Build Background

• Write the word "endangered" on the board. Ask students what they think it means. If necessary, explain that it means that a living thing, such as a plant or animal, is in danger of no longer living.
• Create a web on the board with the word endangered in the center circle. Have students brainstorm a list of animals that are endangered.
• Ask students to speculate why the animals listed on the web might be endangered.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Ask and Answer Questions

• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Ask them what they think the book is about based on the cover information. Have them look at the web to see if they listed any birds as endangered. Then ask them to predict what birds they might read about in the book.
• Show students the table of contents. Tell them that the table of contents tells them what they are going to read about in the book. Read the chapter titles and ask students what kinds of birds they will read about in the book. Tell students that good readers look at the cover information and the table of contents and begin thinking of questions they have about the text. Model using the table of contents to ask questions.
• Think aloud: The first question that comes to mind as I look at the table of contents is: what kind of bird is a kakapo? I have never heard of this bird before. The second question I think of is why are birds such as the albatross endangered? I wonder if it has anything to do with the birds losing their habitats. I will read to see whether the book will tell me.
• Encourage students to ask questions as they preview the rest of the book.
• Point out the box titled "Do You Know?" Explain that this sidebar provides additional information about endangered birds.
• Show students the glossary and index. Explain the purpose of each.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book with students, use vocabulary in the discussion that you think may be difficult for students. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by pointing to an object in the picture. For example, ask students to point to the illustration of the great auk on page 4. Ask students to tell what it is (the most likely response will be "bird" or "penguin"). Tell students that this is a bird that is no longer alive. Tell them there is a bold word on the page that tells a word that means the same thing as "no longer alive." Ask students to point to the word (extinct). Say the word and ask students to repeat it. Have them tell what sound they hear at the beginning (/eks/). Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary. Remind the students to look at the beginning and ending sounds in words, and/or the parts within words that they recognize, to help them sound out the words.
• Encourage the students to add the new vocabulary words to their word journals.
• As students read, they will use a variety of reading strategies. For a review of additional reading and word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have the students look for answers to their questions about endangered birds as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students books and direct them to read to the end of page 8. Have students underline answers to any of the questions they had as they previewed the book. Have them write new questions in the page margins of the book. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Model answering a question using text information.
• Think aloud: I found out that kakapo is a bird that lives in New Zealand. I also found out that this bird nearly became extinct because the animals that people brought with them to New Zealand killed almost all of the birds.
• Ask students to point to places in the text that answered their questions, or places where they had new questions.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the book, looking for information that will answer their questions. 

    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

• Word Attack: Ask the students what words were difficult for them. Ask how they figured out the words. Reinforce any strategies used, such as sounding out the word and verifying by context and/or picture clues. For example, have students find the bold word on page 8 (breeding). Ask what letter/sound associations they can make that help them sound out the word. (The vowel digraph ee often has a long vowel sound; the word ends with an -ing ending, etc.) Ask what other words in the sentence give them a clue about the word and its meaning. Point out the word or, which signals that a definition is provided for the word.
• Comprehension: Reinforce that asking questions before and during reading, and looking for the answers while reading keeps them interested in the topic, encourages them to keep reading to find the answers to their questions, and helps them understand and remember what they have read.
• Discuss additional strategies students used to gain meaning from the book.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Author's Purpose

• Introduce and model: Explain or review that writers usually write to teach their readers about a topic, to entertain their readers, or to persuade their readers to think in a particular way. (Make sure students understand what it means to persuade someone.) Provide examples of each purpose. Explain that sometimes the cover of a book does not give a hint about the author's purpose, so they will have to read the book to find out. Tell them that many of the sentences the author uses give clues about the author’s purpose.
• Show students reading materials such as an encyclopedia, a fiction book, and a newspaper ad. Explain the ways in which each teaches, entertains, and persuades, respectively. Point out words, phrases, or sentences in each that give hints about the author's purpose. Have students suggest books or stories they have read that have taught them something, entertained them, or persuaded them to do something, buy something, or think a certain way.
• Check for understanding: Show students other examples of reading material that teach (atlas, math book), entertain (comic book, poetry book, fiction book), and persuade (magazine ad, newspaper editorial). Ask students to tell what they think the author's purpose is for writing each.
• Discussion: Have students tell what they think the author's purpose was for writing Endangered Birds. Have students turn to the Introduction and find a sentence that gives them a clue (page 5 – "We will also see some ways that humans are trying to save them."). Help students appreciate that the main purpose is to inform the reader about endangered birds and to tell what is being done about it. Discuss how the writing would have been different if the writer was trying to persuade readers to keep their cats or dogs inside or to stop draining wetland areas.
• Independent Practice: Tell students to complete the author's purpose worksheet.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Have students use the inside cover of their book to write three sentences about endangered birds: one that teaches, or tells, something, another that entertains, and the last, which persuades the reader to do something.

Phonics: Digraph ea

• Write the word great on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which the word is found on page 4. Ask students what sound they hear in the middle of the word. Point out that in this word the ea digraph stands for the long a sound.
• Write the word sea on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which it is found on page 11. Ask them what vowel sound they hear in the word and point out that the ea digraph stands for the long e sound in this word.
• Write the word feather on the board and have students find and read the sentence in which the word is found on page 10. Ask what vowel sound they hear in the word and point out that the ea digraph stands for the short e sound in this word.
• Challenge students to find other words with the ea digraph in the book (heartbeat, New Zealand p. 6; meat-eating, disappeared p. 7; beautiful p. 9; wear p. 10; meat, lead, years p. 12; instead p. 13; released p. 13) and to identify the vowel sound in each word.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Naming Part of Sentence (Subject)

• Direct students to the first sentence on page 6 of the book. Read the sentence and circle the words The kakapo of New Zealand. Tell students that this is the naming part of the sentence, and that it tells who or what the sentence is about.
• Have students read the first sentence on page 11. Ask them to tell what the sentence is about. Explain that the naming part of this sentence is the California condor.
• Click here for a Grammar worksheet. Explain the example. Have students complete the worksheet and discuss their answers.

Vocabulary: Often-Confused Words

• Direct the students to page 10 of the book. Challenge them to find two words that are spelled the same way but are pronounced differently (there, their). Have students read the sentences in which the words are found and explain what the two words mean.
• Write both words on the board. Remind students that these words are often confused. Remind them that the word there often refers to a place while the word their is a pronoun showing possession.
• Click here for a Vocabulary worksheet to provide practice in using the two words.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.
• Give the students their worksheets to take home. They can complete them with the help of their parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing

• Have students pretend they are an endangered bird. Have them write a story that either teaches humans something about them, provides entertainment, or persuades humans to help them. Have students illustrate their stories and share with the group. Have the group decide what the author’s purpose is for each piece of writing.

Science Connection

• Provide resources for students to research other endangered animals. Make an "Endangered Animals" chart and post it in the room. Start the chart with the endangered birds presented in the book. Ask students to add to the chart as they find other animals. Encourage them to draw pictures of the animals or cut them from magazines. Create another chart titled "Ways I Can Help Endangered Animals." Start the list with a suggestion, such as "Tell others what I know." and explain how telling others about endangered animals helps by making people aware. Have students write ideas they read in books, on the Internet, or come up with on their own.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to understand nonfiction text
• identify author's purpose in nonfiction text
• recognize that the digraph ea stands for several different sounds
• understand and identify the naming part (subject) of sentences
• understand and use the often-confused words, there and their