Text Type: Fiction/Mystery
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 521 

Book Summary
Emma and her family go to the Golden Pagoda restaurant every year on her mom's birthday. Before they leave, Emma puts their new puppy, Sparky, out in the backyard, but forgets to lock the gate. While at dinner, each member of the family receives a mysterious fortune in their fortune cookie. When they arrive home, they discover that Sparky has escaped the backyard. How will their fortunes help Emma and her family find Sparky?

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to understand text
• Identify correct sequence of events in the text
• Identify r-controlled /ur/ letter combinations er, ir, and ur
• Recognize and use contractions correctly
• Identify and distinguish between multiple-meaning words

Materials

• Book -- Sparky's Mystery Fortune (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Prediction, sequence events, contractions, multiple-meaning words worksheets

    Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• Content words: breathlessly, container, discovered, fortune cookies, mystery, restaurant, theories

Build Background

• Discuss the meaning of the word fortune. Purchase fortune cookies from a local Asian restaurant or grocery store in your area. Give one to each student. Ask whether they have ever had a fortune cookie before. Have students break open their cookie and share their fortune. Lead a discussion on what students think about telling fortunes, or predicting events in the future. (Note: You may need to solicit school and parent approval if students will consume the fortune cookies.)

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 and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

• Explain to students that good readers often make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a book based on the series of events and what the characters say, do, and think in the story. As they read the story, readers make, revise, or confirm predictions based on what they learn from reading. Before reading a book, readers can use the title and illustrations as the basis for making predictions.
• Model using the title, front cover illustration, and title page illustration to make a prediction.
  Think-aloud: To make my first prediction, I think about the title of the story, Sparky's Mystery Fortune. I wonder what the mystery is. When I look at the front cover illustration, I see a girl holding some small strips of paper. I wonder whether she is Sparky. On the title page, I see bits of broken fortune cookies. The small slips of paper in the illlustration must be the fortunes from inside the cookies. Maybe Sparky gets a mysterious fortune inside her fortune. I'll have to read the book to find out.
• Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Create a similar chart on the board. Model writing a prediction in the Make column, such as Sparky is a girl who discovers a mysterious fortune in her cookie. Invite students to make a prediction based on the table of contents and cover illustrations, and write it on their worksheet in the Make column. Share and discuss the predictions as a group.
• 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: Sequence events

• Review or explain that stories are generally told in order from beginning to end.
• Model sequencing the main events of the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
  Think-aloud: If I want someone to be able to retell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, certain events need to be included in order to tell the story correctly. In this story, the first event that happens is that Goldilocks goes into the house of the three bears. Next, she tastes three bowls of porridge, but only the third bowl tastes just right. Then she sits on three different chairs, but only the third chair feels just right. Then she sits on three different beds, but only the third one feels so good that she falls asleep. Last, the three bears come home and see what Goldilocks has done with the porridge and the chairs, and they find her asleep in the bed. Goldilocks wakes up and runs away. I will write these events on the board in order.
• Explain to students that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Read the list of events on the board to students in order, using words such as first, next, then, and last. Ask students to identify these types of sequencing words from the example.
• Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events of the story out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the steps is important (the sequence does not make sense out of order).
• Point out to students that the sequence of events listed on the board shows only the events that are most important for someone to understand the story. It does not include all the details of a retelling of the story.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Review with students strategies they can use to work 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 base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Have students turn to page 5 in their book. Point out the word breathlessly and say it aloud with students. Model how to use context-clues and suffixes to identify the meaning of a word. Say: When I read the sentence in which breathlessly appears, I noticed that breathlessly was describing how Dad and the children ran. I know that the suffix -less means without. When I add this meaning to the word breath, the word breathless would mean out of breath. It would make sense for someone to be out of breath if he or she had just been running. I used clues in the story and what I know about suffixes to help me understand the meaning of the word.
• Have students follow along as you read the sentence on the page to confirm the meaning of the word.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about the fortune and why it is a mystery. Remind them to make, revise, and confirm predictions as they read. Have them think about the events that happened first, next, and so on.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 8 and then stop to think about the events that have happened so far in the story. Encourage students who finish before others to reread the text.
• Model making a prediction.
  Think-aloud: Before reading, I predicted that the girl on the front cover was named Sparky and that she would get a mysterious fortune in her cookie. My prediction was partially correct. The girl (and the rest of her family) got a mysterious fortune at the Chinese restaurant. However, the girl's name is not Sparky--it's Emma. Sparky is the name of the family's dog. I will write this information in the Actual column on the chart next to my original prediction. At the beginning of the story, Emma's brother told her to lock the back gate so the puppy wouldn't get out. Then the book mentions that the family was in a hurry to go meet Emma's mom. I predict that Emma forgets to lock the gate and the puppy gets out. I think their fortunes might have something to do with the puppy. I will write this new prediction on my chart in the Make column.
• Have students review the prediction they made before reading. Have them write a revised prediction next to the first prediction on their worksheet or place a check mark in the Confirm box if their prediction was correct. If they confirmed their prediction, have them make a new prediction and write it on their worksheet in the Make column.
• Write the following events on the board: Emma goes to dinner with her family; it is her mom's birthday; Dad and the children are running late; everyone gets a mysterious fortune in their cookie.
• Discuss and circle the events that are the most important to correctly tell the story. (Emma goes to dinner with her family; everyone gets a mysterious fortune in their cookie.) Point out that the other information is details that make the story interesting but are not important events.
• Introduce and explain the sequence events worksheet. Have students write the important events from the discussion on their worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 11. Remind them to use the illustrations, sentences, and what they already know to make predictions as they read. When they have finished reading, have them make, revise, and/or confirm their predictions on their worksheet. Discuss whether their predictions turned out to be true or whether they needed to be revised. Reassure students by explaining that predicting correctly is not the purpose of this reading strategy.
• Ask students to write additional important story events in order on their sequence events worksheet. Discuss the important events as a class and write them on the board in order. (Emma discovers her puppy, Sparky, is missing when they get home; the family searches everywhere for the puppy.) Allow students to make corrections to their worksheet.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and confirm predictions as they read the rest of the story.

    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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• 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.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that Emma's fortune would have something to do with the puppy. This was partially correct. Emma discovers the puppy is missing, and her fortune helps her to find him. I will write this information on my chart in the Actual column next to this prediction.
• Independent practice: Have students complete their prediction worksheet. Ask them to explain other predictions they made while reading. Invite students to discuss whether their predictions turned out to be true or whether they needed to be revised. If time allows, ask students to explain how making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them understand and enjoy the events of the story.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review with students the sequence of events on their worksheet using sequencing words (first, next, then, after that, and so on). Point out how they used their own words to write each event.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the sequence events worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers aloud.
• Enduring understanding: Although Emma's puppy is missing, the family works together to come up with different solutions for finding him. Now that you know this information, why are teamwork, staying calm, and the ability to problem-solve in an emergency situation?

Phonics: Identify r-controlled /ur/ (er, ir, ur)

