Text Type: Fiction/Fantasy
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 152

Book Summary
Jupe loves to read and visits the library each Saturday. She picks out books about pirates, whales, and ants. Soon it is time to go home, but Jupe has a problem. The stack of books is too heavy for her to carry. What will she do? Monster Reading Buddies provides the opportunity for students to retell the story and investigate cause-and-effect relationships. Pictures support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Retell

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of retelling to understand and remember story events
• Identify cause and effect
• Discriminate short /a/
• Identify short Aa
• Identify and use verbs
• Understand how to alphabetize words

Materials

• Book -- Monster Reading Buddies (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Cause and effect, short /a/, verbs worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: her, looks, read, says, then, this, will
• Content words: asks, heavy, library, pirate, stacks, wagon, whale, window

Build Background

• Ask students whether they have ever been to a library. Discuss the process of checking books out of a library and how many books they usually take home.
• Discuss the types of books students like to take home from the library. Make a list on the board of the types of books students check out of the library.
• Discuss the differences and similarities between a library and a bookstore.

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 Monster Reading Buddies. (Accept any answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell

• Explain that good readers stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story. Stopping to retell the events of the story helps readers remember and understand what they are reading.
• Explain that when people retell a story or event, they explain the details in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as sharing what happened at school or the events of a television show.
• Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as Little Red Riding Hood.
  Think-aloud: If I were going to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood, I would tell it something like this: Little Red Riding Hood finds out that her grandmother is not feeling well, so she decides to go visit her. First, she packs a basket full of food and begins her trip down the path through the woods. Next, she stops to pick some flowers for her grandmother. A wolf sees her and stops to talk with her. When Little Red says that she is on her way to visit her grandmother, the wolf leaves her to go to the grandmother's house. Then, the wolf swallows the grandmother and waits to swallow Little Red.
• Continue retelling in detail to the end of the story. Invite students to suggest information for the retelling of this story.
• Have students place sticky notes on pages 5, 8, 10, and 12. Explain that as they read, they should stop on these pages to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students to retell in their mind what happens in the story as they read.
• 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: Cause and effect

• Explain to students that one way to understand information in a story is to think about what happened and why it happened. Point out that a cause is something that makes something else happen and an effect what happens because of the cause. Explain that asking the question Why did it happen? Reveals the cause, and asking the question What happened reveals the effect.
• Create a two-column chart on the board with the headings Cause and Effect. Model how to identify an effect and its cause.
  Think-aloud: One way to understand a story is to think about the events that happen and try to figure out the reason why they happened. This keeps me involved in the story and excited about what might happen next. For example, if a character in a story is laughing, I read to find out the reasons why he or she is laughing. The character might have seen something funny on television. The effect, or what happened, would be laughing, and the cause, or why the laughter happened, would be seeing something funny on TV.
• Write this cause-and-effect relationship on the board. Invite students to suggest other possible causes for the effect of the character laughing (hearing a funny joke, being tickled, and so on). Write these new cause-and-effect relationships on the board.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the story.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins and ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word stack on page 7 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows Jupe trying to pick up her pile of books from the floor. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /st/. However, the word pile starts with the /p/ sound, so this can't be the word. I also see that the word ends with a k. The letter k makes a /k/ sound. I know that a pile can also be called a stack. The word stack starts with the /st/ sound and ends with the /k/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be stack.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what happens to Jupe at the library. Remind them to stop reading at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of the story so far.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 5 and then stop to think about what has happened so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model retelling.
  Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. I learned that Jupe loves to read and goes to the library each Saturday. She has chosen books about pirates, ants, and whales as well as a joke book. Then she looks for more books.
• Have students reread page 3. Tell them that the cause on this page is that Jupe loves to read. The effect will be what she does because she loves to read. Ask for a volunteer to tell the effect of the cause (she goes to the library every Saturday). Say: I will write Jupe loves to read under the Cause heading, and I will write She goes to the library each Saturday under the Effect heading.
• \Introduce the cause and effect worksheet. Have students write information they know so far about the cause-and-effect relationship discussed above.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 8. Have them retell what they have read so far. Ask them to write on their worksheet what caused Jupe to be unable to pick up her stack of books (it was too heavy). Have students record any additional cause-and-effect information on their worksheet.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to retell what they have read so far and think about the cause-and-effect relationships to help them understand and remember the events 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.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Retell in detail the events of the story after Jupe looks out the library window.
  Think-aloud: Jupe looks out the library window and sees Lurk pulling his wagon. She asks if she can put her books in the wagon. Lurk says she can. While Lurk pulls the wagon, Jupe reads her books about pirates, ants, and jokes to him. The next Saturday, Lurk gets his own library card, and they need two wagons to carry their books home.
• Have students retell the story from the beginning to a partner. Listen for whether they include the following: correct events in detail, events in order, main characters, problem, and solution.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the causes and their effects that students wrote on their worksheet.
• Independent practice: Have students write any additional causes and effects on their worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In the story, Jupe loves to read. She chooses so many books that she cannot carry them home. While Lurk helps her take the books home, she reads to him. The next Saturday, Lurk gets his own library card. Now that you know this information, why is it important to share the things you love to do with others?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate short /a/

• Say the word sat aloud to students, emphasizing the short /a/ sound. Have students say the words aloud and then say the short /a/ sound.
• Read page 4 aloud to students. Have them give the thumbs-up signal when they hear a word that has the short /a/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word has the /a/ sound: apple, fast, read, books, stacks, window, sack, add.

Phonics: Short vowel Aa

• Write the word mash on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the short /a/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the word aloud. Ask students which letter stands for the short /a/ sound in the word mash.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that have the /a/ sound on the board, leaving out the a: last, cats, dash, wagon. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the a in each word. Have students practice blending the sounds together to say each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /a/ worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Verbs

• Write the following sentence on the board: Jupe goes to the library on Saturday. Read the sentence aloud with students. Point to the word goes. Review or explain that some words name actions. These words are called verbs.
• Have students turn to page 4 and read the last sentence. Invite students to locate the verb (stacks).
• Have students read the last sentence on page 6 and locate the verb (uses).

      Check for understanding: Have students reread the rest of the book with a partner and locate all of the words that name actions. Have students highlight the verbs in the book.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the verbs worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Explain to students that words are sometimes placed in a list in alphabetical order. Words are placed in alphabetical order by first looking at the beginning letter of each word and then deciding which letter comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the words library and whale on the board. Underline the first letter in each word. Ask students which letter comes first in the alphabet, w or l. Explain that the word library would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Write the words pirate and ants on the board. Have students identify the initial letter in each word (p and a). Ask students to identify which letter comes first in the alphabet (a). Explain that the word ants would come first in an alphabetical list.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board: read, window, stacks, library, jokes, book. Have students write the words in alphabetical order on a separate piece of paper. When they have finished, discuss their answers.

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. Have students retell the story to someone at home. Remind them to focus on cause and effect relationships in the retelling.

Fantasy Fiction Writing Connection
Have students draw a picture of a book that Lurk might choose to check out from the library. Have them write sentences to tell about their picture.

Social Studies Connection
Visit the local library as a class and have the librarian tell students about his or her job. If you visit a public library, get information for students to sign up for a library card. Make note of the different sections of the public library. Discuss with students the importance of having a public library and have students compare a public library to a bookstore. Ask which one do they think is beneficial for more people and why.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.