What I Like
Level A

About the Book

Text Type: Personal Account
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 24

Book Summary
On a rainy day, a girl sits by the window and thinks about what she likes to see and do outside. The repetitive text, high-frequency words, and illustrations provide support for beginning readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

  • Visualize

Objectives

  • Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
  • Identify main idea and details
  • Demonstrate word awareness
  • Identify initial consonant Bb
  • Recognize and understand that nouns are naming words
  • Recognize and write the high-frequency word I

Materials

  • Book -- What I Like (copy for each student)
  • Chalkboard or dry erase board
  • Main idea and details, nouns, high-frequency word I worksheets

    Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reusable.)

Vocabulary

  • High-frequency words: I, like, play, to
  • Content words: bees, birds, dig, flowers, outside, run, slide, swing, trees

Before Reading 

Build Background

  • Write the words What I Like on the board. Point to each word as you read them aloud to students. Then have students read the words aloud with you.
  • Ask students what types of things they think of when they hear the words What I Like. Invite them to share their thoughts.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

  • Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called What I Like. Ask students to explain what the girl is looking at through the window on page 3 (the rain).
  • Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
  • Discuss the repetitive phrase I like and have students say it aloud. Explain that these words repeat through most of the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

  • Explain that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know about a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
  • Review the phrase What I Like on the board. Write the word outdoors on the board and read the word aloud to students. Model how to visualize about the outdoors.
    Think-aloud: When I think about what I like about the outdoors, I picture summertime, walking barefoot in the soft grass, and feeling the wind blow on my face. These are things I like about the outdoors.
  • Ask students to visualize, or picture in their mind, what they like about the outdoors. Have them share their thoughts aloud. Record their ideas on the board using the phrase I like _________. Read each phrase aloud with students, pointing to each word as it is read aloud.
  • As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

  • Explain that every book has a big idea, which is the most important thing the book is about. Read the title to students. Explain that the title often provides clues about a book's big idea. Invite students to share predictions about the main idea of this story.
  • Explain that the main idea of this story is the things the girl likes to see and do outside. Write Things the Girl Likes on the board. Point to each word as you read it with the students.
  • Model how to identify details.
    Think-aloud: I know that every book has details that help explain the big idea. I know that the girl in the story is thinking about what she likes to see and do outside when it is not raining. The front cover shows the girl thinking about watching birds. Do you think this could be something that the girl likes to do outdoors? Since this helps to explain the big idea, it might be a detail in this story.
  • Invite students to share other things the girl might like to see or do outside.

Introduce the Vocabulary

  • While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the text. Remind students that they can help themselves when they come to a tricky word by looking at the first letter in the word and checking the picture on the page to see what might start with the same sound and make sense in the story.
  • Turn to page 3 in the book. Point to the fl in flowers. Ask students to identify the sound the letters f and l make. Then ask them to identify the sound these two letters would make together (/fl/). Say: I am going to help myself by looking at the picture and thinking about what the girl likes that begins like /fl/ (make the /fl/ sound).
  • Invite students to identify the word (flowers). Use the word in the sentence and ask students if the word flowers makes sense.
  • For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

  • Have students read to find out what the girl likes to see and do outside. Remind them to stop and visualize, or picture in their mind, the things the girl likes about the outdoors.

During Reading 

Student Reading

  • Guide the reading: give students their copy of the book. Point out the words on the pages. Review or explain that the words on the pages are read from left to right. Ask a student to point to where they should start reading and tell in which direction they should read.
  • Point out the numbers at the bottom of the pages. Have students read to the end of page 5, using their finger to point to each word as they read.
  • Model how to visualize.
    Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind of all the things the girl was thinking about. For example, on page 5, I pictured how the baby birds hopped as they went down the sidewalk. I pictured how they might stop now and then to peck the ground for seeds and bits of food. This helped me remember the birds.
  • Review the main idea of the book Things the Girl Likes. Ask students to explain whether birds are a detail that supports the big idea of the story and why (yes, the text says that she likes birds).
  • Introduce and explain the main idea and details worksheet. Write the word birds on the board. Have students write the word and draw a picture of birds in one of the bubbles on their worksheet. Encourage them to label their drawing.
  • Check for understanding: Have students read to page 7. Invite volunteers to explain what they pictured in their mind when they read the word swing. Accept all answers that show students understand how to visualize events associated with swinging. Invite students to share other examples of how they visualize as they read.
  • Ask students to share other details that support the main idea Things the Girl Likes. Have them choose one of the details to draw on their worksheet. Then have them locate the word in their book to help them write the name of the object they drew on their worksheet.
  • Have student read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing the details of the book as they read.

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

After Reading 

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

  • Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
  • Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to make pictures in my mind of what the girl liked to see and do outside. For example on page 10, I thought about children playing outside on the playground. I pictured children running around outside. I thought about the cheerful noise of children having fun. Picturing these things in my mind helped me to better understand and enjoy the story as I read.
  • Have students share what they visualized on pages 9 and 10. Discuss the difference between the pictures the girl imagines and the pictures students made in their mind as they read.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

  • Discussion: Read the big idea on the board with students. Review the details students drew on their worksheet. Invite them to explain why the details on their worksheet match the main idea of the story.
  • Independent practice: Have students complete the main idea and details worksheet.
  • Enduring understanding: Everyone has things they like. Now that you know this information, why do you think people like different things?

Build Skills 

Phonemic Awareness: Word awareness

  • Explain that we can count the number of words we say by clapping as we say each word. Say I like trees aloud to students, emphasizing each word in the sentence.
  • Say the sentence again, clapping each word as you say it aloud. Explain that you said three words. Have students repeat the process with you.
  • Say I like birds, too aloud to students, emphasizing each word in the sentence. Then have students clap each word in the sentence as they say it aloud with you. Ask them to identify the number of words in the sentence (4).
  • Check for understanding: Say additional sentences aloud that contain one-syllable words. Have students clap and count the number of words together.

Phonics: Initial consonant Bb

  • Write the word birds on the board. Have students say the word aloud with you. Ask a volunteer to identify the first sound in the word. Write the letter b on the board. Explain that the letter b stands for the first sound they hear in the word birds.
  • Write the word bees on the board. Ask a volunteer to underline the letter that stands for the /b/ sound.
  • Choose some words that begin with the letter b, such as bug and bat. Write these words on the board. Have volunteers trace the initial letter b in each word with their finger as they say the sound the letter makes. Have the rest of the class make the letter b in the air or on the tabletop with their pointer finger.
  • Check for understanding: Have students name words that begin with the /b/ sound. Write each word on the board without the initial letter. Have volunteers come to the board and complete each word by writing the initial letter. Have them say the sound the letter b stands for and then say the whole word. Ask the other students to trace the letter on the tabletop with their pointer finger.

Grammar and Mechanics: Identify naming words (nouns)

  • Point to various classroom objects, such as a book, a pencil, and the door. Ask volunteers to identify the objects. Explain that some words they read name types of things. These naming words are called nouns.
  • Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Read the sentence aloud with them, pointing to the words as they read. Ask them to point to the naming word that identifies things (flowers).
  • Have students turn to page 4. Invite them to read the sentence together, pointing to the words as they read. Have them point to the naming word on the page (trees).

    Have students point to the words as you read each page aloud with them. Have them underline the naming words in the book. Discuss the words they underlined.

  • Check for understanding: Ask students to identify other naming words that identify things that are not in the book. Record students' responses on the board.
  • Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet.

Word Work: High-frequency word I

  • Say the following sentence aloud, pointing to yourself as you say each sentence aloud: Mr./Mrs./Ms. (your name) teaches the student. I teach the student.
  • Write the word I on the board and read the word aloud. Have students read the word with you. Ask students to explain who the word I refers to.
  • Explain that the word I is a word people use to talk about themselves. Point out that the word I is capitalized because it is another name people give themselves.

    Have students locate the word I in their book. Have them circle the word I when they locate it.

  • Check for understanding: Have students use their name aloud in a sentence. Then have them substitute their name for the word I in the same sentence.
  • Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the high-frequency word I worksheet.

Build Fluency 

Independent Reading

  • Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section in the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

  • Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students compare with someone at home what they visualized as they read the book.

Extend the Reading 

Writing and Art Connection
Ask students to describe something they like to see or do outside. Have them draw a picture about what they like. Under their picture, help them write: I like ________. Use the pages to make a book for shared reading. Reinforce students' understanding of naming words and the high-frequency word I.

Math Connection
Create a graph to answer the question: Would you rather play inside or outside? Help students make tally marks to represent each vote. Count the tally marks and discuss which group has more and which has less. Write the number in each column.

Assessment 

Monitor students to determine if they can:

  • accurately and consistently visualize to understand text
  • accurately identify the main idea and details during discussion and on a worksheet
  • accurately clap and count the number of words in a spoken sentence
  • identify and write the letter Bb during discussion
  • identify nouns that name things during discussion and on a worksheet
  • read, write, and understand the use of the high-frequency word I during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks



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