Before Reading

Lesson Plans for ATHUR'S BAD NEWS DAY level M

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Introduce the book by showing the front and back covers and title page to children. Ask questions to get children interested in predicting what the story may be about. The covers are a bit misleading, so it will be interesting to hear what children have to say based on the title and the pictures you show them. Some children may also make a connection to other books they have read with similar titles. Take any and all predictions. There should be a lot at this stage.
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?

Building Background
To help elicit prior knowledge and build background, ask questions to help children get in the right frame of mind for this story.
Ask: How many of you have siblings/brothers or sisters? Is anyone an oldest child? Do you remember what it was like when you were the only child at home with your parents? Do you remember when your parents told you that you were going to have a little brother or sister? How did you feel? Did you change the way you felt at any point? Why? Is anyone a youngest child? Can you imagine growing up without your older brothers or sisters? What do you think it would be like?
For only children, ask: How many of you are only children? How do you think you would feel if your parents told you that you were going to have a little brother or sister?

Book Walk
After introducing the book and building some background, you may want to briefly go through it by pointing out some of the words you reviewed with children earlier. This is not absolutely necessary. If you think that by going through a few of the pages you will help children feel more comfortable with the text, then you should.

Reading Strategies
Discuss any reading strategies children can use to help them read. Review any previous strategies that have been introduced to them in the past. Focus more on comprehension strategies than on word meaning strategies. Ask the following questions to help them remember strategies that will help them as they are reading independently.

How will the pictures help you understand the text?
How does what you read connect to what you already know?
What can you do when you come to a word you do not understand?
What can you do if you don’t understand a part you have just read?

If you feel it’s necessary, you can act as a role model to show how you might deal with a section or word that you get stuck on while reading. You can ask yourself questions aloud and show children how the strategies discussed will help them as they are reading.

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