Miss Nelson is Missing Written by Harry Allard and James Marshall

Miss Nelson is Missing Written by Harry Allard and James Marshall

Guided Reading Lesson for a Second Grade Level Students

Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard and James Marshall is a good book for advanced second grade readers. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1977, Miss Nelson is Missing! is a story about the rowdy and rude kids from class 207 who take advantage of their teacher’s, Miss Nelson, sweet demeanor. One day Miss Nelson is replaced by the mean-spirited substitute, Viola Swamp. As Miss Swamp piles on the homework, the kids of room 207 begin wonder if Miss Nelson will ever come back.

Miss Nelson is Missing! is 30 pages of illustrated text with about 3-5 sentences per page. There are high frequency words throughout the text (such as the, a, always, something, kid) but these words require readers to have a broad base of sight-word recognition. Although the story is illustrated, many of the pictures are not directly text supportive. For these reasons, this is an appropriate choice for more advanced second grade level readers.

The text within Miss Nelson is Missing! is heavily content based. Most of the words can be phonetically sounded out or deciphered through the context of the sentence; in some instances students will have to use both sets of skills. In lesser instances, illustrative clues also aid in students figuring out more difficult words. For example, on page 8, the word terrible appears:

The next morning Miss Nelson did not come to school. “Wow!” yelled the kids. “Now we can really act up!” They began to make more spitballs and paper planes. “Today let’s be just terrible!” they said.

There is a somewhat weak link between illustrative hints and the word terrible to help students figure out the word. However, through the use of contextual clues and phonetic sounding-out, students should be able to decipher the word terrible. This book gives students ample and level-appropriate practice utilizing both sets of skills in tandem.

The content of this book makes for a very fun guided reading lesson. Having a substitute teacher (and the subsequent desire of wanting to act when the regular teacher is missing) is something that all students will be able to identify with. The story’s use of colorful verbs in the dialogue makes for an interesting read. For example, we are introduced to Miss Swamp by the unpleasantness of her voice as she hisses into the classroom. This use of descriptive verb choice helps students anticipate key characteristics of each character and sets the stage for the mean-ness that is Miss Swamp. Additionally, the main premise (that Miss Nelson is missing) encourages students to make predictions. What might have happened to Miss Nelson? Do you think she will ever return to school? Do you think Miss Swamp will stay tormenting the class forever? Do you think Detective McSmogg will help the kids out? This is an obvious place to stop the text walk and allow students to reread the material to find out what happened to Miss Nelson. This question provides adequate motivation for the rereading.

Procedure:

Pre-Reading:

©       The teacher should show the cover of the book and have students read the title.

            She should ask students to make a prediction about who Miss Nelson is. She will also tell           students to pay special attention to the words she uses during the text walk; these          words might appear in the story later when they reread to themselves.

©       The teacher should preview the book using a text walk. She should help students

            understand the basic setting and characters. Certain key words, such as

            Misbehaving (pg 3), Whispered (pg 5), and Arithmetic (pg 10) should be pointed out, as well as the names of the three characters.

©       The teacher should set the purpose for reading: “Why hasn’t Miss Nelson come back yet? Why is she missing? What might have happened to her?” Have the students make predictions before letting them reread the story.

©       Teacher will remind students about sounding out unfamiliar words as well as using the context and illustrations to aid in decoding.

Objectives

©       Students will make predictions about why Miss Nelson is missing.

©       Students will name all three character names: Miss Nelson, Miss Viola Swamp, and Detective McSmogg.

During Reading:

©       Students will read the story silently to themselves. In response to any student who asks for help in decoding, she should provide appropriate cues so that he/she can then figure out the unknown word.

©       The teacher may also want to listen to each student read a page orally to check his/her use of decoding strategies.

Objectives

©       Students will read the story silently.

©       Students will each read a page out loud with at least 95% decoding

            accuracy.

Post-Reading:

Discussing the story:

©       The teacher should restate the purpose for reading and ask what happened. She should ask students to support their answers by rereading passages from the text. As they do, she should comment on the correct use of decoding strategies and offer appropriate clues when inaccurate reading occurs.

©       The teacher should ask comprehension questions to ensure that the students understood the key plot points of the story and characters. Whenever possible, students should support their answers by returning to the text.

©       Finally, the teacher should pose the following question: how do we know Miss Swamp was mean substitute teacher? Students should be able to back their answers up by rereading parts of the story.

Re-reading the Story:

©       The teacher should discuss quotation marks and their use within the story. She should have students point out and read text examples of each and discuss why we need them in reading.

©       The teacher should point out how the way a character says their dialogue can gives us clues about the speaker. She should have students pick out text that utilizes descriptive verbs (for example hissed on page 8) or adverbs.

©       Teacher should ask volunteers to act out sentences that use descriptive verbs to illustrate how the way a character speaks gives us clues about their personality.

Extension activity:

©       Teacher should ask students if they think Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp have a lot in common. Students should provide examples about why they think they are different (or possibly similar).

©       Next the teacher should tell students to think about words that describe Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp. She should tell students to reread the story to support what they think. Students may also use the visual clues in the story as their support (for example, students can say “I think Miss Swamp is mean because she is always frowning”).

©       Finally, teacher will hand out two character maps. One will be for Miss Nelson and one will be for Miss Swamp. These will aid students in comparing and contrasting both characters. Students will complete this activity on their own, using inventive spelling as necessary.

Objectives

©       Students will answer comprehension questions and reread part of the

            story to support their answers.

©       Students will act out parts of the story to illustrate how we can find clues about the character by the way they speak their dialogue.

©       Students will fill out a character map for both Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp, using invented spelling as necessary.