Workers - Lesson Plans

Workers
Level D

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Informational
Page Count: 10
Word Count: 92

Book Summary
Workers is an informational book that tells about workers from the farm to the dinner table as wheat becomes bread. The various workers are presented in sequential order, from the farmer who harvests the wheat to the family member who serves it for dinner. Pictures support early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Ask and answer questions

Objectives

Use the strategy of asking and answering questions to understand text
Sequence steps in a process
Blend phonemes
Identify r-family blends
Identify nouns
Categorize words

Materials

Book -- Workers (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Sequence events, nouns 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: this, is, of, for, many
Content words: farmer, trucker, miller, baker, grocer

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students to tell the ingredients needed to make their favorite sandwich. Ask them if they know where the bread for their sandwich came from (the responses will most likely be "the store"). Ask students where the bread came from before it got to the store (it is unlikely students will know). Tell them that bread is made from wheat and that wheat grows in fields. If available, show students a picture of a wheat field.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

Show students the front cover of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they might read about in a book called Workers. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask students to identify the worker on the cover (farmer).
Show students the back cover. Ask them to identify the worker (baker). Ask students what the baker is making.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Ask and answer questions

Explain to students that one way to understand a book is to ask questions about it before they begin to read, and then to look for the answers as they read.
Model asking a question based on the front cover.
Think-aloud: I see a farmer on a tractor. The farmer must be in a field. I know that farmers grow food for people and animals. He seems to be pulling a wagon filled with something. I wonder what is in the wagon. Maybe it is hay for the animals.
Write this question on the board. Have students preview the covers and title page of the book. Ask them to share their questions about the book. Write these questions on the board.
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 introduce unfamiliar vocabulary to students and to model any difficult language patterns. For example, on page 3, ask: What kinds of workers do you see on this page? What kinds of work are they doing?
As vocabulary words are mentioned, have students point to the corresponding word to help them make the picture/word connection. For example, point to the word farmer on page 4. Have students look at the picture on the page. Then ask them to tell what the word says and how they know this.
Reread the sentence to make sure that the word makes sense. Point out the base word farm in the word farmer. Remind students to look for familiar word parts within larger words. Remind them to use what they know about beginning and ending letters and sounds to figure out new words.
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 learn about different workers. Have them look for the answers to their questions as they read the book.

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 (There). Point out 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 answering a question.
Think-aloud: I wanted to know what was in the wagon. I found out that the wagon was filled with wheat. The wheat is used to make bread. I also read about a trucker whose job is to take the wheat to the mill. I wonder what will happen to the wheat once it gets to the mill. I'll keep reading to find out if my question is answered.
Ask students whether they were able to answer any of their questions. Ask them if they thought of additional questions as they were reading. Write these questions on the board.
Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to keep looking for answers to their questions 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.

After Reading

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.
Invite students to share answers they found to their questions while reading. Discuss how asking and answering questions in their mind as they read made them think about what they were reading.
Think-aloud: I wanted to know what happens to the wheat after it goes to the mill. I found out that the wheat is turned into flour by a miller, a baker uses the flour to make bread, and a grocer sells the bread to people.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

Discussion: Ask students to share new information they learned about where bread comes from. Ask them to name the different workers they read about in the book.
Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that this book tells about bread from the beginning as wheat on the farm to the end when we eat it. These things happen in a particular order. First one thing happens, then something else, and so on. Explain that the order in which the events happen is called the sequence. Point out the sequence in this story. Explain that the order of how bread is produced is important because it wouldn't make sense if we ground the flour before we harvested the wheat.
Think-aloud: In this story, the first thing that happened was a farmer farms the wheat. Next, a trucker takes the wheat to the mill. Then the miller grinds the wheat into flour. The order of how wheat becomes flour is important. It wouldn't make sense if the miller grinds the wheat before the farmer farms it. The story tells the most important events in the correct order.
Check for understanding: Have students share the sequence of events through the end of the story. If necessary, use the pictures in the book as a guide.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of the book to draw a picture of the worker they would most like to be. Ask them to share their picture with the group and explain why they chose that worker.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend phonemes

Say the word bread by segmenting it into its individual phonemes: /b/ /r/ /e/ /d/. Tell students that you can tell what the word is by blending the sounds together to say the whole word: bread.
Say the following words one at a time by segmenting them into their phonemes: sell, dad, wheat, farm, mill, baker, work. Have students blend the sounds together to say the word.

Phonics: R-family blends

Write the word bread on the board and read it aloud with students. Circle the br blend and tell students that the sounds of these two letters are blended together to stand for the /br/ sound. Have students blend the sounds of the letters together to say the br blend. Have them find the word bread on page 7 and put their finger on the letters that stand for the /br/ sound.
Point out the word grinds on page 6. Tell students that this is another r-family blend. The sounds of the two letters g and r together stand for the /gr/ sound.
Write the following blends in a row on the board: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr. Have students say each blend with you. Under each blend, write a word that starts with that blend: brag, crop, drum, frog, grab, prop, trip. Have students blend the sounds together in each word with you as you run your finger under the letters. Then have volunteers circle the blends in the words.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

Draw a picture of a person, a place, and a thing on the board. Ask volunteers to identify the pictures. Explain that some words they read name a person, a place, or a thing. These naming words are called nouns.
Have students turn to page 4 in their book. Invite them to read the first sentence together, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names a person (farmer).
Read the second sentence on page 4 with students, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the two words that name things (wheat, bread).
Have students turn to page 5 in their book. Read the sentences together, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the word that names a person (trucker), the word that names a place (mill), and the word that names a thing (wheat).
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Categorize words

Ask students what group the people in the book can be put into (workers).
Ask students to identify ways to sort the workers into groups (people who work inside/people who work outside, people who use machinery/people who don't, and so on).
Write the following words on the board: wheat, corn, cows, sheep. Have students tell how to group the words (things found on a farm, kinds of animals, or kinds of food).

Build Fluency

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.

Extend the Reading

Art Connection
Trace each student's body on butcher-block paper. Tell students to "dress" their drawings in clothes that show what type of worker they would like to be. Ask each student to share his or her worker with the class and explain his or her choice. Display the workers throughout the room.

Writing and Social Studies Connection
Have students brainstorm a list of questions to ask people about their job, such as: Where do you work? Do you need special clothes for your job? Do you need special tools for your job? Invite local workers to talk to the class about their job and answer students' questions. Have students write a sentence about what they learned.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently ask and answer questions while reading
correctly order the steps involved in producing bread during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly blend orally segmented phonemes to say words
correctly read words beginning with r-family blends
accurately identify nouns in the book and on a worksheet
logically categorize words into groups during discussion

Comprehension Checks

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