Text Type: Nonfiction/How To
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 255 

Book Summary
Students learn how to make paper at home or school as they read this fun procedural text. High-frequency words and supportive photographs provide the perfect opportunity to teach students how to sequence a process.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Sequence events
• Discriminate the r-controlled /er/ sound
• Identify r-controlled er
• Recognize and use adjectives
• Identify similes

Materials

• Book -- How to Make Paper (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Sequence events, r-controlled er, adjectives worksheets

    Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: first, have, how, made, make, second, third
• Content words: blend(er), frame, machines, mills, paper, pour, pulp, step, supplies

Build Background

• Write the words making paper on the board and point to the words as you read them aloud to students. Repeat the process and have students say the words aloud.
• Ask students whether they have ever thought about how paper is made. Encourage them to explain what they think they would need to make paper and how they think it is made.

Book Walk

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they think they might read about in a book called How to Make Paper. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know about a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read page 3 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: When I read a book, I pause after a few pages or after reading a description of something to create a picture in my mind of the information I've just read. This helps me understand and enjoy reading the information in the book. For example, when I read about paper being made with machines in big mills, I pictured large machines in a giant building. I thought about the paper spinning into huge rolls, just like the rolls of paper I saw in the picture on page 3.
• Reread page 3 aloud to students. Invite them to share what they visualized as they heard the page read aloud.
• 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: Sequence events

• Review or explain to students that steps on how to do something are told in order from beginning to end.
• Model sequencing the main steps of a familiar process, such as making a sandwich. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
  Think-aloud: When I make something, I often seem to follow certain steps in a specific order. For example, when I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I first take out the bread, peanut butter, and jelly. Next, I get a butter knife out of the drawer. Then, I use the knife to spread the peanut butter on one piece of bread and the jelly on the other piece of bread. Last, I put the pieces of bread together and eat the sandwich. I have a plan for how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since I think this book is about how to make paper, I will think about the steps I will need to take to make paper and the order in which the steps are completed. As I read, I will look for words that describe these steps.
• Explain to students that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Read the list of events for making a sandwich on the board to students in order, using words such as first, second, next, then, and last.
• Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the steps is important (the process does not make sense if it's out of order). Discuss with students that a process for doing something makes sense only if the events are in the correct order.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter in the book. For example, while looking at the picture on page 6, you might say: It looks as though the first step to making paper is to rip old paper into small pieces. You will need enough pieces to fill one cup.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends as a way to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word supplies on page 3 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to help me figure out this word. The picture shows the materials needed to make paper. When I look at the first part of the word, it starts like /s/. I know the word materials starts with the /m/ sound, so materials cannot be the difficult word. I know that another word for materials is supplies. The word supplies begins with the /s/ sound. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be supplies.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out how to make paper. Remind them to visualize as they read. Have them think about the steps that happened first, next, and so on.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 7 and think about what they visualized and the sequence of steps for making paper. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Cut apart pages 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 of an extra copy of the book. Place them out of order in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Model how to visualize and sequence events.
• Think-aloud: As I read each page, I created a picture in my mind of the steps for making paper. For example, on page 4, I pictured the types of old paper in my house: magazines, newspaper, and old cards from birthdays. I pictured tearing the old paper into small pieces the size of a dime and placing the pieces into a measuring cup. This is the first step in making paper. I will place the picture of the paper and measuring cup first in the sequence of pictures in the pocket chart.
• Invite students to share what they visualized as they read. Then have them tell which event comes next in the sequence for making paper (blending together the water and old paper). Have a volunteer choose the picture that depicts this step and place it in the correct order in the pocket chart.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 12. Invite volunteers to explain what they pictured in their mind when they read about the thickness of the pulp. (Accept any answers that show students understand how to visualize.)
• Use the cut-out pictures to discuss the sequence of events for making paper through the end of page 12. Encourage students to use words such as next and then when identifying the steps.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to continue visualizing the sequence of events 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.

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.
• Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind of the steps for making paper. When I read page 15, I pictured folding the paper I made into a card shape and then decorating the card for someone special. Picturing the events in my mind helped me to understand and enjoy reading about the sequence of steps for making paper.
• Have students share how visualizing helped them better understand and enjoy what they read. Invite students to explain how they visualized a step for making paper.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the sequence of events through the end of the book. Place the pictures in order in the pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Have students practice telling the sequence for making paper to a partner using the pictures on the board and sequencing words.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned the steps for making paper. Now that you know this information, why is it important to know the steps for making something?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate r-controlled /er/ sound

• Say the word paper aloud to students, emphasizing the final /er/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the /er/ sound.
• Read page 7 aloud to students. Have them raise their hand when they hear a word that ends with the /er/ sound.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word ends with the /er/ sound: cover, hanger, school, adult, newspaper.

Phonics: Identify r-controlled er

• Write the word paper on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Have students say the /er/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students which two letters together stand for the /er/ sound in the word paper.
• Have students practice writing the er letter combination on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound the letter combination stands for.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words that end with the er letter combination on the board, leaving off the final er: never, letter, seller. Say each word, one at a time, and have volunteers come to the board and add the final er letter combination to each word. Then have students read the words aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the r-controlled er worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Adjectives

• Write the following sentence on the board. Paper is often made with machines in big mills. Ask students to tell the word that describes mills (big). Explain that the word big describes the size of the mill.
• Remind students that adjectives are words that describe people, places, and things. Adjectives often come right before the person, place, or thing in a sentence.

      Have students work with a partner to locate and underline the adjectives on pages 6 through 8 (10, enough, first, old, one, small, thick, three, warm).

• Check for understanding: Have students identify four nouns. Write the list of nouns on the board. Have students write an adjective to describe each noun on a separate piece of paper. Invite students to share their list of adjectives aloud. Write the adjectives for each word on the board next to each noun.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the adjectives worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Similes

• Have students turn to page 9. Read the first sentence aloud.
• Write the phrase as thick as oatmeal on the board. Explain to students that the phrase is an example of a simile. Point out that authors use similes to make their writing move vivid and enjoyable by comparing one thing with another by using the word like or as. For example, instead of just saying the pulp is thick, the author compares it to oatmeal. This helps readers create a clear and enjoyable mental image.
• Have students read the second sentence on page 9. Have them locate the simile (as thin as water). Ask students to explain what the author is comparing (the pulp to water).
• Check for understanding: Ask students to work with a partner to create their own simile. Have them write it on a separate piece of paper. Invite them to share their simile with the class.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can 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 share the steps in the sequence for making paper with someone at home.

How-To Writing and Art Connection
Have students think of the steps in a familiar process that they do every day, such as brushing their teeth or getting dressed. Ask them to draw and label the steps involved in the process. Have them combine the pages together to create their own how-to book.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on how-to writing.

Math Connection
Give groups of students a set of measuring cups. Have students explore how many fractions of cups (1/4, 1/3, 1/2, and so on) make up a whole cup by filling the fractions of cups with water and pouring them into the 1-cup measuring cup.