Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 335

Book Summary
Whose tracks are these? Students learn to use facts and photographs of animal tracks to guess which animals have visited a place. This book includes a table of contents as well as a glossary to support students as they read.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Draw conclusions
• Discriminate r-controlled /ar/ sound
• Identify r-controlled ar letter combination
• Recognize and use commas in a series
• Recognize, read, and write high-frequency words who and whose

Materials

• Book -- Whose Tracks Are These? (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Visualize/draw conclusions, r-controlled ar, serial commas worksheets

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

Vocabulary

• High-frequency words: know, made, these, this, where, who
• Content words: animals, antlers, claws, curved, footprints, hooves, large, shed, strong, tracks

Build Background

• Write the word tracks on the board. Ask students whether they have ever noticed animal tracks on the ground or in snow. Invite them to share what the tracks looked like.
• Discuss with students the kinds of tracks they leave on the ground. Invite them to share what someone might tell about them from their tracks (kind of shoe, shoe size, and so on).

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 Whose Tracks Are These? (Accept all answers that students can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Ask students to turn to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Ask students what they expect to read about in the book based on what they see in the table of contents.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or make pictures in their mind, as they read. Readers often use what they already know abut a topic to make the pictures in their mind.
• Read page 4 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 the book. For example, when I read about animals visiting a place and leaving tracks, I pictured a bear sitting by a stream catching small fish from the water. I pictured the bear moving down the bank and leaving big footprints in the muddy soil.
• Invite students to share what they visualized when they heard the sentence Tracks show where the animal's body has touched the ground. Point out to students that even though their mental pictures may not be the same, they were each able to create a picture in their mind.
• 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: Draw conclusions

• Ask students to identify the four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter). Write these words on the board.
• Draw a picture on the board of things you associate with spring (flowers, trees, grass, birds, butterflies). Write under the picture: The grass is green, and flowers are blooming. Read the sentence aloud to students.
• Model how to draw conclusions.
  Think-aloud: As I looked at the picture and read the sentence, I thought about what I already know about seasons. From these clues, I think that the drawing represents spring.
• Have students explain the clues which led to the conclusion that the drawing represents spring (green trees with leaves, flowers blooming).
• Draw a simple picture of another season and invite students to draw a conclusion about the season. Ask them to share the clues they used to draw their conclusion.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• While previewing the book, reinforce the vocabulary words students will encounter. For example, while looking at the picture on page 6, you might say: Look at the black bear. It sleeps all winter and wakes up in the spring. I think it might be hungry when it wakes up.
• Remind students to look at the picture and the letters with which a word begins or ends to figure out a difficult word. For example, point to the word antlers on page 8 and say: I am going to check the picture and think about what would make sense to figure out this word. The picture shows a male deer with large growths on his head. When I look at the first part of the word, I recognize the word ant. I know that antlers and horns are both growths found on some animals. The word antlers begins with the word ant. The sentence makes sense with this word. The word must be antlers.
• For additional tips on teaching high-frequency words and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out what animals made the tracks on the ground. Remind them to visualize as they read. Have them think about the clues they read and the pictures of the tracks they see in the book to draw conclusions about which animal made the tracks.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them read to the end of page 7 and then stop to think about what they visualized and the conclusions they have drawn so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model visualizing and drawing conclusions.
  Think-aloud: On page 5, I read some clues about the animal the author was describing. I also saw some tracks that belong to the animal in the picture on that page. I visualized a large animal eating honey from a beehive. It was using its claws to climb trees and eat plants. I know that bears are large animals that have claws and like to eat honey. I visualized a large bear. I used what I already knew about bears, story clues, and the pictures I created in my mind to help me draw the conclusion that the animal I was reading about was a bear. When I turned to page 6 in the book, I confirmed this conclusion.
• Introduce and explain to students the visualize/draw conclusions worksheet. Have them draw what they visualized and the story clues they used to create the visualization as they read page 7, and then write their conclusion in the box provided.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9. Remind them to visualize the animal described and write their conclusions on the worksheet. Then have them read to the end of page 10. Invite students to share their visualizations and conclusions they drew.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize and draw conclusions as they read the rest of the book.

    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.
• Have students explain one of the visualizations they drew on their worksheet. Have them share how visualizing helped them better understand and enjoy what they read.
  Think-aloud: As I read, I continued to create pictures in my mind about the animals and the tracks they made. When I read page 15 and looked at the tracks in the picture, it reminded me of my footprints. I visualized a person walking on the beach and leaving footprints in the sand. I pictured the sand squishing between the person's toes. Picturing the animals described in the book helped me enjoy the book and draw conclusions about the animals that left the tracks.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss the clues that helped students draw conclusions through the end of the book. Have them explain each of the clues that helped them draw a conclusion about one animal on their worksheet.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned that animals leave clues that they have been in a particular place. Now that you know this information, what are some things you might look for to determine which animals live or traveled through the area you are in?

Phonological Awareness: Discriminate r-controlled /ar/

• Say the word large aloud to students, emphasizing the r-controlled /ar/ sound. Have students say the word aloud and then say the r-controlled /ar/ sound.
• Say the following words from the book, one at a time: bark, ground, tracks, sharp, far. Have students give the thumbs-up signal when they hear a word with the r-controlled /ar/ sound, as in the word large.
• Check for understanding: Say the following words one at a time and have students give the thumbs-up signal if the word begins with the r-controlled /ar/ sound: marks, claws, antlers, smart, cart.

Phonics: Identify r-controlled ar

• Write the word large on the board and say it aloud with students.
• Tell students that the letter r can affect the sound of the vowel before it. Reread the word large as you run your finger under the letters in the word. Ask students to identify the two letters that stand for the /ar/ sound in the word large.
• Write the ar letter combination on the board. Have students practice writing the letter combination on a separate piece of paper while saying the sound the combination stands for.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board, leaving out the ar letter combination: park, card, dart. Have students complete and write each word on a separate piece of paper. Then have students read each word aloud to a partner.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the r-controlled ar worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Serial commas

• Review or explain that commas are often used to separate items in a list. Explain to students that readers briefly pause when they read a comma.
• Have students turn to page 7 and read the second sentence. Point out the commas after each item in the list.

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 14 in their book. Ask them to underline the sentence that uses commas in a list. Have them circle each item in the list. Have them practice reading the sentence aloud with a partner, pausing in the correct places.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the serial commas worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: High-frequency words who and whose

• Tell students they are going to learn two words that they will see often in books they read. Write the words who and whose on the board and read the words aloud. Have students read the words with you.
• Have students turn to page 5 and read the page aloud. Point to the last sentence. Ask students to explain what the word who refers to (the animal being described on the page). Explain that the word who is used to identify the name of a person or other animal.
• Have students turn to page 15 and read aloud the question on the picture. (Whose tracks are these?) Ask students to explain what the word whose refers to (something that belongs to someone mentioned in the book). Explain that the word whose is used to ask about the things someone owns.
• Check for understanding: Have students practice using the words who and whose in oral sentences as a group.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. 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 compare with someone at home what they visualized in their mind while reading.

Informational Writing and Art Connection
Provide students with print and Internet resources to research one of the animals in the book. Have them identify information such as: what the animal looks like, what it eats, and where it lives.

Science Connection
Take students outside and look for tracks left by animals. Ask students to illustrate the tracks they see and write a description of the animal they think made tracks.