Build Background

• Have students sit with a partner and talk about how people can travel from one place to another. Model an example by saying, I can travel by taxi.
• When partners have had time to think about and discuss the question, have the pairs share their modes of transportation.
• Record their ideas in a list on the board.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make, revise, confirm predictions

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about based on the cover information. Draw a column to hold your list, labeling it "Our Predictions." Add two other columns labeled "In the Book" and "Not in the Book." Model how to make a prediction using the cover information and how to confirm it on the chart.
• Think aloud: I can look at the cover and the title to make a prediction about the book. I think that the book is going to tell me about different kinds of transportation, or different ways people can go from one place to another. Since there is a picture of a bike on the cover, I predict that we will read about bikes in this book. I will put a checkmark under the column "In the book" next to the word bike on our list. Can you make other predictions from looking at the cover?
• If students suggest bus, put a check mark next to the word bus on the list. If bus is not on the list, add it and then place a check mark next to it.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Ask them to make a prediction based on the picture, and record it on the chart.
• Students should use other reading strategies in addition to the one targeted by this lesson. For an overview of other reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students, talking about the illustrations and using the vocabulary they will encounter in the text.
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words will give them facts about going places, and that the words are read left to right.
• Ask a student to come up to the book you are holding and point to where they should start reading and which direction they should go as they read.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how to read unfamiliar words. Point out the word car on page 6 without reading the word. Show students how to read the word, first by having them look at the beginning letter to identify the sound, and then by looking at the picture. Ask them to think about what word starts with /k/ and makes sense. Read the sentence and ask them if they think the sentence makes sense. Repeat with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more modeling. Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds and/or the parts within words to help them sound out the words. They should check whether the word makes sense by looking at the picture or rereading the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out whether their predictions are correct.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 4. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, have students refer to the list on the chart. Put a check in the second column for any words on the list that are discussed on these two pages. Model confirming predictions. For example: The text tells us that you can go on a plane and on a train. These words are on our list, and we predicted that the book would tell us about them. We can put a check next to these words in the second column. Do you want to make any new predictions before you read the rest of the book?
• Ask students what strategies they used to read the words plane and train.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book.

    Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues. For example, point out the word boat on page 5. Ask students how they know this word says boat and not ship. Focus on the /b/ sound at the beginning of the word.
• Have students refer to the pre-reading chart. Ask them what types of transportation on the list were confirmed by reading the book. Then ask them what types of transportation were not in the book, and place a check in the third column next to these words.

Comprehension: Summarize facts on a web

• Introduce and model: Give students a copy of the Summarization worksheet. You might want to make an overhead of the worksheet to use as a model. Explain to students that it helps them remember important information from the book if they can list the main facts on a web such as the one on the worksheet. Model finding the first fact in the book and writing it on the web: We can list all the facts about going places on this web. The first fact I found was on page 3. The text says, You can go on a plane. To help me remember this information, I can write the key fact on the web. I'm going to write plane. This will help me remember that I read about going places on a plane. You write plane on your worksheet, too. (Note: you may want to have students draw a picture of the fact instead of writing the word.)
• Check for understanding: Have students find the next fact in the book and write it on their worksheets. If students have trouble finding a fact, repeat the modeling with them.
• Independent practice: Tell students to complete the web. When students have finished, ask them to use the web to retell the information they learned from the book.
• Extend the discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of the way they like to travel from one place to another. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Phonemic Awareness: Listen for initial consonant sounds

• Say the words bike, bus, and boat. Have students repeat the words. Tell students that these words all start with /b/. Have them repeat the words and listen for the /b/ sound.
• Tell students you are going to say some groups of words. If the words all start with /b/, students should give you a thumbs up. If the words don’t all start with /b/, they should give you a thumbs down. Say the following groups of words, having students repeat them and indicate thumbs up or down: ball, bat, boat; big, get, balloon; top, bop, map; box, bear, banana; bug, bin, bit; bus, pug, pat.
• Give students the Initial Consonants worksheet and have them color the pictures whose names start with /b/.

Phonics: Identify and read words with initial b

• Have students turn to page 5 and find a word that starts with /b/. Have a volunteer read the word boat while you write it on the board. Underline the letter b. Explain that this letter stands for the /b/ sound they hear at the beginning of the word boat.
• Have students work in pairs to look for two other words in the book that start with b. When students have found the words bus and bike, write them on the board. Ask individual students to come to the board and circle the letter that stands for the /b/ sound in the words.
• Write the following words on the board: bat, bag, bill, big. Have students sound out the words with you as you run your finger under each. Ask volunteers to come up and circle the letter that stands for the /b/ sound in the words.
• Give students the Initial B worksheet and explain what they are to do.

Vocabulary: Categorize vocabulary words

• Have students work in pairs. Give each pair a Vocabulary Categorization worksheet. Have them cut out the picture word cards and mix them up. Then ask them to work with their partners to sort the words into groups. Allow them to group the cards any way they wish. When they have finished sorting, ask them to share why they grouped the words the way they did.
• Have students sort the words in various ways. Some examples include: transportation that carries many people and transportation that carries few or one; transportation that can go far away and transportation that works for short distances; two wheels, four wheels, no wheels. After each sorting, have the students discuss their groupings and explain why they grouped the words as they did.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading in the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing

• Use the high frequency words you, can, go, and to to create the sentence pattern You can go to ______. Read the pattern with students. Then have them draw a picture of somewhere. Students can use the pattern to write about their picture.

Science Connection

• Select one of the modes of transportation mentioned in the book. Find nonfiction resources at the students’ interest level and read them aloud to the group. Have students complete a web on the mode of transportation, filling it in with details they learned from the book.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• find the key facts in the book and summarize them on the web.
• tell when words begin with the same initial sound and identify words that start with /b/.
• recognize words that start with b.
• categorize vocabulary words according to meaningful criteria.