Lesson Plans for JESSICA LOVES SOCCER level L

Text Type:
Fiction / Narrative

Reading Level:
L

Word Count:
514

Pages:
16

Text Summary
Jessica Loves Soccer is a story about being a female in male territory. The young heroine faces the usual gender obstacles but in the end is acknowledged as being a good soccer player, even by her brothers.

Lesson Objectives
Reading Strategies
Children should use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The targeted strategy for this lesson is: Using context clues.
The use of context clues and pictures helps in the decoding of new words and ideas. Knowledge and recognition of root words allows children to extend existing vocabulary and establish meaning.

Word and Print Skills
Phonics
-ar
hard, harder, Sharks

Word Work
Capitalization for proper nouns
Root words: goal, play

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Making inferences.
Using what they already know, the pictures, and context clues, children can make inferences about the characters, plot, and gender themes. Asking and answering questions allows the children to explore alternative outcomes and challenge the assumptions of gender behavior.

Visual Learning
The details of the pictures will reinforce inferences made and the decoding of new words.

Targeted Vocabulary Words
Content words related to subject
soccer, game, field, coach, team, teammate, captain, kick, ball, score, referee, championship

Phonetic target words
Sharks, harder, hard

Word work target words
goalkeeper, goalie, goal, player, play, played

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Before handing out the book, show the front and back cover and title page Ask: What do you see on the covers? What could the two boys on the front cover be thinking about?

Building Background
Invite a guest to come and talk about soccer, or if the season permits, take the class to see a local high school or middle school game.

Some children may have played on soccer teams, or will have siblings who play. Allow children to share these experiences with their classmates.

Have children name different sports. Solicit opinions from children about whether the sports are appropriate for boys, girls, or both.

Book Walk
Before handing out the book, ask children to make some predictions. Ask: What do you think the book will be about? Can you guess why Jessica loves soccer?

There are several multisyllable words that may be new for the children. Write these on the board and have children repeat them several times: Championship (pages 4 and 6), neighborhood (page 4), miserable (page 5), spectacular (page 13), referee (page 16). There is also a composite hyphenated word, under-ten (page 4). Ask children to speculate on the meaning of this word.

Ask children to look at the pictures on pages 5 and 6. Miserable (page 5) and spectacular (page 6) are new words. Ask: What are other words that mean the same thing? How will the pictures help you?

Reading Strategies
Ask: What can you do if you see a new word or idea that you don’t understand?
Ask: How can the pictures help us to understand the book?
Instruct children to reread the sentences above and below the new word/idea and to look at the pictures.
Encourage them to do some guesswork.

Think Aloud
When we read a story, we have to make guesses about what will happen next, or what the characters are thinking. Part of the fun in reading a story is to think to yourself: What will happen to the people in this story? What do I think about this situation? Would I do the same thing?

During Reading

Student Reading
Questions in this section are designed to help the children make inferences about the story, and characters and to grasp the subtext of indirect language.

Have the children read pages 3–6
Say: Jason says, "Jessica is a good soccer player." Jamal says, "Yes, for a girl." (page 3) Ask: What do you think Jamal means?
Say: On the morning of the game, the twins are very excited. (page 5) Ask: Why are they excited?
Say: When the twins arrived at the soccer field, they knew something was wrong. (page 5) Ask: How did they know?
Ask: Could the Red Dragon soccer team play in the City Soccer Championships with eight people? (page 6) Why not?
Have children read pages 7–10.
Ask: Why are the boys laughing? (pages 8,10)
Ask: What do you think about the boys’ behavior?
Ask: What does the coach think about Jessica? (pages 9–10)
Have children read pages 11–14.
Ask: What will Jessica do?
Ask: What would you do if you were Jessica?
Ask: What does this sentence mean? It was as if she were invisible.
Have children read pages 15–16.
Ask: What do you think about the end of the story?

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
After completing the text have children work on worksheet number 1 Making Inferences.
Instruct children to look at and appreciate one another’s worksheets.

Think Aloud
What can I see in this collage? What is the artist thinking about? Are my ideas different or similar?

Run a team spelling competition, using words from the target vocabulary list, text, and phonics section of the lesson. Divide the class into two teams, Sharks and Red Dragons. Use a tape player and a tape with a bouncy snappy tune. Explain the rules. Each team will have a ball that is to be passed from one team member to the next while the music plays. When the music stops, the child (Sharks team) holding the ball must attempt to spell the word. If successful, award one point. If unsuccessful, instruct the child to consult team members for assistance and award half a point for team success. If the team effort fails, give no points, review the word on the board, and recycle it for another attempt. Allow Red Dragons to have their turn and then play music and pass the ball again.

Visual Learning
Use several of the pictures (pages 5, 7, 8, 13, and 14) and ask children to interpret the feeling and mood of the characters. Start with the picture on page 5. Ask: What does the picture tell you about the mood? What do you think the people are thinking/feeling?

Ask the children to look carefully at the details of the picture, including body position, relative positions of members in the group, finger pointing, snickering behind the hand, hands crossed, hands on hips, expression on face, and looking down. Prompt children to supply as many of the details as they can derive on their own. Ask: What are the boys in the picture (page 8) doing with their hands? What do you notice about where Jessica is standing? (page7) What do the expressions on the faces suggest? (pages 13 and 14)
After questioning and reviewing the picture, choose several children to reenact the picture, using the body language that they have identified. (You may model the picture on page 6 first as an example.) The actors do not need to talk. The power of visual images will convey meaning.

