Build Background

• Ask students to tell about insects they are familiar with. Prompt students to discuss traits that insects have developed to protect themselves.
• Ask students about other nonfiction books they've read. Were the books divided into sections? Did any of the books include a table of contents, glossary, or index?

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Hold up a copy of the book for students to look at. As they examine the covers, title, table of contents, glossary, and index, encourage them to comment on their observations. Ask students what they think the book is about and why the insects in the book may be considered extreme.

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Explain that one way readers understand and remember new information in a nonfiction book is to review in their minds, or summarize, what they have just read.
• Point out the table of contents at the beginning of the book and tell students that in one section of the book, they will read about the extreme size of some insects.
• Model using the table of contents to summarize.
• Think-aloud: As I am reading about the extreme size of insects, I am going to summarize, or review in my mind, the information I am reading. For example, if I read that a certain kind of insect is as long as a pencil, I might think to myself: Oh, that insect is as long as the new pencil I used for writing in my journal this morning. Wow!
• Explain that summarizing in their mind as they read helps them stay actively involved in the book and connect with new information.
• As students read, they should 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

• As you preview the book with students, ask them to talk about what they see in the photographs and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Incorporate content vocabulary words (insects, enemies, traits, weapons, extreme, protect, caterpillar, poison) while looking through the pictures and reinforce related comments made by students. For example, while looking through pictures, you might say: These insects have very interesting traits.
• Introduce the strategy of using a familiar word to make sense of an unfamiliar word. Say: Sometimes when I am reading and I come to a word I don't know, I help myself by thinking of a word I know that starts or ends like the new word.
• Model using a familiar word to help solve an unfamiliar word. For example, point to the word beetle on page 6. Model using pictures, knowledge of the book, and a known word, bee, to solve beetle. Say: I already know that this story is about different kinds of insects. When I look at that word, I notice it starts like a word I know – bee. When I add a t, I see the word beet. I check the picture, think about what would make sense, and see if the word I'm thinking of makes sense in the sentence. Read the sentence to students and ask if the word beetle makes sense and looks right.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to learn more about extreme insects. Remind them to stop after reading about a new insect or trait to review in their own words what they have learned.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 7. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Model summarizing. Ask students which insect traits they will read about in the book (size, appearance, and weapons).
• Think-aloud: As I read, I paused to summarize in my mind what I learned about insects and how they can protect themselves. I read that the Goliath beetle is one of the largest in the world and weighs as much as a banana! It has a hard shell to protect itself. I'll keep reading to learn more interesting facts about extreme insects. While I read, I'll summarize in my own words to help me remember new information.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to summarize as they continue reading.

    Tell 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. Model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students to explain how summarizing helped them understand the story. (It encourages students to pay close attention and promotes active participation which aids in retention)
• Think-aloud: Stopping while reading to think about an insect's size, looks, and weapons helped me remember important information about the extreme insects. It helped me be more involved with what I was reading.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Ask students to tell some of the new information they learned while reading Extreme Insects.
• Introduce and model the skill: Tell students that one way to remember new information is to think or take notes about the details in each section. Remind students that details tell information about the main idea. In this nonfiction book, the author divides the information into key sections to help organize the details. Each section contains a main idea. (1. Introduction; 2. Extreme Size; 3. Extreme Look-Alikes; 4. Extreme Weapons; 5. Conclusion)
• Ask students to explain how some insects protect themselves by using their size.
• Check for understanding: On the board, draw a simple spider map listing the sections, or main ideas, from above. As a group, select one main idea (size, for example) and list the details that support the main idea (Goliath beetle: as long as a pen or pencil, weighs as much as a banana, frightens smaller insects). Use a shared or interactive writing approach to involve students. Refer to the book as necessary.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea/details worksheet.
• Extend the discussion: Review details for other main ideas that students included on their spider maps.

Phonemic Awareness: Medial sound /oo/

• Tell students you want them to listen carefully to the sounds in the words and say: like/look. Say the words again slowly and ask which sound has changed (middle).
• Have students practice changing the middle sound to /oo/ in each of the following words: lake/look, fight/foot, wide/wood, dim/doom, pail/pool, feed/food.

Phonics: Variant vowels

• Write the word cat on the board and ask students to identify the sound the a makes (short /a/). Next, write cave and ask students to identify the vowel sound (long /a/). Review or explain that while many vowels make either a long or short sound in words, sometimes a vowel sound can change depending on the letters used in the word. Write ball as an example of a making the broad /o/ sound, as in talk, jaw, or all. Have students brainstorm other examples and record them on the board under three columns: short, long, variant.
• Introduce and explain the variant vowels worksheet. Have students read the words and record them in the appropriate column according to the vowel sound they contain.

Grammar and Mechanics: Commas in a list

• Review or explain that writers use commas to separate items in a list.
• Write the following sentence from page 5 on the board: These traits include size, looks, and weapons. Ask why the author used commas in the sentence (to separate the list of traits). Have students locate another example in the book where the author used commas to separate items in a list (page 9).

Vocabulary: Synonyms

• Explain that a word that has the same, or very similar, meaning as another word is called a synonym. Writers use synonyms to add variety and avoid using the same word over and over in text. For example, when discussing the size of some of the extreme insects, the author chose words that had the same or similar meaning as big (large, extreme size). Choose a word from the book, such as protect, and make a word web on the board of words with the same or similar meaning (defend, guard, look after, shelter, shield, watch over).
• Have students complete the synonyms worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other. 

Home Connection

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

Writing, Art, and Science Connection

• Have students select an insect to research. Have them design a poster that includes a detailed illustration of their chosen insect and a description of how the insect uses size, camouflage, and weapons to protect itself.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• accurately demonstrate summarizing important information in text while reading
• identify main ideas and details of Extreme Insects on a spider map
• understand that words can be changed by manipulating the medial sound
• understand and recognize variant vowels
• understand and locate examples of commas used to separate items in a list
• understand and match synonyms

Comprehension Checks