Build Background

• Write the word scared on the board. Explain that everyone has been scared at some time. Share with students a time when you were scared.
• Have students close their eyes and visualize something that scares them. Invite volunteers to share things that scare them.

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 Scaredy Crow. (Accept any answer 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: Visualize

• Explain that good readers often visualize, or picture in their mind, what a book might be about before they start reading. Explain that readers often use what they already know about a topic to create the pictures in their mind.
• Model how to visualize using the cover illustrations and title of the story.
  Think-aloud: When I think of the word scaredy, I picture someone shaking because they are scared of something. What do you picture when you think of someone who is scared? As I look at the back cover, I see one of the crows behind a tire. Do you think this crow is scared of something? Did you picture hiding when you heard the word scaredy?
• Ask students to think of what might scare a crow and picture this in their mind. Invite them to describe what they pictured and explain why this might scare a crow.
• 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 strategy for understanding information in the text is to identify cause-and-effect relationships. Point out that an effect is something that happens and a cause explains why it happens.
• Model how to identify cause and effect.
  Think-aloud: When I read, I think about things that happen and try to figure out the reason why they happened. For example, if a character in a story gets wet, I might think of the reasons he or she could have gotten wet. The character might have been caught in a rainstorm or fallen in a puddle. The effect would be getting wet and the cause would be falling in the puddle.
• Invite students to suggest possible causes for a character falling sleep (for example, the character might be tired, not feel well, have to get up early the next day, and so on).

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the word farm in large letters on the board or chart paper. Have students say the word aloud. Ask students to name things that belong on a farm (cows, pigs, fields, and so on).
• Draw the following pictures on index cards: farmer, tractor, and scarecrow. Place the cards around the word farm.
• Discuss the pictures with students, one at a time. As students identify each picture, write the name on another index card (farmer, tractor, scarecrow). Encourage volunteers to write the initial sound of the word on the card.
• Have volunteers place each card on the corresponding picture. After each word is placed, have students share what they know about each picture. Facilitate discussion with prompts: Who takes care of a farm? What types of jobs on a farm would a farmer do? What do you think a scarecrow scares away? Why is it scaring these things away? Where on a farm might you find a scarecrow? What are tractors? What types of work do tractors do?
• When finished, have the class read the words aloud as you point to each word and picture. If time allows, have students use the cards to match the pictures with the words.
• Remind students that identifying with what is happening in the pictures and drawing on what they already know about a topic can help them read new words on the page.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out who or what is scared and why. Remind them to stop and visualize, or picture in their mind, what happens in the story and why it happens.

During Reading 

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their book. Point out the words on the pages in the book. Explain that the words on the pages are read from left to right. Ask a student to come up and point to where students should start reading and in which direction they go as they read.
• Point to the numbers at the bottom of the pages. Have students read to the end of page 5, using their finger to point to each word as they read. When students are ready, discuss what they visualized as they read. (Accept responses that show students have thought about what they read.)
• Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind of what the crows were doing. For example, when the scarecrow's arm moved, I pictured the sleeve of its shirt flapping up and down. As I look at the picture, I see leaves blowing. I pictured all those things moving around the scarecrow and thought about how scary that might look to someone. That made me wonder what caused the arm to move. What do you think caused the arm to move?
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 9. Invite volunteers to explain what they pictured in their mind when they read about the scarecrow moving and Spike hiding. Ask open-ended questions to facilitate a discussion, such as: What caused the scarecrow to move? What other objects might be blowing around in the wind? What might a scarecrow that is blowing in the wind look like?
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing, or picturing in their mind, what happens in the story and why it happens.

    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 they marked in their books. Model how they can read these words.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind about the events in the story. For example, on page 9, I pictured how calm and quiet it must have been when the wind stopped blowing and everything stopped moving.
• Ask students to turn to page 12 in the book. Have them share examples of how they visualized Spike's reaction when he found out that the wind was moving the scarecrow (surprised, silly, embarrassed, and so on). Ask them to describe how Billy might have looked (proud, smug). Encourage students to use facial expressions to illustrate the pictures in their mind.
• Invite students to explain how visualizing helped them better understand what they read.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Write the words cause and effect on the board as part of a two-column chart. Invite students to discuss some cause-and-effect relationships they found as they read (for example, the wind caused the scarecrow to move, the wind caused the corn to move, the moving scarecrow caused Spike to hide behind the tractor). Remind them that an effect is something that happens and a cause explains why it happens.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the cause and effect worksheet.

    Extend the discussion: Review the reason why Spike was scared in the story (the scarecrow was moving). Ask students to explain how the effect (becoming scared) might have been different if Spike had spent more time investigating what was causing the scarecrow to move (if he realized sooner that it was the wind causing the scarecrow to move, he might not have been scared at all). Discuss how understanding cause-and-effect relationships can help students in their lives (identifying events that happen and why they happen can help students to make informed decisions).

Build Skills 

Phonemic Awareness: Segment onset and rime

• Say the word get aloud to students. Explain that you are going to say the word a second time and leave off the /g/ sound. Then say: /et/; get without the /g/ is /et/.
• Have students identify words aloud that end with the /et/ sound (bet, let, set, and so on).
• Have students say the word not. Then have them say the word not without the /n/ sound (/ot/).
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time: but, did, corn, and now. Say the initial sound before the vowel (onset) aloud. Ask students to say the words without that sound.

Phonics: Identify initial consonant blend sc

• Write the words scare and scarecrow on the board. Have students find the words in the book and read them together.
• Say each word aloud to students, slowly running a finger across the letters as you say the word. Ask students to identify the letters that stand for the /sk/ sound in the words scare and scarecrow.
• Underline the sc consonant blend in the word scare. Explain to students that the letters s and c are blended together to make the /sk/ sound. Have students practice tracing the letters on their desk with their pointer finger, saying the sound for each letter aloud. Then have them run their finger under the letters as they blend the sounds together aloud.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board, leaving off the sc consonant blend: scoop, Scott, and scar. Say each word aloud, one at a time. Have volunteers write the sc blend in the blank to complete each word.

Grammar and Mechanics: Quotation marks

• Have students turn to page 3 and locate the first sentence. Read the sentence aloud. Explain that the marks at the beginning and end of the sentence are called quotation marks. Point out that these marks go around the words that characters say in a story.
• Have students locate sentences that do not have quotation marks. Point out that a character does not speak in these sentences.
• Have students suggest a sentence aloud. Write their dialogue on the board, leaving off the quotation marks. Have volunteers come to the board and add in the missing quotation marks.
• Check for understanding: Have students locate other sentences in the story that contain quotation marks. Ask students why the quotation marks are used.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the quotation marks worksheet.

Vocabulary: Content vocabulary

• Write the following words from the story on the board: farmer, night, scarecrow, scared, tractor, and wind. Say each word aloud with students.
• Have students think of words or phrases they know that are associated with the meaning of each vocabulary word. For example, students might think of the words farm, milks cows, and grows food for the vocabulary word farmer. Write descriptive words around each vocabulary word on the board.
• Check for understanding: Provide each student with six blank index cards to create vocabulary flashcards. Have students write each vocabulary word on one side of an index card and draw a picture of each word's meaning on the other side of the index card.
• For any words that continue to be challenging, encourage students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meaning, and use the words in sentences.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the content vocabulary worksheet.

Build Fluency 

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section in the book. 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 read the book to someone at home and ask them to share what they visualized as the student read the book.

Extend the Reading 

Writing and Art Connection
Have students draw a picture of something that scared them. Provide them with the prompt: I was scared of __________. Compile the drawings and make a class book.

Science and Math Connection
Have students observe and record changes in the weather over a period of a week. Have them describe whether it is sunny, windy, rainy, snowy, and/or cloudy outside. Each day, have them graph the type(s) of weather they observed. Discuss patterns they observed at the end of the week.

Assessment 

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• accurately and consistently demonstrate visualizing while reading
• accurately identify cause-and-effect relationships during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately segment onset and rime during discussion
• accurately recognize and understand during discussion that the letters s and c together stand for the /sk/ sound
• accurately identify and understand the use of quotation marks during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand and accurately illustrate the meaning of content vocabulary

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric

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