Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 718

Book Summary
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to float weightless through the ocean? Or what it might be like to have no bones in your body? You will know after you read You're a Jellyfish! Through easy-to-understand text and detailed photographs, you might even feel as though you really are a jellyfish!

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand text
• Analyze point of view in text
• Identify the vowel diphthong ou
• Recognize and use commas in a series
• Identify and understand syllable patterns

Materials

• Book -- You're a Jellyfish! (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Content vocabulary, summarize, commas in a series, syllable patterns worksheets
• Discussion cards

    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: bask, budding, cloned, frilly, invertebrates, marine, medusas, planula, polyp, social, tentacles

Build Background

• Ask students whether they have ever visited the ocean. Ask them to share their experiences. Cover the title of the book and show them the cover photo. Invite them to identify the name of the animal on the cover. Ask students whether they have ever seen a jellyfish in the ocean or in an aquarium. Have them describe the way it looks and moves.

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).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Summarize

• Explain to students that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to write a summary, or a brief overview, of the most important information in a section. Point out that a summary often answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.
• Create a chart on the board with the headings Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Read pages 4 and 5 aloud to students and model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is most important to remember in a section. To do this, I can consider who and what the section is about, what happens, and when and why it happens. Then I can organize the information into a few sentences. This section is mostly about what a jellyfish is. I will write jellyfish under the Who category on my chart. The author explains that jellyfish have a bell-like body and long tentacles. They are made mostly of water and have no backbone. I will write bell-like body, tentacles, mostly water, and no backbone under What. Under the Where column, I will write every ocean of the world and some ponds and lakes. The text also says that jellyfish have been around for 650 million years, so I will write that in the When column. When I organize all of this information, a summary of the section might be: Jellyfish are bell-shaped, boneless creatures with long tentacles. They live in every ocean of the world and can also be found in some ponds and lakes. They have been around for 650 million years.
• Write the summary on the board. Discuss how you used the information in the chart, along with your own words, to create a summary.
• 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: Analyze point of view

• Ask students to turn to page 5. Read the paragraph aloud while they follow along silently. Ask students to identify how this paragraph is different from your summary paragraph on the board.
• Model how to analyze point of view.
  Think-aloud: As I read page 5 in the book, I noticed that the pronouns being used were you and your. It seems as though something or someone is talking to me, the reader. I know that when I talk about myself, I use words like I, me, and my. This is called first-person point of view. When I talk to someone else, I use words like the ones on page 5. I use them in sentences to tell or ask the person something directly. This is called second-person point of view.
• Ask students why they think the author wrote the story from this point of view (to make the facts of the text more vivid and interesting, to allow readers to use their imagination).
• Explain that this book is written in second-person point of view, and that the summary on the board is written in yet another way, third-person point of view, because it was written with pronouns such as they, them, or it.
• Review the words from page 5 that identify second-person point of view (you, your). Have students identify the words that indicate third-person point of view in the passage on the board (they). Point out that third-person point of view also includes the words he, she, and it.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Explain that nonfiction texts use vocabulary that is important to the content, or topic, of the book. Review or explain that the glossary contains a list of these vocabulary words and their definitions. Have students locate the glossary at the back of the book. Model how students can use the glossary or a dictionary to find a word's meaning.
• Have students work in pairs to read the definitions for the words in the glossary. Provide opportunities for students to talk about difficult words such as planula and polyp. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Assign two words from the glossary to each student. Introduce, explain, and have students complete the content vocabulary worksheet. Each worksheet allows students to work on one vocabulary word; supply two copies or a double-sided version for each student. If time allows, have students share "word meaning maps" with the group.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out about jellyfish, stopping after each section to summarize what they read and reflect on the second-person point of view of the text.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 6 to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread the section.
• Model summarizing important information in the second section, "Jelly Bodies."
  Think-aloud: I made sure to stop reading after the second section to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I thought about the information that answered the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Then, in my mind, I organized the important information into a few sentences. In this section, I learned that jellyfish have no brain, heart, blood, or bones. I underlined these words in the first paragraph. I also learned that jellyfish are made of water, muscles, and nerves to sense the world around them. The rest of this section describes the parts of a jellyfish, so I will underline the words bell, tentacles, and digestive tube. Finally, I read that jellyfish come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. They can be clear, red, purple, and even glow in the dark!
• Write the underlined information on the chart on the board. Have students share any additional information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Write this information on the chart. Create a summary with students based on the information in the chart. (Jellyfish have interesting bodies. They have no brain, heart, blood, or bones. They are made of water, muscles, and nerves that help them sense. Jellyfish have a bell, tentacles, a mouth, and a digestive tube. They come in many shapes, sizes, and colors.)
• Remind students that books written in second-person point of view allow readers to use their imagination to visualize what it might really be like to be that object. Point out the following sentence on page 6: You use your eyespots and nerve network to sense up and down, light and dark, and the world around you. Ask students to discuss how this sentence helps them "feel" what real jellyfish are like.

