Reading Level:
L

Word Count:
655

Pages:
14 

Text Summary
This is an introduction to life for children in colonial America. It places readers in a day-in-the-life scenario of a colonial child and makes comparisons to modern-day life with the many conveniences children take for granted. Readers also get a glimpse of the hardships and benefits of life 300 years ago. The illustrations add rich texture to the text. 

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Children use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The target strategy for this lesson is: Making connections between what they are reading and what they already know. 

Word and Print Skills

Phonics
Diphthongs 

Word Work
Grammar
Adjectives
Compound words 

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The target comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Compare and contrast. 

Visual Learning
Discuss how important the illustrations and photographs are to providing information about colonial times. Pictures showing dress, houses, tools, and the environment add to the description of everyday life. You may ask children how the illustrations and photographs helped them understand the text. 

Targeted Vocabulary Words

Content Words
colonial, washbasin, lantern, churn, plow, oxen, mill,

These are words that children will encounter in the text. You may want to review and discuss what the words are and have children add them to the classroom word wall or dictionary. 

Ask and say: What do you see on the cover? What do you think this story is about? What do the illustrations tell you about the kind of text this is? Share with the group anything else you can infer from the illustrations or title. 

Build Background
You will want to offer suggestions for eliciting prior knowledge and building background. Provide questions that get to what the child already knows about the topic. What do they know about colonial life?

Ask: What does colonial mean? Think about your day-what you do when you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night. Do you think kids have always lived like that? How do you think life was different for your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents? 

Using the worksheet
Introduce and explain the second worksheet. Have children fill out the Want to Know section, which also helps set the purpose for finding information and main points. Have them work on the worksheet as they read through each section of the text. 

Book Walk
While doing your book walk, go through as much of the book as you feel necessary, pointing out things that will challenge children as they read. Look at the pictures with children and discussing what they see. You may want to write down some of the words they suggest. This step helps reduce the anxiety that some children feel when they are faced with a book that has unfamiliar text.

Cover and title page
Say and ask: This book is about colonial life. Is it fiction or fact? (fact) How can we tell from the first few pages? (Headings, illustrations with labels, etc.) Is this book about the present or the past? (past) How can we tell? (By use of the word colonial; you may need to discuss the meaning of this word. Also by the photographs showing how people dressed. By looking through the Introduction.)

Say and ask: It looks like there is a lot of information about colonial life here. How can we make sure we understand and remember as much as possible? (Stop and summarize after each page, recalling the important facts and connecting them with what we already know about colonial life, and then making comparisons between life then and now.)  

Reading Strategies
Remind children to use any or all of the following strategies to help them in their reading.

• How will the pictures help you understand the text?
• How does what you read connect to what you already know?
• What can you do if you don't understand a part you just read? Reread any sentence or page that was difficult to make sure that you understand the text.

Ask children about the strategies they think they will use if they get to a difficult word. You may want to act as a role model to show them how it might look or sound as they are reading. Pretend to read, getting confused or slowed down because you are not understanding a part. Model a strategy to help yourself gain meaning through rereading, asking questions, and looking at illustrations or diagrams. 

During Reading

Student Reading
Hand out the books and ask children to read the Introduction.

Say and ask: Please read the first page and be prepared to summarize, or retell in your own words, the main points. What is the main thing you learn about colonial life on this page, and how is it similar or different to your life?

Have children read the rest of the book independently. You may suggest they read through the book once, mark important points with sticky notes, and then read it a second time, stopping to complete the Venn Diagram as they come across the important points they marked. They may also mark any words or phrases they did not understand or could not pronounce. You can discuss and clarify these later. During this time, you may choose to work with another group or with individuals to monitor their oral reading and comprehension of parts of the text.

Say: I want you to finish reading the book at your own pace. As you do, stop at the end of each page and think about the important points or facts on that page. Read through it once, then read it again, stopping at the end of each page and marking facts or points for comparison to add to the Venn Diagram worksheet. 

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
Draw the group together to discuss what they have learned about colonial life and how it can be compared to life today.

Say: Share with the person next to you the important facts you learned about colonial life and how it can be compared to your life today.

After children have shared with one another, discuss as a group the most important facts they learned and how it compares to life today. Have them include working and playing descriptions for each time period. 

Visual Learning
Ask: How did the illustrations and/or diagrams help you understand the text? Did they change your understanding of life three hundred years ago? 

Building Skills

Phonics
Introduce or review diphthongs* with children. A diphthong is a sound made by gliding from one vowel to another in one syllable: au as in cause, aw as in claw, ew as in new, oi as in oil, ou as in about, ow as in cow, and oy as in boy.

Say: Diphthongs are a pairing of two vowels that make a sound by gliding from one vowel to the other in one syllable. Write the diphthongs au as in cause, aw as in claw, ew as in new, oi as in oil, ou as in about, ow as in cow, and oy as in boy on the board. Look at them together and brainstorm or search through the text for words with diphthongs. Make a list of diphthong words for the class word wall or dictionary. 

*For additional help with diphthongs, refer to Reading A-Z Decodable Lessons 51 and 52. 

Word Work

Grammar
Discuss adjectives with children.
Say: Adjectives are words that modify a noun. To describe, show amount or size, place, or possession. Choose an object in the room or at random and make a list of ways to describe the noun: e.g., table - long, wooden, flat, Mrs. Smith's, etc. Discuss and search for adjectives in the text, making a list for the classroom.

Compound Words
Discuss compound words with children.
Say: Compound words are words that combine two words to create a new word, such as bedtime. Bedtime takes the words bed and time to make the word mean "the time you go to bed." Let's look for more compound words in the text. Make a list of compound words found in the text, discussing the ones that make up the compound word and how the meaning changes as a compound word. These can be included in the class word wall or dictionary.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Individual Writing
Say: The last line of the text reads: Do you think you would like to have lived then? Make a list of the pros, good points, and cons, bad points, of living during colonial times. Decide whether you would like to have lived then. Using your list, write why you would or would not like to have lived in colonial America. 

Science/Social Studies Connection
Science has changed how we live with discoveries and inventions. Make a list of discoveries and inventions related to everyday life and how it has changed from the way people lived in colonial times to today. Predict what inventions or discoveries will change daily life in our future. 

Reading Independently
Invite children to reread the book independently or with a partner. They could then look for and read other books about colonial life.

Home Connection
Invite children to take the book home to read with their family and share comparisons. 

Assessment

• Monitor children's responses in the Comprehending the Text section to assess how well they understand the text or story.
• Monitor reading to see whether children are using the effective reading strategies.
• Assess children's knowledge of comparing and contrasting.