Josh Gets Glasses - Lesson Plans

Josh Gets Glasses
Level F

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 183

Book Summary
In Josh Gets Glasses, a boy named Josh finds out that he needs glasses. Josh is not happy about the prospect of wearing glasses because he's afraid he'll look silly. Josh's eye doctor explains that wearing glasses helps people perform their jobs more successfully and helps children do better in school. In the end, Josh decides that he might like wearing glasses after all.

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
Identify the problem and solution in a story
Orally segment words into syllables
Read and write l-family blends
Locate and categorize nouns
Read and understand compound words

Materials

Book -- Josh Gets Glasses (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Index cards
Magnetic letters
Problem and solution, 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: better, help, some, them
Content words: glasses, people, eye doctor, basketball player, police officer, airplane pilot, cowboy, firefighter, friends, cattle, score, basket, fires, buildings

Before Reading

Build Background

Discuss going to the eye doctor. Have students share experiences they’ve had at the eye doctor's office.
Lead a discussion about wearing glasses. Ask students to talk about people they know who wear glasses and how the glasses help these people do things better.

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 Josh Gets Glasses. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Ask if the picture on the back cover looks anything like the picture they made in their mind during the Build Background discussion.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

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

Explain that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story. Explain that making predictions can help people to make decisions, solve problems, and learn new information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether the prediction is right, or confirmed.
Model using the cover pictures of the book to make a prediction.
Think-aloud: When I look at the cover, I see a picture of Josh and the eye doctor. Josh is wearing glasses in the picture and he is smiling. Based on the cover picture and the title, I predict that Josh is excited to get new glasses. When I look at the back cover, I see a picture of a pilot who is wearing glasses. Maybe Josh is going to go on a plane ride after he gets his new glasses. Maybe the glasses will help him see out the windows of the plane.
Have students use the pictures on the covers and title page to make a prediction before reading the book. Invite them to share their prediction.
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

Reinforce challenging vocabulary and language patterns students might find difficult. For example, on page 6, you might ask: Who do you see in the picture who is wearing glasses? How do you think glasses would help the firefighter do his job better? You might reinforce the language patterns and vocabulary by stating: Yes glasses help the firefighter see people in burning buildings. On page 10, you might ask: Who do you see who is wearing glasses on this page? How do glasses help your friends at school?
Reinforce word-attack strategies by modeling how to read unfamiliar words. Read students the first sentence on page 5. Point to the word basketball. Explain that when readers come to a word they are not sure of, they can look for smaller words they know. Frame and read the words basket and ball in the word basketball. Demonstrate how to put the two words together to make the word basketball. Reread the sentence and point to the picture. Point out that good readers always reread the sentence and look at the picture to make sure the new word makes sense.
Encourage students to add 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 to find out what happens with Josh and the glasses. Remind them to make, revise, and/or confirm predictions about the book as they read.

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. Read the word together (The). 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 revising a prediction based on the reading.
Think-aloud: Before reading, I predicted that Josh was excited to get new glasses. Since I saw a picture of a pilot on the back cover, I predicted that Josh would take a trip on an airplane wearing his new glasses. So far, my predictions aren't correct. Josh does not want to get glasses because he thinks they'll make him look silly. I no longer think Josh is going to take a trip on a plane in this story. I want to revise my prediction. I predict Josh gets glasses but doesn't wear them.
Ask students whether or not they can confirm their prediction based on the words they read and the pictures. Have them revise their prediction or make a new prediction.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and/or 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.

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 discuss whether their prediction turned out to be true or whether it needed to be revised. Reinforce that making predictions about what they are reading helps them get meaning from the book and gives them a purpose for reading.
Think-aloud: I predicted that Josh would get glasses, but would choose not to wear them. This prediction was not correct. At first, Josh was not excited to get glasses. However, after learning how glasses help people who need them, he was excited to wear them.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Problem and solution

Discussion: Ask students to share what Josh learned in the story.
Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that most stories have a problem that needs to be fixed. The solution is how the problem was fixed. Model how to identify a problem and solution using a familiar story.
Think-aloud: I know the story The Three Little Pigs. In this story, the pigs continued to have their houses blown down by the big bad wolf. This was the problem in the story. The pigs solved their problem by going inside the third pig's house, which was made from bricks. The wolf could not blow this house down and all three pigs were safe.
Check for understanding: Choose another familiar story with students. Have them discuss the problem and solution in the story with a partner. Discuss their responses.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the problem and solution worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of someone they know who wears glasses. Have students write about how glasses help that person see better. Ask students to share their pictures with the group.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Segment syllables

Tell students that every word contains one or more parts. Explain that these parts are called syllables.
Show students how to count syllables in words by placing their hand slightly under their chin and feeling the number of syllables when they say the word. Demonstrate feeling and counting syllables with the words glasses and buildings.
Say other words from the story (doctor, silly, people, better, ball, fires, building). Have students put their hand under their chin to feel and count the number of syllables in each word.

Phonics: L-family blends

Write the word glasses on the board and read it with students. Underline the gl blend and explain that the sounds of these two letters are blended together to stand for the /gl/ sound. Have students blend the sounds of the letters together to say the gl blend.
Tell students that the letters g and l are part of the l-family blends. Write the following l-family blends on the board: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl. Have students say each blend with you. Under each blend, write a word that begins with that blend: black, clap, flip, glad, play, slug.
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.
Have students point to words on page 8 with an l-family blend (glasses, fly).

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

Review or explain to students that words that tell the names of people, places, and things are called nouns. Have students tell examples of people, places, and things. Draw and label these words on the board.
Ask students to identify words that name people. Remind students that these words are all nouns.
Ask students to identify words that name places. Remind students that these words are all nouns.
Ask students to name words that name things. Remind students that these words are all nouns.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the nouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Compound words

Write the word basketball on the board. Read the word aloud with students. Ask students to identify two words they know within the larger word (basket, ball).
Explain to students that the word basketball is a compound word. Draw a line to segment basketball into basket and ball (basket/ball).
Write the word firefighter on the board. Read the word aloud with students. Invite volunteers to find the two words that joined together to form the compound word. Then ask a volunteer to segment firefighter into two words on the board.
Write the words airplane and cowboy on separate index cards. Cut each compound word on the cards into its two individual words. Tape the words on the board out of order. Ask students to come to the board and connect a pair of words correctly to make a compound word. Have students say the word aloud, checking to be sure the word makes sense.

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

Writing and Art Connection
Help students brainstorm a list of people they know who wear glasses. Record the names of these people on the board. Ask students to share how glasses help the people they listed do things better. Write the following prompt on the board: ________ wears glasses. Glasses help him/her to ________. Have students copy and complete the above sentence on a separate piece of paper. Encourage them to create a drawing to go with their writing.

Science Connection
Discuss the use of safety glasses in science. Ask students to tell why safety glasses are important. Have students create eye safety posters.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

make, revise, and confirm predictions about the story while reading
identify the problem and solution in the story; complete a related worksheet
orally divide words from the book into syllables
identify and read words that contain l-family blends
locate and categorize nouns into words that name people, places, and things
accurately identify and read compound words

Comprehension Checks

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