This lesson is designed for 40 minutes for a small group of 3 students.

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Learning Intentions

By the end of the lesson, students will:

1. Understand how to observe and apply reading strategies modelled by the teacher.
2. Use comprehension techniques to interpret literal, inferential, and evaluative questions.
3. Independently answer a range of comprehension questions about seahorses.

Assessment: Students will demonstrate understanding through group participation, answering questions verbally, and completing a worksheet at the end of the lesson.

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Materials Required

• Seahorse reading passage (NAPLAN-format text about seahorses)
• Projector or whiteboard with text displayed
• Seahorse worksheet (provided at the end of the lesson plan)
• Highlighters or coloured pencils

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Lesson Structure

Introduction (5 minutes)

1. Set the Scene:

   • Begin by asking students what they already know about seahorses. Use prompts like:
     • "Have you ever seen a seahorse? What do you know about how they live?"
   • Explain that the class will be exploring a passage about seahorses today, using reading and thinking strategies to understand it better.

2. Link to Real-World Context:

   • Briefly explain how the skills they are practising today will help them not only in their reading tests (like NAPLAN) but also in understanding interesting facts about the world.

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Modelled Reading and Observation (15 minutes)

1. Teacher Read-Aloud (Look at what I am doing)

   • Display the seahorse passage on the board.
   • Read it aloud with appropriate intonation, pausing to point out key features like headings, bold words, or full stops.
   • Model essential reading skills:
     • Pointing to key words or phrases: e.g., "Seahorses live in the ocean. Here, I’m circling the word ‘ocean’ because it tells me their habitat."
     • Pausing for emphasis: e.g., “Seahorses eat up to 3000 shrimps in a day—can you imagine that much food?”
     • Changing tone for meaning: e.g., using a curious tone when asking, "Did you know male seahorses carry eggs?"

2. Think-Aloud Strategy (What can you see?)

   • After reading, verbalise your thinking to expose students to comprehension strategies:
     • "I notice that seahorses are fish, but they don’t look like other fish with scales and fins."
     • "I see that male seahorses carry eggs in their pouch, which is fascinating because most animals have females carry eggs."
     • "Let me highlight the phrase ‘3000 shrimps’. That’s an important number related to what seahorses eat."

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Breaking Down Questions (15 minutes)

Objective: Teach students how to approach, understand, and answer literal, inferential, and evaluative questions.

1. Different Types of Questions (Teacher explanation)

   • Display three types of comprehension questions on the board, using examples from the text:
     • Literal Question: "What do seahorses eat?"
     • Inferential Question: "Why do you think seahorses need to eat all day?"
     • Evaluative Question: "Would a seahorse survive in a fast-moving river? Why/why not?"
   • Explain each type briefly.

2. Step-by-Step Breakdown (Now, can you answer the question?)

   • Choose an example question and model the step-by-step strategy:
     • “What do seahorses eat?”
     • Highlight key words in the question: 'seahorses' and 'eat'.
     • Return to the text and locate the fact in the passage.
     • Paraphrase: “Seahorses eat small crustaceans like shrimps.”
   • Conduct a guided practice by answering the next type of question together with the students as a group.

3. Independent Work (Go and try it yourself)

   • Hand out the Seahorse worksheet. Allow students to answer the multiple-choice questions independently.
   • Circulate around the room, offering support as needed and encouraging students to refer back to the text.

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Plenary and Reflection (5 minutes)

• Gather the group and review their answers to the worksheet.

  • Ask them to share how they found answers (e.g., “Did you highlight key words like we practised?”).
  • Provide positive feedback on their efforts and correct any misconceptions.

• Reflect on the lesson:

  • Ask: “What was one interesting fact you learned about seahorses today?”
  • Reiterate how the strategies they used today will help them when reading other texts.

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Seahorse Worksheet

1. Seahorses got their name because they...
   ◯ Move like horses
   ◯ Eat like horses
   ◯ Breathe like horses
   ◯ Look like horses

2. Seahorse eggs are kept...
   ◯ On coral
   ◯ In a pouch
   ◯ In the seaweed
   ◯ On the sand

3. What does a seahorse use to attach itself to seaweed?
   ◯ Its mouth
   ◯ Its teeth
   ◯ Its fins
   ◯ Its tail

4. Which question is answered in the last paragraph?
   ◯ What are seahorses?
   ◯ Where do seahorses live?
   ◯ What do seahorses eat?
   ◯ How do seahorses move around?

5. The main reason for the picture is to show...
   ◯ What seahorses eat
   ◯ What seahorses look like
   ◯ How seahorses move
   ◯ Where seahorses live

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Teacher Notes:

• Adjust pacing depending on the students’ engagement and understanding. For higher comprehension levels, include open-ended discussion questions (e.g., "Why do you think seahorses look different from other fish?").
• Reinforce growth mindset: praise effort and strategy use over correct answers.