Allow several different children to reenact the role of Jessica and reverse the gender roles in the pictures.
After the reenactments, ask questions to elicit what it felt like to be in the position of the characters.
Ask children in the audience to comment on how they interpreted the scene. Ask: If someone is laughing and pointing, how does that make you feel? If you have to stand outside of a circle of people, or apart from the group, how does that make you feel? Ask children to suggest solutions to these scenarios. Ask: What can we do if one of our friends and classmates is not being included? Ask: If we are tempted to laugh or point at people what should we do?

Ending with the picture on page 16 provides an upbeat finish. Modify the scene by suggesting that Jessica can stand on a small step surrounded by happy, cheering faces. Let children cheer out loud during this reenactment and give several children the opportunity to feel what it is like to be the center of attention.

Building Skills

Phonics
-ar
Phonetics rule: When a vowel is followed by an r, the vowel sound is different, being neither long nor short.

Examples in text: Sharks (page 4), harder, hard (page 12). Pronounce these words several times, and ask children to repeat them. Review the use of the words in the text and then ask children to create new sentences with these words.

Ask children to give other examples of words with ar.
For example: star, guitar, sharp, part, barn, smart.
Create silly sentences— for example, If Bart is smart he’ll do his part.
He played a guitar then became a rock’ n’ roll star.

Have children brainstorm a list of words that rhyme with star. Use the familiar nursery rhyme
"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to have the children make their own silly versions using the first two lines. For example: Twinkle, twinkle little star, How I wonder where you are. I like to put you in a jar. Then trade you for a candy bar.

Word Work
Capitalization for proper nouns
Review the use of capital letters in proper nouns. Use samples from the text (e.g. names of author and illustrator, title page, Jessica, The Sharks, etc.) Review selected pages of the text and ask children to identify the proper nouns.

Write sample sentences on the board and ask children to correctly supply the capital letters.

Example one: The sharks and the red dragons are the names of two soccer teams.
Example two: Mr. david cockcroft illustrated the book called jessica loves soccer.

Discuss how context can change a common noun to a proper noun. Contrast the use of soccer in City Soccer Championships and neighborhood soccer team (page 4). Contrast the use of coach and Coach on page 4 and 5.

Write sample sentences on the board and ask children to correctly supply the capital letters.

We play on a neighborhood soccer team. Tomorrow, our team will play in the city soccer championships.
Our coach is a tall man. His name is mr. smith, but we usually call him coach.
In the book, jessica loves soccer, a little girl named jessica plays soccer.

Have the children complete worksheet 2.

Word work target words
Root words: goal, play
Write the vocabulary from the book on the blackboard: Goalkeeper, goalie, goal
Ask: What is similar about these three words?
Ask: What is a goal? What is the meaning of goalkeeper? Goalie?
Return to pages 13, 14, and 15 to review these words in the book.
Add additional example: (e.g., goalpost) Think aloud: When we see a familiar word like goal, we know the meaning. We recognize that goal is part of a new word like goalpost. We say to ourselves: A post is a metal or wooden pole in the ground. Therefore, a goalpost must mean there is a pole by the goal.

Repeat with these vocabulary words: player, play, played
Have children brainstorm for other words that include play (e.g., playing, plays, playground, playpen, plaything, replay, playbook, playful, playact, playmate).
Ask children to make guesses about the definitions of these words. Generate a few sentences using these words.

If your class has had exposure to other root words, use this opportunity to review by playing "Go Root."
Modeled after the familiar game of "Go Fish," children play to combine root word cards and suffixes, prefixes, or other words for compounding to make pairs. Create game cards with words that the class has recently studied (e.g., play + er , play + ground, goal + ie).

Possible other root words from this book include good and line.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Have children rewrite the end of the story— for example, Jessica kicks the ball, but it misses the goal. Then what happens? Alternative example: She kicks the ball and makes the score. After the end of the game, her brothers decide to do … what?

Math Connection
There are several math problems embedded in the story.
Say: In Jessica’s family there is 1 girl and 1 pair of twins. Ask: What is the total number of children in the family? (page 3)
Say: The coach says, "Right now, 4 players have chicken pox, and 10 players are okay." Ask: What is the total number of players on the team when everyone is healthy? (page 6)
Say: The rules say there must be 11 soccer players or the Red Dragons can’t play. The coach has 10 players. Ask: How many additional players does he need? (page 6)
Say: At half time the score was Sharks: 2, Dragons: 1. Then Jamal scored a goal and the score became
Sharks: 2, Dragons: 2. Then Jessica kicked the winning goal. Ask: What was the final score?
Ask: If the Red Dragons have 11 players on the field and the Sharks have 11 players, what is the total number of players on the field?

Reading Independently
Have children read the book independently or with a partner. You can also encourage them to read other books of their choice at the appropriate level. Several children may read together, taking the roles of Jessica, the coach, the brothers, and the narrator.

Additional reading: Berenstain Bears Get Their Kicks (authors Stan and Jan Berenstain) includes the familiar elements of teamwork, practice, and boys and girls on the same team.

Home Connection
Send the book home to be read to or with family members. Watch the movie Bad News Bears together
(parental discretion advised due to language) and discuss the movie and compare it to the themes in Jessica Loves Soccer.

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 if children are using the effective reading strategies.
  • Assess children’s knowledge of using capitals in proper nouns, the phonetic ar, and targeted vocabulary words. Check worksheets and written assignments for accuracy, creativity, and imagination.


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