Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 14
Word Count: 336

Book Summary
Arthur has been an only child for eight years and has just found out that a little sister is on the way. At first, Arthur is unhappy about the many ways in which her arrival will disrupt his life. He changes his tune after he holds her for the first time. Illustrations support the text.

Book and lesson also available at Levels M and Q.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions
• Identify cause and effect
• Discriminate short /a/ and long /a/ vowels
• Read and identify open /y/ vowel words
• Understand the use of and identify exclamatory sentences
• Recognize and use question words

Materials

• Book -- Arthur's Bad News Day (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Prediction, cause and effect, question words worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting the book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: from, have, must, new, now, play, said, some, them, there, they, well, with
• Content words: awful, bundle, diapers, embrace, focus, gigantic, incredible, nearly, ruin, syrup, tickling, ugh, usually, wriggles, yuck

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever received bad news that ended up ruining their day. Talk about how bad news can sometimes seem worse than it really is. Ask student volunteers to share stories about a time when they received bad news.
• Lead a discussion about the makeup of different families. Point out that families can consist of children, just one child, or no children at all. Ask volunteers to share the number of siblings they have and their place order among their siblings.
• Discuss the meaning of the word jealousy. Point out that people can be jealous of many things, such as what another person has or does, or the person's situation. Allow students to share times when they may have been jealous of someone else.

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 type of book it is (genre, text type, fiction or nonfiction, and so on) and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Tell students that a fun way to read that will help them understand a story is to guess what they think will happen as they read.
• Model how to make a prediction as you preview the book.
  Think-aloud: Let's look at the front cover. I see a man and a woman looking at a child, probably their son. On the back cover, I see them all cuddled up, reading a book. Since the title of the book is Arthur's Bad News Day, I think this might be a story about a boy who gets bad news from his parents--maybe that they have to move. I'll have to read the book to find out.
• Draw students' attention to the expressions on the characters' faces. Ask them to think about how bad news usually makes them feel and to demonstrate a facial expression that usually means someone has received bad news. Ask why they think the parents are smiling if Arthur is going to receive bad news.
• Suggest to students that perhaps what is bad news to one person is good news to someone else. Provide an example. Say: Imagine that two students try out for the lead role in the school play. Only one student can be chosen as the lead. One of the students receives good news, and the other receives bad news.
• Encourage students to make additional predictions about what kind of bad news they think Arthur might receive. Write their predictions on the board.
• Introduce, explain and have students fill out the first column of the predictions worksheet.
• 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: Identify cause and effect

• Discuss cause-and-effect relationships. Explain that a cause is an action that makes something happen, and the effect is what happens because of, or as a result of, the action.
• Introduce and model how cause-and-effect works. Provide an example to illustrate a cause and effect relationship. Say: If you're walking down the street and you step on a patch of ice and fall, you can say that the ice caused you to fall and the fall was the effect (or the result) of the ice.
• Have students turn to page 4. Model how to identify a cause-and-effect relationship in a story.
  Think-aloud: On page 4, I read that Arthur's mom wakes him up by tickling his feet. I know that when someone touches my feet that way it makes me jump and makes me laugh. The cause of Arthur waking up is his mom, tickling his feet. What is the effect of his mom tickling his feet? He wakes up. I can use this information to guess that he probably wakes up laughing and in a happy mood.
• Have students give examples of other cause-and-effect relationships.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word. They can look for base words and initial and final sounds. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words. Model how to apply word-attack strategies.
• Direct students to page 5. Have them find the word pancakes. Model how they can use context clues to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Explain that the first sentence describes something that Arthur's father does in the morning. The part of the sentence with the unfamiliar word explains that his father makes Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. The picture shows a breakfast food on a plate with a pat of butter and some kind of liquid on it. I have eaten pancakes, and they look a lot like the picture. Tell students that these clues make you think that the word pancakes is the breakfast food on the plate. Have students follow along as you reread the sentence on the page to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students to check whether a word makes sense by rereading the sentence in which it appears.
• For tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Tell students as they read the book to make predictions about what will happen based on what the characters say, do, and think. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions as they learn more about the events of the story.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 8. Tell them to look for reasons why the news Arthur gets is so bad.

      Have students underline the words or phrases in the book that tell what the bad news is. If they finish before everyone else, have them go back and reread.

• When they have finished reading, ask students to tell what the bad news is and to explain why Arthur thinks it's so terrible. (Arthur is getting a new baby sister. He does not want to share his parents.)
• Model making, revising, and confirming predictions.
  Think-aloud: My prediction was partially right. I thought the story might be about a boy who receives bad news from his parents. That part of my prediction was correct, but I thought that the news might be that they were moving. Since the news was about a baby sister, that part of my prediction was not correct. From what I've read about Arthur, it seems as if he has a pretty good relationship with his parents. On page 5, it says that he kicks the ball with his father before dinner. On page 6, it says he has a special cookie for dessert. I think his parents care a lot about him. I think he'll realize that having a baby sister isn't so bad after all.
• Direct students to page 7 in the book. Read the sentence: I know I'm not going to like it. Ask students why they think Arthur is convinced he will hate having a baby sister. Ask if they think he will change his mind once he meets the baby and gets to know her, or whether his life will really be ruined.
• Encourage students to continue to make, revise, and confirm their predictions as they read the next part of the story. Have them fill out the middle section of their worksheet, "Changes in my prediction."
• Check for understanding: Have students share some of the predictions they made early on in the story. Ask them to tell if they needed to revise these predictions as they learned new information about the characters and plot.
• Ask students to find cause-and-effect relationships in the story. For example, direct their attention to page 7 where Arthur explains that he does not want to share his parents. Ask: What will cause Arthur to have to share his parents? (They will have to take some of their time to care for the new baby.) What is the effect of a new baby coming into the family? (Arthur will need to share his parents with the baby.) Encourage students to make other cause-and-effect connections.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue making, revising, and confirming predictions as they read. Remind them to look for cause-and-effect relationships that may help them to better understand both the characters and the plot of the story.

