Text Type: Nonfiction/Descriptive
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 96 

Book Summary
The book In a Chinese Garden introduces students to the features of a Chinese garden and the Chinese characters that represent some of the objects in it. Repetitive phrases, supportive pictures, and high-frequency words make this book a good choice for emerging readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Make inferences
• Discriminate initial consonant sound /w/
• Identify initial consonant Ww
• Recognize nouns
• Identify the meaning of Chinese characters

Materials

• Book -- In a Chinese Garden (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Index cards
• Visualize, initial consonant Ww, foreign vocabulary 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

• High-frequency words: and, can, for, from, I'm, it, looks, on, or, see, so, they, too
• Content words: Chinese, garden, glad, mirror, rocks, stand, strong, trees, water

Build Background

• Write the word garden on the board and point to the word as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students what they picture in their mind when they hear the word garden. Invite them to share what they pictured. Discuss with students the different types of gardens (vegetable, flower, and so on), and encourage them to explain what they might see in each kind of garden.

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 book called In a Chinese Garden. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).
• Write the following repetitive phrases on the board: I see ___ and I'm glad for ____. Read the phrases aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud. Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know about a topic and words from the text to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read pages 3 and 4 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: When I read a book, I pause after a few pages or after reading a description of something to create a picture in my mind of the topic I'm reading about. This helps me understand the book. For example, when I read about visiting the Chinese garden, I pictured walking through the gate without doors and seeing pools of shiny, smooth water. When I read that it looked like a mirror, I pictured the reflection of trees and the gate in the still water.
• Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Reread pages 3 and 4 with students. Ask them to draw what they visualized as they heard the pages read aloud. Invite them to share what they drew on their worksheet.
• 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: Make inferences

• Explain that authors don't always use details to explain everything that happens in a book. Sometimes they give readers clues to figure out what they didn't say with words. Readers have to use clues from the story and what they already know to make a guess. This is called making an inference.
• Read page 4 aloud to students. Model how to make an inference.
  Think-aloud: When I read page 4, I thought about the water looking as smooth as a mirror. I know that when the wind blows, water moves and makes ripples or waves. When the wind is not blowing, water can be still and smooth. Based on the clues from the book and what I know, I can infer, or guess, that the wind is not blowing in the garden. Thinking about what I already know can help me read and understand the information in the book.
• Invite students to infer what the narrator sees in the water and to explain their thinking. (For example: the trees, the building, the rock, the clouds; anything that is above the water will make a reflection on still water.)

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word beautiful on page 10 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The Chinese garden is pretty. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /b/. However the word pretty starts with the /p/ sound, so this can't be the word. I know that another word for pretty is beautiful. The word beautiful starts with the /b/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be beautiful.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what is in a Chinese garden. Remind them to think about the clues from the story and what they already know to help them make inferences to better understand and visualize the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Ask them to place a finger on the number in the bottom corner of a page. Have students 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 draw on their worksheet something they visualized as they read.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: As I read, I visualized the huge rock. I pictured how small I would look standing next to it. I pictured the large shadow it cast on the ground, as well as its rough surface.
• Invite students to share what they drew on their worksheet.
• Discuss how the narrator described the rock (huge, strong, will not move, will not fall down). Ask pairs of students to use the story clues and what they already know to infer whether the rock is light or heavy. Have them explain their thinking.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Invite them to draw on their worksheet something they visualized while reading. When they have finished reading, invite students to share what they drew on their worksheet.
• Review with students the narrator's description of the trees (they stand tall, they give shade, rest under them on a sunny day). Ask students to infer what the temperature might be outside in the garden (warm). Discuss information from the book and students' prior knowledge that supports their inference (the trees give shade, the narrator is glad to rest under them, the sun is shining; the temperature in the shade is cooler than in the sunshine, the narrator is glad to be in the shade).
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize and to use what they know and the clues from the book to make inferences.

    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.
• Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind of the garden and the things described in it. When I read page 10, I pictured the narrator walking though the peaceful garden. I pictured how calm everything looked. I pictured the narrator smiling because the garden was a beautiful place to visit. Creating pictures in my mind helped me better enjoy reading the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Ask students whether they think the narrator enjoyed his visit to the garden (yes). Discuss the text clues and prior knowledge they used to help them make their inference (the narrator described the garden as beautiful and peaceful and said he would remember it; when someone uses positive words to describe something and says he or she will remember it, it's a sign of enjoyment).
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned that the book's narrator is glad to have water, trees, and rocks--he was thankful for these things. Now that you know this information, what are some things you are thankful to have, and why are you glad to have them?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate initial consonant /w/

• Say the word water aloud to students, emphasizing the /w/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /w/ sound.
• Read pages 3 and 4 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that begins with the /w/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word begins with the /w/ sound: wall, mirror, warm, will, huge.

Phonics: Initial consonant Ww

• Write the word water on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /w/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in water as students say the word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the /w/ sound in the word water.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that begin with the /w/ sound on the board, leaving off the initial consonant: win, will, wit. Say each word with students, one at a time. Have volunteers come to the board and add the initial consonant w to each word and say the new word aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Ww worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

• Show students a picture of a person, a place, and a thing. Ask volunteers to identify the pictures. Explain that some words name a person, a place, or a thing. These naming words are called nouns. Invite students to give examples of a person, a place, and a thing.
• Have students turn to page 3 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 place (garden).
• Read the second sentence aloud with students, pointing to the words as you read them aloud. Ask students to point to the words that name things (gate, doors). Then have them point to the word that names a person (I).
• Check for understanding: Have students reread the story and underline the nouns. When they have finished, discuss whether the nouns they underlined name a person, a place, or a thing.

Word Work: Foreign vocabulary

• Write the following words from the story on the board or chart paper: gate, rock, tree, water. Read each word aloud with students.
• Explain that these words are written differently in Chinese. Point out that the Chinese language uses different symbols from the alphabet letters.
• Have students turn to page 3. Have them use the picture and words on the page to tell what the character on this page stands for (gate). Discuss why this character might be used for the word gate (it is shaped like a gate with doors).
• Discuss the characters for the other words and why they might have been used to represent each word.
• Check for understanding: Have students work with a partner to write the words gate, rock, tree, and water on large index cards. Have them use pages 11 and 12 in the book to write the correct Chinese character for each word on the back of the index card. Have pairs of students take turns showing the Chinese character for each word and asking their partner to guess the English equivalent.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the foreign vocabulary worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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. Have students explain to someone at home the text clues and prior knowledge they used to make inferences.

Descriptive Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of a place they have visited and enjoyed. Have them write a description of their drawing. 

Social Studies Connection
Have students make a list of common classroom objects. Have them use print or Internet resources to identify the Chinese symbol for each object. Ask them to draw the symbol next to the English word. Invite them to share what they learned.