Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 12
Word Count: 555

Book Summary
On Eagle River is a story about young Devon's first canoe fishing trip with his grandpa. His older brother has told him all about what fishing with Grandpa is like, so he is very excited and nervous all at once. Devon listens carefully to Grandpa's instructions and helps him maneuver the canoe down the river. The afternoon is peaceful and the wildlife beautiful--he only hopes the stories of snakes and 'gators aren't true! Illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Analyze characters in the text
• Recognize past-tense verbs in the text; double consonants before adding the -ed suffix when necessary
• Understand and identify the use of synonyms

Materials

• Book -- On Eagle River (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Dictionaries
• Visualize, analyze characters, past-tense verbs, synonyms 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: bow, canoe, catfish, gingerly, maneuver, riverbank, slithering, snag, sycamore, whirlpools

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever gone fishing with someone special, such as a grandparent, parent, or sibling. Ask volunteers to share their experiences.
• Show students pictures of a canoe and its paddles. Talk about how canoes handle in the water and what it is like to steer one. Talk about the differences between an experience in a paddleboat versus a motorboat (nonmotorized boats are slower, quieter, and so on).

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, author's name, illustrator's name).

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, while reading. Visualizing is based on the words used in the text and what a person already knows about a topic.
• Read pages 3 and 4 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after a few pages to create a picture in my mind of the information I've read. This helps me organize the important information and understand the ideas in the book. For example, on page 4, the author describes the setting. I pictured towering sycamore trees overhead and a bald eagle majestically spreading its strong wings against the blue sky.
• Reread pages 3 and 4 aloud to students. Ask them to use the words in the story to visualize. Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Have students draw on the worksheet what they visualized from the text on pages 3 and 4. Invite them to share their drawings.
• 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 characters

• Explain that there are many ways to learn about a character in a story. One way is to examine a character's words or thoughts. Another way is to examine the actions of the character. Explain to students that an author uses a character's words, thoughts, and actions to give the reader insight into a character's personality, relationships, and motivations, and the conflicts he or she may face.
• Ask students to return to page 3. Model how to analyze a character based on his or her actions.
  Think-aloud: As I read page 3, I found out that Devon is riding in a canoe with his grandpa. It says that he clung to the sides of the canoe until it stopped its gentle rocking. Based on these clues, Devon appears to be cautious and a little nervous. This information provides insight into Devon's character. It helps me predict what he might and might not do in the story.
• Introduce and explain the analyze characters worksheet. Have students write the information from the discussion on their worksheet.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the following words from the content vocabulary on the board: maneuver, sycamore, and gingerly.
• Give groups of students three pieces of blank paper. For each word, have them write or draw what they know about the word. Create a definition for each word using students' prior knowledge.
• Point out that this book does not contain a glossary. Review or explain that a dictionary contains a list of words and their definitions.
• Model how students can use the dictionary to find a word's meaning. Have students locate the word maneuver in the dictionary. Invite a volunteer to read the definition for maneuver. Have students compare the definition with their prior knowledge of the word. Then have students follow along on page 3 as you read the sentence in which the word maneuver is found to confirm the meaning of the word. Repeat the exercise with the remaining vocabulary words.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out more about Devon and his fishing trip with Grandpa. Remind them to stop after every few pages to visualize the most important information and draw on their worksheet what they visualized about it.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 5 to the end of page 8. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread. Have students draw what they visualized during one or more events of the story on their visualize worksheet.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: On page 5, I read about Grandpa's canoe slipping gently through the water. I pictured a leaf silently floating through the air, drifting smoothly down to the ground. I pictured Grandpa's wooden canoe moving with the same gentle ease, silently floating on the calm, still water.
• Invite students to share their drawings of what they visualized while reading. Have them explain their drawings aloud.
• Based on the information read so far, ask students why Devon might be considered to be respectful. (He carefully listened to Grandpa's instructions. He paddled just how and when Grandpa instructed.) Ask students to think of other words they might use to describe Devon (patient). Have students write the information from the discussion on their analyze characters worksheet.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 10. Have them visualize the information in the text as they read. Ask students to draw what they visualized on their visualize worksheet. Invite students to share what they visualized. Have students look at the illustration on page 7. Point to the thought bubble over Devon's head and explain that the illustration shows what Devon is visualizing as Clay is telling his story. Have them look at both characters' faces to see how they are feeling. Encourage students to add details such as facial expressions to their own drawings.
• Ask students to explain how Devon's personality is different from Grandpa's (both love to relax and enjoy the peaceful river, but Grandpa is confident and secure in his surroundings, while Devon is cautious and unsure). Encourage students to write the information discussed on their analyze characters worksheet. Then have them write clues text clues they found that support their answers on their worksheet. Have students share their responses from the text.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize as they read the rest of the story. Remind them to continue thinking about the important events of the story as they read.

      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.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Think-aloud: On page 9, I read that the land drew closer and Devon and Grandpa prepared to stop at the riverbank. I pictured the cool green whirlpools swirling past the canoe's bow. I pictured the canoe slowly gliding through the calm water, pointing toward the peaceful shore.
• Ask students to explain how the strategy of visualizing helped them understand and enjoy the story. Ask them to find another example in which the illustrator drew what Devon was visualizing (page 12: the 'gator getting the snake).
• Independent practice: Have students complete the visualize worksheet. If time allows, have them share their drawings.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the characteristics of Devon that students identified from the first page of the story and those written in the first section of the chart on the board (cautious, nervous). Review the other character traits later identified as Devon's (careful, patient, unsure, good-natured).
• Independent practice: Have students complete the analyze characters worksheet, finishing their character trait analysis of Devon, Grandpa, and Clay. If time allows, discuss their responses.
• Enduring understanding: In this story, a boy embarks on a new adventure with his grandfather but is distracted by stories that his older brother has told him. Now that you know this information, why is it important to talk to someone right away when you're worried about something instead of letting it bother you unnecessarily?

Grammar and Mechanics: Past-tense verbs

• Direct students to the last sentence on page 11. Ask them to identify the verbs in the sentence (jumped, threw, tugged). Explain that these are past-tense verbs, which describe an action that happened in the past. Write the term past tense on the board.
• Write the term present tense on the board. Explain that present-tense verbs describe an action that is happening in the present, or right now. Ask students to name the present-tense forms of jumped, threw, and tugged (jump, throw, tug).
• Point out that the verbs jumped and tugged are changed to past-tense verbs by adding the -ed suffix. Discuss how these are examples of a regular past-tense verbs. Point out that threw is an irregular past tense verb because its past tense is formed without adding -d or -ed.
• Explain that when adding the -ed suffix to a regular past-tense verb, sometimes it is necessary to double the consonant before adding the -ed. If the word's last two letters are a vowel followed by a consonant, the final consonant is doubled before adding the suffix. For example, the last two letters of the present-tense verb tug are a vowel and a consonant (-ug), so the final consonant (g) is doubled before adding the -ed to make the past-tense verb tugged.
• Ask students to turn to page 10 and identify the regular past-tense verbs (swallowed, asked, stopped, answered). Have them identify the present tense of these verbs (swallow, ask, stop, answer). Write these examples on the board under the present tense and past tense categories. Ask which verb needed its final consonant doubled before the suffix was added (stopped). Point out that the word stop ends with a vowel followed by a consonant.
• Check for understanding: Write the present-tense verbs crawl, grow, and rip on the board. Have students work in pairs to create past- and present-tense sentences using these verbs. Have them share their examples aloud and tell how each past-tense verb is spelled.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the past-tense verbs worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Synonyms

• Direct students to page 3. Have them find and read the sentence in which the word gently is found. Ask students to identify the meaning of the word.
• Tell students that many other words mean the same thing as gently. Explain that instead of repeating the same word several times, authors may choose to vary the text by using synonyms, or words that mean the same thing. Ask students to think of other words for gently (lightly, quietly, softly, and so on). Ask students if the new words make sense in the sentence.

      Have students locate and circle a synonym for gently on page 4 in their book. Discuss their responses.

• Check for understanding: Have students read the last sentence on page 11. Ask them to think of a synonym for the word tugged that would make sense in the sentence (hauled, pulled, pushed, towed, yanked, and so on).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the synonyms worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to 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 students practice visualizing the story with someone at home and then comparing the pictures they created in their mind.

Realistic Fiction Writing Connection
Have students think about a time when they did something or went somewhere special with someone they love. Have them write a story about a character who participated in this activity, describing what it was he/she did, who he/she was with, why it was special, and how it made him/her feel. Invite students to illustrate and share their writing aloud when finished.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on realistic fiction writing.

Science Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to learn more about river fishing. Have them find out what kinds of fish live in rivers, what methods of fishing are typically used, and what materials people need to go fishing. Give students index cards and instruct them to write these facts on the cards along with any other interesting information they discover. Lead a roundtable discussion in which students share their findings and discuss the details.

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.