About the Book

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

Book Summary
The City introduces students to the vocabulary of things they might see in a city. The book pairs realistic artwork with simple text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use prior knowledge to make meaning from text
• Identify the main idea and details
• Discriminate initial sounds
• Associate the letter Pp with the sound /p/
• Understand that some words are naming words
• Categorize words

Materials

• Book -- The City (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, initial consonant Pp worksheets
• Sticky notes
• 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 words: the, big
• Content words: streets, cars, buses, stores, park, buildings, people, noise

Before Reading

Build Background

• Discuss cities. Ask students what they think of when they hear the word city. Direct students to close their eyes and imagine what they might hear, smell, see, taste, or touch in a city. Make a list on the board.

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 The City . (Accept any answers students can justify). Ask students what they think the book will be about based on the title and cover information.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read. Remind students 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
• Think-aloud: The title of this book is The City. I think about what I already know about cities, and this helps me predict the kinds of things I might read about in this book. I know that cities are pretty noisy places with lots of cars and buses. I think there will be cars and buses in this book.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the pictures. Ask them if they have ever been to a city and seen tall buildings. Ask whether the buildings looked like the ones in this picture as they were looking up at them.
• 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 an object in the picture, such as the buses. Ask students what sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Ask what sound they hear at the end of the word. Have students find the word buses on the page and tell you how they know the word is buses. 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 the 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 find out about cities. Encourage them to mark any place in the book that reminds them of something they have seen before.

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 5, 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 students about their experiences with any of the things shown in the pictures.
• Think-aloud: I have driven through a city with my family. The picture on page 4 reminds me of all the traffic I saw on the roads. It was very busy.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to mark any places that remind them of things they have seen.

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.
• Have students share the things in the book of which they are familiar. Tell students that when you already know something about the topic of the book, it is easier to read and understand it.
• Think-aloud: As I look at the pictures, I thought about the things that I have seen in a city and compared the pictures to what I know. This helped me to remember and understand what I read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Ask students to identify the things the author showed that are found in a city.
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain that every book has a main idea that tells us what the book is about. The title of the book and the pictures can be clues that tell the main idea. Discuss the main idea of the book. (There are many things in a city.)
• Think-aloud: On page 4, I see many cars on the roads. I know that many cars are found in a city. This is a detail that describes the main idea.
• Check for understanding: Review the pictures in the book with students. Ask volunteers to name an object found in a city.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. Have them write the word city in the blank after the heading Main idea. Then have them draw and label details they learned about the main idea of the book.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw pictures of other things they've seen in a city. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial sounds

• Say the word pet and have students repeat it. Tell students that the word starts with /p/ and have students repeat the sound. Say the words pet and pat, and tell students that the words start with the same sound: /p/. Have students repeat the words.
• Tell students that you are going to say some words. If both words start with /p/, they should give a thumbs-up signal. If both words do not begin with /p/, they should give a thumbs-down signal. Say the following word pairs, one pair at a time: park/paddle; dog/pinch; poodle/pan; fence/paper; stand/penny; pumpkin/push.

Phonics: Initial consonant Pp

• Write the lower- and uppercase letter Pp on the board. Ask students to name this letter. Then tell them that the letter p stands for the /p/ sound they can hear in the words pig, pen, and pan. Write the words on the board and underline the p in each word.
• Model sounding out the word pig by running your finger under the letters while you blend the sounds: /p/ /iii/ /g/. Then have students blend the word with you. Repeat with the words pen and pan.
• Challenge students to find two words in the book that start with /p/ (park/p. 6; people/p. 9) Write the words on the board. Have volunteers circle the letter that stands for the /p/ sound.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Pp worksheet. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Naming words (nouns)

• Explain that naming words can name people, places, and things. Say: The word book names a thing, the word [say name of your town] names a place, and the word teacher names a person.
• Say the following words one at a time: paper, pencil, nurse, Chicago, school, desk, mom, ruler, friend. Have students tell you whether each word names a person, place, or thing.

Word Work: Categorize words

• Ask students what the story was about (things in a city). Tell students that they can put all the naming words in the book together in one big group called “the city.” The words in the book all name things in a city.
• Tell students that you are going to read them different lists of words. You want them to tell you what group you could put the words in each list into. Say the following lists of words, one at a time: kitten, goldfish, puppy, gerbil (pets/animals); car, bus, train, plane, taxi (ways to get around/transportation); mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle (family members); apple, pear, watermelon (fruit/food); baseball, hockey, tennis, diving (sports).

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts 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
Ask students to write (use invented spelling or dictate the sentence) whether they would like to live in the city or the country and why. Ask them to draw a picture of where they would like to live.

Social Studies Connection
Have students tell about a favorite city they have visited. Where was it? What did they like about it? How was it different from other cities? Encourage students to talk about the specific things they liked.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• draw on prior knowledge of cities as they read
• state the main idea of the book and locate details from the book to place on the graphic organizer
• correctly state whether words said orally start with the same sound during discussion
• associate the letter Pp with the sound /p/ during discussion and on a worksheet
• recognize that some words are naming words; tell whether these words name people, places, or things during discussion
• categorize words during discussion

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric

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