Build Background

• Ask students to recall familiar folktales. If time allows, ask one or two students to retell their favorite folktale.
• Ask students what things they expect to read in a folktale. Encourage them to name things like humor, magic, animals that talk, “once upon a time” settings, good and bad characters, bad characters who get what they deserve or learn a lesson, etc.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Make, Confirm, Revise Predictions

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers of the book. Read the title with them and explain what a squire is. Ask what they think the book will be about.
• Model making predictions and bring in the buil-background discussion about folktales.
• Think aloud: Before I start reading a book, I look at the front and back covers and read the title. Then, based on what I see, I make guess about what I’ll read in the book. I think this might be a folktale because the pictures of the people and the way they are dressed remind me of pictures I have seen in other folktales. Often folktales have a character that is not a good character who learns some kind of lesson. I wonder if the squire is going to be good or bad. I wonder which character in the story will learn a lesson.
• Ask students to tell what the people on the front and back covers are doing. Have them tell where they think the people are.
• Encourage students to make predictions about what they think might happen in the story.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Have them revise or confirm predictions based on the picture.
• Have students find the table of contents on page 3 and together read the headings. Have them tell in which chapter they think they will read why the squire wants a wife. Have them tell in which chapter they think they will read about the wedding.
• Show students the glossary and explain its purpose. Have students explain what the page numbers at the end of each definition mean.
• Preview the book with students, having them look at the illustrations and tell what they think might be happening in the story. Go through pages 4-13 with them, but do not have them look at the illustrations on pages 14 and 15. When they come to the end of page 13, ask them to predict how the story will end. They can read to find out if their predictions are correct.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, use any vocabulary you think may be difficult for them in the discussion of the illustrations. For example, say: What are the people doing in this picture? (page 4) Yes, they are harvesting the hay. Ask students to make, revise, or confirm predictions as they explore the illustrations.
• Model the strategies students can use to work out words they don't know. Have students find the word harvesting on page 5. Point out the -ing ending. Model how to sound out the two syllables in the word harvest by using knowledge of sound/symbol relationships for r-controlled vowel and short vowel sounds. Read the sentence in which the word is found and have students tell whether the word makes sense. Point out that they can check the meaning of the word by using the glossary.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students make, and confirm or revise predictions about what will happen as they read the book. Have them read to find out whether their predictions about how the story ends are correct.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students their books and have them put a sticky note on page 7. Have them read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished, ask students if what they thought would happen has happened in the story. Model revising your prediction.
• Think aloud: I made a prediction that the squire would want to marry a rich, older woman. I’ll have to change that prediction because I found out that he wants to marry a girl who works in the fields. I think she’s going to end up marrying him because her father said she would. I’ll have to keep reading to find out.
• Have students tell which predictions they could confirm from reading the book and which predictions they think they need to revise.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book and think about what will happen next. 

    Tell the 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 could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students how the story ended and whether their predictions were correct. Reinforce how making and confirming or revising predictions keeps them actively involved in the reading process, and helps them understand and remember what they read.

Comprehension Skill: Story Elements

• Introduce and model: Draw a web on the board. Write the word folktale in the center circle. Explain that most made-up stories, including folktales, usually have three main parts:

1. setting, or where and when the story takes place
2. characters, or who is in the story
3. events, or what happens.

Write the words setting, characters, and events in smaller circles attached to the web.

• Check for understanding: Ask students to tell what the setting of this story is. Ask whether the setting changes during the story. Have students tell whether it is important that this story took place in this particular part of the country or whether it could take place on any squire’s land. (The setting in folktales is most often a kind of backdrop for the action and has a kind of universality. Lead students to understand that the setting is not well developed in this story, and that the focus in on the plot.)
• Independent Practice: Give students the worksheet to complete. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion: Help students understand that the characters in folktales are usually easily recognizable as good or bad. Ask students what lesson could be learned from this story. Have students evaluate whether the squire got what he deserved.

    Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of a bride for the squire. Have students share their pictures with the group.

Word Analysis: Past tense verbs

• Write the verb watched on the board and point out the -ed ending. Have students turn to page 4 and reread the sentence in which the word is found. Review or explain that the word is used to show action. It tells what the squire did. Explain that the -ed ending indicates that the action happened in the past. Explain that folktales usually are in past tense because they are a retelling of something that has already happened.
• Have students find the word rode on page 4. Ask whether this action happened in the past. Explain that some action words or verbs in the past tense are called irregular verbs. Irregular verbs are not formed by adding the -ed ending. Instead, a different spelling of the verb is used. Write the word ride next to the word rode. Ask volunteers to use both words in oral sentences.
• Create a chart on the board with the heading Past Tense Verbs. Divide the chart into two columns labeled “-ed Endings” and “Irregular Verbs.”
• Have pairs of students look through the book to find the past tense verbs. Have students share what they found and tell you whether to write the words in the first or second columns on the chart.

Grammar and Usage: Adjectives

• Have students find the first sentence on page 4. Read the sentence and ask students to tell what kind of man the squire is. Tell them to circle the word rich. Review or explain that this is a describing word; it tells something about the squire. Tell students that words that describe are called adjectives. Adjectives tell what kind, how many, or which one. Ask students to think of other words they could use to tell about the squire.
• Check for understanding by having students find the word in the first sentence on page 5 that tells what kind of leaf landed on the squire’s nose.
• Have students circle the adjectives on pages 6 and 13. Discuss their responses.

Vocabulary: Content Vocabulary

• Point out how the story begins: long ago and far away. Tell students that this is a typical way to start out many folktales. Tell students that the many of words they read in the book are used in folktales and stories of long ago. Provide opportunities for the students to talk about difficult words such as courting, harvesting, or squire. Provide opportunities for the students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Click here for a vocabulary worksheet.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Writing Connection

• Have students look at the picture of the mare on page 14. Brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe her. Have students use words from the list to write a sentence that describes the mare. For example, they might use the model: The mare is _____ and _____.

Geography Connection

• Provide a world map for students to see where Norway is located. Discuss how the country is alike and different from the United States.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make logical predictions about the story and the characters and revise or confirm these predictions as they get more information
• correctly identify the story elements and discuss how these elements fit the structure of a folktale
• locate past tense verbs in the book and categorize them according to regular and irregular verbs
• understand that adjectives are words that describe
• understand and use content vocabulary.