Shoes Around the World - Lesson Plans

Shoes Around the World
Level L

About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 389

Book Summary
Shoes Around the World is a book about the many different types of shoes found around the world, including babouches from Morocco, klompen from Holland, lotus shoes from China, Saami reindeer boots from Lapland, cowboy boots from Australia, and sandals from Africa. Each chapter is dedicated to describing a different kind of shoe, listing its unique characteristics. Photographs and maps support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Summarize

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand text
Identify details to compare and contrast different types of shoes
Identify and use contractions
Understand how to read pronunciations in parentheses

Materials

Book -- Shoes Around the World (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Index cards, world map
Compare and contrast, contractions, pronunciation worksheets

Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reusable.)

Vocabulary

Content words: Arctic Circle, Australia, babouches, bandages, cactuses, China, comfortable, cowboy, Finland, Holland, klompen, Lapland, lotus, Morocco, Norway, reindeer, Russia, Saami, saddle, soles, stirrups, Sweden, West Africa

Before Reading

Build Background

Show students examples or pictures of different types of shoes, for example: tennis shoes, flip-flops, high heels, snow boots, and aqua socks. Ask them to explain the reasons for wearing each kind of shoes and discuss why different shoes have different purposes. Discuss why it is important to wear shoes appropriate for particular locales and activities.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

Give students their copy of the book. Guide them to the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what type of book it is and what it might be about.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Summarize

Explain that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to write a summary, or a brief overview of the most important information in a chapter. Point out that a summary often answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.
Create a chart on the board with the headings Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Read the introduction aloud to students and model summarizing.
Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is the most important to remember. To do this, I can consider who and what the chapter was about, what happened, and when and why it happened. Then I can organize that information into a few sentences. This chapter uses the word I, so the narrator is telling the story. I will write narrator under the heading Who. The narrator's grandma sent the narrator shoes from around the world. I will write Grandma sends shoes under the heading What. The grandma sent the shoes because the narrator loves shoes. I will write this information under the heading Why. When I organize all of this information, a summary of the introduction might be: The narrator of this book loves shoes. When the narrator's grandma traveled around the world, she mailed back many different kinds of shoes.
Write the summary on the board. Discuss how you used your own words to create the summary.
As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast

Explain that one way to understand concepts in a book is to tell how the information is similar and different.
Draw or show students pictures of a car and a semi. Model how to compare and contrast using clues from the pictures.
Think-aloud: In these pictures, I see a car and a semi. I see that some things about them are the same, and some things are different. I notice that the car is smaller than the semi. The car also has fewer wheels. The semi can carry more supplies than a car. However, I know that both travel on roads to get from one location to another, and both need fuel to operate.
Model how to compare and contrast information using a Venn diagram. Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left circle Car and the right circle Semi. Explain that information telling how a car and a semi are similar is written where both circles overlap. Information that is only true of a car is written in the left side of the left circle. Information that is only true of a semi is written in the right side of the right circle.
Have students identify other similarities and differences between a car and a semi. Add this information to the Venn diagram.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Write the following content vocabulary words on the board: Africa, Arctic Circle, Australia, China, Holland, and Morocco. Read each word aloud with students. Ask them to share what they know about each location.
Show students a world map. Locate and label each place on the map.
Write the following content vocabulary words on the board and on index cards: babouches, klompen, lotus shoes, Saami reindeer boots, cowboy boots, African sandals. Read each word aloud with students. Ask students to share what they know about the meaning of these words. Explain to students that these words name different types of shoes from around the world. Match each index card to a location labeled on the world map.
For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book to find out more about different shoes from around the world. Remind them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, and why in their mind after reading each chapter.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish before others to reread the text.
Model summarizing important information in the first chapter.
Think-aloud: I made sure to stop reading after the first chapter to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I thought about the information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Then, in my mind, I organized the important information into a few sentences. In this chapter, Grandma sent the narrator babouches from Morocco. I will underline babouches and Morocco in the book. Babouches are soft shoes made of camel hair. I will also underline this information in the book. Based on what I underlined, a summary of the chapter could be: Grandma sent babouches from Morocco. These are soft shoes made of camel hair.
Have students work with a partner to underline important information in their book about klompen. Remind them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, and why. When they have finished, create a summary as a class. (Grandma sent klompen from Holland. These are wooden shoes used for work and everyday activities.)
Review with students the underlined information they used to summarize the chapters on babouches and klompen. Discuss any similarities and differences between these two kinds of shoes (similarities: shoes, wear outdoors, comfortable; differences: from different places, made from different materials). Write this information in a Venn diagram on the board.
Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 9 and underline important information about lotus shoes. Invite them to share the information they underlined. Have students create an oral summary of the chapter with a partner. Invite students to share their summaries.
Have students work with a partner to compare and contrast lotus shoes and klompen, and write the information on a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper. Discuss their responses.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, and why in their mind after reading each chapter.

Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read each word and figure out its meaning.

After Reading

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding skills and context clues.
Divide students into small groups. Assign each group one of the remaining chapters from the book (Saami reindeer boots, cowboy boots, African sandals). Have each group discuss the information they underlined in their chapter. Have them use the information to write a summary of the chapter. When students have finished, share and discuss their summaries aloud.
Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me understand and remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about the many different kinds of shoes from around the world because I summarized as I read the book.
Ask students to explain or show how the strategy of summarizing helped them understand and remember the information in the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Discussion: Review with students the similarities and differences between babouches and klompen. Discuss how the information is organized on the Venn diagram.
Check for understanding: Have students provide examples of how lotus shoes and Saami reindeer boots are alike and different. Record this information on a Venn diagram on the board.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet by comparing cowboy boots with another kind of shoe from the book. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Enduring understanding: A region's weather and its people's culture have influenced different types of footwear around the world. Now that you know this information, what does this tell you about the different types of shoes you wear?

Build Skills

Grammar and Mechanics: Contractions

Direct students to page 6 and point to the word That's. Review or explain that this word stands for two words. Ask students to use context clues to identify which two words were joined together to make the new word (That and is). Write both the contraction and the two words on the board. Point out that the letter i in is is dropped to make the contraction.
Ask a volunteer to read aloud the sentence on page 6, substituting That is for That's to check if these words make sense. (That is because klompen are made of wood.)
Review or explain that a contraction is a word formed by joining two words, and that an apostrophe shows where the letter or letters have been left out.
Ask students to turn to page 8 and identify the contraction (Aren't). Ask students to identify which two words were joined together to make the new word (Are and not).
Ask students to identify which letter was dropped to make the contraction Aren't (the o in not). Ask a volunteer to read the sentence on page 8, substituting Are not for Aren't.
Have students turn to page 9. Point to the word woman's in the caption below the picture. Have a volunteer read the sentence aloud, substituting is for 's. (In 1905, this Chinese woman is bound feet were as small as a teacup.) Ask students to explain whether the sentence makes sense. Review or explain that an 's that shows possession is not a contraction. In this sentence, the 's shows possession: the woman's feet. Point out that using context clues helps readers determine whether a word is possessive or a contraction.

Check for understanding: Have students circle all of the contractions in the book and write the two words each contraction stands for next to the word. Remind them not to circle any words with an 's that shows possession. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the contractions worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Pronunciation

Review or explain that pronunciation refers to how to articulate, or say, a word. Discuss how some words might be difficult to pronounce, such as words from another language. Point out that when authors anticipate difficulty with the pronunciation of a word, they write the word's pronunciation within parentheses directly after the word. This helps readers to say the word and continue to read fluently through the text.
Tell students that when writing the pronunciation for a word, the word is broken into syllables. Review that a syllable is a part of a word that is spoken with an uninterrupted sound of the voice. Words are broken into syllables by their sound, and each syllable has one vowel sound.
Direct students to page 5. Ask them to find the pronunciation within parentheses (bah-BOO-shes). Point out that this word is broken into three syllables, separated by hyphens. Review or explain that when reading these broken syllables aloud, the syllable that is written in all capital letters is read with more emphasis. Practice pronouncing the name babouches with the class.
Direct students to page 6. Ask them to find the pronunciation within parentheses (KLOM-pen). Ask students how many syllables the word is broken into (2) and which of the syllables in the word gets the emphasis (the first, KLOM). Have students turn to a neighbor and practice pronouncing the word klompen. Remind students to emphasize the syllable with capital letters.
Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 8 and identify the pronunciation given within parentheses (LO-tess). Ask them how many syllables the word has (2). Ask students which syllable gets the emphasis (the first syllable, LO). Have them turn to a neighbor and practice pronouncing the word lotus. Listen to individual responses.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the pronunciation worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have them discuss with someone at home how to summarize as they read.

Extend the Reading

Persuasive Writing Connection
Have students reread the table of contents and choose one of the types of shoes that they would like to wear. Have them write a brief paragraph explaining why they and others would like to wear this particular type of shoe. Have students include information from the book about the shoe to support their argument. If time allows, invite them to illustrate their work and read their argument aloud to the class.

Social Studies Connection
Give students a blank copy of a world map and have them identify and label the countries mentioned in the book: Morocco, Holland, China, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Australia. Next, have them draw a small picture of the shoe that is worn in each country and place it next to the name of the country.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

accurately use details from the text to create chapter summaries during discussion
compare and contrast nonfiction details within the text during discussion and on a worksheet
recognize contractions in text and identify the two words that are joined together to form each contraction during discussion and on a worksheet
understand and read pronunciations in parentheses; identify syllables and emphasis within the syllables during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

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