Reading Level:
O

Word Count:
1,200

Pages:
22 

Text Summary
This book is an interview with a working beekeeper. He describes the different types of bees, their role in the hive, and how honey is made. 

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: rereading for sense. 

Word and Print Skills

Word Work
Compound words
Grammar
Past- and present-tense verbs
Suffixes -y and -ly for adjectives and adverbs

Vocabulary Words
Africanized bees, antibacterial, bee suit, bellows, Caucasian bees, cells, colony, hives, honeycomb, nectar, pistil, pollen, pollinate
These are words that are important to the topic. Some of them may be unfamiliar to students. Ensure that you use these words in the pre- and post-reading discussion to help students better understand what they read. 

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: understanding the sequence of an explanatory text. 

Visual Learning
Understand the purpose of feature boxes within the text 

Before Reading

Build Background
Ask questions to elicit prior knowledge and build background on the topics of bees and beekeeping
Ask: Where does honey come from? How do you think people get honey from bees? What do you think it might be like to be a beekeeper? 

Introduce the Book
Show students the cover and have them read the title. Have them use the title and the photo to make initial predictions about the main idea or topic.
Ask: What do you see on the cover? What do you think this book is about? Do you think this is fiction or nonfiction? What makes you think that? 

Book Walk
Give students their copies of the book and have them turn to the contents page.
Ask: What does the table of contents tell us? What clues does this page give you about what you will be reading? What is a glossary? On what page can you find the glossary?
Have students look at the first couple of pages to ensure they understand that this is an interview with questions and answers.
sk: How is this text organized? How can you tell who is asking the questions? Who is answering the questions?
Point out the use of feature boxes and bold text.
Ask and say: Why is the word honeycomb in bold on page 5? Let’s turn to the glossary and see if we can find it there. What is the definition of honeycomb? Look on page 10. What is the purpose of the feature box on this page? 

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
• Reread any sentence or page that was difficult, 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 questions about what they are reading to help them make sense of the text

Tell students that there may be new ideas or unfamiliar words in this text. One strategy they can use to understand new concepts is to go back and reread to check if what they are reading makes sense. This often helps them figure out unfamiliar words. It also reinforces some of the ideas in the book. 

During Reading

Student Reading
Have students read the rest of the book independently. You may suggest they stop every few pages to think about what they are reading and reread if needed. If the book will be used as a consumable, you may ask students to mark or highlight words they have trouble with or places they are confused. 

After Reading

Reflect on Reading Strategies
Draw the group together and discuss the strategies students used while they were reading.
Ask: Were there any words you had trouble with? What strategies did you use to work them out?
Did you reread any sections of the text? Did this help you better understand what you were reading? 

Comprehending the Text
Comprehension Strategy
Have students turn to page 6 and model how the explanatory sequence is set up.
Say: Buzz is explaining how he gets the honey from the hive using a smoker. Often, explanations are written in sequential order. This means that Buzz explains what happens first, and then what happens second, and so on. This explanation sequence also has some cause-and-effect relationships. The first thing Buzz says happens is that he builds a fire in a can with a bellows. The next thing is that this fire causes smoke. The next thing is that the smoke makes the bees think there is a forest fire. Then the bees fill their stomachs with honey in case they may have to leave the tree. Finally, the beekeeper can get the honey. 

Give students worksheet 1 and explain that it is an outline of an explanation sequence. They are to use the explanation sequence on page 16 that tells how honey is made, and organize it on the flow chart. They are to include a diagram that shows what is happening. Guide them to complete the worksheet and provide support as needed. Have students share their flow charts. Other pages that could be organized on a flow chart are page 17 about pollination and page 9 on how the a new hive is formed. 

Discuss other aspects of the text if time allows. Suggested questions are:

• What did you learn from reading this interview?
• What was the author's purpose? Why did she write this?
• Who is the audience for this text?
• Do you feel you can learn the same amount of information from an interview as from a report on beekeeping? Why or why not? What kind of information might you learn from an interview that you can't learn from a report? 

Visual Learning
Focus on one or two of the feature boxes and have students discuss what extra information they learned from reading these. Discuss why the author may have included them in the text. 

Building Skills

Grammar
Past -and present-tense verbs
Have students turn to page 4 and name the verbs used on this page. Write started and was on the board. Point out that these are past-tense verbs that describe something that has happened in the past. Now have students turn to the next page. Have them name the verbs while you list them on the board: is, has, can affect, have, carry, put, etc. Explain that these verbs are not past tense. Ask them why they think the tense has changed. Tell students that often, nonfiction texts use a kind of present tense called "timeless present tense." This means that the action is not just happening in the present, but it is something that always happens. Every time Buzz removes the honey, he needs to lift out the honeycomb and put it on the truck. This is what he has done in the past, what he does today, and what he will do tomorrow. Have students analyze and discuss the rest of the verbs in the book. 

Suffixes -y and -ly
Write the word cloudy on the board. Ask students what the root word is and write cloud next to cloudy.
Say: Cloud is the noun in the sentence "I can see a cloud." When I add -ly to the word cloud, I make an adjective, for example, "It is a cloudy day." The word cloudy describes what the day is like.
Write the word easily on the board and ask students to tell you the root word. Write easy next to easily.
Say: Easy is an adjective that describes something. When I add -ly to easy, I have to change the y to i. I make an adverb that tells how something is done, for example, "the bees are easily riled up."
Have students turn to page 13 to look for a word with -ly ending (originally). Ask them whether the word is an adjective or an adverb and what it describes.
Give students worksheet 2 and have them add -y to the first group of words to make new adjectives and -ly to the second group of words to make adverbs. They should use the new words in sentences. 

Word Work
Compound Words
Write the word honeycomb on the board. Ask students what two words make up this word. Explain that this is an example of a compound word where two words are used together to make a different word. Challenge students to find other examples of compound words in the text: anymore, afternoon, springtime, outside, beeswax, wintertime, summertime, beehive, honeybees, hardworking. Use the word afternoon to model how you can use the meanings of the two smaller words to understand the meaning of the larger word. Point out the word two-week on page 5 and explain that sometimes, a hyphen joins two words to form one word. In this case, it forms an adjective that describes how long the delay is. 

Targeted Vocabulary Words
Discuss the vocabulary with students. Explain that reports and other nonfiction will often include specialized vocabulary about the topic.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Have students conduct an interview with a partner. Have them write questions they would like to ask. Discuss the kind of questions that are appropriate for an interview. Then have partners write answers to each other’s questions. 

Social Studies Connection
Have students research the process of getting the honey from the honeycomb to their table, including packaging, distribution and shipping, and retail. 

Science Connection
Encourage students to research different kinds of bees and their characteristics. 

Reading Independently
Invite students to reread the book independently or with a partner. They may also take the book home to read with their families. 

Assessment

• Monitor students' responses in the Comprehending the Text section to assess how well they understand the text.
• Review students' completed explanation sequence to determine how well they understand sequential order and cause and effect relationships.
• Review students' completed worksheet 2 to determine if they can correctly add -y and -ly to make new words. Note how well they understand the use adverbs and adjectives.
• Monitor students' responses during the Reflect on Reading Strategies to determine the kind of strategies they use when reading. Note if they reread to make sense of the text.