Friends Around the World

Friends Around the World
Level H

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 270

Book Summary
Friends Around the World is about children from various countries around the world. All of the children in the book tell their names and where they live. They also share something about what they like to do and a type of food they like to eat. Readers are invited to become part of the worldwide circle of friends.

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
Blend phonemes
Read r-controlled vowel words
Recognize proper nouns
Identify compound words

Materials

Book -- Friends Around the World (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Compare and contrast, compound words worksheets

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: like, love, live
Content words: South Korea, barbecued, bulgogi, Aboriginal Australian, boomerang, kangaroos, Moscow, Russia, bliny, Tanzania, Inuit, Canada, caribou

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students to tell about some of their friends. Invite them to share how they are alike and different from their friends. Encourage students to discuss what they look like, where they live, who they live with, what they like to do, and what they like to eat.
Extend the discussion by having students tell what they think children in other parts of the world like to do, play, and eat. Ask them to tell about any friends they have who either live far away or in another country.

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 Friends Around the World. (Accept any answers 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: Ask and answer questions

Explain to students that one way to understand a book is to ask questions about the story before and during reading, and then to look for the answers as they read.
Model asking a question based on the front cover.
Think-aloud: I know that good readers ask questions before they read a book. I know that this helps them set a purpose for reading. When I look at the picture on the front cover, I see children. They are dressed in different kinds of clothing. The title of the book is Friends Around the World. I wonder if all the children are from different places around the world. If so, I wonder how they are all friends with each other. Asking these questions gets me thinking about the book and gives me a purpose for reading because I want to find the answers to my questions.
Write these questions on the board. Have students preview the covers and title page of the book. Ask them to share questions they have about the book. Write these questions on the board.
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

Use the pictures to preview the book with students. Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion. For example, on page 7 you might say: This curved wooden stick on this page is called a boomerang.
Model for students the strategies they can use to say difficult words. For example, point to the word boomerang on page 7. Model how students can read the words by using familiar word parts/syllables. Have students use a finger to mask the word so that the first syllable boo is showing; unmask the next part, mer; unmask the final syllable, ang. Invite students to blend the sounds of the syllables together, and then read the sentence and ask if the word boomerang makes sense. Discuss the meaning of the word.
Review with students that many of the words they read in the book are used to tell about people from around the world. Review the names of each country with students and write them on the board: South Korea, Australia, Russia, Tanzania, Canada. Say each word with students.
Discuss the map on page 15. Locate students' location on the map. Then locate each of the places from the book on the map.
For additional teaching tips on high-frequency words and word attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book to find answers to their questions. Remind them to continue to ask and answer questions as they read.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Ask them to place a finger on the page number at the bottom corner of the page. Have them read to the end of page 6, using their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
Model answering questions.
Think-aloud: I wanted to know if the children on the cover were from different places around the world. I also wanted to know how they were all friends with each other. So far, I have answered my first question. The children are from different places around the world, such as South Korea and Australia. I'll keep reading to find the answer to my second question.
Ask students whether they were able to answer any of their questions on the board. Ask them if they thought of additional questions as they were reading. Write these questions on the board.
Have students to read the remainder of the story. Remind them to keep looking for answers to their questions 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.

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 share answers they found to their questions while reading. Discuss how asking and answering questions in their mind as they read made them think about what they were reading.
Think-aloud: I wanted to know how the children from all over the world were friends. The book didn't answer this question. However, I did read that you can find friends in many different places. I also learned that although people are different from each other, they also have some things in common.
Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast

Discussion: Invite students to share one interesting fact they learned from the book. Have them explain why the fact was interesting to them.
Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that one way understand information in a book is to think about how the information is alike and different from each other. Make a large Venn diagram on the board. Label the left side Kipanik and the right side Chang-Yong. Model how to compare and contrast two children from the book: Kipanik from northern Canada and Chang-Yong from South Korea.
Think-aloud: One way these two people are alike is that they are both boys. I will write boys in the overlapping circles. I read that Chang-Yong's favorite food is a barbequed beef called bulgogi. However, Kipanik's favorite food is caribou meat with ketchup. This is one way they are different. I will write bulgogi under Kipanik and caribou with ketchup under Chang-Yong.
Check for understanding: Ask students to identify other way that the boys are alike and different. Write this information in the Venn diagram on the board.
Independent practice: Have students choose one child from the book to compare and contrast with themselves. Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Extend the discussion: Ask students to explain whether or not understanding how people are alike and different from each other is important.

Build Skills

Phonological Awareness: Blend phonemes

Say the word sun by segmenting it into its individual sounds: /s/ /u/ /n/. Then blend the sounds together to say the word as a whole: sun. Tell students that words are made up of different sounds and these sounds are blended together to create a word.
Segment the sounds of the word hat: /h/ /a/ /t/. Ask students blend the sounds together to say the word: hat.
Say the following words to students by segmenting them into their individual sounds: /t/ /e/ /n/ (ten), /b/ /ee/ /f/ (beef), /f/ /oo/ /d/ (food), /c/ /oa/ /t/ (coat), /h/ /u/ /t/ (hut), /c/ /l/ /ay/ (clay), /t/ /oy/ (toy), /s/ /l/ /e/ /d/ (sled). Pause after saying each word and have students blend the sounds to say the words.

Phonics: R-controlled er, ir, ur

Write the word world on the board. Have students find the word in the title on the cover or title page and read the title together.
Explain to students that when the letter r comes before a vowel in some words, it can change the sound of the vowel.
Write the following r-controlled words on the board: her, bird, fur. Circle the er, ir, and ur letter combinations in the words. Read each word with students. Have them say the sound of each circled letter combination. Explain to students that all three letter combinations represent the same middle vowel sound as in the word world.
Have students read page 5 quietly to themselves. When they have finished, ask students to identify a word with a vowel sound that is the same as the middle vowel sound in the word world (after).
Have students practice writing the er, ir, and ur letter combinations on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound each letter combination represents.

Grammar and Mechanics: Proper nouns

Review or explain to students that words used to tell the name of people, places, organizations, or things are called proper nouns. Explain to them that these words begin with a capital letter. Ask students to identify proper nouns they know (their own name, their teacher's name, other names in their family, the name of their school, and so on).
Have students turn to page 4. Ask them to locate proper nouns on the page (Chang-Yong, South Korea). Discuss why these words are proper nouns and what the words name.
Have students look at page 6. Ask them to find the proper nouns on the page (Jessica, Aboriginal Australian). Review what the words name (the child, the name of a native tribe, the country where the child lives).

Have students underline the proper nouns in the book. Remind them to ask themselves if the word names a person, place or thing. Check their responses.

Word Work: Compound words

Have students turn to page 6 and locate the word grandmother. Read the word with students. Ask them to identify smaller words they know in the word grandmother. Point out that the words grand and mother make up the larger word grandmother.
Invite students to share that they know about the meaning of the words grand and mother. Explain to them that combining the meanings of these two words helps them understand the meaning of the word grandmother.
Repeat this process with the word worldwide on page 14. Ask students to use what they know about the words world and wide to explain to a partner the meaning of the word.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection
Have students imagine that they have a pen pal that lives in a different country. Have them write a letter to their pen pal that tells about themselves: age, grade, favorites, and so on.

Social Studies Connection
Have students research the people from one of the places from the book with a partner. Have them identify information such as: types of clothing, food, and activities.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently ask and answer questions while reading
correctly compare and contrast people during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately blend phonemes during discussion
read and categorize r-controlled vowel words during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly recognize and use proper nouns during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately read and identify meanings of compound words

Comprehension Checks

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