Before Reading

Lesson Plans for ANIMAL SKELETONS level J

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Introduce the book by showing children the front and back cover, and the title page.
Ask: What do you notice on the covers of this book? What predictions do you have regarding what this book may be about?
Say: Look at the animals on the covers. What might that tell you about what the book will be about?

Building Background
Talk to children about the different animals they are familiar with. Maybe you have been talking about different animals in class that you can bring up again in a new context. You may want to ask if they have ever seen the skeleton of an animal. Ask: What did it look like? Did you find it interesting? Did you notice anything particularly interesting about it? Depending on children’s knowledge of the subject, you can introduce the book after building background if you feel that would be more effective. This may help children get an idea of what the book will be about. You don’t want to give away too much, so when they are ready to move on, you can go on to the Book Walk.

Book Walk
Prior to the model reading, you may want to go through a few pages of the book with children, pointing out different things, such as words or issues you discussed as a group. You can also show them the questions that are on every other page, which they will try to predict the answers to. Point out anything that you feel children may have difficulty with later. This is also a time to begin discussing strategies that are in the following section.

Reading Strategies
Remind children to use any or all of the following strategies to help them in their reading:

Breakdown words you come across that are difficult for you.
Listen to what you are reading and ask yourself if what you have just read made sense.
Reread any page that you had difficulty on, to make sure that you understood the text.
Look at the pictures to help you understand what the author is asking of you.

After asking children questions about what strategies they use to help them read, you may want to act as a role model to show them how it might look or sound as they are reading. By pretending to be a new reader, you show them what they can do when they get stuck. Pretend to read and have trouble on a word. Show some strategies, such as looking at the pictures, breaking up the words and/or sounds within the words, skipping the word and going back, and rereading to make sure it makes sense.

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