Year 2 Literacy Lesson Plan: Finding Information in Text

Objective:

Students will learn how to identify and extract specific information from a given text.

Curriculum Area:

This lesson aligns with the New Zealand Curriculum's English learning area at Level 1, focusing on reading strategies and processing skills for informational texts within the Literacy Learning Progressions.

Lesson Duration:

24 minutes

Class Size:

6 students

Materials:

• Copies of a short, informational text about a locally relevant topic (e.g., a piece on native New Zealand birds)
• Highlighters
• Worksheet with questions based on the text
• Whiteboard and markers

Lesson Outline:

Introduction (5 minutes):

1. Warm-up: Begin with a brief discussion about reading. Ask students: "What are some reasons we read?" Guide them towards understanding the concept of reading to find specific information.
2. Set Learning Objective: Clearly state that today's goal is to learn how to find specific information in a text using clues like titles and headings.

Main Activity (14 minutes):

Guided Practice:

1. Reading the Text: (4 minutes)

   • Distribute the copies of the short informational text.
   • Read the text aloud together, pausing after each sentence to discuss any difficult words.

2. Modeling Information Finding: (3 minutes)

   • Display the same text on the whiteboard.
   • Demonstrate how to use headings, subheadings, and keywords to locate specific information (e.g., "What do native New Zealand birds eat?").
   • Highlight the sentences that provide the answer using a highlighter.

3. Independent Practice: (7 minutes)

   • Hand out the worksheets that contain specific questions about the text.
   • Allow students to work independently to find and highlight answers in their own texts.
   • Circulate to provide support and ensure engagement.

Conclusion and Assessment (5 minutes):

1. Review: (3 minutes)

   • Have students share their answers and the information they found. Discuss any challenges they encountered and how they overcame them.

2. Follow-up Activity: (2 minutes)

   • Explain the follow-up activity: Each student will receive a different short text at home to practice the day's lesson.
   • They will need to answer specific questions related to that text and highlight the parts of the text where they found their answers.
   • Remind them to bring their completed work for review in the next class.

Follow-Up:

• In the subsequent lesson, review the homework assignment by discussing the techniques used to find the answers. This will reinforce the skills learned and provide an opportunity to address any further difficulties.
• Continuously integrate similar activities into future lessons to enhance and reinforce these reading strategies.

This lesson plan is specifically structured to meet the abilities and curriculum requirements for Year 2 students in New Zealand, focusing on a foundational reading strategy that is crucial for literacy development. For more information on curriculum standards and progression, please visit the NZ Curriculum Online - English page.