Build Background

• Discuss what students already know about dogs at work and dog trainers. Talk about the many different kinds of jobs that dogs are able to do.
• Ask students if they know the names of any types of working dogs.
• List student responses on the board. Tell students to look for these types of working dogs in the book as they are reading.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Tell students that a fun way to read that will help them understand and remember the information is to make connections to topics in the text that they already know something about.

Introduce the Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Model making a connection to prior knowledge.
• Think-aloud: The picture and title of the book remind me of an interesting television show I saw about seeing-eye dogs. Because I already know some information about working dogs, I'm looking forward to learning more about them. I can turn to the table of contents to see what kinds of things I might learn about in this book.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Explain that each chapter title provides an idea of what they will read in the book. After reviewing the table of contents, model using it as a way to make connections to prior knowledge. For example, say: The chapter titled “Police Dog” makes me think about what I already know about police officers who work with specially trained dogs. Ask students if they know anything about how dogs help police officers do their jobs.
• Together, read through the headings of the other chapters and ask whether they provide students with a better idea of what the book is about.
• Have students preview the rest of the book, looking at the illustrations.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As students preview the book, point out any vocabulary that you think may be difficult for them.
• Remind students of the strategies they can use to sound out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word. They can look for words within words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can also use context clues within a sentence to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Direct students to page 6 and have them find the word deaf. Model how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Explain that the chapter title before the word tells readers they're going to read about hearing dogs. The sentence containing the unfamiliar word explains that deaf people cannot hear important things such as an alarm clock. The sentences after tell that a hearing dog is trained to alert them to sounds. Tell students that these clues make you think that the word deaf means unable to hear. Have students follow along as you reread the sentence on the page to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students that they should check whether a word makes sense by rereading the sentence.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Remind students to think about what they already know about working dogs as they read the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to page 11. Tell them to look for the words and phrases in the book that identify different types of working dogs. If they finish before everyone else, they can go back and reread.
• When they have finished reading, have students tell some of the interesting words and phrases they found in the book.
• Model making connections to prior knowledge.
• Think-aloud: When I read about guide dogs on page 8, it made me think about a time when I saw a blind person being guided by a dog. I remembered seeing the guide dog help the person across a busy street, and I remembered thinking how smart that dog must have been. Ask students if they have ever seen a blind person with a guide dog and, if so, what the dog was doing to help the person.
• Have students read the rest of the book. Remind them to think about what they already know about working dogs as they read.

    Tell 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 can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Discuss how making connections to information in the text that students know something about keeps them involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they have read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Discuss the types of working dogs presented in the chapter titles: hearing dogs, therapy dogs, guide dogs, assistance dogs, herding dogs, livestock guard dogs, search and rescue dogs, termite dogs, hunting dogs, police dogs, arson dogs, water rescue dogs, goose dogs, drug dogs, seizure alert dogs, baseball retrievers.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that many books are about one thing. Tell students that it is easy to tell what this book is about because the topic is the title of the book. Direct students to the table of contents. Explain that each chapter title describes a main idea and the chapter gives details about that main idea.
• Have students turn to chapter 8, "Search and Rescue Dogs." Explain that this chapter has a main idea and details. Ask students to tell the main idea of the chapter based on the title (dogs that are trained to search for and rescue people in trouble). Ask students to review the chapter. Then have them look closely at page 12. Ask: Is the information given in the paragraph the main idea, or does the paragraph contain supporting details? How do you know? (The paragraph supporting details that tell more about search and rescue dogs.) Explain that identifying the main idea and supporting details in a chapter can help students understand the important information and remember what the book is about.
• Check for understanding: Have students practice locating the main idea and details in other chapters. During this time, work with individuals to monitor their ability to find the main idea of a chapter and give examples of supporting details.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the main idea/details worksheet. Discuss their responses when students finish.

    Extend the discussion: Discuss working dogs and their contribution to society. Talk about the many people who benefit from these highly trained dogs.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronouns

• Explain or review that a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Examples of pronouns are: I, he, it, they, and we. Write the following on the board: Dogs are amazing animals. Ask a volunteer to replace the noun dogs with a pronoun. (Example: They are amazing animals.)
• Ask students to turn to page 8. Write the following sentence from the book on the board: It can warn a blind person about curbs and steps. Ask students to identify the pronoun (it). Ask which noun it is in place of (a guide dog). Ask a volunteer to repeat the sentence, using A guide dog in place of the pronoun It. (A guide dog can warn a blind person about curbs and steps.)
• Ask students to turn to page 11. Write the following sentence from the book on the board: He defends them by scaring away dangerous animals. Ask students to identify two pronouns (He, them). Ask which nouns he and them are in place of (he--livestock guard dog; them--sheep, cattle, and goats). Ask a volunteer to repeat the sentence using A livestock guard dog in place of the pronoun He. Ask another volunteer to repeat the sentence using sheep, cattle, and goats in place of the pronoun them.
• Discuss the reasons why authors choose to use pronouns sometimes in the place of nouns (to make the writing flow better, to not repeat the same words, to make the paragraph sound better, etc.). Explain that the above exercises give examples of how pronouns help writers make their writing more fluent, or smoothly flowing.

    Check for understanding: Have students work with a partner to find and circle all of the pronouns in the book. Allow time for discussion among pairs.

• Independent practice: Have students complete the pronouns worksheet. Review student answers aloud after everyone has finished. 

Word Work: Suffixes -ed and -ing

• Review or explain that a suffix is a syllable added to the end of a word to alter or change its meaning. Two examples of suffixes are -ed and -ing.
• Write the word trained on the board. Ask students what the root word is and write train next to trained. Explain that the word train is the verb in the sentence He will train my dog. The action (train) is taking place in the present tense. When the suffix -ed is added to the verb train, the action becomes past-tense (trained), such as in the sentence He trained my dog yesterday. Point out how the suffix changed the meaning of the word.
• Repeat the above exercise, changing the verbs sniff, walk, and help to past tense by adding the suffix -ed (sniffed, walked, helped).
• Write the word hearing on the board. Ask students what the root word is and write hear next to hearing. Explain that the word hear is the verb in the sentence I hear you. When the suffix -ing is added to hear, the word becomes an adjective (hearing), such as in the sentence He is a trained hearing dog. Point out how the suffix changed the meaning of the word.
• Repeat the above exercise, changing the words call, smell, and hunt by adding the suffix -ing (calling, smelling, hunting). Discuss how, when the suffix -ing changes the word, it either remains a verb or becomes an adjective, depending on how it is used in the sentence.

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to pages 6 and 16 to circle the words with suffixes -ed and -ing.

• Independent practice: Have students complete the suffixes worksheet. Discuss answers aloud after students finish.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Writing Connection

• Have students choose two types of working dogs from the book. Using the information in the text, have students compare and contrast the two dogs. They may use a pre-writing tool, such as a Venn Diagram, to brainstorm. Ask that their writing contain at least two paragraphs, one focusing on how the two dogs are alike and the other focusing on how the two dogs are different.

Social Studies Connection

• Provide useful resources such as Internet sites, library books, and magazines to help students research the various jobs for people associated with working dogs. Discuss with students the possibility of a career as a dog trainer. Invite a dog trainer to visit with students to discuss what is involved in training a dog for a specific task.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the reading strategy of making connections to prior knowledge to understand nonfiction text
• identify main ideas and details in the text
• identify and understand the use of pronouns
• recognize and use suffixes -ed and -ing

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric