Session Guided Learning Independent & Small Group Learning Guided Reading: Use Billy Sings in the Choir Phonics: Examine Verb Forms Online: Work on Word Train Letters and Words: Find Long and Short e Words Guided Reading: Use Billy Sings in the Choir Vocabulary: Recognise Content Words Online: Revisit Word Train Letters and Words: Write Definitions Writing: Write About Yourself Guided Reading: Use Billy Sings in the Choir Comprehension: Chart Story Elements Online: Work on Silly Story Maker Computer: Use a Drawing Program Writing: Describe a Rock Star Guided Reading: Use Billy Sings in the Choir Fluency: Attend to Font Variations Online: Work on Whizzy Quiz Fluency: Whisper-read the Text Visual Literacy: Play Charades
Billy Sings in the Choir Title Billy Sings in the Choir About the Text Billy is the only boy in the school choir. He wishes more boys would join. Then Freddy Silver, the famous rock star, visits the school. Genre Fiction Running Words 416 High-frequency Words last, never, only, school, wish Content Words choir, rock star, shower, teacher Phonics Identify word endings. Vocabulary Infer word meaning from context. Comprehension Recognise story structure in narrative text. Fluency Use typographical cues. Guided Reading Read a ficiton text. Retell stories. Review learning. Reading Strategy Use visual and meaning cues. Online Activities Whizzy Quiz Word Train Silly Story Maker Explanimation: Adjectives Related Materials Texts Billy Sings in the Choir Online Billy Sings in the Choir Audio CDs Billy Sings in the Choir
Session 1 Guided Reading of Billy Sings in the Choir read a fiction text Activate Background Use the book or online text to introduce the text by looking at the cover illustration and reading the title together. Ask children to predict what they think the story will be about. Encourage them to support their predictions. Discuss what a choir is. Ask children to share any experiences they have had of being in a choir or listening to a choir. Share the information on the back cover. Set a purpose for reading: Let s find out what Billy s problem was and how it was solved. Target Reading Strategies Read page 2 aloud to children. Ask volunteers to read sentences that tell where Billy sings. What important event is happening to Billy today? Turn to pages 4 5 and ask children to describe what they see in the illustration. Who do you think the characters are? What are the characters doing? Read pages 4 5 to children. Discuss Billy s problem. Ask children to suggest possible solutions. Ask How do illustrations and animations help you read and understand text? Which parts of the story are supported by the animations? Read the Book Children read the text. As they read they think about: the language used by the author; the meaning of words, noting those they are unsure of; the way they solved problems (what questions did they ask?) Reread the text together, pausing before key words for children to say what they are and how they know. Ask a volunteer to click on paragraphs to hear them read.. At any time, you or a child can click on the artwork to view the animation. After the Reading Ask children to retell the important events in the story. Talk about why Billy changed his feelings about being in the choir. Have children identify any problem words or parts they encountered in reading the text. Work together as a group to solve problems, using appropriate strategies. Explore the text using the online version, looking closely at the animations.
Phonics Examine Verb Forms Guided Learning TEACH APPLY identify word endings Ask children to scan the text to find words that have the root word sing in them and to read them in context. Record the variations on the board and discuss their meaning and usage. If they were not suggested, add sung (page 10) and sang (page 12) to the list. Discuss their meanings. Talk about the similarities and differences between the words. Ask volunteers to underline word endings. Have children take turns saying a sentence with one of the words from the list. Group members listen to the sentence and identify the word from the list that was used. Children could find and click on variations of the word sing using the online version; write sentences with variations of the word sing ; add word endings to other verbs from the text, such as watch, talk or look. Independent and Small Group Learning Work on Word Train recognise/match vowel sounds Children work in pairs to complete Word Train. They drag and drop ten target words with the long e vowel sound onto a train track to repair it. They then type the words onto train cars. The word stack button reminds them of the words and the correct spelling. Find Long and Short e Words recognise/match vowel sounds Children scan the text for words with long and short e vowels. They design a chart and list their words in the appropriate columns. long e short e he best least never teacher Freddy
Session 2 Guided Reading of Billy Sings in the Choir read a narrative text Reread Billy Sings in the Choir. If using the online version, children could control the mouse, and ask questions about words. Who remembers what famous means? What about fantastic? Which words on this page have a short e? Which have a long e? Revisit the animations and talk about the differences between the book and online version. Does it help to have highlighting? How does it help? Do the animations help? How? Ask children to tell you what they would have done if they were designing the online version. Ask children to take turns to retell the story, saying what Billy s problem was, and how it was solved. Vocabulary Recognise Content Words TEACH APPLY infer word meaning from sentence context Ask children the meaning of words in the text, and how they know. Ask them to give their definition and then confirm it. Yes, famous (page 6) means that Freddy Silver is a very popular singer and everyone knows him. He s a star! Do the same for other words that children ask about, or that you identify (e.g. sparkly, special guest, continues, sing a solo). Children could read Billy Sings in the Choir closely to find words that they can work out the meaning for using the text, and others that they don t know; use a dictionary to try and work out the meaning for the words they don t know.
Guided Learning Independent and Small Group Learning Write Definitions infer word meaning from sentence context Children work in pairs and use context to determine word meanings of words in the story (e.g. gym, choir, fantastic). They write a definition, or prepare an oral definition to share with the class. Write About Yourself create descriptive texts Children write about an activity they like to participate in. They include details about what they do and why they like it so much. They can illustrate themselves doing the activity, using techniques they see in the illustrations in Billy Sings in the Choir. Revisit Word Train recognise/match vowel sounds Children work on the Word Train to improve their score. They print out their results for discussion with their teacher and to say what they know and how they know it. All children have an opportunity to work on Word Train and to talk about their printouts.
Session 3 Guided Reading of Billy Sings in the Choir retell stories Using the online version or book of Billy Sings in the Choir, ask children to retell the story from the illustrations. Have volunteers read selected pages. Ask How do you know which word is fantastic? There s a word on this page that means going on and on. Which one? Ask children to ask a partner questions that they devise. If using the online version, click on each illustration to see the animation and ask children to read the words that link the animation to the text. Read a page and ask What did you notice about my voice? Was there any place where I wasn t fluent? Establish that good readers can make mistakes when they read aloud. Divide the class into three groups and have them read the beginning, middle and end of the story. Encourage them to use expressive voices as they read. Comprehension Chart Story Elements TEACH APPLY recognize story structure in narrative text Make a chart with the headings Characters, Setting, Events, Problem and Solution. Review the meaning of each term. Ask children to use the book or online version of Billy Sings in the Choir to find appropriate details to fill in the chart. Encourage them to read aloud parts of the text to support their answers. Assign each child one of the headings and ask them to tell about that element as it relates to Billy Sings in the Choir. Children could illustrate the group chart; make their own story structure chart for Billy Sings in the Choir; make a story structure chart for another story they have read.
Guided Learning Independent and Small Group Learning Work on Silly Story Maker create descriptive texts Children complete the Silly Story Maker and share their printouts with the teacher and the class. Talk about the printouts to help children understand what they have done. Children practise fluency as they read the new story. Describe a Rock Star create descriptive texts Children write a description of a popular singer. They read their description to a partner. The partner suggests one more detail the writer can add to the description. Then they switch roles. Use a Drawing Program record information using drawing tools Children use the tools of a software drawing program to draw a picture of themselves doing their favourite activity. They colour in the picture and print it out. They could put their drawings onto a class slide show, using a digital camera, and add text.
Session 4 Guided Reading of Billy Sings in the Choir Review Learning Talk about the words and language the author used to show how Billy and his friends felt about singing in the choir. Ask What does the author want us to know after reading this book? Was there anything you wanted to know? Were there any gaps? Can you fill them in? Discuss how children could use descriptive words in their own writing. Ask children to demonstrate something they have learned in the last week, using the online version for learning about stories, letters and their sounds, and words. Children talk about what they have learned about the long e vowel sound. Talk about individual learning goals. Talk to children about how they can identify and talk about what they are going to learn and how they are going to do it. Talk about the new skills learned about writing. Fluency Attend to Font Variations TEACH APPLY use typographical cues to convey meaning Using the online version of Billy Sings in the Choir, listen to page 16 with the children. What did you notice about the way some words were read? Was there a word read differently from the others? Which one? Why did the reader do that? What did the author do to show the reader how the word should be read? Why do you think the author wanted that word to be read with a little more emphasis? Ask children to read the sentence to a partner in the way the author intended. Have children reread the text silently. Children could find other books that have words written in bold letters and read those sentences aloud; revise or create a piece of writing to include words written in bold letters for emphasis.
Guided Learning Independent and Small Group Learning Work on Whizzy Quiz answer questions about text: when answer is stated Children work through the Whizzy Quiz. The child s understanding of the text is explored through ten questions relating to sequencing, word meanings, synonyms, editing and plot. Play Charades express ideas through drama Children play charades in a small group. They take turns miming one of the characters in the story, using the text as the basis for the actions. Group members try to guess the character. Whisper-read the Text reread for fluency Using the audio CD, children whisper-read the text along with the audio CD reader.