Tools
Level C

About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 77

Book Summary
Tools is an informational book about familiar tools that help us work. The picture-to-text correspondence helps readers learn the names of various tools and understand their functions. On the last page of the book, readers are challenged to identify additional tools.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

  • Retell

Objectives

  • Use the strategy of pausing to retell to clarify information in the book
  • Classify information
  • Discriminate initial sounds
  • Associate the letter Tt with the sound /t/
  • Recognize nouns as naming words
  • Recognize and read high-frequency words it and here

Materials

  • Book -- Tools (copy for each student)
  • Chalkboard or dry erase board
  • Index cards
  • Classify information, initial consonant Tt 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: it, is, a, here
  • Content words: everywhere, work, tools, pencil, writing, rake, raking, hammer, pounding, shovel, digging, knife, cutting, wheelbarrow, carrying

Before Reading

Build Background

  • Involve students in a discussion about tools to elicit prior knowledge and build background. Ask: What are tools? What tools do you use at school each day? What tools do you use at home each day? What tools do your parents use each day?
  • Have students name different tools while you record them in a list on the board.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book
  • Show students the front and back covers, and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called Tools. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask them whether they can recognize any of the tools on the covers and whether they know what the tools are used for.
  • Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
  • Write the following repetitive phrases from the book on the board: Here is a tool. It is a ________. Read the phrases aloud with students. Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.

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.
  • Model how to retell using a familiar story such as 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 strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

  • Use the book walk as an opportunity to reinforce the language patterns in the book as well as new vocabulary. For example, on page 4, ask: What tool is this? What is this tool used for? That's right. It is a pencil for writing.
  • Have students point to the word that says pencil. Ask how they know that the word says pencil. Remind students that they can use familiar parts in bigger words to help them read the word. Point out the word part pen within the word pencil. Tell students they should always make sure the word makes sense. Read the sentence to them, and ask whether pencil makes sense.
  • Encourage students to add the 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 read the book to see what they can find out about tools. Tell them to pause during reading to think about the different tools they have read about and what each tool is used for.

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 (I). 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 6, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
  • Model retelling.
    Think-aloud: After I read page 6, I stopped to think about the tools I've read about. I read that a pencil is a tool. It is used for writing. People hold it in their hand. I also read about a rake. A rake is a tool used for gathering up things on the ground. I know I will read about many more tools, so it's good to pause and try to remember all of the tools and what they are used for as I read.
  • Have students read the rest of the book. Remind them to pause to think about what they are reading.

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 to read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
  • Think-aloud: After I read about the hammer, I read how a shovel is a tool. It is used for digging. Thinking about the details for each tool helped me to remember what I read.
  • Cut out the pictures from an extra copy of the book and tape them across the board. Have students use the pictures to retell the details of the story to a partner.
  • Ask students to tell how pausing to retell details about tools helped them remember the facts in the book.
  • Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Classify information

  • Discussion: Ask students which tools in the book they have used before. Have them tell when and where they used the tools.
  • Introduce and model the skill: Have students look at the cover illustration. Tell students that all of the different types of tools shown on the cover belong to a group called tools. Write the heading Tools on the board. Model sorting the tools into groups.
  • Think-aloud: When I look at these objects, I think about what they have in common. I see two tools that have electrical cords. These tools need electricity to make them work. I will circle these tools with a red crayon. The rest of the tools are powered by my energy. I will circle these with a blue crayon.
  • Check for understanding: Have students suggest other ways to group the pictures. Practice sorting the pictures into different groups with students.
  • Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the classify information worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Have students use the last page of their book to draw a picture of a tool they have used. Ask students to share their picture with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial sounds

  • Tell students that you are going to say some words, and you want them to listen very carefully to the sounds at the beginning of the words. If the words start with the same sound, they should stamp their feet. If the words don't start with the same sound, they should shake their heads. Provide an example. Say: If I say the words tools and tent, will you stamp your feet yes or shake your head no? That's right. You will stamp your feet because tools and tents both start with /t/. If I say tools and work, what will you do?
  • Say the following words: can/kite, make/comb, sing/say, lift/leaf, hit/hammer, bike/fly. Have students either stamp their feet or shake their heads after each pair of words.

Phonics: Initial consonant Tt

  • Say the word tools. Have students say the word aloud.
  • Have students turn to page 3 in their book and point to the two words that say tools. Run your finger under the letters as you say each word aloud with students. Ask students to point to the letter in each word that stands for the /t/ sound. Ask them why one of the words has a capital letter (it begins the sentence).
  • Explain that the letter Tt stands for the /t/ sound they hear at the beginning of the word tools. Have students practice writing the letter Tt on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound the letter stands for.
  • Write the following words on the board: tub, tan, tip, top, ten. Ask students what is the same about the words (all begin with the letter Tt and the /t/ sound). Have students come to the board and circle the letter that makes the /t/ sound in each word.
  • Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Tt worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns (naming words)

  • Remind students that some words name people, places, and things. Have them turn to page 3. Point to the word tools. Explain that the word tools is a word that names things.
  • Have students turn to page 4 in their book. Have them identify two words that name things (tool, pencil).

Ask students to circle all the naming words in their book.

Word Work: High-frequency words it and here

  • Write the words it and here on the board. Tell students that it is good to be able to recognize these words quickly when reading because they are used often in books.
  • Point to an object in the room, such as a book. Ask students to identify the object. Use the word in a sentence, such as I see the book. Replace the words the book with it. Reread the sentence aloud to students while pointing at the book. (I see it.) Ask students what the word it refers to (the book).
  • Have students use the word it in a sentence while pointing to an object in the room. Have the remaining students identify the object the word it refers to.
  • Place an object, such as a book, on a desk. Say: I put the book on the desk. I put it here. Ask students what the word here refers to (the desk). Have them practice using the word here in a sentence.
  • Have students write the words it and here on index cards. Have them use each word in an oral sentence to a partner.

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 Connection
Write the following sentence on the board: I use a ___ to ___. Ask students to think of tools they use and what they use the tools for. Make a list of tools on the board with their functions. Ask students to select a tool, write the sentence, and illustrate it on a separate piece of paper. Display the pages on a bulletin board titled Our Tools.

    Health Connection
    Bring some commonly used tools into the classroom as examples for students to see. Talk with them about using tools safely and asking adults for help using certain kinds of tools.

      Assessment

      Monitor students to determine if they can:

      • pause as they read to retell details in the text
      • accurately sort pictures of tools into groups during discussion and on a worksheet
      • correctly tell whether spoken words begin with the same sound during discussion
      • correctly associate the letter Tt with the /t/ sound during discussion and on a worksheet
      • correctly identify the nouns in the book during discussion
      • accurately identify and use high-frequency words it and here

      Comprehension Checks



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