Build Background

• Ask students to tell what they think of when they hear the word China. Create a KWL on the board and fill in the first column with things students know about China.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Give students a copy of the book and 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 it might be about. Model how to ask questions as you preview the book.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. After reviewing the chapter titles, model using it as a way to think of questions. Then ask students to share questions they have about China based on the covers and table of contents. Record both your and the students' questions in the second column of the KWL chart. Model asking questions.
• Think aloud: I can use the chapter titles to think of questions I'd like to have answered about China. For example, the first chapter is titled "China: An Amazing Country." This makes me wonder what kinds of things are amazing. I'll write that question on the chart. The next chapter title is "Wild China." I wonder if that means there are wild people, wild places, or wild animals in China. I'll add that question to the chart.
• Have students preview the rest of the book. Show students the title page, photos, illustrations, sidebar text, and glossary. Draw students' attention to the charts on pages 11 and 12. Encourage students to use all of these as ways to think of questions to add the KWL chart on the board. Remind students that no question is ever inappropriate if they truly do not know the answer.
• Show students the index. Explain that the alphabetized list and page numbers tell where they can find information about topics in the book. Tell students that they might use the index to find the answers to some of their questions. For example, tell them if one of their questions is about the population, they can find information about it in the index. Have students tell the page numbers where they would find information about the population of China.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students of the 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 and prefixes and suffixes, or other word endings. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Direct students to the bold word historians on page 14. Read the sentence containing the unfamiliar word. Tell students that you can use context clues, as well as the base word and its suffix ––ian, to figure out the word's meaning. Have students read the first sentence in the paragraph. Have them find the base word for the unfamiliar word (history). Tell students that when the suffix –ian is added to a word, the word means one that does or is interested in something. Explain that in this sentence, the word historian means one who studies history. Tell students that they can use context clues to confirm the meaning. Ask them to find a phrase in the sentence that provides a clue about the word's meaning (…a long and rich history, which has helped shape the country today). Read the sentence using your own words for the unfamiliar word, i.e.; Most people who study history….
• Remind students that they should check whether words make sense by rereading the sentence. Tell them to look for other clues in sentences before and after the sentence containing the unfamiliar word to find or confirm the meaning of the word.
• For additional teaching tips on word attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find factual answers to their questions about China.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Have students read to the end of page 9. Tell them to look for facts about China that will answer their questions. Have them underline important words or phrases in the book. If they finish before everyone else, they should go back and reread.
• When they have finished reading, have students tell what each chapter is about and the interesting facts they found. Circle any questions on the KWL chart that have been answered and add any new questions students have. Model answering a question on the KWL.
• Think aloud: I wanted to know what kinds of things are amazing about China. I found out that it has the largest population in the world, and that 1 out of every 5 people lives there. I think that's pretty amazing. I also found out that it has the third largest river in the world, and a wall that is so big and long it can be seen from outer space. I'd say those things are amazing, too.
• Have students tell questions they found the answers to while reading. Record their responses on the KWL written on the board.
• Tell students to read the remainder of the story. Remind them to look for answers to the other questions written on the KWL, or to think of other questions to add to it. Tell them to write down any questions they have in the page margins of their books and to underline any information that answers a question on the KWL.

    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 the Reading Strategy

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Have students share any other questions they had while they were reading. Discuss how asking questions and looking for the answers as they read keeps them actively involved in the reading process, and helps them understand and remember what they read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main idea and Details

• Introduce and Model: Review or explain that many books are about one thing. Tell students that it is easy to tell what a book like this one is about because the topic is the title of the book. Direct students to the table of contents. Explain that each chapter in this informational book contains main ideas and details about China. Have students look at the first chapter title. Explain that often chapter headings provide a clue about the main idea of a chapter. Model how you would use the headings as clues to figuring out the main idea.
• Think aloud: This chapter heading gives me the idea that this chapter is about China being an amazing country. I know there is a Great Wall in China; I bet that's part of what makes it amazing. I think this chapter might tell me what else about China makes it so amazing. Who has an idea about the main ideas for the second chapter "Wild China"?
• Explain that sometimes a chapter will have a topic sentence that is the main idea, but often the reader must read through all the information in the chapter to arrive at the main idea. Demonstrate how various sentences confirm your idea that the main idea is that China is an amazing country, for example the sentence on page that tells that China has the largest population in the world or the sentence on page 6 that tells about the long history of learning and culture on page 6. Explain that these are details that reinforce the idea of China as an amazing country.
• Check for understanding: As you discuss the main idea and details from the first chapter, write them on the board. Then have students guess from the chapter head what the main idea of the next chapter is. Write their ideas on the board. Guide students to expand on the main idea and find details to support it. Model how to differentiate between important and unimportant information. For example, the detail that pandas spend 16 hours a day eating bamboo is interesting, but it isn't vital to understanding the main idea that China has many natural places and living things, some of which are in danger from people.
• Discussion: Read the section on The Great Wall of China on page 7 with students. Tell students that this boxed text isn't part of the main text of the chapter, but that it still has clues in it about the main idea of the chapter. Explain that the boxed text has a main idea of it's own, too. Have students look at the Do You Know? on page 13, ask them what the main idea is in the boxed text. Ask them to tell how the main idea of the boxed text is a supporting detail of the chapter's main idea. Ask whether they think it's important or unimportant to understanding the main idea of the chapter to know that the Chinese eat three times more fish than Americans. Tell them that many times authors will include boxed text like this to give you more information about a particular detail in the main text of the book, but that often it is an unimportant detail. Have students look at the boxed text on pages 16 and 17. Have them determine the main idea of the chapter and whether the boxed text is important or not to understanding that main idea.
• Tell students that they will now be able to determine the main idea and important details of the other chapters in the book.
• Independent Practice: Have students complete the main idea/detail worksheet. Discuss their responses.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

• Review or explain that adjectives are words used to describe nouns and pronouns. Ask students to suggest adjectives to describe the Great Wall of China. Write these on the board. If students do not offer the adjectives long and large, add them to the list.
• Have students look at the box titled "The Great Wall of China" on page 7. Read the paragraph with students. Explain that most of the time when 2 people, places, or things are being compared –an -r or -er is added to the word. Tell students that because the word long ends with a consonant, an -er is added. Demonstrate adding -r to the adjective large.
• Explain that in this paragraph the author is comparing the Great Wall to all of the walls in the world, and to all of the structures built by hand. Tell students that when more than 2 people, places, or things are being compared -st or -est are added to the adjective. Write the words longest and largest on the board.
• Write the following sentences on the board. Check for understanding by having students identify the correct adjective for each and tell what is being compared.

1. Asia is the ( larger, largest) continent in the world.
2. China has the (great, greatest) population in the world.
3. The Nile River is (bigger, biggest) than the Yangtze.

   Have students underline the comparative and superlative adjectives in the book. Tell them to write what is being compared in the page margin. Discuss their responses.

Vocabulary: Contractions

• Review or explain that a contraction is a word made by joining 2 words. Tell students that when the words are joined, a letter or letters are left out. Explain that an apostrophe is used to show where the missing letter or letters would be. Write the word you'd on the board and have students find it on page 4. Explain that in this contraction several letters have been replaced by the apostrophe. Write the words you and would on the board under the contraction. Ask a volunteer to come to the board and draw a line through the letters that have been left out of the contraction.
• Write the contraction he'd on the board. Ask students to tell what 2 words have been joined to make it. Students will most likely offer one of the words just reviewed, would. Write the words under the contraction. Tell students that this contraction can also be made using a different word. Write the words he and had under the contraction. Ask a student to tell which letters have been replaced by the apostrophe. Tell students that the only way to know which contraction would be correct is to read how it is used in the sentence.
• Check for understanding by having students turn to the inset on page 7 to find a contraction (it’s). Have them tell the 2 words that have been joined and what letter the apostrophe replaces.
• Click here for a contraction worksheet.
• Extend the activity: Have students find the contractions in the book. Have them write the words that were joined to form each (you'd, that's, it's, you'll, you've).

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. 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 Connection

• Provide Internet resources for students to research additional Chinese symbols. Discuss the Mandarin language and explain that it is not written in the same way the English language is. Have students use the symbols to tell something about themselves. Tell them to write the words in English on the back of the paper. Display students' work along with a Chinese character chart and encourage students to decipher one another's sayings.

Social Studies Connection

• Provide print and Internet resources for students to research China. Have them find one fact that they did not read about in the book. Tell them to find at least one detail that provides additional information about it. Have students share the information with the group.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• ask questions they think might be answered in the book by looking at parts of the book before they read it and then use what they read to answer those questions
• correctly state the main idea of each chapter and determine the relevant supporting details from the irrelevant details
• recognize that -r and -er are added to words to show comparison of 2 things, people, or places, and that -st and -est are added to words to show comparison between more than 2 things, people, or places
• make and use contractions and recognize that some contractions can represent more than one two-word combination

Comprehension Checks