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Lesson Plan

Detective Reading

Roll up your sleeves and get out the magnifying glasses! In this lesson, your students will practice finding supportive details and examples in informational texts.
Need extra help for EL students? Try the Prepositional Phrases as Key Details pre-lesson.
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Need extra help for EL students? Try the Prepositional Phrases as Key Details pre-lesson.

Learning Objectives

  • Students will identify supporting details and examples in an informational text.

Introduction

(5 minutes)
  • Introduce your lesson by raising a discussion about detectives. Possible questions include:
    • What does a detective do?
    • What does a detective find to solve a mystery?
  • Write your students' answers on the board. Answers should include ideas about investigating and gathering clues or evidence.
  • Tell your students that they will become detectives as they read a text together. Explain that they will need to identify, or recognize, details and examples in order to "solve" questions.

Beginning

  • Have a word wall visible to students. Provide and post the definition, with images if applicable, for the terms "detective," "mystery," "clue," "investigate," "supporting details," and "solve" in students' L1 or in English.

Intermediate

  • Have students turn to a partner to discuss the definition and purpose of a "detective."
  • Provide students with sentence frames and stems for the class discussion: "A detective is a person who ____________. A detective must find ____________ to solve a ____________."