Build Background

• Write the word migrating on the board. Ask students what migrating means. Ask students to think of animals that migrate. Tell students that the book they are going to read is about migrating geese. Create a KWL chart on the board. Review or explain what each letter on the KWL chart stands for. Have students tell what they know about migrating geese. Write this information in the first column of the KWL chart.

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 rest of the book and look at the illustrations.

• Allow students to look through the text. After reviewing the illustrations and looking at the front and back covers, model using the information as a way to think of questions for the KWL chart.
• Think-aloud: On pages 5 and 6, I see geese flying in a V-shaped pattern. I wonder why they do that. I'll write that question on the KWL chart.
• Have students share any questions they have about the book after previewing the covers and contents.
• 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 the word. They can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Write the word injured on the board and direct students to the last line on page 8 to find the word. Model how they can use prior knowledge and context clues to figure out the word's meaning. Ask students to think of another word that begins with the same sounds (/in/). Show students that by reading past the word they are unfamiliar with, they will find a sentence that provides a clue. In the sentence following the one containing the unfamiliar word, they learn that the goose gets better. Ask for a thumbs-up if students agree that injured means hurt in some way. Explain that they have used what they know about a familiar word along with context clues to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Have students follow along as you read the sentence in which it is found to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students to reread the sentence that contains a difficult word to make sure the sentence makes sense.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students think about what they know about geese and migration as they read the book to find answers to their questions about migrating geese.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 11. As they read, they should look for answers to the questions on the KWL chart and think of other questions they have. Have them go back and reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students to tell the questions written on the KWL chart that were answered by reading the chapters. Add any new questions you or students have. Model answering a question written on the KWL chart.
• Think-aloud: The first question I wanted to find the answer to was why geese fly in a V-shaped pattern. I found the answer on page 6. I read that the V-formation makes it easier for geese to move through the air. I can write the answer on the Learned section of the KWL chart.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to look for answers to the questions written on the KWL chart and to think of other questions to add to it.

    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.
• Have students share any other questions they thought of while reading. Reinforce how asking questions and looking for the answers as they read keeps them actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they have read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Cause and effect

• Discussion: Have students review the KWL chart on the board. Have them tell all of the questions that were answered by reading the book. Tell students that if they have questions they did not find answers to, they can look in other resources, such as science books or on the Internet.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that often when reading a book, the reader finds that one thing or several things cause something else to happen. This is often referred to as cause and effect. For example, if it is cold outside, you might decide to put on a jacket. The cause is the cold, and the effect is putting on a jacket.
• Direct students to pages 12 and 13 in the book and have them read the pages to themselves. Ask students to tell the three things that cause the geese to migrate north. Explain that these things are the cause and that migrating is the effect.
• Tell students that figuring out the causes and effects in a book helps students understand and remember what the book is about.
• Check for understanding: Draw cause-and-effect cycle boxes on the board (see the cause and effect worksheet). Have students help you complete the cause-and-effect cycle using the information from pages 12 and 13.
• Independent practice: For additional practice, have students complete the cause and effect worksheet using the information on pages 3 and 4. Discuss their responses.

    Instruct students to use the inside back cover of their book to list some of the new information they learned about geese and migration.

Grammar and Mechanics: Irregular plural nouns

• Write the words dogs and geese on the board. Review or explain that both of these words are plurals, or words that mean more than one. Explain that sometimes an s is added to the end of a word to make it mean more than one. At other times, more than one letter must be added, and the pronunciation must be changed to make a word mean more than one. These types of words are called irregular plurals.
• Direct students to page 8. Ask them to find the singular form of geese. Write it on the board next to geese. Ask what letters were changed to make goose plural.
• Check for understanding: Give students other examples of words that change letters and pronunciation to make them plural (foot/feet, mouse/mice, tooth/teeth). Discuss the similarities in the changes from singular to plural.

Word Work: Content vocabulary

• Discuss the content words and their meanings after students have read the text. Question students to find out what strategies they used to determine the meanings of the content words. For example, ask if they used a known part of a word or the sentence context to figure out the meanings of new content vocabulary.
• Check for understanding: Have students complete the vocabulary worksheet. Discuss their answers when they have completed the worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, 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

• Compare the geese in the book to members of a family. Discuss and list the ways in which geese, like family members, help each other. Then, write a class story together about a family of geese and how they helped each other on the long journey of migration from north to south and back again. Be sure to include characters, setting, a problem, events, and a resolution.

Science and Math Connection

• Have students work in pairs to research the subject of migration. Have them locate information about a particular migrating animal and its destination. (Possibilities include birds, whales, sea turtles, etc.).\ Have students use a map to trace the animal's migration pattern from start to finish. Have them use the scale on the map to figure out how many miles the animal travels. Have pairs of students share their findings about their particular animal with the group.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the strategy of asking and answering questions to understand nonfiction text
• identify the cause-and-effect cycle in text
• recognize and use irregular plural nouns
• determine the meaning of content words on a worksheet after reading nonfiction text

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric