Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 728

Book Summary
Extreme Animals introduces readers to some fascinating members of the animal kingdom. These animals aren't your usual variety. Read to discover which fish can climb a tree and which creature tastes food with its feet! Amazing information is conveyed through both explicit text and entertaining, clever illustrations.

Book and lesson also available at Levels K and Q.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summarizing while reading to understand new information in a nonfiction text
• Identify main idea and details in the text
• Identify words with vowel /ou/ diphthong
• Identify superlative adjectives
• Understand and identify synonyms

Materials

• Book -- Extreme Animals (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Main idea and details, superlative adjectives, synonyms worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting the book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• Content words: creatures, extreme, mammals, nutrients, quietest, remarkable, reptiles, transparent

Build Background

• Ask students if they know what the word extreme means. Provide an example to spark familiarity with the term by saying: Sometimes a weather report will include the phrase extreme conditions and warn people to avoid going outside. Have students share their ideas and discuss the meaning of the word extreme.
• Ask students if they know of any animals that might be considered extreme. Name and list some animals that might be considered extreme and the qualities that make them so.
• Extend the discussion by inviting students to discuss the qualities or characteristics that make something out of the ordinary. Ask them to consider whether people can be extreme and what might make them so. Allow students time to provide examples.

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 (genre, text type, fiction or nonfiction, and so on) and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Have students talk about the animals students see on the covers and inside pages as they thumb through the book. Ask students if they have ever seen these types of animals before. Have them share what they think might be extreme about the animals they see.

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Summarize

• Explain to students that a tool readers use to understand and remember what they read is to summarize in their mind as they read. Explain that a summary consists of the main idea or ideas and does not include all of the little details.
• Help students understand how to summarize by explaining that a summary does not include all the information they read in the book. Students must decide what information in the book is most important to know and tell about.
• Model how to summarize information in a book.
  Think-aloud: As I read this book, I am going to look at the illustrations and think about what I have read. I will stop at the end of the first two pages and ask myself what information was the most important in that section. To do this, I can identify the main idea of the section and look for the important details. When I create a summary in my mind, I will put the ideas together in my own words. I will do that after every couple of pages or so.
• Read the page 3 together. To provide an example of a summary, say: Extreme animals are different from most animals in some way. Something about them sets them apart from the others.
• 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: Main idea and details

• Explain to students that sometimes the amount of information about a topic is so large that it is grouped into sections. Each section has its own main idea, and the information within each section contains details that describe, explain, or clarify the main idea.
• Explain to students that when reading a book or story, readers can do things to help them understand what they read. One way to remember new information is to think or take notes about the details in each section. Remind students that details tell specific information about the main idea.
• Read page 4 with students. Introduce and model the skill of identifying the main idea and details.
  Think-aloud: I know the section headings help to identify the main idea, and each section has details to explain and describe the main idea. I see the first section is called Biggest. When I read this page, I understood that biggest here means longest, heaviest, and tallest. The three biggest animals are the whale, elephant, and giraffe.
• Write the main idea Biggest on the board. As a group, record the details of this section: Longest: blue whale; Heaviest: elephant; Tallest: giraffe. Encourage students to keep notes as they read the book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text.
• Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into the discussion of the illustrations. Use as much of the language from the text as possible. For example, on page 3, you might say: This book tells about many extreme animals. They are extreme because they are the oddest animals in some way. Ask: What kind of animals are we going to learn about? Continue by having students repeat the language you used. Say: Have you ever heard of a chihuahua? Say it with me. Repeating the book language will support students when they come to difficult parts in the text.
• Remind students to reread any sentence that contains a difficult word to make sure the sentence makes sense.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to learn more about extreme animals. Remind them to stop and summarize as they read to help them remember important information in the book.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book and have them put a sticky note on page 8. Have them to read to the end of this page. Remind them to summarize in their mind as they read about extreme animals. Have students reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students what words they had trouble with. Ask if they summarized the sections as they read, and have them tell how this activity helped them understand the information they read.
• Think-aloud: As I read page 5, I was thinking about what I was reading and summarizing in my mind. I thought about the most important information to remember. I thought one of the most important things to know about the animals was which one is the smallest. When I read about the bee hummingbird on page 5, I thought it must be the smallest animal in the world because it weighs less than a spoonful of water.
• Check for understanding: Have students share some of the things they thought about as they read the information on the pages so far. Select volunteers to share summaries they created in their minds as they read the text.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to summarize the sections as they read. Remind them to also look for details relating to the main idea of each section of the book. Remind them that noting the details will help them to remember and better understand what they read.

      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.

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Have students share important information they summarized while reading. Reinforce that using this strategy as they read helps them make meaning from text and stay involved in the reading process.
• Think aloud: When I came to the section about the fun facts about water animals, the illustration helped me summarize the fact about the tongue of the big whale. I understood how heavy it must be!

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Remind students that one way to better understand and remember new information is to think or take notes about the details related to the main idea or main ideas in a book. Have students choose a partner and discuss the main idea and supporting details on pages 6 and 7. Have each pair share with the group what they thought the main idea and supporting details were on each page.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the main idea and details worksheet. Have them list one of the main ideas and supporting details from pages 4 and 5 in the first two boxes. Check to make sure all students understand the worksheet instructions. Then have them use the worksheet to record details and main ideas from other sections of the book.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you read about the different qualities that make some animals stand apart from others. The animals in this book are special because they are extreme in some way. If all creatures were alike, life in the animal world would be pretty boring. Do you believe this true for people, too? What might a person do to be considered extreme?

Phonics: Vowel /ou/ diphthong

• Explain to students that a diphthong is a vowel sound made by gliding from one sound to another in one syllable.
• Write the words house and how on the board. Read both words aloud with students. Underline the ou in house and ow in how. Explain that these are vowel diphthongs that use different letter combinations to make the same sound.
• Have students turn to page 5 and locate a word with the /ou/ diphthong (mouse). Write it on the board and select a volunteer to come to the board and circle the letters that make the vowel diphthong sound.
• Have students turn to page 6 and search the page for two words that make the same diphthong sound (loud/howler). Select a volunteer to identify the letters that make the /ou/ sound.

      Have students search the remaining pages of the book for words with the /ou/ diphthong. Review examples when students are finished to assess understanding. Have students brainstorm other words not used in the book that contain the same sound.

Grammar and Mechanics: Superlative adjectives

• Review or explain that adjectives are words that describe a noun (a person, place, or thing). Tell students that a superlative adjective is used when three or more nouns are being compared.
• Have students turn to page 4 and locate the section title. Write Biggest on the board. Ask students to identify the general adjective in this title (big). Underline the –est suffix and explain that the word biggest is a superlative adjective and is used because the text is comparing a certain animal to other animals that are considered to be quite big. Out of all of the animals being compared one is bigger than all the others.
• Continue by having students look at the section title on page 5. Ask a volunteer to identify the base adjective and then the superlative adjective (small/smallest). Ask what ending on the base adjective makes the word small superlative (-est).

      Check for understanding: Have students find and circle the superlative adjectives in the rest of the book. Ask them to underline the word endings that make the adjectives superlative and circle each the base adjective. Check their responses.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the superlative adjectives worksheet.

Word Work: Synonyms

• Review or explain that synonyms are words that have similar meanings. Provide an example by writing the word small on the board. Read it aloud and ask a volunteer to name a word with nearly the same meaning, such as tiny, mini, and so on.
• Explain that authors often vary the words they use to make the text more interesting. Tell students that when using synonyms in writing, it is important to choose the correct word is chosen as a synonym to keep the meaning consistent and clear.
• Have students turn to page 6. Say the word loud and have them locate it on the page. Ask volunteers to offer synonyms for loud and list them on the board. Read the sentence on page 6, substituting loud with a new word. Have students check for accuracy of sentence meaning with the use of each synonym.
• Check for understanding: Repeat the process with the word fast on page 8. Brainstorm synonyms and read each sentence on the page, substituting fast with a synonym from the list. Have students check each sentence's meaning.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the synonyms worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students read and explain main idea and details to someone at home as they read.

Informational Writing Connection
Have students select an animal mentioned in the book to research. Have them to focus on attributes of the animal other than the information included in Extreme Animals. Have students write a report that includes three main ideas and one supporting detail for each main idea. Allow time for students to share their writing with the class.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on expository report writing.

Science Connection
Invite a veterinarian or zoologist to come speak to the class about animals. Before the guest speaker arrives, provide additional books and resources for students to learn about animals. Have each student come up with one question about animals to ask the guest speaker. Have them write down their question and the guest speaker's answer on a sheet of paper. Assist students in compiling the questions and answers into a class book about animals.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.