Build Background

• Ask students to discuss the meaning of the words fair and unfair. Have them give examples of a rule that would be fair for everyone and a rule that would give some people unfair advantage.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Have students preview the table of contents. Explain that the table of contents helps them understand what the book is about. Have students use the table of contents to share what they already know about Rosa Parks and her contribution to history.

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Tell students that a strategy readers use to better understand a story is to pause after reading a few pages to summarize in their own words what they have read.
• Model how to summarize.
• Think-aloud: As I am reading, I am going to pause after every few pages and put what I've read so far into my own words. This will help me to remember what has happened in the story.
• 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

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out a word. They can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes or other word endings. They can also look for familiar words within words to help them work out words.
• Model looking for words within words. For example, have students find the word arrested on page 8. Model using the familiar word rest and the picture to read the word. Then read the sentence to students and ask if the word arrested makes sense.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words or word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the story to learn more about what happened on the ride with Rosa Parks. Remind students that summarizing will help them remember and understand what the book is about.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 6. Have them read aloud individually and listen for their use of word-attack strategies. Have them go back and reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Model how to summarize.
• Think-aloud: As I read, I paused after every few pages to think about what happened so far in the book. I read that there once was an unfair law that said black people had to sit at the back of the bus. Also, when white people got on the bus, black people had to give up their seat for them. I will keep reading and thinking about the story in my own words to learn more about Rosa Parks and the events of the bus ride.
• Have students read to the end of the book. As they read, remind them to summarize the important information in their mind.

    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. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Review with students how summarizing the events in the story while reading helped them to better remember important details and understand the story.
• Think-aloud: Pausing after every few pages helped me more easily remember what each section was about and better understand the characters in the story. In the section titled “Refusing to Stand,” I learned that when Rosa Parks did not give up her seat on the bus, she got arrested. She was a brave person oppose something she thought was unfair.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

• Discussion: Ask students to share whether they have had an experience, as Rosa Parks did, when they opposed something they thought was unfair. Invite students to share what happened.
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that a sequence of events is the order in which things happen in a story: first, next, then, finally. Tell students that if the events in the story were not presented in the right order, the story would not make sense.
• Have students complete the sequence worksheet. Direct students to page 4 in the book and reread pages 4 through 6 aloud. Ask students to share what they think is the most important event at the beginning of the book. Say: The first important event in the book is that Marissa, her mother, and other black people had to sit at the back of the bus because of an unfair law. Have students write this in the first space on their sequence worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to use the book to find the important event in the section “Refusing to Stand.” Invite students to share their responses and write the second event on their sequence worksheet. (Rosa Parks would not give up her seat, and she got arrested.)
• Independent practice: Ask students to complete the worksheet by identifying the important events in the last two sections of the book. Have students write the events on their sequence worksheet.

    Instruct students to use the inside back cover of their book to make a list of words that describe Rosa Parks (brave, courageous, risk-taker). Have students make a drawing of Rosa Parks when they have finished.

Phonemic Awareness: Manipulate initial sounds

• Say the words gave and got. Ask students what is the same about the beginning sound in each word (both words begin with the /g/ sound).
• Explain to students that they can make rhyming words by changing the beginning sound of each word. Ask students to think of other words that rhyme with gave and got by changing the beginning letter of each word (gave/cave/Dave/pave/save; got/cot/dot/hot/lot/not/pot/tot).
• Check for understanding: Tell students that you are going to say words one at a time. Ask students to change the beginning letter in each word to make a rhyming word. Invite students to provide as many rhyming words as possible for each word you say. Use the following words: back, had, stand, that, and way.

Phonics: Vowel digraphs ea, ai, ay

• Write the words seat, unfair, and today on the board. Ask students to discuss what they recognize about the words (the words all have a long vowel sound).
• Explain to students that when two vowels are next to each other, the first vowel sound is usually long and the second vowel sound usually makes no sound at all.
• Create a chart on the board with the headings ea, ai and ay. Have students suggest words that belong under each heading.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to work with a partner to write each of the words from the chart on an index card. Have students circle the digraph in each word on the card. Ask students to mix the cards up and sort them into piles for ea, ai, and ay words. As students sort the words, they should say each word aloud.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

• Tell students that there are different types of words that make up a sentence. Nouns are words that name people, places, and things.
• Draw a chart with three columns on the board with the headings person, place, and thing. Write the following words on the board next to the chart: Blake Street, cat, man, pencil, Sally, store. Ask students to come to the board to write the words under the correct heading.
• Have students use the book to identify nouns from the story. Invite students to write the words under the correct heading on the chart on the board.
• Check for understanding: Have students complete the nouns worksheet.

Vocabulary: High-frequency words

• Write the words that, then, there, they, were, and when on the board. Have students discuss what the words have in common (the words that, then, there, and they all start with the consonant digraph th; the words then and when end with the same sound).
• Give students the correct plastic letters or letter cards for the words listed on the board. Have students read each of the words on the board and then make the word with plastic letters or letter cards.
• Cover each of the words on the board one at a time and have students make each word again with their plastic letters or letter cards. Have students say the word they make to check for accuracy.
• Check for understanding: Have students complete the vocabulary worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section or the entire 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 and Art Connection

• Have students write a personal time line on the important events in their own life. Provide examples of what to include on the time line, such as birth, first tooth lost, the arrival of a sibling, a family trip, an award earned, etc. Have students sequence the events in order on their time line and present it to the class.

Social Studies Connection

• Provide students with a list of famous black Americans, such as Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and Harriet Tubman. Have students choose one person to research. Using the Internet and library resources, have students find the following information on their person: who, what, when, and where. Have students present the information to the class.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• consistently summarize while reading to understand and remember information in text
• accurately sequence the important events in a book on a graphic organizer
• accurately manipulate initial sounds orally to produce rhyming words
• correctly read and write words with the ea, ai, and ay vowel digraphs
• correctly identify and use nouns in sentences
• accurately identify and use high-frequency vocabulary words from the book