About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept Book
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 16

Book Summary
Summer gives the beginning reader a chance to learn the printed vocabulary for all the wonderful things we associate with the season. The sun, the beach, and flowers are all featured with evocative illustrations.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

• Read to make, revise, and confirm predictions
• Identify the main idea and details in the book
• Count the number of syllables in words
• Associate the letter Ss with the sound /s/
• Understand that some words name things
• Categorize words by topic

Materials

• Book -- Summer (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, initial consonant Ss, categorize worksheets
• Word journal (optional)

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 word: the
• Content words: sun, rain, beach, swimsuit, ball, flowers, garden, summer

Before Reading

Build Background

• Write the word Summer on the board and read it aloud to students. Ask students to share what they know about this season.
• Ask students to think of two things they like to do in summer. Discuss their responses.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask them what they might read about in a book called Summer. (Accept any answers students can justify).
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Explain that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain that making predictions can help people make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that making predictions is more important than whether the prediction is right, or confirmed.
• Model making a prediction based on the covers of the book.
• Think-aloud: I see two summer things on the covers: a sun and some flowers. I predict that this book will tell me about things I can see in the summer. Since there is a picture of flowers, I predict that a garden will also be in the book.
• Show students the title page and have them make a prediction about the book.
• 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 Vocabulary

• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by pointing to something in the picture, such as the picture of the beach. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Have them find the word beach on the page and tell you how they know the word is beach. Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary.
• Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds, and other parts that they recognize, to help them sound out words. They should also check whether a word makes sense by looking at the picture or rereading the sentence.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to check their prediction based on the pictures and the text.

During Reading

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3. Read the word together (The). Point out where to begin reading on each page. Remind students to read words from left to right. Point to each word as you read it aloud while students follow along in their own book.
• 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 6, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• When they have finished, ask them if they can confirm any of their predictions about the book based on the words they read. Ask if they want to revise any predictions for the rest of the book.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that a garden will be in this book about summer. From what I've read, I see a lot of things about going to the beach. I will revise my prediction. I think I will read about things you see at the beach in the summer, such as sand and water.
• Point out that making predictions helps them be active readers who think about what they are reading.
• Have students read the remainder of the book to find out if their prediction is correct.

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.
• Reinforce that making guesses about what they will find in a book helps them understand the story. (Making predictions creates interest in the topic and motivates the reader to keep reading.) Invite students to share the outcome of their prediction.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that the rest of the story would be about objects at the beach. This prediction was incorrect. The book named other summertime objects, such as flowers and a garden. Making predictions helped me become more interested in reading the book. I wanted to keep reading to check that my predictions about the pictures were correct.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Ask students to share what they learned about summer while reading.
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain that every book has a main idea that tells what the book is about. The title of the book and the pictures can be clues to identify the main idea. Discuss the main idea of the book. (Certain things remind us of summer.)
• Check for understanding: Ask students to point to a detail in their book that supports the main idea. Observe their responses.
  Think-aloud: On page 5, I see a picture of a bathing suit. I know that the weather is warm in many places during the summer. People often put on bathing suits to swim in the water to stay cool. This is a detail that tells about the main idea.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. Have them find all the details from the book that go with the main idea of summer and write or draw them in the outer circles.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of their favorite summertime thing or place. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Syllable awareness

• Say the word summer and clap as you say each syllable: sum/mer. Tell students that there are two syllables in the word summer. Have them say the word and clap the syllables with you: sum/mer.
• Clap once as you say the word sun and tell students that the word sun has one syllable. Have students repeat.
• Tell students you are going to say some words and you want them to clap for each syllable. Say the following words one at a time: flowers, beach, garden, morning, truck, yesterday.
• Then tell students to listen to each word as you say it and put up one, two, or three fingers to show how many syllables they hear in each word.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ss

• Write the lower and upper case letter Ss on the board. Ask students what the name of this letter is. Then tell them that the letter s stands for the /s/ sound they can hear in the word summer. Write the word summer on the board and underline the s.
• Have students see how many times they can find the word summer in the book (cover, back cover, title page, page 10)
• Ask students to find other words in the book that start with /s/ (sun/page 3; swimsuit/page 6). Write these words on the board. Have volunteers come to the board and circle the letter that stands for the /s/ sound in each word.
• Write the word sun on the board. Model how to sound out the word, moving your hand under each letter while blending the sounds. Hold the sounds for one second (sssuuunnn). Then say the word. Ask students to sound out the word with you.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ss worksheet. Name each picture with them before they begin the worksheet: sandwich, balloon, seal, hand, leaf, seven, sink, clock, socks, carrot, sun, soap. When they have finished, have them share the words they found that start with /s/.

Grammar and Mechanics: Naming words (nouns)

• Tell students that some words tell the name of people, places, and things. Provide an example by pointing to yourself and saying teacher. Point out other examples in the room and have students name the objects.
• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Ask them to point to a word on the page that is a naming word (sun). Then have students take turns finding other naming words in the book.

Word Work: Categorize words

• Have students tell you the summer things they read about in the book. Then ask students to brainstorm other summer things. Write their suggestions in a word web.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the categorize worksheet. Discuss with students what people do at the beach. Have students sort the pictures on the worksheet that fit with the topic of summer at the beach.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Additionally, partners can take turns reading part of the book.

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection
Instruct students to work with a partner to write a story about a perfect summer day. Ask them to illustrate their story. (Allow students to use invented spelling, or take dictation.)

Art Connection
Provide magazines or other resources and ask students to make a collage of summer things. Encourage them to label the items on their collage.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make logical predictions based on text information; read to revise or confirm predictions
• state the main idea in their own words and find “facts” from the book that go with the main idea
• correctly clap the number of syllables in words presented orally
• associate the letter Ss with the sound /s/ on a worksheet
• understand that some words name things; provide examples of these words
• correctly sort pictures associated with the beach on a worksheet

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric

Go to "Summer" main page