Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 51

Book Summary
Students will learn about animals and the kinds of spots they have in What Has These Spots? This nonfiction book provides an opportunity to compare and contrast information about animals. Detailed, supportive photographs, high-frequency words, and repetitive phrases provide support for beginning readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Ask and answer questions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to understand text
• Compare and contrast
• Blend onset and rime
• Identify initial consonant Bb
• Recognize and use declarative sentences
• Understand and use alphabetical order

Materials

• Book -- What Has These Spots? (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Compare and contrast, initial consonant Bb, declarative sentences worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: has, kind, no, of, these, what
• Content words: animal, black, bug, cheetah, fawn, lemur, spots, tiny, white

Build Background

• Write the word spot on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Ask: What has a spot? Add an s to the word spot and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students to name some things that have spots. 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 what they think they might read about in a book called What Has These Spots? (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 sentences on the board: What kind of animal has these spots? A _____ has these _____ spots. Read the sentences aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud. Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Model how to ask questions as you preview the book.
  Think-aloud: When I read the title and look at the picture on the front cover, I think about animals that have spots. I know that some animals have spots on their bodies. I wonder what animals I will read about in this book. I'll write that question on the board. (What animals will I read about in this book?) The picture on the front cover shows a turtle with yellow spots on its shell. I wonder if all of the animals in the book will have spots. I'll write that question on the board. (Will all of the animals in the book have spots?)
• Show students the title page and ask what they see in the picture. Ask students what questions they might ask about the picture. If necessary, model once more for students how to ask questions 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 Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast

• Explain to students that one way to understand and organize new information in a book is to explain how objects are alike and different. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Point out that explaining how things are alike is called comparing, and explaining how things are different is called contrasting. Write the word alike under compare and the word different under contrast on the board.
• Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Butterfly and the right side Fish. Project the title page on the white board or have students look at the animals shown on the page.
• Model how to compare and contrast using these animals.
  Think-aloud: I can compare and contrast the fish and the butterfly. I see that the fish has many tiny spots, but the butterfly has four large spots. I will write tiny spots on the Venn diagram under the heading Fish and large spots under the heading Butterfly to show one way these two objects are different. I know that the fish and the butterfly are both animals. I will write animals on the diagram where the circles overlap to show one way these two animals are alike.
• Invite students to suggest other ways that the fish and the butterfly are the same and different. Write student responses on the Venn diagram under the appropriate headings.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the picture on page 3, you might say: What kind of animal has these spots? These spots are black.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins and ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word bug page 8 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows a ladybug with tiny spots on its back. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /b/. However, the word ladybug starts with the /l/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that a ladybug is a type of bug. The word bug starts with the /b/ sound. I also hear the /g/ sound at the end of the word. The word bug has a g at the end that makes the /g/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be bug.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students use what they already know to ask questions about the animals as they read. Remind them to think about how the animals might be alike and different.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have a volunteer point to the first word on page 3 (What). 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 their 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 asking and answering questions and comparing and contrasting.
  Think-aloud: On page 4, I see a cheetah with black spots. A cheetah is an animal that has spots. This answers the first question I asked: What kinds of animals will I read about in this book? I wonder if the other animals in the book will have spots that are black like a cheetah's. I will write this question on the board: What kind of spots will the animals have?
• Invite students to share some questions they asked as they read.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Encourage them to share questions they asked as they read. (Accept all questions that show students understand how to formulate a question.)
• Have student pairs discuss how a cheetah and a fawn are alike and different. Have them draw a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper and write the information from their discussion on their diagram.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to ask and answer questions and think about how the animals might be alike and different 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: When I read page 9, I thought about my first question: What kinds of animals will I read about in this book? I thought that all of the animals I would read about would have spots. I know that some animals have spots and other animals do not. Now I have a new question: What kinds of animals have no spots?
• Ask students to explain how asking and answering questions helped them to understand and remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the meanings of compare and contrast, as well as the Venn diagrams created earlier in the lesson.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about some of the animals that have spots. Now that you know this information, why do you think some animals have spots? What other patterns might animals have on their bodies?

Phonological Awareness: Blend onset and rime

• Ask students to listen as you say two parts of a word and blend them together: b-ug; bug. Say the onset and rime again. Have students repeat the process with you.
• Say the following word aloud: k-ind. Have students repeat the onset and rime, and then blend them together.
• Check for understanding: Say the following onsets and rimes one at a time: bl-ack, sp-ots, t-iny, f-awn. Have students repeat the onset and rime for each word. Then have them blend the word parts together to say the word.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant Bb

• Write the word bug on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /b/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which letter represents the /b/ sound in the word bug.
• Have students practice writing the letter Bb on a separate piece of paper while saying the /b/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /b/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial consonant: book, bit, bat. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the initial Bb to the word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Bb worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Declarative sentences

• Write the following sentence on the board: A cheetah has these black spots. Read the sentence aloud with students. Explain that every sentence has a signal at the end so readers will know when to stop reading. Ask a volunteer to come to the board and point to the signal at the end of the sentence.
• Explain that the signal is called a period. Have students say the word period aloud. Point out that the period is like a stop sign because it tells readers to stop reading for a brief moment.
• Reread the sentence aloud with students. Point out that the sentence tells the reader information. Explain that a sentence that tells information is called a declarative sentence. Tell students that a declarative sentence has a period at the end. Have a volunteer come to the board and point to the period.
• Have volunteers tell information about the animals in the book. Write each declarative sentence on the board, leaving off the period. Then have volunteers come to the board and add a period to each sentence.

      Check for understanding: Have students locate and underline all the declarative sentences in the book.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the declarative sentence worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Review or explain to students that words are sometimes placed in a list by alphabetical order. Words are placed in alphabetical order by first looking at the beginning letter in each word and then deciding which letter comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the words white and black on the board. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask students which letter comes first in the alphabet, w or b. Explain that the word black would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Write the words cheetah and lemur on the board. Have students identify the initial letter in each word (c and l). Ask students to identify which letter comes first in the alphabet (c). Explain that the word cheetah would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Check for understanding: List these content vocabulary words in the following order on the board: spots, animals, bug, fawn, tiny. Have students write the words in alphabetical order on a separate piece of paper. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. 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 choose a pair of animals and explain how they are alike and different.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of an animal that has spots. Under the picture, have students write one declarative statement about the animal in their picture.

Math and Science Connection
Provide students with books and Internet resources about animals. Make a list of the kinds of patterns found on the bodies of the animals. Use the list to create a bar graph about the kinds of patterns found on animals.

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.