Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 129

Book Summary
Readers may have heard about a pack of wolves or a litter of puppies, but do they know which animals make up a gaggle or a murder? In Gaggle, Herd, and Murder, readers learn the meaning of these terms and more. Engaging photographs support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect to prior knowledge

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of connecting to prior knowledge to understand new information in a nonfiction text
• Categorize information
• Blend phonemes
• Associate phonetic representation for r-, s-, and l- blends
• Use and identify collective nouns
• Understand and use content vocabulary

Materials

• Book -- Gaggle, Herd, and Murder (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Pencils, crayons or markers, paper or card stock
• Categorize information, blends, collective nouns 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: are, they, have, of, their, all, this
• Content words: gather, groups, geese, gaggle, together, colony, murder, crows, sunset, whales, pod, smack, jellyfish, zebras, herd, pack, wolves, humans, neighborhood

Build Background

• Ask students to close their eyes and picture in their mind a group of like animals they have seen at a zoo, on a farm, or in the wild. Ask them to describe what they see. Ask how the animals move and what they are doing. Invite students to name different kinds of animal groups, such as herds, swarms, and schools.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book. Show students the front and back covers and read the title. Ask students what they think the words gaggle, herd, and murder refer to. Ask if they've heard these terms before.
• Review the title page, glossary, and index. Talk about the information (title of book, author's name, vocabulary words and definitions).
• Ask students to predict what the book might be about. (Accept any answer students can justify.)

Introduce the Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that good readers make connections between what they already know and new information they read about. Remind them that they are more likely to understand what they are reading if they already know something about the topic.
• Model how to connect to prior knowledge.
  Think-aloud: As I read the title and look at the front and back covers, I'm reminded of a herd of cattle I saw and learned about in our study of the farm. The information I already know about herds will probably help me read and understand the information about herds in the book.
• 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

• 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 new vocabulary words into the discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 5, you might say: It looks as if the entire colony of bats is flying out for the night.
• Model the strategies students can use to work out words they don't know. For example, point to the word together on page 4. Model using the familiar portion of the word and the context to read the unfamiliar word. Have students mask -gether with their finger. Ask them to tell which word they now see (to). Have students suggest a word that starts like to and refers to how geese fly. Read the sentence from the beginning with students and ask what word would make sense that starts like to. Read: A gaggle of geese flies to... . If students do not figure out the word from context, have them unmask the next syllable of the word and try again.
• Have students turn to the glossary on page 12. Explain that a glossary is an alphabetical listing of important words used in the text. Each listing provides a definition and the page number on which the word is first used. Ask students where they would turn to find the word herd (page 9). Draw students' attention to the index on the same page. Ask a volunteer to tell what an index is (an alphabetical listing of subjects mentioned in the book with all page numbers for each subject). Ask students where they would turn to find more information about humans (page 12).
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out about animal group names. Remind them to stop after every couple of pages to think about what they already know about the topic.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books. Have them put a sticky note on page 7 and ask them to read to the end of the page. Encourage students who finish before everyone else to reread the text to find out more about animal group names.
• When they have finished reading, ask students what words they had trouble with. Have them identify the groups of animals they read about (gaggle, geese; colony, bats; murder, crows; pod, whales).
• Think-aloud: I once studied dolphins and learned that a group of dolphins is called a pod. Since I already knew about groups of dolphins being called pods, it was easier for me to read and understand the part of the book about whales being called pods.
• Ask students to read the remainder of the book.

Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Model how they can read these words.
• Ask students to share examples of how they connected what they already knew about groups of animals to understand the new information in the book. (Accept answers that show students have thought about the reading.)

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Categorize information

• Discussion: Ask students which animal group names were new and which ones they were already familiar with. Encourage students to use new vocabulary during the discussion. (I hope I never swim through a smack of jellyfish!)
• Introduce and model the skill: Draw a two-column T-chart on the board with the labels Animal and Group of Animals. Review or explain that recording information on a chart is one strategy readers use to remember information in nonfiction text. Say: For example, the first animals I read about were geese. I will write geese in the Animal column. I read that a group of geese is called a gaggle. I will write gaggle in the Group of Animals column.
• Check for understanding: Have students find the next animal in the book and identify the group name.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the categorization worksheet.

Extend the discussion: Have students use the inside back cover of their book to write about and illustrate the most unique or unusual animal group name they learned about.

Phonemic Awareness: Blend sounds

• Tell students you are going to review some of the vocabulary by having them guess the word after you say the parts of the word as a clue. Say: I'm thinking of a group of geese. It's a /g/. . . aggle. What am I thinking of? (Students say: Gaggle!)
• Have students orally practice blending sounds with the following clues: I'm thinking of animals together. It's a gr. . . oup. What am I thinking of? (group); I'm thinking of a group of bats. It's called a /c/. . . olony. What am I thinking of? (colony); A murder is a group of cr. . . ows. What is a murder a group of? (crows); A pod of whales sw. . . im together. What does a pod of whales do together? (swim); I'm thinking of a group of jellyfish. It's called a sm. . . ack. What am I thinking of? (smack); I'm thinking of a group of zebras. It's called a /h/. . . erd. What is a group of zebras called? (herd); A group of wolves is a /p/. . . ack. What is a group of wolves called? (pack)

Phonics: Blends

• Write the words group and crows on the board. Have students find the words on page 6.
• Circle the r-blend in each word (gr, cr). Tell students that in a blend, two or three consonants are grouped, or clustered, together in a word with each letter keeping its own sound. R-blends are a type of consonant cluster. (Others clusters include, s-blends and l-blends.)
• Have students refer to the bottom of page 8 to find a word that has an r-blend (travels). Have them brainstorm other examples of r-blend words and write them on the board (examples may include words that start with br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, and tr).
• Write the words swim and fly on the board. Read the words together and ask volunteers to identify the consonant clusters in the words (s-blend sw and l-blend fl).
• Introduce, explain, and have students complete the blends worksheet. When students have finished, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Collective nouns

• Review or explain that a noun names a person, place, or thing. For example, in the sentence I like my dog, the word dog is a noun--a dog is a thing. Further explain that when a word refers to a group of things, such as flock, herd, or team, the word is called a collective noun. For example, in the sentence My dog had a litter of puppies, the word litter is a collective noun because it refers to a group.
• Have students turn to page 7. Ask them to locate an example of a noun (whales) and a collective noun (pod, pods) on the page. Discuss the difference between the examples of nouns and collective nouns.
• Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet.

Vocabulary: Content vocabulary

• Invite students to discuss some of the new vocabulary words that were introduced for animal group names. Provide opportunities for students to talk about difficult words, such as colony and murder. Model incorporating new vocabulary by asking: Zebras race together in herds; what other animals race together or travel in a herd?
• For any words that continue to be challenging, encourage students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.

Build Fluency

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, Art, and Media Connection

• Have students choose one of the new vocabulary words that refers to the name of an animal group, such as gaggle, herd, murder, pack, pod, or smack. On a piece of white paper or card stock, invite students to draw a picture that shows the animal group at the top of the page. Then have them write a sentence at the bottom of the paper that fits the following pattern: A _______ is a group of _______. Assemble the page in a book about animal groups or display them on a bulletin board.

Science Connection

• Plan a visit to a local zoo or wildlife center where students can learn about other animal group names. After the visit, encourage students to discuss group names from the book and new group names they learned.

• accurately and consistently demonstrate connecting to prior knowledge
• categorize information accurately
• accurately blend phonemes
• accurately identify blends
• understand and identify collective nouns
• understand and use content vocabulary appropriately

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric