Level I/16 Teacher s Guide For students reading at Literacy Level I/16, including: English-language learners Students reading below grade level First grade readers Skills & Strategies Anchor Comprehension Strategy Analyze character Metacognitive/Fix-Up Strategy Stop, think, and write Genre Study Recognize the characteristics of realistic fiction Determine the story s message Vocabulary Recognize high-frequency words Develop robust (Tier Two) oral vocabulary Read academic content (Tier Three) vocabulary Word Study Use adjectives Language Recognize the sentence structures I can and is at Identify negatives Phonics Problem-solve by searching all the way through words Recognize words with long e digraphs Fluency Read exclamation points Writing Write to a picture prompt Write to a text prompt THEME: Being a Good Citizen What Is a Good Citizen? (Level G/12) A Good Pick (Level G/12) A Volunteer Helps (Level I/16) (Level I/16) GENRE/SUMMARY: This story is realistic fiction. When Ben learns that his reading buddy Miss Keen has hurt her leg, he volunteers to walk her dog each day. 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
Before Reading 2 Related Resources The following Benchmark Education Company resources support the skills and strategies taught in this lesson. Early Explorers Partner A Volunteer Helps (Nonfiction, Level I/16) Fluency and Language Development Audio CD Text-Dependent Comprehension Resources Comprehension Question Card Power Tool Flip Chart for Teachers Student Bookmark Assessment Early Explorers Overview & Assessment Handbook Grade 1 Comprehension Strategy Assessment Book Make Connections and Build Background Use Drama Say: We will read a book called. The boy in the story helps a friend with a hurt leg. I will pretend to help a friend with a hurt leg. I will think of things I can do for my friend. I can put my friend s lunch on a tray. Then I can carry the tray to her. Pretend to do so. Then invite students to think of ways they could help someone with a hurt leg. Encourage them to act out their ideas as well. Use a Graphic Organizer Draw a T-chart on the board with the headings Problem and Solution. Read the headings aloud. Ask students to help you think of problems people might have and ways the students might help solve those problems. Then read each entry on the chart and ask students to echo-read. Copyright 2007 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. 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: 978-1-4108-6149-8 Problem classmate is sick baby fusses while mom makes dinner friend s bicycle is broken Solution Introduce the Book bring his homework from school play with the baby let friend borrow your bicycle Preview Cover and Title Page Give each student a copy of the book. Point to the front. Say: This story is about a boy who helps a friend. Read the title and author, and ask students to echo-read. Invite them to tell what they see in the illustration. Repeat the process with the title page. Say: The cover and title page get us ready to read the book. Using the think-aloud strategy, model how to make predictions about the book based on the cover and title page information: The title mentions someone named Miss Keen. I see a woman with her leg propped up. The woman might be Miss Keen. A boy is coming to see the woman. I think the boy will try to help Miss Keen. Allow time for students to share their own predictions about the story. Introduce Characters and Setting Say: The people in the story are called characters. Ask students to turn to pages 2 and 3, and point to each character as you read the matching name. Repeat the process, inviting students to echoread. Then say: The setting is where the story takes place. What is the setting of the story? Help students use the illustrations to determine that the story takes place in a library, in Miss Keen s house, and outdoors. Preview Illustrations and Vocabulary Revisit the illustrations on the cover and title page. Say: The pictures in fiction books are called illustrations. Illustrations help us understand the words in the book. Take students on a picture walk, emphasizing the words buddy, desk, empty, library, volunteer, worried, and help as you talk about the illustrations and what is happening in the story. Make sure students can pronounce each vocabulary word. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
During Reading Preview Sentence Structures For students who need additional support, write I can on the board. Read the sentence structure aloud and ask students to repeat it several times. Say: We used the words I can when we talked about helping. The words I can are in the book. Page 8 has a sentence with the words I can. Model how to frame the sentence between two fingers. Then read the sentence aloud and ask students to echo-read. Invite students to turn to page 13. Ask: Can you frame a sentence with the words I can? Assist as needed, and then read the sentence aloud and ask students to echoread. Finally, repeat the process with is at on pages 7 and 10. Use Graphophonic Cues Say: Another word in this book is soft. Say the word soft. What are some letters you expect to see after the s? Allow time for students to respond, assisting as needed. Then ask them to find the word soft on page 4. Say: Search all the way through a word to help you when you read. Are you blending the right sounds? Repeat the process with the word leg on page 7. Scaffold Spanish-Language Speakers Say the word in. Ask: Does in sound like a word you know in Spanish? (Allow time for students to respond.) The English word in sounds like the Spanish word en. In and en look similar and mean the same thing. Write in on the board and ask students to locate the word on page 4 in the book. Repeat the process with note on page 9 and nota, which look similar and mean the same thing. Point out that the word come on page 7 looks like the Spanish word come but does not mean the same thing. Repeat the process with see on page 5 and sí, and too and to on page 8 and tu. Finally, invite students with other first languages to share their cognates. Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies After the supportive introduction, students should be able to read all or most of the book on their own. Observe students as they read. Take note of the graphophonic, syntactic, and semantic cues they use to make sense of the text and selfcorrect. Prompt individual students who have difficulty problem solving independently, but be careful not to prompt English-language learners too quickly. They may need more time to process the text as they rely on their first language for comprehension Strategic Reading Prompts Cue Source Prompt Example Page Graphophonic Search all the snacks 14 way through the word. Are you blending the right sounds? Syntactic You read Ben Ben goes to 10 see go to see Miss Smith. Miss Smith. Let s read that together and make it sound right. Semantic What do you points 6 see in the picture that would make sense in this sentence? Set a Purpose for Reading Direct students attention to the Problem and Solution T-chart. Say: Now it s time to whisperread the book. Read to find out how Ben helps solve Miss Keen s problem. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 3
After Reading 4 Use the Graphic Organizer to Summarize Ask students to think about their reading. Say: Look at our T-chart. Does the story tell about any of these problems or solutions? Put a next to any matching response. If no response matches, ask students to name the problem and solution in the story. Add these to the graphic organizer and put check marks beside them. Then choral-read the checkmarked items and ask students to use the graphic organizer to tell the story to a partner. Problem classmate is sick baby fusses while mom makes dinner friend s bicycle is broken friend s can t walk dog Solution Genre Study Say: This story is realistic fiction. You could meet people like Ben, Miss Smith, and Miss Keen in real life. The things the characters do could really happen. What are some ways the story is realistic? Guide students to mention story events such as going to the library, hurting your leg, visiting someone who is hurt, and walking a dog. Say: Realistic fiction stories have themes. A theme is like a message from the author. I notice in that Ben finds a way to be a volunteer. What does Ben do? (He helps a friend.) Say: The theme for Miss Keen Needs Help could be Look for ways to help others. The author uses the characters to send readers a message. The author is telling us to look for ways to help others, too. Reading Strategy Mini-Lesson: Stop, Think, and Write Reflect Ask students to think about the parts of the book that were hard for them to understand. Ask: What did you do to help yourself understand what you read? bring his homework from school play with the baby let friend borrow your bicycle walk friend s dog Model Say: I want to make sure I understand what I read. One way is to stop and think about what I read. Then I can write my thoughts. I might write an important detail I want to remember. I might write something with which I agree or disagree. I might write questions I have about the information. I might write something I want to learn more about. I might even rewrite something in my own words. I will turn back to page 4. One thing I read on page 4 is: Ben has a reading buddy. I m going to stop and think about that. What does a reading buddy do? I will write the question. Then I will see whether I can learn the answer to my question as I read the rest of the story. Guide Ask students to turn to page 8. Read the page aloud together. Ask the following questions, allowing time for students to stop and think after each one: Why should Ben use his inside voice? How does Miss Smith feel about the way Ben is talking? How do you know? What questions do you have about this part of the story? Finally, invite students to write down one of their thoughts. If they have difficulty, model writing an observation of your own, such as Inside voices do not bother people who are reading at the library. Apply Ask each student to turn to his or her favorite page. Then ask students to read the page to a partner, share a thought aloud, and write it down. Observe students as they stop, think, and write, providing assistance if needed. See the Early Explorers Overview & Assessment Handbook for an observation chart you can use to assess students understanding of the stop, think, and write monitor-reading strategy. Then say: You can stop, think, and write any time you read. Remember to stop, think, and write to help you understand. Answer Text-Dependent Questions Explain Remind students that they can answer questions about books they have read. Say: We answer different kinds of questions in different ways. I will help you learn how to answer each kind. Tell students today they will practice answering Take It Apart! questions. Say: The answer to a Take It Apart! question is not stated in the book. You must think like the author to figure out the answer. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
