Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 17

Book Summary
Counting Letters provides a perfect way to introduce number words to beginning readers, as well as discuss the concepts of letters and words. Repetitive text and photographs provide support.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand text
• Classify information
• Discriminate initial consonant sound /l/
• Identify initial consonant Ll
• Recognize capital letters
• Identify and use number words

Materials

• Book -- Counting Letters (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Word cards, classify information, initial consonant Ll, capital letters, number words worksheets
• Discussion cards

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

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: five, four, one, seven, six, three, two
• Content words: great, letter, letters, words

Build Background

• Write the word counting on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Discuss what it means to count something. Invite students to name things they can count and tell how they might count them. Count some objects in the classroom together.
  (Note to Teacher: Before beginning this lesson, label objects in the classroom with students. Emphasize that words are made up of sounds that are represented by letters. Count the letters in the words for the objects labeled in the classroom. Point out that words can contain different numbers of letters.)

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they think they might read about in a book called Counting Letters. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).
• Write the following repetitive phrase on the board: _____ letters. Read the phrase aloud, pointing to the word as you read it to students. Have students read it aloud. Explain to them that this word repeats throughout the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read. Remind them that thinking about what they already know about the topic of the book will help them understand what they read.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge using the information on the covers.
  Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover of Counting Letters, I see a word made up of three letters. I know that words are made by placing certain letters together. I also know that words have different numbers of letters. The boy in the picture looks as though he is having fun. The first letter in the word is f. I know that the word fun starts with the letter f. I remember seeing this word in a book that I recently read. It was spelled the same way. The word must be fun.
• 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: Classify information

• Explain to students that readers often think about the objects in a story and what they have in common. Thinking about what objects have in common and sorting them into groups helps readers understand and remember what they read.
• Cut out the words from the word cards worksheet and place them in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Read the words aloud with students.
• Write the headings One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, and Seven on the board. Read the headings with students. Model how to classify information using the words on the word cards.
  Think-aloud: As I thought about how to group these words, I started by asking myself what they have in common. I noticed that the words it and he on the word cards both contain two letters. I will group these words under the heading Two. I noticed that the words can and you on the word cards have more letters. When I count the number of letters in these words, I notice that these words each contain three letters. I will group these words under the heading Three.
• Invite students to suggest how to sort the rest of the words into the groups Two, Three, and Four.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the pictures on pages 3 and 4, you might say: I see a word with one letter in the first picture and a word with two letters on the next page.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word letters on page 5 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows the word fun at the top of the page. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /l/. However, the word fun starts with the /f/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that words are made up of letters. The word letters starts with the /l/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be letters.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students use what they already know about counting and letters to help them read the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3 (One). Point out to students where to begin reading on each page. Remind them to read the words from left to right.
• Ask students to place a finger on the page number in the bottom corner of the page. Have them read to the end of page 4, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model connecting to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: When I read the first few pages of the book, I read the word I in the first picture and the word am in the second picture. It seems as though these words are part of another message to the reader. I know from other stories I've heard that the words I am often have other words after them to explain who the person is. I know that the word I is often used to start a sentence, so I wonder if it will this time. I wonder whether the pictures on the other pages will contain words that finish this message. I will have to keep reading to find out.
• Invite students to share how they connected with what they already knew as they read.
• Have students read to the end of page 5. Cut apart pages 3 through 5 from an extra copy of the book. Place the pages in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Invite students to sort the words in the pictures and on the pages into the groups listed on the board: one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 7. Encourage them to share how they connected to prior knowledge as they read. (Accept all answers that show students understand how to connect to prior knowledge.)
• Cut apart pages 6 and 7 from an extra copy of the book. Place the pages in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Invite students to sort the words in the pictures and on the pages into the groups listed on the board.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to use what they already know about letters and counting to help them understand new information 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.

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: After I read page 10, I thought about the words I read on each page of the book as we counted the number of letters. The words did go together to make a sentence. I am fun, kind, smart, polite, helpful. I know that some sentences start with the words I am and that the other words are describing words. The sentence makes me think of the way I'd describe children in this classroom. I used what I already knew to read these pages and better understand the story.
• Have students draw a picture on a separate piece of paper showing how they connected to prior knowledge when reading about counting letters in the book. Invite them to explain their picture to the rest of the class.
• Ask students to explain how thinking about what they already knew helped them to understand and remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Cut out pages 8 and 9 and place them in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Invite volunteers to sort the words in the pictures and on the pages into the groups listed on the board.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the classify information worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about the number of letters that are in different words. Now that you know this information, what are some other words that have the same number of letters as the words in the book?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant sound /l/

• Say the word letter aloud to students, emphasizing the /l/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /l/ sound.
• Read page 3 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /l/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word begins with the /l/ sound: look, light, kind, helpful, like.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ll

• Write the word letter on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /l/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students to tell which letter represents the /l/ sound in the word letter.
• Have students practice writing the letter l on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letter represents.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /l/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial consonant: let, lip, lit. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial consonant Ll to the words. Have students practice writing each word on a separate piece of paper. Then have them read the words aloud to a partner.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ll worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization

• Write the following sentence on the board: Two letters. Read the words aloud with students.
• Explain that every sentence has a signal at the beginning that lets readers know where to start reading. Underline the capital letter in the word Two. Explain that the word Two begins with a capital letter to signal that a new sentence is beginning. Emphasize that all sentences begin with capital letters. (Note to teacher: Reading A–Z provides concept books at Level aa. Each page contains simple 2- to 4-word lines that use high-frequency words and nouns in a 1:1 correspondence with the picture. These phrases or sentence fragments are usually predictable and consist of a one-word change from page to page, helping to build vocabulary and introduce initial capitalization, ending punctuation, and book-handling skills in early readers.)
• Have students tell something about themselves. Write their sentences on the board, leaving off the initial capital letters. Have volunteers come to the board and add capital letters to the sentence beginnings.

      Check for understanding: Have students underline the capital letters at the beginning of the sentences in the book.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the capital letters worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Number words

• Write the numeral 2 and the number word two on the board. Read them aloud with students.
• Explain that words that tell the name of numerals are called number words.
• Write the numerals 1 through 7 on the board. Then write the number word for each numeral next to the numeral. Read the numerals and number words aloud with students.

      Check for understanding: Have students locate and highlight the number words in their copy of the book. Have them hold up the appropriate number of fingers while reading each number word.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the number words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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 them share with someone at home how they connected with what they already knew as they read the book together.

Expository Writing and Art Connection
Have each student write his or her name in large letters on a piece of paper. Have them count the number of letters in their name. Help students write the following sentence on a separate piece of paper: ___ letters. Reinforce number words, capitalization, and the concept of counting letters.

Math Connection
Have students make a counting book. On a separate piece of paper, have them draw a group of up to seven objects. Have them label the picture with the correct number word and a word to name the objects. Put the pages together to create a class counting book. Read the book aloud with students.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more card and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.