Text type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page count: 16 
Word count: 634 

Book Summary
Harvest season is a time when family traditions are celebrated with gratitude for food and each other. These traditions vary from place to place around the world. In this informational text, students will learn about the differences and the similarities of celebrations in four countries.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Mentally summarize details as they read, to remember and understand information in text
• Identify main ideas and supporting details in informational text
• Correctly use rules to make nouns plural
• Recognize, define and use compound words

Materials

• Book -- Celebrating Food and Family (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Vocabulary, main Idea/details, plurals, worksheets
• Globe and/or world maps

Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if you choose not to have students consume the books.)

Vocabulary

• Content words: ancestors, Chusok, etrog, persimmons, Sukkoth, synagogue, tortoises, yams, Nigeria, Korea, Israel, celebrations, traditions

Build Background

• Write Thanksgiving on the board in the center of a web design. Have each student share a family tradition. (Traditions may be written in outer circles and linked to the word Thanksgiving in the center.) A tradition may be: We always have pumpkin pie with whipped cream; I always eat the drumstick; Grandpa tells the story of the first Thanksgiving; etc.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book, 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 the author might tell about in the book.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book and author's name).
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides an overview of the book. After previewing the chapter titles and the remainder of the book, model summarizing by using the strategy below.

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Think-aloud: To summarize what I've learned from previewing the book, I need to decide what's important and what isn't. Then, in my mind, I organize the important information into a few sentences and think about them for few moments. Since I haven't read the book yet, it's difficult to decide what's important and what isn't. I think all of the chapters must contain some important information about family celebrations, but I'll have to read the book to find out; remembering to stop occasionally to organize the important information, or summarize, in my mind.
• 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

• Introduce the content words listed in the vocabulary section of this lesson.
• Review the correct pronunciation for: Sukkoth (SOOK-us), estrog (es-ROG) and Chusok (choo-SOCK).
• Turn to the glossary on page 16. Read the words and discuss their meanings aloud. Additionally, there are five vocabulary words not listed in the glossary; celebrations, traditions, Nigeria, Korea, Israel that may need explanation. (Write these words on the board.) Say: A celebration can be a holiday such as Christmas, Hanukkah, a birthday, etc. A tradition is the decorating of the Christmas tree, the lighting of the candles in the menorah, blowing out the candles on the birthday cake, etc. The other three words are the names of countries. (Point to your map or globe.)This is where we are now (point to your current location) and this is where Korea is located. (Do the same with Nigeria and Israel.)
• 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 and prefixes and suffixes. They can use the context to work out the meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. For example, point out the bolded word on page 8 (ancestors). Look for familiar letter chunks (an/ces/tors). They may be phonetic elements, prefixes, suffixes, endings, whole words, or base words. Read each chunk by itself. Then blend the chunks together and sound out the word. Ask: Does the word make sense in the sentence?
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Tell students to mentally summarize the important information in each section as they read.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Read the Introduction on pages 4 and 5 aloud. After reading, use the Introduction to summarize.
• Think-aloud: To summarize what I just read I have to think about what’s important in this section. I’d say that there are three important points in the Introduction: First, people around the world celebrate the harvest season; second, in the United States people celebrate the harvest with Thanksgiving; and third, Evan’s family celebrates the harvest by having a Thanksgiving feast. To summarize this important information, I need to put the information together in my own words. For example, I might summarize this chapter by saying: People all around the world celebrate the harvest season. In the United States we celebrate the season, as Evan’s family does, with a Thanksgiving feast.
• Reinforce that a summary tells only the most important information. Unimportant information is not used. Discuss how students can decide what is important and what is not. Say: Some of the text we read tells more details about Evan’s Thanksgiving celebration. Knowing that Evan’s family goes to Grandma’s house, tells us how he celebrates. These details help us understand the important information about the harvest celebration.
• Next tell students to read the remainder of the book, identifying the most important information in each section.

    Tell the 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 Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked with question marks in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce how mentally summarizing the important information in each chapter keeps readers engaged in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they’ve read. Ask students to tell what important information they identified in the chapter about the Yam Festival that begins on page 6. Ask a volunteer to summarize the chapter based on what he or she identified as the important information in the section. (People in West Africa celebrate the beginning of the harvest by cooking dishes made with yams and other vegetables.
• Have students tell, from memory or by locating in the book, the names of the characters from each country. Write the names on sticky notes, and stick them on the map or globe, of the country in which they live. Continue this vocabulary skill by completing the vocabulary worksheet. Read the directions to students, emphasizing that these words tell more about the harvest celebrations and traditions. Have students complete the worksheet using their book as needed.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and details

• Discussion: Explain that every writer has a topic in mind for a book when he or she writes it. Additionally, in a nonfiction book, the writer usually has a main idea for each section, or chapter. In the chapter, the main idea is supported by important details. The headings often provide clues as to what the main idea of each section, or chapter, is about.
• Introduce and model the skill: As you point to your current location, say: Evan and his family celebrated the harvest season by having Thanksgiving. When pointing to Nigeria, Korea and Israel, ask students to tell the name of the celebration for the harvest season in these countries. (Nigeria-Yam Festival, Korea-Chusok, Israel-Sukkoth). Explain that the main idea (the individual holiday) is called out in the title of each chapter and that the body of the chapter contains more information, or details, about the main idea.
• Check for understanding: Using the main idea and details worksheet as a model: write Main Idea on the board. Discuss the main idea in the Introduction (Thanksgiving in the United States). Then write Details on the board. Discuss the supporting details (Evan’s family goes to Grandma’s house; Family members tell why they are thankful; Grandpa tells the story of the first Thanksgiving). Pass out the worksheet and tell students to fill in the first main idea in each section, or chapter, and write in three supporting details for each idea.
• Independent practice: Give students a copy of the main idea and details worksheet. Tell students to write in “Celebrating Food and Family“ as the title on the worksheet and “Harvest seasons around the world“ as the topic. Have students continue the worksheet by naming three supporting details for each holiday tradition (the Yam Festival, Chusok, and Sukkoth).
• Extend the discussion: Discuss other holidays, religious holidays, family reunions, etc. and the traditions associated with them. This is an excellent opportunity to have students tell about the celebrations their families may celebrate and their own traditions.

Grammar and Mechanics: Plurals

• Have students find the word members on page 5. Ask students how they can tell that there is more than one member. Write the word members on the board and circle the s, explaining that we usually add an -s to a word to make it mean more than one.
• Challenge students to create a plural of the word dish. Have them pronounce the word they have made by adding -s. Then, allow them to orally recognize the plural by asking how they would request more than one dish to set the dinner table. Tell them that some words need an -es added to create a plural that sounds okay. This happens with /x/, /sh/, /ch/, and /s/ sounds. Write the word dishes on the board and circle the -es. Give students the rules for plurals worksheet and continue going through the plural rules, providing examples on the board as necessary.

Plural Rules:
1.     Singular nouns name a person, place or thing.
2.     Plural nouns name more than one person, place, or thing.
3.     Add -s to most nouns: parent--parents.
4.     Add -es to nouns ending in s, z, x, ch, or sh: dish--dishes, branch--branches.
5.     Add -s if a noun ends in a vowel and y: day--days
6.     Add -es if a noun ends in a consonant and y, change the y to i: sky--skies
7.     Sometimes the spelling is changed: child--children  

   Have students use the inside front cover of their book to write all of the proper nouns used in the text. Ask volunteers to share their work with the group. Students may add more proper nouns to their book as volunteers share their answers.

Word Work: Compound words

    Write the word Thanksgiving on the board. Review or explain that this is a compound word and that a compound word is made by joining one word with another word. Use the word in a sentence: We celebrate the harvest season by observing Thanksgiving. Have students write the compound word on the inside front cover of their book.

• Direct students to page 5. Ask them to find another type of compound word (Grandpa). Ask them to identify the two words that have been joined to make the compound word.
• Review or explain that you can usually use the meaning of the two individual words to determine the meaning of the compound word.
• Direct students to page 11. Tell students that there is a compound word in the fourth sentence. Read the fourth sentence aloud. Ask students what they think the word is. Explain that the word tug-of-war is a kinds of compound word. Instead of the three words being completely joined together, they are joined by hyphens. Use the word in a sentence: The students had a tug-of-war between the two classes. Ask students to tell what the word means. Have students find another hyphenated compound word on the next page (three-sided) and tell its meaning.
• Continue finding compound words, copying them in the book, and discussing their meanings.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section or the entire book (in the case of short books). Additionally, 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 and Art Connection

• Have students choose their favorite celebration, and write why it is his or her favorite time of the year. This writing may be illustrated. Have students read and share their writing and illustration with the class. If your class has a lot of diversity, you may want to invite family members to visit the class and share holiday traditions and experiences with costumes, pictures, and food.

Social Studies Connection

• Have students divide into groups and read about Korea, Nigeria, or Israel. Have each group make a poster showing the location of the country and telling about its climate, foods, jobs, religion, etc. Have students share their posters with the class.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• mentally summarize details as they read, to remember and understand information in text
• identify main ideas and supporting details in informational text
• correctly use rules to make words plural
• recognize, define and use compound words

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric