Build Background

• Ask students to share a time when they earned money to purchase something. Have them describe the jobs they did to earn money and the challenges they faced.
• If students have read other Monster books, link the information from those books to this book. Help students understand that this book is part of a series of books that tells about the same characters in different situations. Ask them to recall the characters in the series. Have them share the different personalities and traits of each character. Encourage them to share ways the characters show that they are good friends in other stories.

Introduce the Book

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask students to predict what the book Bonk’s New Bike might be about based on the cover information.
• If students have read other books in the series, have them predict what they think might happen in the story based on their knowledge of other Monster books.

Introduce the Strategy: Make text-to-text connections

• Explain that when good readers read books that are part of a series, they think about the other books they have read in the series to help them understand the characters in the new book. Explain that this is called making text-to-text connections. Model how to make connections to other text.
• Think-aloud: I noticed Bonk’s name in the title of the book: Bonk’s New Bike. I know about Bonk from reading other books in the Monster series. I remember that Bonk often thinks he can do things without his friends’ help and this gets him into trouble. I remember that in the book The Soccer Team, Bonk thought he did not need his friends on the soccer team because he was a good player. I remember that at the end of the story Bonk realized that it takes many people to play the game of soccer. I wonder if Bonk has learned his lesson or if he is going to try to do everything by himself without his friends’ help in this book.
• Ask students to share what they remember about Bonk from other Monster stories they have read.
• Show students the title page and ask them what they see in the picture. Have them make predictions about the story based on what they see on the title page and what they remember from Monster books.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the one presented in this section. For a review of additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Use the illustrations to preview the book with students. Incorporate the content vocabulary that students will encounter in the text during the book preview. For example, on page 3, say: I see that Bonk has a thought bubble over his head. What do you think he is thinking about buying? What do you think he hopes the bike might be like? It looks as if his dream bike is red with cool handlebars and spokes.
• Remind students that good readers use various reading strategies when they come to a difficult word while reading. Explain that one of these strategies is to look inside the word for smaller words they know. Point to the word Saturday on page 7. Point to and read the words sat and day. Model how to connect the two familiar words and the r-controlled /ur/ sound to read the word Saturday. Reread the sentence, pointing out that good readers always reread to make sure the new word makes sense in the sentence.
• Encourage students to add new vocabulary words to their word journals
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out if Bonk’s problems are similar to his problems in other books in the series.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 6. Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Listen to individual students read the text orally. Monitor their use of reading strategies and intervene when necessary to prompt for strategy use.
• When students have finished reading, ask them to share how what they read matched what they already knew about Bonk. Have them explain how their prior knowledge helped them understand what they read. Continue to model making text-to-text connections.
• Think-aloud: Before I read the book, I remembered that Bonk had trouble with wanting to do everything on his own in other stories. I remember that this sometimes got Bonk into trouble and that his friends had to help him out. I see that Bonk has not learned his lesson. His friends have volunteered to help him with his dog-walking business, but Bonk wants to do it himself. I predict that Bonk is going to get in trouble again and that his friends are going to have to help him out again, just like they did in The Soccer Team. Remembering what Bonk was like in another story helped me predict what might happen in this story.
• Ask students to use their understanding of Bonk as a character to make predictions about what might happen to Bonk in the remainder of the story. Encourage them to refer to specific book titles when making text-to-text connections.
• Have students read the remainder of the book.

    Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word or words 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. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students to tell how making text-to-text connections helped them make predictions about characters’ actions.

Comprehension: Cause and effect

• Discussion: Encourage students to share their observations about the book. Ask them to discuss the lesson that Bonk learned in the story (teamwork is important).
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that when good readers read stories, they think about the character’s actions and why they did what they did.
• Think-aloud: When I read a story, I think about the characters and wonder what caused them to do the things they did. In the story Bonk’s New Bike, I wondered why Bonk decided to start the dog-walking business. I learned that he decided to start the dog-walking business because he wanted to save enough money to buy a new bike. Asking myself why and then answering the question beginning with the word because helped me understand Bonk’s actions.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the picture on page 5. Ask them why they think Bonk did not want his friends to help with the dog-walking business. Encourage them to begin their answer with the word because.
• Independent practice: Give student the cause and effect worksheet and explain the instructions. Discuss student responses.

Phonemic Awareness: Manipulate medial sounds

• Say the word Bonk and have students identify the vowel sound they hear (/o/). Ask students what word they would have if they changed the short /o/ sound to a long /a/ sound (bank).
• Say the word Bonk again. Ask students what word they would have if they changed the short /o/ sound to a short /u/ sound (bunk).
• Say the word bike and have students identify the long /i/ sound. Ask students what word they would have if they changed the long /i/ sound to a long /a/ sound (bake).
• Say the word bike again. Ask students what word they would have if they changed the long /i/ sound to a long /e/ sound (beak).

Phonics: ea vowel digraph

• Review or explain that the ea vowel digraph can make the long /e/ sound, as in the word dream; it can also make the short /e/ sound, as in the word head.
• Have students turn to page 3 and find the word dreams. Ask students if they hear the long or the short /e/ sound in the word dreams (long /e/). Write the word dreams on the board. Have students turn to page 7 and find the word each. Say the word out loud together.
• Hand out the digraph ea worksheet. Have students look through the book to find other words that contain the ea digraph and make the long /e/ sound. Have them record the words on the worksheet (easy, each, leashes, leash, deal).
• Have students name other words that contain ea and make the long /e/ sound (beach, leach, peach, preach, reach, teach).

Grammar and Mechanics: Verb ending -ing

• Write the word eat on the board and read it aloud. Tell students that eat is an action word and that action words are called verbs. Next write the word eating on the board and underline the -ing. Tell students that the -ing can be added to an action word to indicate that the action is ongoing, or happening right now.
• Write the words drive and driving on the board. Explain to students that when an action word ends with an e, the e is taken away before the -ing ending is added.

    Have students look through the book to locate, underline, and read other words that end in -ing (barking, jumping, jumping, walking, riding, running).

Vocabulary: High-frequency words

• Write the high-frequency words new, their, and will on the board. Read and spell each word.
• Have student locate a sentence in the book that contains each word and read the sentences aloud.
• Ask volunteers to spell and read each word as they write it on the board.
• Have students complete the vocabulary worksheet. When they have finished, have them compare their work with another student.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

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

Writing Connection

• Have students brainstorm other things that Bonk might do to raise money to buy a bike. Have them discuss the problems Bonk might encounter doing the new job. Have students write a new story about Bonk doing a different job to earn money.
  

Science Connection

• Provide nonfiction books about bike safety. Have students make a bike safety poster to hang in the classroom.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use what they already know about the characters to make predictions about how they will act in the story
• ask questions about what caused the characters’ actions in the story, followed by answers beginning with because; use skill to complete a worksheet
• orally manipulate medial sounds in words
• identify and read words that contain the ea vowel digraph and make the long /e/ sound
• locate and read verbs that end in -ing
• locate and read high-frequency words in text; complete a worksheet