Build Background

• Give students a copy of the book. Ask if they've ever found a footprint in the mud and wondered to what or whom it belonged. Encourage them to share their experiences. Discuss why people might want to learn about the many different kinds of prints made by living things.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Guide students to the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Have them discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Preview the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Ask students to turn to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Ask students what they expect to read about based on the chapter titles in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

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

• Explain that good readers often make predictions about what might happen in a book based on what the characters say, do, and think in the story. As they read the story, readers revise or confirm their predictions based on what they learn from reading. Before reading a book, readers can make predictions by reading the title and looking at the illustrations.
• Model using the title and cover illustration to make a prediction as you preview the book.
  Think-aloud: Let's look at the front cover. I see a picture of a boy and a girl looking at a large, irregular footprint in the mud. I have read about scientists finding skeletons and footprints of dinosaurs. Since the title of the book is The Footprint, I think this might be a story about a boy and girl who discover a rare dinosaur. I'll have to read the book to find out.
• Have students preview all the pictures in the story. Have volunteers use the pictures to create a possible beginning, middle, and end for the story. 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: Draw conclusions

• Explain that people draw conclusions as a normal part of life. For example, if a person steps outside in the morning to find the ground wet and clouds in the sky, he or she may draw the conclusion that it has rained recently. However, if the ground is wet and there are no clouds in the sky, he or she may look around for another source of the water, such as a sprinkler. Explain that authors write books knowing that people draw conclusions as they read. Explain that characters in the story can also draw conclusions from their own experiences.
• Ask students to turn to page 4. Read the first page of the story aloud while they follow along silently. Ask students which characters are mentioned (Angie, Jared, mother, father, and Sara). Ask them how the children are related to each other. Discuss that even though the author does not tell readers that Angie and Jared are sister and brother, we can draw that conclusion. Discuss the context clues that lead readers to that conclusion (their mother, their father, their older sister, Sara).
• Think-aloud: To draw conclusions as I read, I look at the context clues to infer the rest of the author's meaning. I know that I will understand the story better when I do this, so I'm going to draw conclusions as I read this story.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As students preview the book, ask them to talk about what they see in the photographs and chapter titles. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Direct students to page 5. Point to the word snorkel. Model how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Explain that the sentences before the word describe Sara getting ready for a diving trip to Mexico. The sentence containing the unfamiliar word says that Sara shouted Where's my snorkel? In the next sentence, Sara says Where's my mask? Point out that the picture shows a pair of swim fins beside Sara on the floor. Explain that these clues indicate that snorkel means a piece of equipment used when diving under the surface of the water. Have students follow along as you reread the sentence on the page to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Point out the glossary at the end of the book. Review or explain that the glossary contains a list of vocabulary words along with their definitions and the pages on which the words are used. Ask a volunteer to read the definition for the word snorkel. Explain that all of the words listed in the glossary are written in bold print within the text.
• Have students repeat this process with the word webbed. Have volunteers explain the meaning of the word by using context clues and then confirm the meaning in the glossary.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book, making predictions about what will happen in the story based on what the characters say, do, and think. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions as they learn more about the events of the story.
• Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Have students fill out the first column, What I predict will happen, before they begin reading.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 12. Encourage students who finish early to go back and reread.
• Model making, revising, and confirming a prediction.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that the story might be about a boy and a girl who discover a rare dinosaur. I read that Jared thinks the footprint may belong to a dinosaur, too. However, Angie thinks it might belong to a bird. The story says the footprint was found in the hard mud. Since I have seen birds walk in the mud before, I am revising my prediction. I think that Angie and Jared discover the footprint of a bird.
• Check for understanding: Have students fill out the middle section of their worksheet, Changes in my prediction, to revise their predictions. Remind them that if their first prediction has already been proven correct, they may use this section to make another prediction about what might happen next in the story.Invite students to read the remainder of the book.

    Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read the word and figure out what it means. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students to explain or show how the strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them understand the story.
• Think-aloud: I predicted that the footprint belonged to a bird, and I wanted to read the story to confirm my prediction. However, Jared found out that the footprint was actually made by their brother Benjamin.
• Ask students to share their predictions about what they thought might happen in the story. Ask them to compare their predictions with what actually happened in the story and to share any predictions that were confirmed. Reassure students by explaining that getting predictions correct is not the purpose of this reading strategy. Making, revising, and confirming predictions is a way to organize information to understand and remember what they have read.
• Independent practice: Have students fill out the column labeled What actually happened on their worksheet.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Direct students to Chapter 2, The Footprint, beginning on page 7. Point out that Angie and Jared drew conclusions about the footprint as they discussed the clues they found. Read the following sentence: "Something with webbed toes made this," Angie said. Ask students what clues led Angie to draw that conclusion (the print was shaped like a narrow fan, it was near the water, and so on). Read the sentence: "Or maybe it's a fossil--a dinosaur print!" Jared exclaimed. Ask students what clues led Jared to draw that conclusion (the mud is hard, he thinks it may be petrified, and so on).
• Independent practice: Have students work with a partner to review Chapter 4, Is It a Bird? Have them identify the conclusions Angie and Jared drew as they researched with Professor Featherwhite. Monitor each group, listening to their responses to check for understanding of the concept.
• Ask volunteers to share other examples in which they drew conclusions as they read. (For instance, students might conclude that Angie and Jared often baby-sit their brother Benjamin. Readers might conclude this from Angie's words, Come on, Jared. Let's get out of here before Dad makes us baby-sit.).

    Extend the discussion: Invite students to discuss a conclusion they have drawn in their life based on clues around them. Have them use the inside front cover of their book to write a description of the event. Encourage students to share what they wrote.

Grammar and Mechanics: Contractions

• Explain that a contraction is two words that have been shortened by replacing one or more letters with an apostrophe.
• Direct students to page 5. Ask them to identify the contraction in the first paragraph (where's). Ask which two words were joined together to make the new word (where and is). Write both the contraction and the two words on the board. Have students identify which letter was dropped to make the contraction (the i in is). Ask a volunteer to read aloud the sentence with the contraction, substituting where is for where's to check if his or her answer makes sense. (Where is my snorkel?)
• Direct students to page 6. Ask them to identify two contractions in the text (I'm and let's). Ask which two words were joined together to make each new word (I and am, let and us). Have volunteers write each contraction and the two words that were joined together on the board. Have them identify which letter was dropped to make each contraction(the u in us, the a in am). Ask volunteers to read the sentences by substituting let us for let's and I am for I'm to check if their answers make sense. (I am a monster!, Let us get out of here before Dad makes us baby-sit.)
• Review or explain that an 's that shows possession is not a contraction, such as in the following sentence: The professor looked closely at Angie's drawing and made a clucking noise. The 's after Angie is not short for is but instead shows that the drawing belongs to Angie. Point out that if students were to read the sentence aloud, substituting is for 's, the sentence would not make sense: The professor looked closely at Angie is drawing and made a clucking noise.

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 9 and circle the contractions It's, hasn't, that's, and we'd. Have them write the two words that stand for each contraction above the contraction. 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. When they have finished, review answers aloud.

Word Work: Past tense

• Write the following sentences on the board and read them aloud to students:
  I play at the park. I played at the park. Have students explain the difference between the two sentences (one sentence says play and one sentence says played).
• Ask a volunteer to circle the verb in each sentence. Explain to students that when -ed is placed at the end of a verb it means that the action happened in the past. Point out that authors often write stories in the past tense to show that events have already happened.
• Have students turn to page 5 in their book and read the sentence Jared shrugged and Angie sighed. Write the sentence on the board. Ask a volunteer to read the sentence in the present tense. (Jared shrugs and Angie sighs.) Write this sentence on the board under the first sentence. Point to the verbs shrugged and shrugs, and invite students to explain the differences between the two words (shrugs has one g and shrugged has two g's; shrugs is in the present tense and shrugged is in the past tense). Explain that if the verb ends with a short vowel-consonant pair, the last letter is doubled.
• Check for understanding: Write the words smile, grab, hop, and smell on the board. Have students use a separate sheet of paper to write sentences using each word in the past tense.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the past tense worksheet. Allow time for discussion afterward.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students ask someone at home if he or she has ever found something they thought was one thing that turned out to be something else. Have the person share what clues helped him or her draw the conclusion.

Writing and Art Connection
Ask students to imagine that Angie and Jared's brother did not make the footprint. Have them create an alternate ending by describing what made the footprint. Remind them that their new ending should make sense with the clues Angie and Jared found throughout the story.

Science Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to research dinosaur fossils. Ask them research dinosaur footprints that have been found, their locations and measurements, and any other interesting facts they may find about them.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make logical predictions based on available pictures and text; revise and/or confirm predictions as they read the book
• analyze the text to draw conclusions as they read
• recognize contractions in text and identify the two words that are joined to make each contraction during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand how verb tense changes the meaning of text during discussion and on a worksheet 

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric