Before Reading
Introducing the Book
Before handing out the book, introduce it by showing the front and back covers, title page, and index. Ask questions to find out what children think the book may be about. Ask: What do you see on the covers? What does this tell you about the book’s contents? What do you think the book will be about? There should be a lot of predicting going on at this stage.
Building Background
To find out what children know about simple machines, ask questions to help elicit prior knowledge and build background which will help them once they begin reading. Ask: What do you know about simple machines? Why do you use/have simple machines? What are simple machines used for? How long have people been using simple machines? Have simple machines changed over the years? Why would simple machines change over years?
By asking these questions you will find out what children know about the topic. Because you will be asking some of the same or similar questions after children have read the book to check their level of comprehension, you will be able to see if their responses during this part of the lesson were guesses or previous knowledge. You may choose to save some of these questions to be used in the After Reading section of the lesson.
This is a good time to show students how to use the index. If something comes up in a discussion that is referred to in the index, stop and show children the word in the index and look it up on the corresponding page. This will help children understand what an index is used for. (It would be appropriate to do this during the Book Walk as well.)
Book Walk
Doing a Book Walk is not necessary at this level unless you think it will be helpful to the children you are working with. You may want to go through parts of the book pointing out things you think will challenge children as they are reading. This is a time when you are reminding them of the various reading strategies discussed in class as well as familiarizing them with the format of the book. This step is to help reduce the anxiety that some children feel when they are faced with text that has unfamiliar vocabulary.
Setting the Purpose
Before children begin reading, discuss with them the various purposes or objectives they are working toward while reading this book:
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