Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 198

Book Summary
Friends Around the World focuses on 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 for entertainment and a type of food they like to eat. Illustrations and a map support the text.

Book and lesson also available at Levels K and P.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Identify details to compare and contrast characters       
• Blend phonemes
• Recognize and read words with short /e/ vowel
• Recognize proper nouns
• Arrange words in alphabetical order

Materials

• Book -- Friends Around the World (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• World map
• Visualize, compare and contrast, proper nouns, alphabetical order 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

• Content words: Australia, barbecued, Canada, kangaroos, ketchup, Moscow, Russia, silk, South Korea, Tanzania

Build Background

• Ask students if they think that people from different countries are all the same. Discuss some similarities and differences between any two countries---for example, the United States and Mexico.
• Show students a world map. Point out different countries, including Australia, Russia, South Korea, Tanzania, and Canada.
• Ask students to think about what they already know about different people around the world. Discuss the fact that there are many different cultures and that many people around the world eat, dress, and play differently than they do. Ask students if they have ever visited another country and, if so, to share their experience.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students their copy of the book. Guide them to the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Ask students if they think this book is fiction or nonfiction and to explain their reasoning.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, while reading. Visualizing is based on what a person already knows about a topic. Explain that one way to visualize is to draw a picture. Read aloud to the end of page 3.
• Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after a few pages to create a picture in my mind of the information I've read. This helps me organize the important information and understand the ideas in the book. For example, on page 3, the author tells us about different people around the world. I imagined meeting a friend from a different part of the world. I visualized myself shaking hands with her and smiling.
• Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Have students draw on their worksheet what they visualized as they listened to you read the text on page 3. Invite students to share their drawings.
• 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 that one way an author helps readers understand information in a book is to tell how topics in the book are alike and different.
• Have students look at the picture on page 3. Model how to compare and contrast using pictures.
  Think-aloud: This picture shows different people from all around the world. I'm going to focus on the person I see on the far left and the person on the far right. They are alike in some ways and different in some ways. One way they are alike is that they both have two arms and two legs. One way they are different is that the person on the far left is wearing thick, warm clothing while the person on the right is wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt.
• Model how to compare and contrast information using a Venn diagram. Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left circle left and the right circle right. Explain that information relating to the friend on the left is written in the left side of the left circle (thick clothing). Information that relates to the friend on the right is written in the right side of the right circle (shorts). Explain that in the middle where both circles overlap, information is written about what the friends have in common (two arms, two legs).
• Have students identify other similarities and differences between the two friends. Record these on the Venn diagram.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the pictures, and reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 7 you might ask: Who knows what the animal on this page is called? (kangaroo).
• Model for students the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, point to the word kangaroo on page 7. Model how students can help themselves to read the word by masking from left to right using familiar word parts or syllables. Have them use a finger to mask the word so that the first syllable kan is showing; unmask the next part ga; finally, unmask the final syllable roo. Invite students to blend the syllables together. Then read the sentence and ask if the word kangaroo makes sense. Discuss the meaning of the word after having students locate it in the glossary.
• Repeat the exercise for other vocabulary words as time allows.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out more about friends around the world who are mentioned in the book. Remind them to stop after every few pages to visualize the most important information and to draw on their worksheet what they visualized about it.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 4 to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread. Have students draw what they visualized for the different friends.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: When I read about Chang-Yong, I pictured a ten-year-old boy wearing a beautiful red silk jacket. I thought about how his favorite food is barbecued beef and visualized him sitting with his family and sharing barbecued beef with all of them. Have students share the pictures of what they visualized while reading. Have them explain their drawings aloud.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9. Have them visualize the information on those pages. Discuss what they visualized. Ask students to continue to draw on their worksheet what they visualize as they read the book. Point out that they can use their drawings to identify the important details on the pages.
• Have students work with a partner to compare and contrast Jessica and Natasha, and write the information on a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper. Discuss their responses aloud as you create a Venn diagram on the board.

      Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read each word and figure out its meaning.

• 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

• Ask students to explain or show how the strategy of visualizing helped them understand and remember important events in the story.
• Think-aloud: When I read about Manka, I pictured a girl sitting in a small hut looking up at a grass roof. I pictured her forming a new toy out of clay. This picture helped me to understand what life in Tanzania might be like and to remember that part of the book.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the visualize worksheet. If time allows, have them share their drawings after they finish.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review with students the similarities and differences between Jessica and Natasha. Add any new information to the Venn diagram on the board. Review how the information is organized in the Venn diagram.
• Check for understanding: Have students provide examples of how Kipanik and Manka are alike and different. Record this information on a new Venn diagram on the board.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses aloud.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about many different friends from around the world. You learned about how people are alike and how they are different. Now that you know this information, why is it important to understand that people from different parts of the world can be our friends, even if we are not alike? How can knowing people unlike yourself be helpful to you as a person?

