Text Type: Fiction/Personal Account
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 42

Book Summary
In I Pick Up, a boy practices the important life skill of organization. Sentence patterns and supportive illustrations guide students as they read.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Sequence events

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of sequencing events to understand text
• Identify problem and solution
• Blend onset and rime
• Identify beginning consonants
• Recognize and understand the use of periods
• Identify high-frequency words

Materials

• Book -- I Pick Up (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Problem and solution, initial consonants, high-frequency words 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, up, my, is, all
• Content words: pick(ed), ball, book, shoes, hat, teddy bear, cars, blanket, room

Build Background

• Invite students to imagine a school where no one ever put anything away. Discuss with students the problems teachers and students might have in a messy school (couldn't find things, accidents, distractions). Then ask students how they might turn the messy school into a cleaned-up school. (Accept any answers that students can justify.)

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 I Pick Up. Have students predict what the boy will pick up. (Accept any answer 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 Strategy: Sequence events

• Explain to students that good readers think about events that happen in a story. Remind them that they are more likely to understand the story if they stop to remember what has already happened before they read further.
• Model how to sequence events.
  Think-aloud: The first time I read this book, I figured out that the boy was supposed to be picking up his room. I looked at the picture on page 3. Then I read: I pick up my ball. When I turned to page 4, I thought: He picked up his ball; what will he pick up next? I used that same strategy before I read every page. Before page 5, I thought: He picked up his ball and then his book. What will he pick up next? Stopping to think about the sequence of events helped me to remember the whole story.
• 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

• Ask students to join you in singing the familiar song This is the way we. . . (wash our face, wash our hands, and so on). Write the phrase This is the way we pick up. . . on the board and read it with students. Then write the content words ball, book, shoes, hat, teddy bear, cars, blanket, and room on the board. Read each word aloud and have students read it after you. Invite students to sing a new version of the song using the words you have written on the board. Point to the words as students sing them.
• Preview the book, asking students to talk about what they see in the pictures. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text. For example, while looking at the picture on page 7, you might engage students in a conversation in which they use the vocabulary words: teddy bear.
• Remind students that they can help themselves when they come to a tricky word by looking at the first letter and checking the picture to see what word might start like that sound or what word might make sense. For example, on page 6, model pointing under the h in hat. Say: I am going to help myself by looking at the picture and thinking about what the boy is going to pick up that starts like /h/ (make /h/ sound). Does hat make sense? Yes. The word is hat.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what happens to the boy. Remind them to stop to think about what has already happened as they read to help them remember what happens in the story.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books. Have them put a sticky note on page 6 and ask them to read to the end of that page. Encourage students who finish before everyone else to reread the text to find out more about the story. When students are ready, discuss why the boy needs to pick up his room and why it might be hard for him. (Accept answers that show students have thought about what they are reading.)
• Model how to sequence events, as done previously.
  Think-aloud: I saw from the picture that the boy's dad wanted his room clean. I was curious whether the boy would get the job done. As I read each page, I stopped to remember what he had already picked up before I read the next page. For example, before I read page 6, I stopped to remember that he had already picked up his ball, his book, and his shoes.
• Invite volunteers to explain how they used the strategy of stopping to remember events in sequence. Guide students who need help in explaining the process.
• Ask students to read the remainder of the book. Remind them to stop to remember to sequence events as they read.

Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Model how they can read these words.
• Ask students to share examples of how they sequenced events while they were reading. Invite them to explain how sequencing events helps readers better understand what they are reading. Guide the discussion if students have trouble explaining the process.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Problem and solution

• Discussion: Ask students what they know about problems and solutions. Encourage them to define the two terms in their own words. Explain that after a problem is solved, it is usually followed by a result.
• Introduce and model the skill: On the board, draw a three-box vertical flow chart labeled from top to bottom: Problem, Solution, and Result. Explain that every story has a problem, a solution, and a result. The problem is what is wrong, the solution is what fixes the problem, and the result is what happens after the problem is solved. Use a common example to complete the flow chart. For example, under Problem, write: My dog got out of her yard. Under Solution, write: I called my dog, and she came home. Under Result, write: My dog and I were happy to be together again.
• Check for understanding: Ask students what problem the boy had at the beginning of the story (his father looked unhappy, he had a messy room). Have students explain how he solved the problem (he picked up his belongings).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the problem and solution worksheet.

Phonemic Awareness: Blend onset and rime

• Tell students you are going to say a word from the book. Explain that you want them to listen to the word parts and then to say the word as a whole. Say: b/all -- What's the word? (ball)
• Ask students to listen carefully as you say the following word parts and to repeat each complete word after you: b/ook (book), h/at (hat), b/ear (bear), c/ar (car), r/oom (room), b/oy (boy), d/ad (dad), and h/ug (hug).

Phonics: Identify initial consonants

• Write the words boy and ball on the board. Underline the initial consonant (b) in each word. Ask a volunteer to read the two words. Ask a second volunteer to identify the first letter of each word. Explain that the letter b is a consonant. Have students say the word consonant. Explain or review that all letters that are not vowels are consonants.
• Explain that you are going to write some new words on the board. Choose decodable words that begin with b, c, or h, such as hat or bad. Have volunteers underline the initial consonant in each word.
• Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonants worksheet.

Grammar and Mechanics: Periods

• Review or explain that writers use a period to mark the end of a telling sentence.
• Have students read the sentences on page 3 and 4 as if there were no periods. Ask them to tell why a period is important.

Have students highlight all of the periods in the book.

Vocabulary: High-frequency words

• Explain that several of the words in the book are used often in reading and writing. It is important to be able to read these words in order to concentrate on other tricky parts of reading and writing.
• Ask students to identify some of the words in the book that are used often (I, up, my, is, all).
• Introduce, explain, and have students complete the high-frequency words worksheet.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing and Art Connection

• As a group, create a big book with a modified version of the traditional song: This is the way we. . . Give each student a sentence starter (This is the way I pick __ .) printed on a strip of paper. Have students complete the sentence and paste it at the bottom of their page in the big book. Note: Students will write up and my in their sentences to practice these high-frequency words. Have students illustrate their page before adding it to the big book. When the book is complete, read or sing the book together as a group.

Social Studies and Math Connection

• accurately and consistently demonstrate how to sequence events while reading
• accurately complete a problem and solution outline
• understand that word parts can be blended together to make a whole word
• accurately identify initial consonants
• identify periods at the end of telling sentences
• understand that some words are used frequently and should be learned in order to read and write automatically

Comprehension Check

• Retelling Rubric