The Cake Level D/5 Fiction Teacher s Guide Skills at a Glance Anchor Comprehension Strategy Analyze character Phonemic Awareness Identify initial sounds in words Phonics Short o Long a words with CVCe High-Frequency Words could, little, said Concept Vocabulary Birthday party words Grammar/Word Study Quotation marks in dialogue Summary Jen wants to see the top of the cake, but she is too small. Her friends are small, too, except for Matt. He can show them the top of the cake. Theme: People and Culture Social Studies Concept: People celebrate in different ways. People celebrate to remember special events. 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
Small-Group Reading Lesson ell What Happens in The Cake? What we predict might happen in the story The girl is looking at a birthday cake, so the story might be about a birthday party. 2 The Cake What we predict will happen next Someone might help the girl see the top of the cake. What happens in the story Matt shows Jen the top of the cake. It reads, Happy Birthday, Jen. Support Tips for English-Language Learners Build Vocabulary and Language Patterns Sing Happy Birthday. Ask students to look through the book and name things associated with birthdays. Possibilities include: party, cake, balloons, party hats, gifts, invitations, and friends. List the words on the board and model for students a sentence using each word. Have students repeat your sentences to reinforce structure and intonation. CUES FOR STRATEGIC READING Visual Cues Look at the beginning letter or letters (c in cake; sh in she). Look for familiar chunks within the word (op in top; look in looked). Structure Cues Ask whether the sentence sounds right. Look for repeated language patterns: She/He was too little;... could not see the top. Meaning Cues Think about what makes sense in the sentence. Look at the pictures to confirm the meaning of the word. Before Reading Activate Prior Knowledge Ask students about their favorite kinds of cakes. Encourage them to tell about cakes they have seen or eaten. Help students brainstorm occasions when cakes might be eaten. Discuss how birthday cakes are different from other kinds of cakes. Take a survey to find out what kind of birthday cake is the favorite of the class. Model Making Inferences Display the book cover and read the title. Say: When I read, I use what I already know, along with the words and pictures in the story, to better understand what I am reading. I know that big cakes like this one are usually only served on special occasions, such as birthdays. I think this cake is a birthday cake for the girl in the picture. Ask students what they know about cakes or other foods they eat on special occasions. Ask students what they think the cake is for and why they think as they do. Preview the Book Read the title and names of the author and illustrator to students. Ask: What is the girl looking at on the cover? Where do you think the girl is? Why do you think that? Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer What Happens in The Cake? (left) or copy the organizer on chart paper, leaving the columns blank. Ask students to predict, based on the cover, what might happen in the story. Write their ideas in the first column. Preview the book with students, but do not show them the last page. Reinforce the language used in the text. For example, say: What is Jen looking at? Why can t Jen see the top of the cake? Have students respond in complete sentences. Show students pages 14 15. Talk about their first predictions. After looking at the pictures, ask them what they think might happen next in the story. Write their predictions in the second column of the prediction chart. 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 learn how Jen finds out what the top of the cake looks like. 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. Copyright 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Teachers may photocopy the reproducible page 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: 978-1-4108-0064-0
During Reading Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies Observe students as they read the book. Take note of how they problem-solve on text. Guide, or prompt, individual students who cannot problem-solve independently. A After Reading Reflect on Reading Strategies After students have completed their reading, encourage them to share the reading strategies they used. Reinforce the good reading behaviors you noticed by saying: [Student s name], I saw that you tried to sound out the word little. You took the word apart and used what you know about letters and sounds to sound out both parts of the word. That was good reading. I noticed, [student s name], that when you came to the word Jen, you sounded each letter out and then blended the sounds together. That is one way to help you read words you do not know. Build Comprehension: Discuss Concepts Locate facts/confirm predictions: What happens at the end of the story? Let s write this in the third column of our prediction chart. (Jen sees that the cake reads, Happy Birthday, Jen. ) Draw conclusions: Why is Matt able to show Jen the top of the cake? (He is taller than the other children. He can reach the cake.) Make inferences/use creative thinking: What could Jen have done to see the top of the cake if there was no one there to help her? (Answers will vary. One possible answer: She could have stood on a step stool.) Use creative thinking: What would you like to have on your birthday cake? (Answers will vary.) Use the Comprehension Assessment Tips on page 4 to evaluate how students answer different types of questions. To practice text-dependent reading strategies, use the Comprehension Through Deductive Reasoning card for The Cake. ell Support Tips for English-Language Learners Write the following sentence on the board: She was too little. Have students read it aloud. Then ask students to think of other words they could use to describe Jen s size. (short, tiny, small) Write those words on the board and ask students to use them in sentences. Model complete sentences for students who do not create full sentences. Use the Skills Bank Based on your observations of students reading behaviors, you may wish to select activities from the Skills Bank (pages 6 7) that will develop students reading strategies. Assessment Skills Support tips Tip Check a student s reading strategies by asking him or her to read a page of the text aloud to you while other students whisper-read. Note whether the student is using visual, structure, and/or meaning cues to self-correct and to make sense of the text. Make Fiction-to-Fact Concept Connections If students have read Happy Birthday! ask: What kind of cake do you see in both books? (birthday cake) In which book do you learn about different ways to celebrate a birthday? (Happy Birthday!) 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC The Cake 3
