Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 156 

Text Summary
Animal Eyes gives the reader an up-close look at the eyes of some familiar animals. Readers are encouraged to guess what kind of animal has the type of eyes presented before turning the page to find out. Photographs provide clues that help readers decode unfamiliar words. 

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Connect life experience and use prior knowledge

Objectives

• Compare and contrast
• Recognize the sounds of s blends /st/ /sp/ /sm/
• Associate st, sp, and sm with the phonetic elements /st/ /sp/ /sm/
• Recognize adjectives as words that describe
• Understand and use content vocabulary

Materials

• Book -- Animal Eyes (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Categorization, S Blends, Vocabulary worksheets
• Set of blend cards for each student: st, sm, sp

    Indicates an opportunity to use the book interactively (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are not consumable.)

Vocabulary

• High frequency words: you, to, see
• Content words: animals, spider, owl, lizard, dragonfly, chameleon

Build Background

• Have students tell what body part they use to see. Have them tell other things they can do with their eyes (cry, wink, show surprise, express emotions, close to sleep).
• Have students tell about animals they have seen that have two eyes. Ask students if they have ever seen an animal that has more than two eyes. 

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Connect life experience and use prior knowledge

• Explain to students that making a connection with something they already know about the topic of the book they are going to read, helps them understand and remember what they read.
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about based on the cover information. Model how to use prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic in the book. When I look at the title of this book, I can think of lots of animals that have eyes. One time a bird landed on the sill of the window I was looking out of. I don't think it could see me because it just sat there. I got a close-up look at its eyes. I predict that I'll read about bird's eyes in this book, and maybe some other animals, too.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Turn the pages in the book so students can see the pictures on alternate pages and make predictions about what kind of animal's eyes are on the page. If necessary, model once more for the students how you draw on your personal knowledge to make predictions about the book.
• Show students the index. Explain its purpose and how to use it.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through the book with the students. Ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Model how to use their knowledge of animal eyes as they preview the illustrations.
• Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 3 you might say: What is the child using to look at the camera? What is the dog using? How are their eyes alike? What do you see that is different?
• Model for students the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. Have students find the word spider on page 6. Ask students how they could read this word if they didn't know it. Suggest that they might look at how it starts and read /sp/. They might recognize the sound the letter i makes in the middle of the word, and the might know the sound the letters er makes at the end of the word. Read the sentence to them and ask if the word spider makes sense.
• For additional teaching tips on word attack and high frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students think about what they already know about eyes as they read the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 8. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students whether the text matches the pictures. Have students point out animal eyes they have seen in real life, in books, or on TV that are like those in the book. Have them tell how this helped them understand what they read. Model making connections to prior knowledge.
• Think Aloud: My friend keeps two lizards in a terrarium. It's fun to watch them. They have strange eyes; one eye can move one way and one can move the other. Making that connection helps me understand what I am reading.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story.

    Tell the students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students to tell how making connections helped them be active readers and remember what they read. Reinforce that knowing something about the topic before reading helps them understand what they read. 

Comprehension Skill: Compare and Contrast

• Introduce and Model: Pair students and have them look at each other's eyes. Tell them to look at the shape, size, and color. Have them tell how their eyes are alike and different from the other student's. Tell students that thinking about how things are alike and how they are different can help them understand what they read.
• Group students according to eye color without telling them why they are in a group. Then tell students to look at one another's eyes and figure out what group they belong to. Have them raise their hands as soon as they do. Take a marker and a piece of paper to the group and have them quietly tell what their group is. Write it on the paper for them. When all of the groups have identified themselves, have each group decide what the other groups are.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the front and back covers of the book. Have them tell what is alike in each picture (there is one eye; the eye is open). Have them tell what is different in each picture (one eye is big, one is small; one looks shiny, the other does not; one has hair around it, the other has strange skin).
• Independent Practice: Tell students to complete the compare and contrast worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of an animal with big eyes and an animal with small eyes. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Phonemic Awareness: Discriminate s-blends

• Say the word stamp and ask students to repeat it. Tell students that they can hear the /st/ sound at the beginning of the word. Explain that the /s/ sound and the /t/ sound blend together to make /st/. Segment the /s/ and /t/ sounds, and then blend the sounds to say /st/. Ask students to repeat the individual sounds and then the blend.
• Repeat the process above with the following words: sled, slug, slice, smile, smoke, skirt, skate, spider, spool, star, strawberry, swan.

Phonics: S-blends

• Write the words step, smog, spot, slug, snap, swell, skit on the board. Circle the s-family blend in each word. Tell the students that the letter s and the second letter in each word blend together.
• Run your finger under each word as you have the students sound it out with you.
• Give each student a set of s blend cards (st, sm, sp, sl, sn, sk, sw). Write the following portions of words on the board: __op, __ell, __ill, __ip, _iff, _ip, __im. One at a time, provide the following clues and ask the students to hold up the card with the correct blend:

the opposite of go (stop)
what you do with your nose (smell)
when you knock over your milk, you ___ it (spill)
what you might do if you step on an icy sidewalk (slip)
what a car might do on an icy road (skid)
something your nose does (sniff)
an action that is a bit like running and bit like hopping (skip)
what you can do in water (swim)

• After the students hold up their cards for the word, have them say the word. Ask a volunteer to come up and write the blend on the blank in front of the word. Then continue with the next word clue.
• Give students the s blend worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.
• Extend the activity:

    Tell students to circle each word in the book that has an s blend (small, spider).

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Describing Words

• Have the students turn to page 4 to find out what sizes animal eyes can be (small and large). Explain that these are describing words and that good writers use them to help readers get pictures in their minds or imagine what is happening in the story. In a book like this one, the describing words provide details and help them understand what is in the pictures.
• Have students look on page 4 for another word that tells what animal eyes can look like (strange). Discuss their responses. Explain that the word very is used to tell how strange the eyes are.
• Have students turn to page 6. Have them circle the words that tell how many eyes the spider has and how big the dots are (eight, little). Explain that describing words can tell how many, what kind, or which one. Ask students to tell what the word eight tells, and what the word little tells.
• Continue through the remainder of the book, asking students to identify the adjectives that tell what each lizard eye sees and how many eyes make up a dragonfly's eyes.

Vocabulary: Content Vocabulary

• Tell students that the many of words they read in the book are used to tell about animal eyes. Provide opportunities for the students to talk about difficult words such as lizard or dragonfly. Provide opportunities for the students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Click here for a Vocabulary worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow the students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing

• Have students write, complete, and illustrate the following sentences: This animal has ____eyes. Have students complete the sentence with a describing word. Then have them draw a picture of the animal. Display their sentences and illustrations on a bulletin board titled "Animal Eyes."

Science Connection

• Use this lesson as an introduction to a unit on the senses. Help students make the connection between the body part and its sensory function through touch, taste, smell, and hearing activities. Set up centers in which students can experience and record their observations. For example, a touch center might have five boxes filled with different materials such as sandpaper, cotton, silk, a towel, and a rock. Students can put their hand through a hole in the box to determine what they are feeling, and then use a describing word to tell what it feels like. They can record their responses (using inventive spelling) on a simple form numbered 1–5 to correspond with the number on each touch box.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• connect their prior knowledge and life experience about eyes to understand nonfiction text.
• identify likenesses and differences in nonfiction text.
• recognize the sounds of s blends /st/ /sm/ /sp/.
• associate st, sm, and sp with the phonetic elements /st/ /sm/ /sp/.
• recognize adjectives as words that describe.
• use content vocabulary.

Comprehension Checks