      Check for understanding: Have students read the next section in their book, "Getting Around." Remind them to underline information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why while reading. Divide students into groups. Have each small group write a brief summary of the section on a separate piece of paper. Have them share and discuss their summaries.

• Discuss with students aspects of second-person point of view in the section. Invite students to share whether this point of view makes it possible for them to better connect with the content about jellyfish.

      Have students read the remainder of the book. Have them underline information in each section that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.

      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.

      Divide students into pairs. Assign each pair one of the remaining sections of the book. Remind them to underline information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why while reading. Have each pair discuss the information they underlined in their section. Have them use the information to compose a summary of their assigned section. When students have finished, share and discuss their summaries aloud.

• Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about jellyfish because I summarized as I read the book.
• Independent practice: Introduce and explain the summarize worksheet. Have students use the information from the section they discussed with their partner to compose a summary of the section. When students have finished, invite them to share and discuss their summaries aloud.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the difference between reality and fantasy. Write the words reality and fantasy on the board. Talk about how the second-person point of view in this book incorporates a feeling of fantasy while providing facts about jellyfish.

     Independent practice: Have students change the point of view of the summary of their assigned section of the book from second-person to first-person point of view. Invite them to share their revised summaries aloud.

• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned what it might feel like to live as a jellyfish. Now that you know this information, might it affect your behavior if you are ever around a jellyfish when you are swimming?

Phonics: Vowel diphthong ou

• Write the following words on the board: about, around, and mouth. Say each word aloud as you run your finger under it.
• Ask students to say aloud the vowel sound that all three words have in common.
• Point to the ou letter combination in each word. Explain to students that the letters o and u together represent the vowel sound in these three words on the board.
• Repeat each word aloud, emphasizing the sound the vowel sound represented by the ou diphthong in each word.
• Check for understanding: Have students practice writing the ou diphthong on a separate piece of paper as they say the sound the letters represent together.

Grammar and Mechanics: Commas in a series

      Have students turn to page 6 and circle all the commas in the second and third sentences. Point out each item separated by a comma.

• Explain to students that whenever items are listed together, commas called serial commas are used to separate each item in the list. Point out that listed items can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, or entire phrases.
• Tell students that the last item in a list often is preceded by the word and, and a comma is placed before the word. Point out that this rule applies only when there are at least three items in the list.

      Have students turn to page 7. Ask them to identify the list in the first sentence and circle the serial commas. Have them identify how many items are separated by commas in the list (three).

• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board: pencils, paper, notebooks, crayons. Have students use the words to write a sentence using serial commas on a separate piece of paper.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the commas in a series worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Syllable patterns

• Review or explain to students that knowing how to divide words into syllables can help them read and spell words.
• Review the following syllable rules and provide an example of each: each syllable is a beat of a word; every syllable has only one vowel sound, and it may or may not have any consonant sounds; when two consonants come between two vowels, the word is divided between the consonants, such as won-der; a prefix or suffix usually makes a separate syllable, such as long-est; a consonant followed by -le at the end of a word forms a separate syllable, such as tab-le.
• Write the words jellyfish, floating, and animal on the board. Ask students to say each word. Have them tell the number of syllables in each word. Write the numbers that students provide next to each word. Have volunteers come to the board to divide each word into syllables.

      Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board: gracefully, cousins, survivors. Ask students to use the inside back cover of their book to write how each word should be divided into syllables. Discuss their responses.

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

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can 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 them discuss with someone at home how to summarize as they read each section.

Informational Writing Connection
Have students choose from a list of jellyfish species. Ask them to research their specific jellyfish, finding such information as size, color, habitat, and so on. Have them draw or download a picture of their jellyfish and label its body parts.

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

Elements of Nonfiction Connection
Review with students the information in the "Do You Know?" boxes on pages 7, 11 and 13, captions and labels throughout the text, and the sidebar on page 14. Discuss the purpose of incorporating these types of features in the book (to provide clarification and elaboration of the photographs and information on nearby pages; to draw conclusions about information presented in the main body of the text; to visualize places or locations referred to in the text; and/or to make the information more engaging or entertaining). Ask students to explain why it might be beneficial to examine and understand these nonfiction elements in the text as they read.

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 card 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.