• Have students turn to page 3 in their book. Point to the word Hurry and write the word on the board. Say the word aloud with students.
• Have students say the r-controlled /ur/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letters together stand for the r-controlled /ur/ sound in the word Hurry.
• Explain that the ur letter combination is one of the letter combinations that stands for the r-controlled /ur/ sound as in the word Hurry. Explain to students that r-controlled vowels are treated as one sound even though they may hear two sounds.
• Have students turn to page 4 in their book. Point to the word older and write the word on the board. Say the word aloud with students.
• Have students say the r-controlled /ur/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letters together stand for the r-controlled /ur/ sound in the word older.
• Explain that the er letter combination is another letter combinations that stands for the r-controlled /ur/ sound as in the word older.
• Have students turn to page 7 in their book. Point to the word birthday and write the word on the board. Say the word aloud with students.
• Have students say the r-controlled /ur/ sound aloud. Then run your finger under the letters in the word as students say the whole word aloud. Ask students what letters together stand for the r-controlled /ur/ sound in the word birthday.
• Explain that the ir letter combination is one of the letter combinations that stands for the r-controlled /ur/ sound as in the word birthday.
• Have students practice writing the er, ir, and ur letter combinations on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letters stand for.
• Check for understanding: Say the following er r-contolled words aloud: clerk, germ. Have students write each word on a separate piece of paper. Repeat the process with ir r-controlled words (dirt, sir) and ur r-controlled words (curl, turn).

Grammar and Mechanics: Contractions

• Review or explain that a contraction is two words that have been shortened by replacing one or more letters with an apostrophe.
• Have students turn to page 3. Point out the word it's in the third sentence. Ask students to use the context clues in the sentence to identify the two words joined together to make the word it's (it and is). Write both the contraction and the two words on the board.
• Ask a volunteer to read aloud the sentence with the contraction, substituting it is for it's to check whether this answer makes sense. (And it is her birthday.)
• Have students identify which letter was dropped to make the contraction (the i in is).
• Point to the word I'll at the bottom of page 3. Ask students which two words were joined together to make the word (I and will). Write the contraction and the two words joined together to make the contraction on the board.
• Ask a volunteer to read aloud the sentence with the contraction, substituting I will for I'll to check whether the answer makes sense. ("Okay, I'll be right there," said seven-year-old Emma.)
• Have students identify which letters dropped to make the contraction (the w and i in will).
• Review or explain that an 's that shows possession is not a contraction, such as in the following sentence on page 5: Every year for Mom's birthday, the Mason family headed for their favorite Chinese restaurant. Point out that the 's after Mom is not short for is but instead shows that the birthday belongs to Mom. Have students read the sentence aloud, substituting is for 's to illustrate how the sentence would not make sense. (Every year for Mom is birthday, the Mason family headed for their favorite Chinese restaurant.)

    Check for understanding: Have students locate and circle the contractions in the book. Have them write the two words that stand for each contraction near    the contraction in the margin. Remind students to substitute each contraction with their answer as they reread the sentence to check that the answer makes sense.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the contractions worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Multiple-meaning words

• Have students turn to page 4 and read the following sentence: He'll enjoy the fall air and sunshine. Write the word fall on the board.
• Ask students to explain the meaning of fall as it is used in this sentence (the season after summer).
• Write the following sentence on the board: If you don't watch where you are going, you might trip and fall. Ask students to explain the meaning of fall as it is used in this sentence (to drop down suddenly). Discuss the difference between the meanings of the word fall as used in the two example sentences.
• Explain to students that words that are pronounced and spelled the same but have different meanings are called multiple-meaning words.
• Have students turn to page 6 and read the last paragraph. Read aloud the following sentence: But I always have room for a fortune cookie. Ask students to first tell what the word room means as it is used in this sentence, and then tell another meaning for the word room.
• Check for understanding: Divide students into groups. Write the following multiple-meaning words on the board: fly, saw, top. Assign each group a word. Have them use the dictionary to identify at least two meanings of the word and use each meaning in an oral sentence.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the multiple-meaning words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Additionally, allow pairs of students to read 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 work with someone at home to sequence the events of a familiar story, such as The Three Little Pigs.

Mystery Writing Connection
Discuss with students the definition of a mystery story (a suspenseful story about a crime or other event, the writing of which involves the process of solving a problem). Have students write their own mystery story. Invite students to share their story aloud.

Social Studies Connection
Have student pairs review the historical information about fortune cookies on pages 14 and 15 in their book. Discuss reasons why many theories exist about the origin of the fortune cookie, and why no one knows for sure who invented it.