Reading Level:
N

Word Count:
910

Pages:
22 

Text Summary
Coral reefs are massive undersea communities where one quarter of all plants and animals in the ocean make their homes. The book discusses the diverse but fragile world of the coral reef and the need for its protection. 

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Students should use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The target strategy for this lesson is: making connections between what students read and what they already know.

Word and Print Skills

Phonics
Closed syllables
Grammar
Prepositions
Word Work
Multiple-syllable words

Targeted Vocabulary Words
atoll, barrier reef, bleaching, crevices, crustaceans, erosion, fringing reef, lagoon, polyps, runoff

These are difficult words that students will encounter in the text. You may want to review and discuss the words after reading and have students add them to the classroom word wall or dictionary. Make sure you use these words in the Book Walk to reinforce them prior to reading.

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as students work to understand the text. The target comprehension strategy for this lesson is: cause and effect. 

Visual Learning
Reading a cross section 

Before Reading

Build Background
Involve students in a discussion about coral reefs and sea life to elicit prior knowledge and build background.
Ask: What do you know about coral reefs? Do you know where you would find a coral reef? What kind of life would you expect to find in and around a coral reef?  

Introduce the Book
Show students the book and have them read the title and look at the cover photographs to make initial predictions about the book.
Ask: What do you see on the cover? What do you think we might find out about inside this book? Based on what you know so far, do you think this book is fiction or nonfiction? What makes you think that? 

Make a KWL (What You Know; What You Want to Know; What You Learned) chart on the board. Ask students what they know, or think they know, about coral reefs, and record their responses in the K column. Ask students to suggest questions they have about coral reefs. Write these in the W column.
Say: When we read a book, sometimes it helps to think about what we already know about the topic. When we think about questions to look for in the text, we provide a purpose for reading. We read to find the answers to our questions. 

Book Walk
Give students their copies of the book and go through as much of it as you feel is necessary. Point out things you feel will challenge students when they read. Look at the pictures with students and discuss what they see. You may want to write down some of the words they suggest. 

As you look through the text, point out text features such as headings, bold type, pronunciations, maps, charts, and the glossary. Tell students how to use these features to assist their reading. 

Reading Strategies
Remind students to use any or all of the following strategies to help them in their reading:

• Ask the questions: Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Does it look right?
• Connect the text with what they already know
• Summarize after reading a section to ensure they understand what they read
• Reread any difficult sentence or page to make sure they understand the text
• Use what they know about letters and sounds to read new words
• Look for parts of words they know, such as root words, prefixes, and suffixes

Ask students about the strategies they think they will use if they get to a difficult word. You may want to model a strategy you think will help students gain meaning. Model the target strategy, which is to connect the facts in the text with what students already know. 

During Reading

Student Reading
Have students read the rest of the book independently to find out if it answers any of their questions. You may suggest they read through the book once and then read it again, stopping to mark important points or difficult words. If the book will be used as a consumable, students may mark or highlight words they have trouble with or places where they are confused. They can also mark or highlight important words or information in another color. 

After Reading

Reflect on Reading Strategies
Draw the students together again and discuss the strategies they used while they were reading.
Ask: Were there any words you had trouble with? What strategies did you use to work them out? How did the information you already knew about coral reefs help you read this book? If you read something confusing, were you able to think about something you already knew and then draw conclusions about what you read? 

Comprehending the Text
Discuss the KWL chart on the board.
Say and ask: Let’s look at the first column where we wrote what we knew about coral reefs. Are there any facts that we wrote here that you found out were wrong? Which ones? Let’s find the facts in the book that changed your opinions. Were any of your questions answered? Which ones? Where in the book were these questions answered? What can you do to find out the answers to the questions that weren’t answered in the book? 

Cause and Effect
Review what cause-and-effect relationships are. If necessary, provide a real-life model to help students understand.
Say and ask: I walk down the street and I step on an icy patch on the sidewalk and fall. What do you think was the cause of my fall? What effect did the ice have? We can say that the ice was the cause of my fall. The effect of the ice being on the sidewalk was that I fell down. You can find these kinds of cause-and-effect relationships in texts that you read. 

Give out worksheet 1. Explain that students are to find the cause-and-effect relationships in the book. Have them find one cause of the destruction of coral reefs. Read the section together. Then have them write the cause on the worksheet. Have them explain the effect of this cause and write it on the worksheet. Have students complete the worksheet. When they have finished, have them discuss their work and justify their answers with references to the text. 

Building Skills

Phonics
Closed syllables
Review syllables with students, clapping out the number of syllables in their names.
Say and ask: Syllables have one vowel sound. Listen as I say this word: cat. How many vowel sounds do you hear? What is the vowel sound in the word cat? Now listen as I say this word: catnip. How many vowel sounds do you hear? What are they? How many syllables does catnip have? 

Write the words cat and catnip on the board. Explain that syllables that end with a consonant are called closed syllables.
Say: Notice that the vowel, a, is in the middle of the word cat, closed in by the consonant, t. Is the vowel sound long or short in the word cat? (short) Let’s look at the second word, catnip, and divide it into syllables. A quick way to do this is to put a dot over each of the vowels in the word. I see two consonants between the vowels, so I divide the word between the two consonants. I now have two syllables: cat and nip. Both are closed syllables, because they end with a consonant. What is the vowel sound in the syllable, nip? (short i) Often, vowels in closed syllables are short vowels. I can use this strategy when I am trying to sound out unfamiliar words, and I recognize closed syllables. 

Give out worksheet 2 and explain that you want students to divide the words into syllables using what they know about closed syllables. After they have divided the words, have students check the dictionary to make sure they divided the words right. If the words are correct, they may put a C or a check mark in the dictionary column. If their divisions are not correct, they should put the correct division in the dictionary column. 

Grammar
Prepositions
Say: Prepositions are words that show a relationship between things. They can give us information such as where, when, how, why, and with what. For example, in the sentence, "I’ll do this after lunch," the word after is a preposition that gives us information about when I will do something. In the sentence," Sea anemones hide in shallow crevices." The word in tells me where the sea anemones hide. Let’s look through the text to find more examples of prepositions.
Record a list of the prepositions students find. Talk about the kind of information the prepositions provide and how they link the words in the sentences. 

Word Work
Multiple-syllable words
Students should have access to dictionaries for this activity.
Say: In the dictionary, words are shown divided into syllables. Let’s look up coral to see how it is written: cor·al. The pronunciation of the word follows. The accent mark after the first syllable, cor, tells us how to say the word, with emphasis on /kôr/. Let’s look up multiple-syllable words you highlighted. Once you find a word, write the syllables and add accent marks.
Students can divide up a list of words or do all the words they highlighted. Words can be checked, sorted, and used in sentences. 

Visual Learning
Reading a Cross Section
Have students turn to pages 13 and 14 and look at the cross sections. Ask if they know what a cross section diagram is. Explain to them that a cross section is a drawing of what an object might look like if it were sliced, giving a view of the internal structure. Use an apple to demonstrate how a cross section is created. Show students the whole apple, pointing out the skin, the stem, and the flower at the bottom. Then, slice the apple in half.
Say: From the outside, we can only see a few structures of the apple. But when I cut it in half, we can see the cross section of the apple. It shows how thick the skin is, the texture of the flesh, the core, and where the seeds are held inside. The same thing has been done to these islands in the cross sections. Since coral reefs are under water, a simple drawing would only be able to show the island itself, or the little bits of coral that come above the surface. But if you cut the island in half down the side and show the cross section, we can see the island, the ocean, and where the reef is located in relation to the island. 

Have students practice cross sections. Hand out familiar fruits and vegetables, such as bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Have each student look at the vegetable and try to remember or imagine how it looks in cross section. From their imaginations, students can draw cross sections. After they finish, help students cut their fruits and vegetables in half. Then they can compare their predicted cross section with the actual cross section. 

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Students could write a "day in the life" of a coral "neighborhood." They should describe the animals that live in the area, what they do, what they eat, and how they protect themselves. 

Science Connection
Have students gather more information about coral reefs. As a class, you could visit an aquarium or even a tropical fish store to view coral firsthand and make observations about how they live and interact with other marine animals. 

Art Connection
Students can decorate the classroom to resemble a reef community. They can create painted mobiles of colorful tropical fish. Desks, bookshelves, and chairs can be transformed into coral using colored paper. Streamers hung from the ceiling can represent soft coral or kelp. 

Math Connection
Have students create a timeline of coral growth based on the growth rate given in the text. Have then compare this to human growth rate. 

Reading Independently
Invite students to reread the book independently or with a partner. Have students share their own stories from the Writing Connection with each other.

Home Connection
Invite students to take the book home to read with their families. Have them share their Writing Connection stories with a family member. 

Assessment

• Note the strategies students discuss during the Reflect on Reading Strategies section. Note if they understand how knowing information about the text and asking questions prior to reading can help them understand the information.
• Review students’ completed worksheet 1 to assess their understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Note if they can justify their responses with references to information from the text.
• Review students’ completed worksheet 2 to assess their ability to divide words into syllables. Listen as they read the words to see if they can apply what they know about closed syllables and short vowels to pronunciation.