Model Use the Take It Apart! question on the Comprehension Question Card. Say: I will show you how I answer a Take It Apart! question. I will read the question to figure out what to do. The question says: How do we know the cause and effect on page 16? This question asks me to how to analyze text structure and organization. I know because the question says cause and effect. What other information in the question do you think will help me? (Allow student responses.) Yes, I need to look on page 16. I read the text: Ben still likes to be a volunteer. So Ben still walks with Max. The second sentence tells what happens. The first sentence tells why Ben still walks with Max. How do I know? The author uses the word so. The word so helps me identify the cause and effect on this page. Now I know the answer to the question. The answer makes sense. Guide Ask students to answer the other questions on the Comprehension Question Card. Use the Power Tool Flip Chart and Student Bookmark to provide additional modeling as needed. Remind students to ask themselves: What is the question asking? How can I find the answer? Does my answer make sense? How do I know? Build Comprehension: Analyze Character Explain Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer on page 8, or draw it on the chalkboard. Say: Fiction books have characters. The words and pictures give us clues about the characters. We figure out things about the characters ourselves, too. Good readers analyze the characters all through the book. Analyzing characters helps us better understand why things happen in the story. Model Say: I m going to analyze the character Ben. I will write down clues from the story s words and pictures. On page 4, I read that Ben has a reading buddy. I will write that on the graphic organizer under Clues. I think this clue means Ben likes to read. I will write about that under What I Think. I will keep looking through the story for clues about Ben. I read the text and look at the picture on page 6. Ben asks about Miss Keen and he looks worried about her. Asking about Miss Keen and looking worried are clues. These clues help me figure out Ben is a caring person. Guide Say: Let s analyze Ben some more. What does Ben do on page 8? (He speaks in a loud voice and runs out of the library.) What do these clues help us figure out about Ben? (Ben can be careless when he is excited.) Let s add this to the graphic organizer. What does Ben do on pages 12 and 13? (He worries about Miss Keen and thinks about how he can help her.) What do these clues help you figure out about Ben? (He is thoughtful.) Record these ideas on the graphic organizer as well. Apply Ask students to work with a partner to analyze Ben s character on pages 14 16. Remind them to look for clues in the words and pictures and then add their own ideas. After each partnership shares, agree on how to word the entry on the graphic organizer. Finally, read the completed graphic organizer aloud and invite students to echo-read. Teacher Tip Use Benchmark Education Company s Comprehension Strategy Assessment books to assess students ability to draw conclusions in other brief, grade-level texts. Home Connection Give students the take-home version of Miss Keen Needs Help to read to family members. Encourage students to work with a friend or family member to draw a picture of a way they have helped someone with a problem. Invite them to bring their drawings to share with the group. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 5
6 Writing Connections Reader Response Invite students to respond to the book in a way that is meaningful to them. Model and use thinkalouds as needed to scaffold students before they try the activities on their own. Draw a picture of a volunteer you know. Then write about your picture. Tell how the story would be different if Ben did not ask Miss Smith about Miss Keen. Think about the theme of the story. Tell about a time you helped someone who had a problem. Act out a situation with a classmate that shows what happens when people help each other. Rate the book with a 1 (don t like), 2 (okay), or 3 (like a lot). Tell why you chose that rating. Write about your favorite part of the story. Write to a Picture Prompt Describe a Setting Tell students they will describe a setting they see in the story. Then they will write about the setting. Say: I like the pictures in this book. I like to see where different parts of the story take place. I can describe the settings in my own words, too. I see a library on pages 6 and 7. I can describe the library: The library has many books. The library has a comfortable place to sit and read books. What do you notice about the setting? How would you describe the setting? Allow time for students to respond. Ask: Which picture do you like best? How would you describe the setting? Allow time for students to respond, prompting further if needed. Say: You have described the setting in the picture you chose. Now write your description. After you are finished, read your description to a partner. Write to a Text Prompt Write a Letter Ask: What would you like to say to Ben? What would you like to ask Ben? Share your thoughts by writing a letter to Ben. When you are finished, read your letter to a partner. Mini-Lessons for Differentiating Instruction Phonics: Long e digraphs Ask students to locate the word read on page 7. Write read on the board and circle the letters ea. Say: The letters ea stand for the long /e/ sound in the word read. Slowly draw your finger under the word as you say it, and ask students to do the same in their books. Point out that the letters ea also stand for the long /e/ sound in the word reading on page 4. Then repeat the process with the letters ee in Keen (page 4), see (page 5), and feeling (page 12). Ask students to brainstorm words with a long /e/ sound. Acknowledge all correct responses, and record those spelled with the letters ea or ee on the board. Say: I will give you a clue about an imaginary person whose name is one of the words. You will guess which word is the person s name. I will circle the letters that make the long /e/ sound in the word. Then you will know you guessed correctly. Model the process using one of the words on the list, such as I like to wear long necklaces made of colorful shapes. Who am I? (Miss Bead) Then invite each student to make up a clue about an imaginary person whose name is one of the words on the board and circle the letters that make the long /e/ sound. Vocabulary Academic Content Vocabulary Review the story with students and record words that apply to libraries and helping others: buddy, desk, empty, library, volunteer, and worried. Ask students to make up their own stories using all the words and tell their story to a partner. Robust Oral Vocabulary Say: In the story, Ben is enthusiastic. Enthusiastic means interested and excited. Ben is enthusiastic when he thinks he can help Miss Keen. Say the word with me: enthusiastic. Here are some ways people are enthusiastic: A soccer player gives her teammates a high five before the game. Some students smile and sing loudly at a school program. Now, tell about ways you are enthusiastic. You could start by saying, I am enthusiastic about. (Allow time for each student to respond, assisting if needed.) What is the word we ve been talking about? Yes enthusiastic. Let s try to use the word enthusiastic many times today. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
Word Study: Adjectives Model Say: Authors sometimes use describing words when they write. Describing words are called adjectives. I see some adjectives on page 4: Miss Keen always sits in the big, soft chair. The word big is an adjective. Big describes how the chair looks. The word soft is an adjective, too. Soft describes how the chair feels. I can use the words big and soft. Point to big or soft objects in the classroom and make up a sentence about each one, such as I have a big desk and Shani is wearing a soft sweater. Guide Invite students to read page 14 with you. Ask: Which words are adjectives? (good, yummy) Why are good and yummy adjectives? (The word good describes the kind of books Ben and Miss Keen read. The word yummy describes the kind of snacks Miss Keen has.) What could you describe with the adjective good? What could you describe with the adjective yummy? Apply Write the last sentence from page 5 on the board and underline the adjective tall. Invite student partners to make up their own sentences using the word tall. Then ask them to think of other adjectives that could replace the word tall in the sentence about Miss Smith, such as nice, friendly, pretty, or helpful. Language Development: Negatives Model Say: Sometimes authors use words that are negative. Negative means no. Invite students to read the last sentence on page 7 aloud. Say: Miss Keen cannot come in to read today. Can Miss Keen come in? No. Then ask students to choral-read the first sentence on page 11. Say: Miss Keen cannot walk. Can Miss Keen walk? No. I use the word cannot, too. Point to various classroom items as you share cannot sentences, such as: My bag is under my desk. I cannot see my bag. The clock is high on the wall. I cannot reach the clock. The file cabinet is heavy. I cannot carry the file cabinet. Guide Invite students to read page 12 with you. Ask: Does Miss Keen want Ben to worry? (no) How do you know? (Miss Keen uses the word not.) Invite students to name things they do not do at school, such as sleep, walk the dog, or ride on a boat. Apply Pair students. Ask them to make up sentences using the words not or cannot. As they share their sentences with the group, write them on the board and underline the negatives. Fluency: Read Exclamation Points Say: Sometimes exciting or scary things happen in stories. The author might show something exciting or scary by using an exclamation point. Our voices sound different when we are excited or scared. We talk a bit faster, and our voices move to a higher pitch. Good readers say exclamations faster and higher, too. Saying exclamations faster and higher helps the readers show that something unusual is happening. It helps the listeners understand that something unusual is happening, too. Ask students to turn to page 8. First, read the page in a flat voice. Discuss how this makes the listener feel. Then read the page again, saying the exclamations more quickly and in a higher pitch. Ask students to echo-read. Ask students to turn to page 10. Choral-read the page with them, using a faster and higher voice for the exclamations. Invite students to take turns rereading Miss Keen Needs Help with a partner. Remind them to talk faster and use a higher pitch when they read a sentence that ends with an exclamation point. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC 7
NAME DATE Analyze Character Clues What I Think 8 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC