Level D/6 Social Studies Teacher s Guide Skills & Strategies Anchor Comprehension Strategies Identify Main Idea and Supporting Details Compare and Contrast Phonemic Awareness Identifying final sounds in words Phonics CVCe pattern with long i Word family -ight High-Frequency Words has, that, this Concept Vocabulary Words about safety signs Grammar/Word Study Capital letters Small Group Reading Lesson Skills Bank Reproducible Activities Social Studies Big Idea Many kinds of signs help us be safe. 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 Before Reading traffic lights train crossing stop signs We See watch for schoolchildren people crossing hospital Visual Cues Look at the beginning letter or letters. (s in signs; tr in traffic) Look for familiar chunks within the word. (care in careful) Structure Cues Think about whether the sentence sounds right. Look for repeated language patterns. ( This sign has/ tells... ; It tells us to... ) Meaning Cues Think about what makes sense in the sentence. Look at the picture to confirm the meaning of the word. Activate Prior Knowledge Encourage students to draw on prior knowledge and build background for reading the text. Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer We See (left) or copy the organizer on chart paper, leaving the outer circles blank. Ask students what kinds of safety signs they see in their neighborhood. If necessary, prompt with such questions as How do you know when it is safe to cross the street? What tells you that a train is coming? Write students responses in the circles of the web. Tell them that they will return to the web after they read the book. Preview the Book Read the title and name of the authors to students. Ask: What kind of safety sign do you see in the picture on the cover? Where will you see this sign? Show students the title page. Ask: Why is the person in the picture holding a stop sign? Preview the photographs with students, reinforcing the language used in the text. For example, say: I see traffic lights. What does red tell us to do? What does the sign with the deer on it mean? How many sides does it have? Some signs have four sides. What does the H on this sign stand for? 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 find out about different kinds of safety signs. 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
During Reading Observe and Prompt Reading Strategies Observe students as they read the text. 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 figure out the word? [Student s name], I saw that you tried to sound out the word hospital. You chunked it into parts and then sounded out each part. 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. What does a sign with four sides and a picture of a deer tell us? Let s look in the book for the word deer and the sign with a picture of deer on it. (to look out for deer, p. 4) (Locate facts) What do two of the colors on a traffic light tell us? (Red tells us to stop, p. 2; green tells us to go, p. 3) (Locate facts) Which signs in the book do we see in our neighborhood? (Answers will vary.) (Compare and contrast/draw conclusions) Suppose you were in charge of making signs to keep people safe. What new sign you would make? (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 9) 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
Small Group Reading Lesson (continued) 4 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 draw conclusions? 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 organize information from the text? If students are having difficulty, provide more modeling. Build Comprehension compare and contrast Model Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer on page 12 or copy the chart on the board. Review with students the safety signs that the book tells about. Point out that the book gives a lot of information about these signs. Model for students how to record this information on the chart. Use the following thinkaloud. This book tells me about different kinds of safety signs. It gives me a lot of details about those signs. To help me remember all those details, I can organize them on a chart like this one. Look at the headings. They ask me to list the signs, what they look like, where we see them, and what they tell us. The first sign I read about was a traffic light. I ll write traffic light in the first column. What does a traffic light look like? I ll write red and green lights. Where do we see traffic lights? The book doesn t really say, but I know that traffic lights are at intersections. I ll write where streets cross. What does a traffic light tell us? The book says the lights tell us when to stop and when to go. I ll write to stop or go. Now let s look for the next safety sign. Practice and Apply Guide students as they find and identify each safety sign. Help them record the information on the chart. If you think students can complete the chart independently, distribute copies and monitor their work. Allow time for students to share their recorded information. W what It Where We What It Sign looks Like See It Tells Us traffic light deer crossing hospital people working slippery road railroad crossing schoolchildren crossing stop red and green lights four sides with a deer on it four sides with H on it four sides with a picture of a person shoveling a car with a crooked mark behind it two crossed signs above lights five sides with two people walking and carrying books eight sides where streets cross where deer might be near hospitals where people are working on streets and roads where trains cross roads near schools to stop or go to look out for deer how to get to the hospital to be careful to be careful to look out for trains to watch for schoolchildren carried by crossing guards; to stop where streets cross
Interactive Writing Have students use the information from the graphic organizer to write sentences that summarize what safety signs tell us. Say: The author showed us many safety signs. Let s think back on what we read. Our chart can help us remember. Let s think of a sentence we can write that tells about safety signs. (Possible sentences include A traffic light tells us when to stop and go. and A railroad crossing sign tells us to look out for trains. ) 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 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 and 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 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 students contributions. Provide explicit praise as you write the message conventionally for students to see. Reread for Fluency Ask students to reread with a partner. One partner can read the page while the other describes the sign. Connect to Home Have students read the take-home version of to family members. Ask students and family members to find safety signs as they travel around their neighborhood. carz stp at a stp sin Cars stop at a stop sign. 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
Skills Bank Phonemic Awareness: Identifying final sounds in words Say the word safe, emphasizing the final sound. Ask students to repeat the word after you. Then ask them what sound they hear at the end of the word. (/f/) Follow the same procedure with the words light, red, stop, green, us, and look. C V C e f i v e Phonics: CVCe pattern with long i Write the word five on the board. Read it aloud. Point to each letter in five and ask students whether it is a consonant or a vowel. Write the letters C, V, C, e over the letters in five. Then ask students what vowel sound they hear in five. (long i) Point out to students that words with a CVCe pattern often have a long vowel sound and that the letters i e make the long i sound in five. Have students brainstorm other words in which i e makes the long i sound, such as side, life, like, mile, ripe, wise, kite, mice, hide, and dime. Write students words on the board. Have volunteers take turns labeling each word with C, V, C, e and using the word in an oral sentence. Phonics: Word family -ight Write the word light on the board. Say the word together. Point out that light has three sounds: /l/, long i, and /t/. Explain that the letter pattern igh makes the long i sound. Underline -ight. Point out that light is one of many words that belong to the -ight word family. Have students brainstorm other -ight words, such as fight, might, night, right, sight, tight, bright, fright, and knight. As students name the words, write them on the board. Then read the words together. Ask students what they notice about the words. (They rhyme.) Explain that because words in a word family have the same middle and ending sounds, they always rhyme. Have students choose two of the words and use them in a sentence. The light is very bright. He got a fright at night. A knight will fight. 6
High-Frequency Word Vocabulary Write the high-frequency words this, has, and that on the board. Have pairs of students find each word in the book and read aloud the sentences in which the word appears. Ask the pairs to make up a sentence for each word. Have them tell their sentences to the rest of the group. Concept Vocabulary: Words about safety signs Discuss with students the kinds of safety signs they read about and what the signs are for. Ask volunteers to tell about signs they know that are not mentioned in the book. List the words and phrases about safety signs on chart paper. The list might include traffic light, stop, look out, hospital, people working, be careful, trains, and watch for schoolchildren. Ask students to choose a safety sign. Have them draw a picture of their safety sign. Post the drawings on the bulletin board and review with students what each sign tells people to do. this has that Grammar/Word Study: Capital letters Have students turn to page 2. Read the first sentence aloud. Point to the capital M in Many and ask: What do you see at the beginning of the sentence? (a capital letter) Explain to students that a sentence always begins with a capital letter. This helps us know where a sentence begins. Have students look at page 2 again. Ask: How many capital letters do you see on this page? How many sentences are there on this page? Students should count three capital letters and three sentences. Then write this sentence on the board: here is a traffic light. Do not capitalize here. Ask students what is wrong with the sentence. Have them tell you how to fix the sentence. Then ask students to write a sentence about the book on their papers. Make sure they begin their sentences with capital letters. The light is red. Stop at the light. Copyright 2011 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# 879-1-4108-0084-8 7
Skills Bank Build Comprehension Identify Main Idea and Supporting Details Explain Create an overhead transparency of the graphic organizer or draw it on the board. Say: Nonfiction books have main ideas and supporting details. The main idea is the most important thing we learn. Details tell about the main idea. Model Say: Sometimes the main idea is on the first page. Ask students to read the first sentence on page 2. Say: This sentence tells the most important thing we learn. This sentence is the main idea of the book. In the Main Idea box on the graphic organizer, write Many signs help us be safe. Ask students to look at the photographs on pages 2 and 3. Say: Now we need to look for supporting details. The details tell us some of the signs that help us be safe. Ask students to identify the sign shown on these pages and what it tells us to do. In the first Detail box on the graphic organizer, write Traffic lights tell us to stop or go. Guide Say: Let s find another supporting detail. On pages 4 and 5 I see another sign. What does this sign tell us to do? What does the sign look like? (Allow time for students to respond, assisting if needed.) Yes, this sign tells us to look out for deer. It is a yellow sign with four sides. In the next Detail box, write A yellow sign with a deer tells us to look out for deer. Apply Ask each student to work with a partner to find other supporting details to add to the graphic organizer. Remind them to look for what the sign tells us to help us be safe. If more support is needed, utilize all or part of the Guide process on additional signs mentioned in the book. Finally, read the completed graphic organizer aloud and invite students to echo-read. 8
Name Date Identify Main Idea and Supporting Details Main Idea:
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