Small-Group Reading Lesson COMPREHENSION ASSESSMENT TIPS Monitor Comprehension Are students able to locate specific answers to textdependent questions in the text? 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 make inferences? You may wish to 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 identify and record the events in the story? If necessary, provide more modeling. If students are having difficulty, you might want to provide additional modeling. Build Comprehension: Identify Characters and Setting Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer The Cake or copy the graphic organizer on the board. Remind students that the characters in a book are the people or animals involved in the story and that the setting is the time and place of the story. Discuss the characters and setting of this story. Model for students how to record this information on the chart. Use the following think-aloud. A fiction book has characters and a setting. To help me remember these story elements, I can use a graphic organizer like this one to record who the characters are and what the setting is. The chart asks two questions about the characters: Who is in the story? and What is he or she like? The first thing I notice as I look through the book is that the story mentions Jen. I will write her name in the box under the first question. Now I want to tell what Jen is like. She is a little girl. I will write, little girl in the box under the second question. Now help me think of something to write about the other characters. After, we will answer the two questions about the setting: Where does the story take place? and When does the story take place? Practice and Apply Guide students as they make inferences about what the characters are like using clues from the text and the pictures. Then work together to answer the questions about the story s setting. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies and monitor their work. Allow time for them to share their recorded information. Who is in the story? Jen Ben Kim Tom Matt The Cake Characters What is he or she like? little girl little boy little girl little boy bigger boy Setting Where does the story take place? In a house; probably in Jen s kitchen When does the story take place? In the present 4 The Cake 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
Interactive Writing Have students use the information from the graphic organizer to write sentences about the characters in the story. Say: Let s look at our chart. It can help us review what we know about the characters in the story. Let s think of a sentence we can write that tells about the characters. (Possible sentences: Matt is taller than the others and Jen asks the other children for help. ) Repeat the sentence aloud several times with students so they internalize the language pattern. Collaborate with them to write the sentence on chart paper or on the board, 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 sentences based on the story. Encourage them to articulate words slowly, use spaces between words, and write known words fluently. When students have completed their sentences, talk with them individually. Validate their knowledge of known words and letter/ sound correspondences by placing a light check mark above students contributions. Praise students as you write the message conventionally for students to see. Reread for Fluency Ask students to reread The Cake with a partner. Have partners alternate reading pages aloud and then have them read the pages aloud together. Connect to Home Have students read the take-home version of The Cake to family members. Suggest that students ask family members about their most memorable cake and what it looked like. Jen i a sml grl. Jen is a small girl. FLUENCY SUPPORT TIPS Model 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 have them read it back to you. 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC The Cake 5
Skills Bank Phonemic Awareness: Identify Initial Sounds in Words Say: cake. Ask students to identify the beginning sound. (/k/) Together brainstorm other words that have the same beginning sound, such as cat, candle, cut, and count. Tell students that they are going to play a game called Stand Up, Sit Down. You will say two words. If both words begin with the same sound, students are to stand and identify the beginning sound. If the words do not have the same beginning sound, students are to stay seated and tell how the sounds are different. Possible word pairs: top/ too, see/can, little/like, could/cake, not/tom, Ben/big, want/said, and make/matt. top not Tom cake rake plate name make face page cane lake race cape made safe Phonics: Short o Write the word top on the board. Have students say the word. Ask: What vowel sound do you hear in the word? (/o/) What letter makes the /o/ sound? (o) Have students look through the book to find two more words that have /o/. (not, page 4; Tom, page 8) Write the words on the board and underline the o in each one. Have students brainstorm other /o/ words. Suggest that they begin by thinking of words that rhyme with top and not, such as hop, mop, pop, stop, cot, dot, got, hot, lot, and pot. As students offer words, write them on the board. Ask students to choose two words from the list and use them in an oral sentence. Possible sentences: The pot was too hot; We got a new mop. Phonics: CVCe Pattern with Long a Write the word cake on the board. Ask students what vowel sound they hear in cake. (/a _ /) Circle the a and the e. Point out that the pattern a_e makes /a _ /. Give students clues for words in which the pattern a_e stands for /a _ /. When students identify each word, write it on the board. Then read the words aloud together. Use the following clues: something you gather leaves with (rake) a flat dish (plate) where your eyes and nose are (face) a single sheet in a book (page) Louis Pasteur 62 The Cake 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC
High-Frequency Word Vocabulary Say the following high-frequency words with students: little, said, and could. Write them on the board and then have students spell the words, clapping for each letter. Tell students that you are thinking of one of the words. Give them a clue. For example, say: This word is the opposite of big. Ask students what the word is. Repeat with other words and other clues. Say: This word rhymes with red; This word begins with /k/. Divide students into pairs and have each pair write a sentence using each of the words. Let them share their sentences with the rest of the class. little said could Vocabulary: Birthday Party Words Ask students to brainstorm words they associate with birthday parties, such as cake, balloons, candles, presents, games, ice cream, hats, prizes, and clown. Write the words on the board as students suggest them. Ask volunteers to give oral sentences describing a real or imaginary birthday party, using words on the board. Let the rest of the group identify the birthday party words that the speaker used. Mechanics: Quotation Marks in Dialogue Have students turn to page 4. Read the first two sentences aloud. Explain that in these sentences, one character, Jen, is saying something to Ben, another character. Point to the quotation marks around the word Ben and around the second sentence. Explain that these punctuation marks are called quotation marks and that they are used to mark dialogue, or the words that a character says in a story. Have students find and read aloud the dialogue on pages 6, 8, and 12. Then write the following sentences on the board without the quotation marks: Jen said, I m too little; I can see the top, said Matt; and Jen asked, Is the cake for me? Point out that the sentences are missing quotation marks. Ask students to tell you where you should add the marks. Jen said, I m too little. I can see the top, said Matt. Jen asked, Is the cake for me? 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC The Cake 7
Name Date The Cake Characters Who is in the story? What is he or she like? Setting Where does the story take place? When does the story take place? 2011 Benchmark Education Company, LLC