Reading Level:
J

Word Count:
375

Pages:
14 

Text Summary
This is a delightful African folktale about how fierce Leopard is actually afraid of Ram. Jackal tries to force his friend to be brave and face Ram. But Ram's wife tricks Leopard, and Jackal pays the price in this humorous tale. 

Reader Supports

• Repeated sentence patterns
• One-to-one picture correspondence 

Reader Challenges

• Unfamiliar vocabulary 

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Students should use a variety of strategies to decode words and bring meaning to printed language. The target strategy for this lesson is: using letter/sound correspondence to sound out words.

Word and Print Skills

Phonological Awareness
Segmenting onset and rime
Phonics
r-family blends

Word Work

High Utility Words:
was, saw, said, away

Content Words:
afraid, meekly, gruff, voice, scared, meat, juicy, fellow, laughed, terrible, tomorrow, brave, foolish, fear, wife, child, hungry, arrived, jerked, leaped, dragging, bruised

These may be difficult words that students will encounter in the text. You may want to review and discuss these words and have students add them to the classroom word wall or dictionary.

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as students work to understand the text. The target comprehension strategy for this lesson is: sequencing events. 

Before Reading

Build Background
Involve students in a discussion about folktales, and draw on their experiences with reading similar stories.
Say and ask: This story is called a folktale. A folktale is a story that is told over and over by adults to their children. The children grow up and have their own children, and they tell them the story. The story is told over and over for many years. In many folktales, animals talk and act like people do. What are some folktales you can remember reading?
If students have trouble remembering, prompt them with a familiar tale they will all know. Remind them that many fairy tales are actually folktales.
Ask: Who were the characters in the story? What happened in the story?

Introduce the Book
Show students the cover of the book and read the title with them. Ask them to predict what the book might be about based on the title and illustration. Talk about the characters in the story and what they know about these animals.
Say and ask: This story is about three kinds of animals. One is a leopard, one is a ram, and the other is a jackal. Does anyone know what a jackal is? A jackal is a wild dog that lives in Africa. It's a little bit like a fox or a coyote. A jackal is a predator that eats other animals. What do you think is happening in the cover picture? What do you think might happen in this story? 

Book Walk
Discuss the illustrations in the book with students. Ask them what they think is happening in each illustration. Reinforce the language that students will encounter in the text.
Ask: What do you see on this page? Who can tell me what they think is happening in this picture?
Page 4
Ask: What characters do see on this page? What are they doing?
Pages 9-11
Ask: Do you see any new characters on this page? Who do you think this character might be? 

Reading Strategies
Reinforce that when reading, good readers:

• Use pictures to help them understand the story
• Sound out words they do not know
• Check their predictions about words by looking at the letters in the word
• Reread sentences they do not understand 

During Reading

Student Reading
Give students their copies of the book. Tell them you want them to read the story to find out what happens to jackal. Have students whisper-read the story at their own pace. Monitor their reading, and intervene if necessary to help them with unknown words and to model reading strategies. Select one or two students to assess, and have them read a page or two to you orally.
Ask and say: What does the word start with? What do you think makes sense here and starts with that sound? Now read the whole sentence and see if the word makes sense. 

After Reading

Reflect on Reading Strategies
Discuss the strategies students used to read words they didn’t know. Use one of the words students point out as difficult and model how to sound it out.
Ask and say: Were there any words you didn’t know? How did you try to figure them out? Did you use the pictures to help you figure out any of the words? Which ones? How did you sound out this word? (for example, brave. You can substitute any words that students had difficulty with.) How does the word start? Do you recognize a blend at the beginning of the word? What sound do these two letters blended together make? Do you recognize the silent e at the end of the word? Is the vowel a going to be long or short in this word? Let’s sound it out together (/b/ /r/ /a/ /v/). 

Comprehending the Text
Discuss the characters and their role in the story.
Ask and say: Which character was your favorite? Why? Which character do you think was the smartest? Show me a part of the story that lets you know this character was smart. How would you describe Jackal? Ram? Ram's wife? Leopard? Which character was most important in causing the story to end the way it did?

Give out worksheet 1. Explain that you want students to write or draw a picture of what happened in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the story.

Building Skills

Phonological Awareness
Onset and rime
Tell students you are going to say a word by splitting it into two parts. You want them to listen carefully and tell you what the word is. Say /fr/ /og/ and have students tell you the word. Repeat with the following words, saying each one by separating it into onset and rime: track, brown, gruff, truck, brat, grub, trip, prop, grin, print. Then give students the following words and have them say each word, separating them into onset and rime: trot, grunt, crow, trap, great, brave.    

Phonics
r-family blends
Write the word gruff on the board and have students read it with you. Circle the gr blend at the beginning of the word. Explain that the letters g and r blend together to make the blend /gr/. Have students say the blend with you. Ask them if they can think of other words that start with gr. Write these on the board. Tell students that gr is one of the r-family blends. Write the words brave, trap, prod, and crib on the board. Ask for volunteers to circle the blends in the words. As the student circles the blend, have the rest of the students say the sound of the blend. Have students brainstorm words they know that start with an r-family blend. 

Give out worksheet 2 and explain that students are to think of words that start with an r-family blend and write them below. Have students share their words when they have finished.

Word Work

High Utility Words:
was, saw, said, away
Write the words on the board. Tell students that these are words that are used frequently in stories. If students learn to recognize these words quickly, they will be able to read faster. Have students read each word with you. Have students spell the words and clap each letter as they spell it. Without letting students see, erase one of the letters in one of the words. Ask students which letter is missing. Replace the letter as students spell the word. Repeat with another one of the words. Then ask volunteers to come up and erase a letter while the other students tell which letter is missing.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Talk about what happened at the end of the story. Ask students what they think Jackal might have done next. Have them draw a picture to show what they think he might have done. Have them write a sentence for their picture, using phonetic spelling. 

Reading Independently
Encourage students to reread the book independently or with a partner. 

Home Connection
Encourage students to take the book home to read with their families.  

Assessment

• Monitor students’ reading and listen to their responses during the Reflect on Reading Strategies section to determine the reading strategies students are using. Note if they try to sound out words using letter/sound correspondences.
• Listen to students’ responses during the comprehension discussion to determine if they can recognize key events in the story and sequence them in the right order. Review their completed worksheets to determine if they can sequence events. Note if the events they select are the most important in the story.
• Review students’ completed phonics worksheet to determine their knowledge of r-family blends.