      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

• Discuss how making predictions about what will happen in the story keeps students actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they read.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that Arthur would realize that having a baby sister might not be so bad after all, and I was interested in continuing to read the story to find out if my prediction was correct. My prediction was correct because at the end of the story, Arthur said, "Hey, maybe having a sister won't be so bad." Did anyone else predict something different? Allow time for class discussion.
• Independent practice: Have students fill out the last column of their worksheet, "What actually happened."

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the basic elements of cause and effect: a cause is an action that makes something happen, and the effect is what happens because of, or as the result of, the action.

      Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 8 and direct their attention to the second sentence: His parents never have time to play with him. Point out that Arthur is referring to his friend Jeff. Ask students whether this sentence is a cause or an effect. Have them underline the effect. Ask them to tell what the cause is and to circle it in their book. (Jeff got a baby sister last year, and his parents are busy with the baby now.)

• Independent practice: Have students practice identifying cause-and-effect relationships by completing the cause and effect worksheet. When they have finished, have students discuss their work and explain their answers with references to the text.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you read about a boy who thought that becoming a big brother was the worst possible thing. Thinking about the arrival of his baby sister made him anxious and jealous. But what Arthur thought was a negative situation surprisingly turned into something positive. The bad thoughts he formed in his mind about his baby sister and the way his life at home with his family would change proved not to be true. Sometimes we may worry that a situation will be bad or negative. Why might it be a good idea not to worry about things you ultimately have no control over?

Phonological Awareness: Short /a/ and long /a/ vowels

• Remind students of the sounds made by short and long vowel Aa. Write the words wakes and and on the board. Read both words with students and have them find the words in the story on page 4.
• Ask students to tell which vowel sound they hear in the word wakes (long /a/) and which they hear in the word and (short /a/). Write the word shaped on the board and have students find it on page 5. Ask them to tell if it has the short /a/ or long /a/ sound. Challenge students to search page 5 for a word that has both the short /a/ and long /a/ sounds in it and to identify both sounds (pancakes).
• Take a short /a/ and long /a/ vowel-walk through the book. Have students work together to locate words containing these sounds and discriminate between the short and long sounds.  

Phonics: Open /y/ vowel

• Write the word story on the board. Read it with students and challenge them to find the word in the book (page 3).
• Ask students what sound they hear at the end of the word (long /e/). Circle the letter y at the end of the word. Explain that sometimes the letter y at the end of a word makes the long /e/ sound.
• Ask students to find a word on page 4 ending in a y that makes the long /e/ sound (every). Take a word-walk and have students come to the board to list words they find in the book ending in a y that make the long /e/ sound.
• Read the completed list together. Challenge students to think of other words, not used in the story, that have the open vowel /y/ that makes the long /e/ sound. Discuss how these words might be used in the story.  

Grammar and Mechanics: Exclamatory sentences

• Review or explain that an exclamation point is punctuation used at the end of a sentence to show surprise or strong emotion. Tell students that they may also hear it called an exclamation mark. Explain that sentences ending with an exclamation point are called exclamatory sentences.
• Write the following sentence from page 8 on the board: And his mom is always busy changing the baby's stinky diapers! Tell students that this is an example of an exclamatory sentence. It shows surprise and strong emotion. Point out the punctuation mark (!) at the end.

      Have students turn to page 13. Write the following sentences on the board and ask students to find them in the text. Ask them to underline the one that has an exclamation point.
Now Mom is hugging me
And then the most amazing thing happens
She reaches out and grabs my finger
Ask students how they might read the sentence with the exclamation point differently from the rest (with strong emotion).

      Check for understanding: Have students find other exclamatory sentences in the book. Have them circle the sentences that contain an exclamation point. Ask student volunteers to read the sentences aloud.

Word Work: Question words

• Have students turn to page 11. Read the following sentence aloud: Is the baby inside there?
• Point to the question mark at the end and underline the word Is. Tell students that this sentence ends with a question mark and therefore asks a question. Explain that this type of sentence is called an interrogative sentence. In this sentence, the word Is is the question word. In the story the boy is wondering about the baby and asks the question in his mind. The boy would answer, Yes, the baby is inside there or No, the baby is not inside there.
• Make a list on the board of common question words: who, what, when, where, why, how, is, can, will, should, could, may, and so on.
• Have students find another example of an interrogative sentence in the story. Select a volunteer to come to the board and write the question word from the sentence.
• Check for understanding: Write the following declarative sentence from page 11 on the board: Dad is carrying some pink blankets. Ask students to change this sentence to an interrogative sentence by adding a question word. Allow volunteers to share their sentences. (Example: What is Dad carrying?)
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the question words worksheet. Discuss answers aloud after they are finished.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to 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 explain to someone at home the process of making, revising, and confirming predictions as they read.

Realistic Fiction Writing Connection
Have students add onto the story by making up a chapter that tells what happens next in Arthur's family. Ask students to write about how Arthur feels toward his sister now that he's had some time with her and to tell about the things they do together. Talk about the fact that the book is written in the first person and have students continue to tell the story in Arthur's voice.

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

Art Connection
Have students create a welcome poster for Arthur's baby sister. Remind them that Arthur is going to be sharing a bedroom with her, so the poster might be for their bedroom door or the family's front door. Discuss what might be written and drawn on the welcome poster.

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.