Build Background

• Ask students to tell about band concerts they have attended, including school concerts. Discuss the instruments that were played and the kind of music the musicians performed.
• Have students predict the types of woodland animals that might celebrate the arrival of spring.
• Ask students about make-believe stories they have read. Discuss how readers can tell a book is make-believe.

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 story called The Woodsy Band Jam.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Have students discuss their thoughts about the illustration on the title page.
• Introduce the Strategy: Self-monitor
• Explain to students that good readers need to check their reading carefully and notice when something isn't quite right so they can correct themselves. Remind them that they should always ask themselves if their reading makes sense, sounds right, and looks right.
• Model how to self-monitor.
• Think-aloud: The first time I read page 4, I looked at the picture and read The Elk came out, but then I noticed that the words didn't look right--they didn't match what I read. I thought about how I could say the sentence differently and make the words match the picture (read the text as written on the page). By checking my reading carefully and noticing the tricky part, I was able to correct myself and read the page as the author wrote it.
• As students read, they should 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

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the pictures and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Incorporate content vocabulary words while looking through the pictures and emphasize the words when students use them in discussion. For example, while looking at the picture on page 5, you might say: It looks as though Bear will play the banjo.
• Rehearse the book language, such as Out came…, while looking through the pictures.
• Introduce and model masking. Remind students that they can help themselves when they come to a tricky word by masking, or covering up, most of the word with their finger to help them make sense of the word. For example, on page 4, model masking all but the I in I'll. Say: This word starts like a word I know--I. I'm going to help myself by reading the word I know and then adding, or uncovering, the rest of the word (model masking the 'll and saying the word I. Then unmask the word and have students blend the sounds--long /i/-/l/-/l/). Have students repeat the word I'll aloud. Continue by reading the remainder of the sentence aloud to students. (I'll play my horn, said Elk.) Remind students that they should reread a difficult word in a sentence to make sure it makes sense.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the story to find out which animals come play in the band jam. Remind them to make sure that their reading makes sense, sounds right, and looks right.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 7. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Have them reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Ask students look for things that are real and make-believe in the story as they read. For example, a woodchuck would emerge from its burrow in the spring, but not wearing a conductor's hat; an elk would visit a meadow, but not blowing a bugle; a bear would come out of its den, but not holding a banjo; an owl would stir from its nest, but not with a bow and fiddle.
• Model how to self-monitor.
• Think-aloud: When I got to page 5, I read: Out came Bear. "I'll play a banjo." Then I realized that I didn't see the word a. I looked carefully at the sentence and noticed that it said "my banjo" instead of "a banjo." By stopping to notice that the sentence didn't look right, I was able to go back and correct the tricky part.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book, remembering to self-correct, or self-monitor, as they finish the story.

    Tell students to 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 Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Model how they can read these words.
• Ask students to explain how self-monitoring helped them as they finished the story. (It encouraged them to read the precise text and provided a chance to self-correct.)
• Think-aloud: Every time I noticed that something wasn't quite right, I stopped to ask myself if my reading made sense, looked right, and sounded right. If it didn't, I read the word or section again to try and fix it (self-correct). Self-correcting helped me read the story as the author wrote it and helped me better understand the story.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Real and make-believe

• Discussion: Invite students to share what they liked about the band jam (animals that were funny, instruments they played, etc.).
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain that readers can understand and remember a story better when they recognize what is real and what is make-believe. Draw a T chart on the board and label one side Real and one side Make-Believe. Have students turn to page 3. Explain that the picture on the page gives both real and make-believe information. For example, a woodchuck might come out of its burrow in the spring (real), but it wouldn't come out wearing a conductor's hat (make-believe). Write the information on the board under the appropriate heading.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the pictures on the covers and title page of the book and identify what is real and what is make-believe.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the real and make-believe worksheet.

    Extend the discussion: Have students divide the inside back cover of their book into two parts labeled real and make-believe. Have them draw or write about something that is real and something that is make-believe.

Phonemic Awareness: Initial sound discrimination

• Tell students you are going to say a word from the story. Have them listen carefully to the first sound of the word (identify the initial sound as a group). Next, say a group of words and have them clap on the words that start with the same initial sound. For example, if you say band, identify the initial sound /b/ as a group, then continue by slowly reading the following words: bear, ball, cat, bus, and bike. Have students clap when they hear the words that start with /b/ (bear, ball, bus, bike).
• Have students practice discriminating the first sound with the following groups: horn /h/: hat, box, jeep, hill; fox /f/: dog, fan, five, fun; rabbit /r/: rake, rat, bat, cab; jam /j/: jar, jeep, lake, joke.

Phonics: Initial consonants

• Write the words jam, bear, and fox on the board and underline the first letter of each word. Review or explain that all words in the English language are made of letters that are either vowels (a, e, i, o, u) or consonants. Explain that the underlined letters are consonants. Have students clap and say consonants.
• Explain that you are going to write some new words on the board and ask a volunteer to come up and identify the first consonant in each word. Choose simple words with two or three sounds, such as bug, six, ham, tea. Use known or familiar words and invite students to identify the first consonant of each word.
• Introduce and explain the initial consonants worksheet. Discuss student responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Quotation marks

• Review or explain that writers use quotation marks to show when someone is speaking.
• Have students read page 3 together as a group, identifying the quotation marks in the first and last lines.
• For extension, have students select the part of one of the animals and read aloud when the animal is speaking (for example, "I'll play my horn" on page 4). Have the other students read the non-spoken text aloud.

Vocabulary: Contractions

• Have students turn to page 4. Ask them who Elk said will play the horn (Elk said, “I'll play…”). Write the words I will on the board. Explain that these two words can be made into the smaller word I'll. Write I'll on the board and explain that a mark called an apostrophe can be used to replace some of the letters and shorten the word to form a contraction. Ask students to tell which letters have been omitted in I'll. Explain that the apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters.
• Check for understanding by having students locate additional examples of contractions in the text (Let's, I'll).
• For additional practice, have students complete the contractions worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section 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.

Writing and Art Connection

• As a group, write a new version of The Woodsy Band Jam, such as The Classroom Band Jam or The (group name) Band Jam. Have students create instruments from items on hand (glass jars filled with varied levels of water and played with a spoon; classroom instruments such as bells or triangles; drums from oatmeal containers; and so on). Take photos of students playing the instruments and write the text as a group, reinforcing quotation marks and contractions.

Music Connection

• Invite a music teacher or musician who plays an instrument to come to the class and demonstrate playing their instrument.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• consistently self-monitor while reading, making sure that text makes sense, sounds right, and looks right
• identify real and make-believe elements in the book to complete a graphic organizer
• understand and apply initial sound discrimination
• Identify initial consonants in discussion; complete a worksheet
• Identify quotation marks in text; demonstrate and understanding of their usage
• recognize and understand contractions in text and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric