Look at the Animals. Teacher s Guide. Level C/4. Small Group Reading Lesson Skills Bank Reproducible Activity. Phonemic Awareness Blending phonemes

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1 Level C/4 Science Teacher s Guide Skills-at-a-Glance Phonemic Awareness Blending phonemes Phonics Initial gr blend Concepts About Print Periods Capital letters High-Frequency Words look, at, the Concept Vocabulary Animal words Science Big Idea Many animals display differences yet share many characteristics. Small Group Reading Lesson Skills Bank Reproducible Activity B e n c h m a r k E d u c a t i o n C o m p a n y

2 Small Group Reading Lesson Before Reading bees dogs Activate Prior Knowledge wings birds fins fish Look What I have fur cats shell turtles Encourage students to draw on prior knowledge and build background for reading the text. Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer Look What I Have (left) or copy the organizer on chart paper, leaving the circles blank. Read the title to students. Begin a discussion of animals and their characteristics. Ask students to predict what characteristics the animals in the book might have wings, fur, shells, or fins. Write these words in the circles. Invite students to brainstorm kinds of animals that have wings. Write their answers in the web. Continue, having students name animals that have wings, fur, shells, and fins. Visual Cues Look at the beginning letter or letters. (h in hide; f in fish) Look for familiar chunks within the word. (an in can, as in has) Structure Cues Think about whether the sentence sounds right. Look for repeated language patterns. ( Look at the ) Meaning Cues Think about what makes sense in the sentence. Look at the pictures to confirm the meaning of the word. Preview the Book Read the title and name of the author(s) to students. Ask: What kind of animal do you see on the cover? Do you think this animal has fur? Fins? Wings? Show students the title page. Ask: What is this animal? Does it have fur? Does it have fins? How do you know? Preview the photographs with students, reinforcing the language used in the text. For example, say: Look at the grasshopper. What color is it? Why do you think it can hide? What animal can you see on this page? What color is it? Why can it hide? Set a Purpose for Reading Have students turn to page 2 and whisper-read the book. Say: I want you to read the book to see which animals have wings, fur, shells, and fins. Monitor students reading and provide support when necessary. Review Reading Strategies Use the cues provided to remind students that they can apply different strategies to identify unfamiliar words. 2

3 During Reading Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies Observe students as they read the book. Take note of how they are problem-solving on text. Guide, or prompt, individual students who cannot problem-solve independently. After Reading Reflect on Reading Strategies Once students have completed their reading, encourage them to discuss the reading strategies they used. Reinforce the good reading behaviors you noticed by saying: I noticed, [student s name], that when you came to a word you didn t know, you tried to sound it out. Did that help you read the word? [Student s name], I saw that you tried to sound out the word fish. You sounded out the first letter in the word, then you checked the picture. That was good reading. Build Comprehension Ask and Answer Questions Help students review text content and relate it to what they already know by asking some or all of the following questions. Which animal has spots? (leopard, p. 12) (Locate facts) Which animals have wings? (bird, p. 14; bee, p. 16) (Classify and categorize information) What animals other than leopards can have spots? (Answers will vary. Possible answer: dogs) (Classify and categorize information) How are a bird and a bee alike? How are they different? (Answers will vary. Possible answers: Both have wings. Birds are not insects, but bees are.) (Compare and contrast) What kinds of things does your favorite animal have? (Answers will vary.) (Use creative thinking) Teacher Tip Using the Skills Bank Based on your observations of students reading behaviors, you may wish to select activities from the Skills Bank (pp. 6 7) that will develop students reading strategies. Question Types Students need to understand that they can use information from various places in the book, as well as background knowledge, to answer different types of questions. These lessons provide four types of questions, designed to give students practice in understanding the relationship between a question and the source of its answer. Questions that require students to go to a specific place in the book. Questions that require students to integrate information from several sentences, paragraphs, or chapters within the book. Questions that require students to combine background knowledge with information from the book. Questions that relate to the book topic but require students to use only background knowledge and experience, not information from the book. 3

4 Small Group Reading Lesson (continued) Teacher Tip Monitoring Comprehension Are students able to revisit the text to locate specific answers to text-dependent questions? If they are having difficulty, show them how to match the wording of the question to the wording in the text. Are students able to find answers to questions that require a search of the text? If they are having difficulty, model how you would search for the answer. Can students combine their background knowledge with information from the text to classify and categorize information? If they are having difficulty, model how you would answer the question. Are students answers to creative questions logical and relevant to the topic? Do students completed graphic organizers reflect an ability to compare and contrast information accurately? If students are having difficulty, provide more modeling. Build Comprehension Compare and Contrast Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer Things Animals Have or copy the chart on the chalkboard, omitting the check marks used as responses. Read the title to students. Recall with them that they read about some things animals have. Model for students how to record this information. Use the following think-aloud. When I read nonfiction, I can use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast details about the topic. On this chart I can list some things animals have, such as wings, and identify which animals have them. I m going to look at the book. What kind of animals does the book say have wings? A bird has wings. I ll look down the first column until I find the word bird. Then I ll look across that row until I find the word wings. I ll put a check mark on the row that says bird in the column that says wings. Let s do another one together. Practice and Apply Guide students as they identify the animal characteristic fur and animals that have fur, such as the polar bear. Show them how to put a check mark at the place where the row and the column meet. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies and monitor their work. Allow time for students to share their recorded information. Animals wings fur shell fins grasshopper fish snail tortoise polar bear Things Animals Have leopard bird 4 bee

5 Interactive Writing Have students review the graphic organizer to write a sentence that tells how animals are alike or different. Say: Let s look at our charts and think of a sentence that tells how two animals are alike or different. (Possible sentences include Birds and bees have wings. and Polar bears have fur, but fish have fins. ) Repeat the sentence aloud several times with students so they can internalize the language pattern. Collaborate with them to write the sentence on chart paper or on the chalkboard one word at a time. Start by saying the first word slowly. Ask: What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? What other sounds do you hear? Let students write the known sounds in each word, then fill in the remaining letters for them. Continue until the sentence is completed. Write Independently Have students write their own sentence based on the text. Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between words, and write known words fluently. When students have completed their sentences, confer with them individually. Validate their knowledge of known words and letter/ sound correspondences by placing a light check mark above student s contributions. Provide explicit praise as you write the message conventionally for students to see. Reread for Fluency Ask students to reread with a partner. Have them take turns reading every other page aloud. Then ask them to take turns reading the whole book to each other. Connect to Home Have students read the take-home version of to family members. Encourage them to talk about ways the animals in the book are alike and different. Polr barez and leperdz have far. Polar bears and leopards have fur. Teacher Tip Modeling Fluency Read sections of the book aloud to students to model fluent reading of the text. Model using appropriate phrasing, intonation, volume, expression, and rate. Have students listen to you read a portion of the text and then read it back to you. 5

6 Skills Bank g r ass great grow grin grade ground grandmother Phonemic Awareness: Blending phonemes Explain to students that you are going to play a guessing game with them. You will say a word, pronouncing each of its sounds separately. Students should blend the sounds and guess what the word is, then say it. Say the word can by segmenting it into its sounds: /k/ /a/ /n/. Have students blend the sounds, guess the word, and say it. Then give them the following words, one at a time, in similar fashion: green /g/ /r/ /e/ /n/; fish /f/ /i/ /sh/; shell /sh/ /e/ /l/; leopard /l/ /e/ /p/ / / /r/ /d/. Phonics: Initial gr blend e Write the phrase green grasshopper on the chalkboard and read it aloud. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of each word. (/gr/) Explain that the g and the r blend to make the /gr/ sound. Circle the letters gr in each word. Invite students to brainstorm other words that begin with the gr blend. (grass, great, grow, grin, grade, ground, grandmother) Write each one on the chalkboard, circling the initial gr. Concepts About Print Write on the chalkboard the sentence It can hide. Read it aloud. Indicate the period at the end of the sentence and explain to students that sentences always end with a mark that shows the end of the sentence. Point to the period. Say: This mark is called a period. It looks like a dot. Periods end most sentences. Then indicate the word It at the beginning of the sentence. Ask students to identify what is special about the letter i in It. (it is a capital letter) Tell students that every sentence begins with a capital letter. That way readers always know where a new sentence begins. Have students look through the book and find other capital letters and periods that show where each sentence begins and ends. It can hide. 6

7 High-Frequency Word Vocabulary Write the following sentence starter on the chalkboard: Look at the. Have students brainstorm how they might finish this sentence. Record their suggestions on the chalkboard. Possibilities include animals, grasshopper, fish, and so on. Concept Vocabulary: Animal words Invite students to think of the names of animals. Say: There are lots of names of animals. Let s think of some. Write on the chalkboard words students suggest, such as grasshopper, fish, snail, and tortoise. Then say: We know words that tell about things some animals have. We know words like wings and fur. Ask for students suggestions and write those words on the chalkboard. Call on students and give them two words to use in a sentence, such as birds and wings. Students might say a sentence, such as Birds have wings and can fly. Look at the grasshopper fish snail tortoise wings fur shells fins Copyright. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible pages for classroom use. No other part of the guide may be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN#

8 Name Date Things Animals Have Animals wings fur shell fins grasshopper fish snail tortoise polar bear leopard bird bee