Phonological Awareness: Blend phonemes

• Say the word parts for sun by segmenting the sounds as /s/ /u/ /n/. Tell students you can blend the sounds together to say the word as a whole, and say sun. Then tell students you are going to say the parts of another word. They are to listen and say the word as a whole. Segment the sounds of the word hat by saying /h/ /a/ /t/. Ask students to say the word as a whole (hat).
• Tell students that you are going to say more word parts. You want them to listen to the parts and say each word as a whole. Use the following words: /t/ /e/ /n/ (ten), /b/ /ee/ /f/ (beef), /f/ /oo/ /d/ (food), /s/ /i/ /x/ (six), /c/ /oo/ /k/ (cook), /h/ /o/ /p/ (hop), /c/ /oa/ /t/ (coat), /h/ /u/ /t/ (hut), /r/ /oo/ /f/ (roof), /w/ /e/ /ll/ (well), /c/ /l/ /ay/ (clay), /t/ /oy/ (toy), /s/ /l/ /e/ /d/ (sled), /p/ /l/ /ay/ (play).

Phonics: Short /e/ vowel

• Write the word echo on the board and say it aloud with students. Tell them that the sound they hear at the very beginning of the word is the short /e/ vowel sound.
• Have students say the short /e/ sound aloud. Write the word bell on the board. 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 /e/ sound.
• Write the following short /e/ words from the book on the board, leaving out the vowel: ten, seven, well, sled, ketchup. Say each word and have volunteers come to the board to add the missing letter that represents the short /e/ sound.
• For additional practice, write other examples, such as elephant, pencil, telephone, gem, and fender, on the board. Have students read the words together and circle the letter that represents the short /e/ vowel sound.

Grammar and Mechanics: Proper nouns

• Review or explain that a noun is a person, place, or thing. Ask students to turn to page 5 and give examples of nouns from the text (school, ball, jacket, silk, food, beef).
• Review or explain that a proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter. Write examples of proper nouns from page 6 on the board (Jessica, Australia).
• Remind students not to confuse a proper noun with the capital letter used at the beginning of a sentence or in the title of a book. Point out instances in the book where capitals are used but a proper noun is not present.
• Check for understanding: Write the following nouns in a column on the board: girl, boy, street, month, holiday. Ask volunteers to give examples of proper nouns for each one, and write them on the board (month: June, February, and so on).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the proper nouns worksheet. When they have finished, discuss their answers aloud. 

Word Work: Alphabetical order

• Review or explain the process of putting a list of words in alphabetical order. Tell students that they must look at the first letter of each of the two words and then decide which word begins with the letter that comes first in the alphabet. Point to the alphabet posters in the classroom and tell students that they can refer to the posters or sing the alphabet song in their mind when deciding which word comes first in the alphabet.
• Write the alphabet on the board. Underneath, write the words friend and world. Have a volunteer explain which word would appear first in alphabetical order (friend) and why (because f comes before w in the alphabet). Circle the f and the w on the board and compare their location in the alphabet. Erase the circles when the discussion is finished.
• Write the words mother and grandmother on the board. Have a volunteer explain which word would appear first in alphabetical order (grandmother) and why (because g comes before m in the alphabet). Circle the g and the m on the board and compare their location in the alphabet. Erase the circles when the discussion is finished.
• Check for understanding: Write the words seven and ten on the board. Have students write the words in alphabetical order and explain their thinking on a separate piece of paper. Discuss their answers aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the alphabetical order worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students practice visualizing the story with someone at home and then compare the pictures they created in their minds.

Realistic Nonfiction Writing Connection
Have each student write an autobiographical page. Have them write in the style of Friends Around the World and include their name, foods enjoyed, games played, type of clothing worn, and home life. Allow students to illustrate their page. Bind all the pages into a book and title: Children In _______ (fill in the blank with name of the city or country where you live). Emphasize to students that even though they all live in the same place and have many similarities, there are still many differences among them.

Visit Writing A-Z for a lesson and leveled materials on expository report writing.

Social Studies Connection
Organize students' chairs in a circle and facilitate a discussion about different countries and cultures. Ask questions such as: Why is it important for us to learn about different countries and cultures? Why do you suppose people who live in different parts of the world eat different foods, wear different clothing, and speak different languages? Why don't all people look the same? Encourage thoughtful reflection and emphasize respectful language.

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.

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric