Text Type: Nonfiction/Concept
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 57

Book Summary
In What Has These Stripes? students will learn about animals and the kinds of stripes they have. This nonfiction book provides the perfect opportunity to practice classifying information. Detailed, supportive photographs, high-frequency words, and repetitive phrases support 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
• Classify information
• Word awareness
• Identify initial consonant Ll
• Recognize and use interrogative sentences
• Recognize and use question words

Materials

• Book -- What Has These Stripes? (copy for each student)
• Dry erase board or interactive white board
• Picture cards, classify information, initial consonant Ll, interrogative 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(s), fish, fuzzy, lion, long, smooth, snake, stripes, zebra

Build Background

• Write the word stripe on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Ask: What has a stripe (car, road, and so on)? Add a s to the word stripe and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students to name some things that have stripes. 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 Stripes? (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 stripes? A _____ has these _____ stripes. 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 stripes. I know that some animals have stripes 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 back cover shows a baby skunk and a baby bobcat. I wonder if all of the animals in the book will have stripes. I'll write that question on the board. (Will all of the animals in the book have stripes?)
• Show students the title page and ask them 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: Classify information

• Explain to students that readers often think about the objects in a book 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 and makes the reading more enjoyable.
• Cut out the pictures from the picture cards worksheet and place them in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge.
• Model how to classify information using the pictures.
  Think-aloud: As I thought about how to group these objects, I started by asking myself what they had in common. I noticed that the duck and the goose are both animals that have feathers covering their bodies. I will group these pictures together as animals that have feathers. I also noticed that the dog and the bear are both animals that have fur covering their bodies. I will group these pictures as animals that have fur.
• Invite students to suggest other ways to sort the pictures into groups and to explain how they sorted them (such as number of legs, stripes and spots, scales and skin, homes, and so on).

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 stripes? These stripes look smooth.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the beginning letters of a word to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word long on page 8 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to help me figure out this word. The picture shows a snake with skinny stripes down its body. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /l/. However, the word skinny starts with the /sk/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that the snake's skinny stripes look long. The word long starts with the /l/ sound. I also hear the /g/ at the end of the word. The word long has a g at the end. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be long.
• 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 in the book 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 classifying information.
  Think-aloud: On page 4, I see a zebra with smooth black-and-white stripes. A zebra is an animal that has stripes. 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 stripes that are smooth like the zebra's. I will write this question on the board: What kind of stripes 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 formulate a question.)
• Invite students to describe how they would sort the animals they have read about so far.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to ask and answer questions and classify 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.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• 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 stripes. I know that some animals have stripes and other animals do not. Now I have a new question: What kinds of animals have no stripes?
• Ask students to explain how asking and answering questions helped them to understand and remember the information in the book and enjoy the reading.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Place pictures from the picture cards worksheet in a pocket chart. Ask students to share how these pictures might be sorted into groups different from the ones discussed in the Introduce the Comprehension Skill section (such as animals lay eggs and animals that have live births). Have volunteers sort the pictures into the groups and discuss why they belong in different groups.
• 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 some animals that have stripes. Now that you know this information, why do you think some animals have stripes? Do all animals have stripes?

Phonological Awareness: Word awareness

• Say the following phrase aloud: A snake has stripes. Say the phrase again, clapping each word as you say it aloud. Explain that you said four words. Have students repeat the process with you.
• Explain to students that each clap represents a word. Point out that words in a sentence are separated by little pauses as they are read aloud. The pauses help listeners know when one word ends and a new word begins.
• Say the following phrase aloud: A skunk has stripes, too. Have students clap each word in the sentence as they say it aloud with you. Ask them to identify the number of words in the sentence (5).
• Check for understanding: Say additional sentences aloud that contain one-syllable words. Have students clap and count the number of words together.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant Ll

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

Grammar and Mechanics: Interrogative sentences

• Write the following sentence on the board: What kind of animal has these stripes? 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 question mark. Have students say the words question mark aloud. Point out that the question mark 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 asks a question and that the reader can answer. Explain that a sentence that asks a question is called an interrogative sentence. Have a volunteer come to the board and point to the question mark.
• Have volunteers ask a question about the animals in the book. Write each question on the board, leaving off the question marks. Read the question and have students tell what they noticed about your voice as you read the question. Then have volunteers come to the board and add a question mark to each sentence. Reread the question and tell students to notice how your voice raises at the end of the question.

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

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

Word Work: Question words

• Have students turn to page 3. Read the following sentence aloud: What kind of animal has these stripes?
• Point to the word What. Explain to students that this word is a signal that the sentence is a question. Tell students that another name for a sentence that asks a question is interrogative sentence.
• Model asking questions about the animals in the book. Record the questions on the board. (Where does a zebra live? How do snakes move? How does a fish breathe underwater?). Underline the question words.
• Check for understanding: Have volunteers ask questions about animals from the book. Record the questions on the board and identify the question words together with students.

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 classify animals by their appearance and other attributes with someone at home.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of two different animals. Under the picture, have students write one sentence telling how the animals differ.

Science Connection
Provide students with resources about animals and the patterns on their bodies. Discuss how these patterns help animals stay safe and survive in their environments.

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 cards 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.