"The Watson's Go to Birmingham- 1963" Vocabulary Minilesson

Mini-lesson
Topic: “The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963” for teaching vocabulary
Grade: 3rd or 4th
Time: Three half-hour periods

Introduction
Before the children read the book “The Watson’s Go to Birmingham—1963” by Christopher Paul Curtis we will work on key terms that are important in the book. After reading the words together, I will tell the students that the words on the board are some terms that they will come across throughout the book. The terms/words will be, “colored’s only, blizzard, southern, whirlpool, outhouse, Appalachia, trespassing, sonic boom, segregation, prejudice.” I will send the students to their desks with a K-W-L chart to fill out pertaining to the new vocabulary words. I will ask the students to only fill out the K and W part of the chart until after reading the book. For the “what they know”, they will fill in words they believe that they could already use in a sentence, and the “want to learn” part with the rest of the words that they want to learn about.

-Teach
After reading the book, the students will be split into ten groups. Each group will work with one word or term. They will discuss how each term works into the story. They will write down their definition nine different times on cards I have supplied for them. Each group will then exchange their definition with each other group so each group ends up with nine different definitions. They will match these definitions with each term that is written on the board based on what they read in the book.

-Guided Practice
The following day the students will use what they learned from the activity the previous day to complete an activity. Working on their own, they will write a sentence using each term. The sentence must either describe something that happened in the book or something to do with the book.

-Assess Learning
Another day, the students will receive their old K-W-L charts back. They will also receive a blank one. I will ask each student to work alone to fill It out again. This time though, they must write the word as well as a brief definition of the word or term. Hopefully each student will be able to define all ten terms in the “what I know” section.