Where? - Lesson Plans

Where?
Level B

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 35

Book Summary
Where? is the question repeatedly asked by the lost little bear as he looks for his mother, father, house, bed, and pot of honey. The endearing illustrations and repetitive pattern will help early readers understand the simple questions.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Retell

Objectives

Use the strategy of pausing to retell while reading to understand information
Identify story problem and solution
Blend onset and rime
Associate the letter Bb with the sound /b/
Identify asking and telling sentences
Recognize question words

Materials

Book -- Where? (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Problem and solution, punctuation 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 words: where, is, my, little, help, I, can, me, you, am
Content words: brown, bear, mother, father, house, bed, honey, fox, pot

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students to think about something they have lost. Discuss what they lost and how they felt when they could or could not find the item.
Ask students if they have ever been lost. Ask them to tell what happened, where they were, and how they felt.
Extend the discussion by talking about what to do if they are ever lost. Ask students if they have talked with their parents and made a plan. Discuss why it is a good idea to know their parents' names and their address. Talk about "safe" strangers who are okay to ask for help, such as police officers. Discuss what they should do if a stranger wants to take them somewhere.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called Winter. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask what they think the little bear is doing.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Ask what the bear is doing now. Ask how they think he is feeling and how they can tell.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell

Explain to students that one way to understand and remember what they are reading is to stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind the details of what is happening in the story.
Explain that when someone retells something, they explain the details of what happened in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as explaining a visit to the zoo or museum. Ask students to share other examples of when people might give a retelling.
Reinforce that the strategy of pausing to mentally retell what is happening in the story helps readers understand and remember what they read.
Model how to retell using a familiar story such as the The Three Little Pigs.
Think-aloud: In The Three Little Pigs, three pigs each decide to build a house. The first pig decides to make his house out of straw. He gathers all of the materials and builds his house. The second pig decides to build his house out of sticks. The third pig gathers the materials and builds his brick house. One day a big bad wolf comes to the house of the first little pig. He wants the pig to let him inside. The wolf says "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down." Continue retelling in detail until the end of the story.
As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted reading strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

As you preview the book with students, model the language patterns in the book. For example, ask: Who is the little bear talking to? Who is he thinking about? Do you think he might be saying, "Where is my mother?"
As vocabulary words are mentioned, point to the corresponding word to help the students make the picture/word connection. For example, ask which word on the page says mother and how students can tell this (initial sound, final sound, picture clue).
Encourage students to add new vocabulary words to their word journals.
For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students find out what happens to the little bear. Remind them to pause while reading to mentally retell what has happened so far in the story.

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 (Where). Point to 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.
Model retelling the story events in detail.
Think-aloud: After a few pages, I stopped to think about what has happened so far in the story. By page 6, I learned that brown bear does not know where some family members are. He asks a rabbit where his mother is.
Ask students to retell what happened next. Then have them retell all the events of the story so far to a partner.
Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to think in detail about what is happening as they read.

Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word or words 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, if any, words they marked in their book. Use this as an opportunity to model how to read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
Discuss how pausing to retell the story helped students keep the details of the story clear in their minds as they were reading.
Think-aloud: After brown bear asks where his father is, he asks two birds in a nest where his house is. Brown bear looks worried.
Ask students to retell the remainder of the story. Then have them retell the whole story to a partner.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Problem and solution

Discussion: Ask students who the characters were in the story. Ask who was the most important character.
Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that most stories have a problem that the characters need to fix. This is what makes the story interesting. Model identifying story problems in several familiar stories.
Think-aloud: In the Three Little Pigs, the story problem was the pigs needed to build houses that were safe from the wolf. In Goldilocks, the story problem was Goldilocks came into the bears' house uninvited and caused trouble.
Explain that stories show how the characters handle the problem and try to solve it. Discuss with students the solutions in each of the stories used to introduce the skill.
Check for understanding: Ask students to identify the problem of this story. Ask students if the book tells how the problem was solved. Explain that little bear tries to solve his problem. Sometimes the book leaves the ending to the reader to decide what happens. Ask students for some ideas on how the little bear's problem might be solved.
Independent practice: introduce, explain, and have students complete the problem and solution worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to draw a picture showing what they would do if they were lost. Have them write or dictate a sentence to go with their picture.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend onset and rime

Ask students to listen as you say two parts of a word and then blend them together: b-ear... bear. Say the onset and rime again, and have students blend the parts together to say the word.
Say the following words one at a time: b-ed, p-ot, l-ost, c-an, br-own, b-ack, st-omp, b-ean. Have students repeat the onset and rime for each word. Then have them blend the word parts together to say the word.

Phonics: Initial consonant Bb

Have students turn to page 7 and find the word bed. Ask them to say the word and then tell what sound they hear at the beginning of the word. Have them put their finger on the letter b, and tell them that this letter stands for the /b/ sound in the word bed.

Ask students to find other words in the book that start with the /b/ sound and circle them.

Write the words big, bad, bop, and but on the board, leaving off the initial consonant in each word. Say each word aloud. Ask volunteers to come to the board and complete the words.
Point to the word big. Have students follow along with you as you run your finger under each letter to say the word: /b/ /i/ /g/. Repeat with the remaining words. When students have read all the words, have volunteers come to the board and circle the letter that stands for the /b/ sound in each word.

Grammar and Mechanics: Punctuate sentences

Have students turn to page 10 and read the second sentence on the page. Have students put their finger on the quotation marks and ask what these marks tell readers. Make sure they understand that the marks tell readers that someone is talking. Ask students to identify who is talking in this sentence.
Point out that the little brown bear is asking something, so this part of the sentence ends with a question mark. Have students put their finger on the question mark and then circle it with a red crayon. Remind them that sentences start with a capital letter. Have them put their finger on the capital letter and then circle it with a green crayon.
Read the first sentence on page 10 to students. Have them identify whether this sentence asks a question. Explain that this sentence tells readers something. Telling sentences end with a period. Have students circle the period with a blue crayon.

Have students look through the book to find the capital letters and punctuation marks. Have them circle the capital letters at the beginning of sentences with a green crayon, and the question marks with a red crayon.

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the punctuation worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Question words

Have students reread the question sentence on page 4. Point out the word where. Tell students that when this word comes at the beginning of the sentence, it often tells readers that it is a question sentence.
Tell students that there are many asking words that can come at the beginning of a question sentence. Direct them to page 10 of the book. Choral read the page (I am lost. Can you help me?). Ask students to identify the question word (Can).
Ask students to think of questions to ask someone. As students ask their questions, write the question word from each sentence on the board. Read the question words on the board with the students.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Have students share their problem and solution worksheets and explain their idea for how the little brown bear solved the problem. Then have each student dictate (or write) what they think happened. Put the pages together to make a book for students to read together.

Social Studies Connection
Ask a local law enforcement agency to come talk to students about staying safe. Ask students to draw safety posters that can be displayed.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

retell what is happening in the story in detail and in order as they read
correctly identify how the little brown bear tried to solve the problem during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly blend onset and rime during discussion
recognize and discriminate the use of quotation marks, question marks, periods, and capital letters in sentences; correctly punctuate sentences on a worksheet
correctly identify words in the book that signal questions

Comprehension Check

Retelling Rubric

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