Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 90

Book Summary
Polly the parrot gets out of her cage. She flies all over the neighborhood and sees many new things. Will she ever find her way back home? Supportive pictures, repetitive phrases, and high-frequency words make this book easy for early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to understand text
• Sequence events
• Discriminate final /t/ sound
• Identify final consonant Tt
• Recognize and understand the use of pronouns
• Recognize, understand, and use position words

Materials

• Book -- Polly Gets Out (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Large index cards
• Prediction, final consonant Tt, pronouns worksheets

Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reusable.)

Vocabulary

Build Background

• Write the word neighborhood on the board and point to it as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students what things they might see if they took a walk around their neighborhood. Have them identify the things they might see and where they would see them.

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 Polly Gets Out. (Accept any answers students can justify.)
• 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 on the board: Polly flew over and She saw. Read each phrase aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud. Explain to them that these words repeat in the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Explain to students that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain that making predictions can help readers to make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether the prediction is correct, or confirmed. Readers continue to make new predictions based on clues they read in a story.
• Model using the picture on the front cover of the book to make a prediction.
  Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover of the book, I see a bird flying in the sky. This bird does not look like other birds I see flying around outside. It looks like a parrot. I've seen parrots in birdcages at the pet store. Since the title of the book is Polly Gets Out, I wonder if this bird is Polly. I predict that a bird named Polly gets out of the birdcage and flies out of the pet shop.
• Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Model drawing a prediction on the board, such as an open birdcage and a bird flying out an open window. Invite students to make a prediction based on the cover pictures and title. Have them draw and label the prediction on their worksheet. Share and discuss their predictions as a group.
• 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: Sequence events

• Review or explain that stories are generally told in order from beginning to end.
• Model sequencing the main events of the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
• Think-aloud: If I want someone to be able to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, they need to include certain events in order to tell the story correctly. In this story, the first event that happens is that the three bears go out for a walk. Next, Goldilocks walks into their house and eats their porridge. Then she sits in their chairs. Next, she sleeps in the bears' beds. Last, the bears come home and frighten Goldilocks, so she runs back home.
• Explain that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Use the key words on the board to tell the story in order to students, including words such as first, next, and last. Ask students to identify these sequencing words from the example.
• Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events of the story out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the events is important (the sequence does not make sense out of order). Discuss with students that a story does not make sense when the events are out of order.
• Point out the difference between the sequence of events listed on the board and a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (the retelling contains more detail and description, the list shows only the events that are most important for someone to understand the story). Ask students to provide details for each event from the story.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the following content vocabulary words on large index cards: children, cage, flowers, houses, playground, path. Cut out the pictures from an extra copy of the book for each vocabulary word. Draw an arrow pointing to the vocabulary word in each picture.
• Read each word aloud with students. Match each word to a picture, one at a time, and place them next to each other in a pocket chart. Invite students to share what they know about the meaning of each word. Discuss each word's meaning.
• Have volunteers use the words in oral sentences to check word meaning.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 6 and then stop to think about the events that have happened so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Cut out the pictures from an extra copy of the book. Place the pictures from pages 3, 4, 5, and 6 in order in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge.
• Model sequencing events and revising a prediction.
  Think-aloud: If I want someone to be able to tell this story to someone else, certain events need to be included in order to tell the story correctly. As I look at the first picture, the first event that happened is that Polly got out of her cage and flew out the door. Next, she flew over the trees. Next, she flew over the houses. Then, she flew over a path. I placed these pictures in the pocket chart in the order in which they happened. Before reading, I predicted that Polly gets out of her cage and flies out of a pet shop. As I look at the events that have happened so far in the story, I can see that my prediction was almost correct. Polly did get out of her cage. However, it looks as though she flew out of someone's home. Maybe she is someone's pet. I know people care about what happens to their pets. Based on what I've read and what I know, I want to revise my prediction. I predict that Polly's owner brings Polly home after searching the neighborhood for her. I will draw and label a picture on the board of Polly's owner finding Polly.
• Have students review the prediction they made before reading. Have them draw and label a new or revised prediction on their prediction worksheet. If their original prediction was confirmed, have them write a check mark next to their drawing of that prediction.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 10. Remind them to use pictures, sentences, and what they already know to make predictions as they read. When they have finished reading, discuss the outcome of their prediction. Have them make, revise, and/or confirm a prediction on their worksheet.
• Use the cut-out story pictures to discuss the sequence of events through page 10. Place pictures from pages 7 through 10 out of order in the pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Invite students to tell the correct order of the pictures.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and confirm predictions as they read the rest of the story.

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.
• Have students complete their prediction worksheet. Ask them to explain other predictions they made while reading. Invite students to discuss whether their predictions turned out to be true or whether they needed to be revised.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that Polly's owner finds Polly and brings her home. This prediction was not correct. Polly flew all around and saw many things. Then she saw a cat. The cat scared Polly, and she flew back home. She got into her cage where she was safe.
• Ask students to explain how making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them to understand and enjoy the story.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate final /t/ sound

• Say the word got aloud to students, emphasizing the final /t/ sound. Have students say the word aloud, emphasizing the final /t/ sound. Explain that the /t/ sound is heard at the end of the word.
• Say the word out aloud with students. Have them identify the sound at the end of the word.
• Ask volunteers to identify words they know that contain the /t/ sound at the end of the word. Have students say each word, emphasizing the final /t/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words aloud one at a time: house, cat, pond, back, get, and tree. Have students clap if they hear the /t/ sound at the end of the word.

Phonics: Final consonant Tt

• Write the word got on the board and say the word aloud with students, emphasizing the /t/ sound at the end of the word.
• Have students say the /t/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letter stands for the /t/ sound in the word got.
• Have students practice writing the letter Tt on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letter stands for.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that end with the letter Tt on the board, leaving off the final consonant Tt: hat, sit, and pot. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the final consonant Tt in the words. Then have them run their finger under the letters as they orally blend the sounds of the word together.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the final consonant Tt worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronouns

• Have students turn to page 3. Read the sentences aloud with students. Point to the word she. Ask students to whom the word she refers in this sentence (Polly).
• Have a volunteer tell about something a classmate might see outside. Write the sentence on the board. Change the student's name to the appropriate pronoun (he/she). Have students tell to whom the pronoun refers.
• Check for understanding: Divide students into pairs. Have them tell their partner a sentence aloud using the partner's name. Then have them retell the sentence using the appropriate pronoun.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the pronouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Position words

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section in the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

Narrative Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of themselves walking in their neighborhood. Under the drawing, help them write sentences to describe where they walked and what they saw. Combine the pages into a class book.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• accurately and consistently make, revise, and confirm predictions during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately sequence events during discussion
• accurately discriminate final /t/ sound in words during discussion
• correctly associate the letter Tt with the /t/ sound during discussion and on a worksheet
• locate and understand the use of pronouns during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand and use words that indicate position during discussion

Comprehension Checks