Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 109

Book Summary
Salty or sweet, can you guess how these foods taste? Students learn about the variety of tastes available in foods. A table of contents and index are included in this interesting nonfiction book. Detailed, supportive photographs and repetitive phrases support early readers.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Ask and answer questions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to understand text
• Compare and contrast
• Segment onset and rime
• Identify short /a/
• Recognize and use adjectives
• Alphabetize words

Materials

• Book -- Taste This (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Compare and contrast, short /a/ vowel, adjectives worksheets
• Discussion cards

     Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: can, how, our, this, use, we
• Content words: bitter, kale, salty, sour, sweet, taste

Build Background

• Write the word taste on the board and point to it as you read it aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the word aloud.
• Ask students to name some of their favorite foods. Have them tell how those foods taste.
• Create a KWL chart with students on the board or chart paper. Explain to students that the K stands for what they already know about a topic, the W stands for what they want to know about a topic, and the L stands for what they learned about a topic. Ask students to name some of the things they already know about the tastes of foods. List the information in the Know (K) column of the chart.

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 Taste This. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Preview the table of contents with students. Have them share what they think the book might tell about the tastes of foods. Use the table of contents to generate questions and add them to the center column (W) of the KWL chart on the board.
• Model using the table of contents to ask a question.
  Think-aloud: The second section in this book is called "Salty Taste". I want to know what foods might have a salty taste. In the W column of our KWL chart, I am going to write: What foods have a salty taste?
• Invite students to look at the other section headings in the table of contents and use them to come up with their own questions. Encourage students to share their questions with the group. Record them on the class KWL chart.
• Ask students to share other questions they have about the book based on the covers and table of contents. Encourage them to use the photos and index to help them think of questions to add to the KWL chart.
• 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: Compare and contrast

• Explain to students that one way to understand and organize new information in a book is to explain how objects are alike and different. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Point out that explaining how things are alike is called comparing, and explaining how things are different is called contrasting. Write the word alike under compare and the word different under contrast on the board.
• Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Apple and the right side Orange.
• Show students an apple and an orange. Model how to compare and contrast using these objects.
  Think-aloud: I can compare and contrast an apple and an orange. I know an apple has smooth skin, but an orange has bumpy skin. I will write smooth skin on the Venn diagram under the heading Apple and bumpy skin under the heading Orange to show one way these two objects are different. I know that an orange and an apple are both fruits. I will write fruit on the diagram where the circles overlap to show one way these two objects are the same.
• Invite students to suggest other ways that an apple and an orange are the same and different. Write student responses on the Venn diagram under the appropriate headings.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the picture on page 4, you might say: It looks as though the kids are tasting foods with their tongues. Can you guess how these foods taste?
• 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 lemon on page 8 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows a child eating a piece of fruit. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /l/. However, the word fruit starts with the /f/ sound, so this can't be the word. I also know that the word has is /m/ sound in the middle and the /n/ sound at the end. I know that a fruit that is yellow and sour is called a lemon. The word lemon starts with the /l/ sound, and I also hear the /m/ sound in the middle and the /n/ sound at the end. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be lemon.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students use the questions they asked and what they already know about the taste of foods to help them read the book. Remind them to think about how the foods are alike and different as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Ask them to place a finger on the page number in the bottom corner of the page. Have them read to the end of page 7, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model asking and answering questions.
  Think-aloud: On page 5, I see many different kinds of foods. I know that foods taste different when they are eaten. I wonder what different types of tastes each of these foods has. I will add this question to the KWL chart: What types of tastes will these foods have? I think that if I continue to read the book, I will be able to answer the questions on the chart.
• Invite students to share questions they had while reading.
• Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side pretzel and the right side kale. Have students identify things that are alike and different about the two foods they read about in the book. (Kale tastes bitter; pretzels taste salty. Most people like salty tastes; some people do not like bitter tastes.) Write this information on the Venn diagram on the board.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9. Encourage them to share questions they asked or answered as they read. Add questions and answers to the KWL chart. (Accept all answers that show students know how to ask and answer questions from reading.)
• Have student pairs discuss how a lemon and honey are alike and different. Have them draw a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper and write the information from their discussion on their diagram.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to ask and answer questions and think about how the tastes of food might be alike and different.

      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

• Think-aloud: When I read page 11, I thought about the foods I had already read and learned about in the book. Those foods were sweet, sour, bitter or salty. I learned that some foods, like apples, can have either a sweet or sour taste, depending on the type of apple someone chooses to eat.
• Review the questions on the KWL chart and discuss the answers gathered while reading. Record the answers in the Learned (L) column of the KWL chart. Be sure to discuss that not all questions can be answered, and further reading on the subject might be needed.
• Ask students to explain how asking and answering questions helped them to understand and remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the meanings of compare and contrast, as well as the Venn diagrams created earlier in the lesson.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about how some foods taste. You have thought about how they are alike and different. Now that you know this information, do you think it's a good idea to taste foods even if you are not sure you will like them? Why or why not?

Phonological Awareness: Segment onset and rime

• Say the word can aloud to students. Explain that you are going to say the word a second time and leave off the /c/ sound. Then say: /an/; can without /c/ is /an/.
• Have students identify other words that end with the /an/ sound (man, tan, span, and so on).
• Have students say the word sweet. Then have them say the word sweet without the /sw/ sound (/eet/).
• Check for understanding: Say the following words aloud one at a time: give, food, like, kale, not. Say aloud the initial sound before the vowel (onset). Ask students to say each word without the sound(s) of the onset.

Phonics: Identify short /a/ vowel

• Write the word can 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 whole word aloud. Ask students to identify which letter represents the short /a/ sound in the word can.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that have the short /a/ sound on the board, leaving out the vowel: ant, map, and ham. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the letter that represents the short /a/ sound to each word.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the short /a/ vowel worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives

• Write the following sentence on the board: Lemons can taste sour. Ask students to locate the word that describes lemons (sour). Explain that sour describes the taste of a lemon.
• Remind students that adjectives are words that describe people, places, and things.

      Ask students to turn to page 6. Have them work with a partner to find and circle the adjectives.

• Check for understanding: Have students name five nouns. Write the list of nouns on the board. Have them write an adjective for each noun on a separate piece of paper. Invite students to share their list of adjectives. Write the adjectives for each word on the board next to the noun.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the adjectives worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Alphabetizing

• Review or explain the process of putting a list of words in alphabetical order.
• Write the words pretzel and kale on the board. Have a volunteer explain which word would appear first in alphabetical order (kale) and why (because k comes before p in the alphabet).
• Write the words taste and bitter on the board. Ask a volunteer to tell which word would appear first in alphabetical order (bitter) and why (because b comes before t in the alphabet).
• Check for understanding: Write the words apple and honey on the board. Have a student come to the board and circle which word would appear first in alphabetical order.
• Independent practice: Have students write the following words in an alphabetical list on a separate piece of paper: lemon, salty, foods, people, give.

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 them compare and contrast the tastes of foods with someone at home.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Provide students with books about foods. Have them choose one of their favorite foods and illustrate it. Under the drawing, have students write information about their favorite food, such as how it is grown, what culture the food is part of, and how the food tastes. Have students also write about why they like the food.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on informational writing.

Science Connection
Bring to class foods with a variety of tastes. Make a chart with the headings bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. Have students taste foods and work together to complete the chart. Discuss how the foods are alike and different. Be sure to check with parents about any food allergies before tasting food.

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.