Reading Level:
Q

Word Count:
1,498

Pages:
22 

Text Summary
This book is an interview with Jeff Polcen, lead zookeeper of hoofed mammals at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Readers learn about the animals under Jeff's care and the responsibilities of a lead zookeeper. Zookeeping contains many fascinating facts about the care of giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and gazelles. 

Lesson Objectives

Reading Strategies
Children should use a variety of strategies to determine word meaning and comprehend text. The target strategy for this lesson is: Using context clues. 

Word and Print Skills

Phonics
diphthongs

Word Work
Mechanics: Commas

Targeted Vocabulary Words
Content Words:
zookeeper, hoofed, giraffes, antelope, vultures, species, exhibits, savannah, anesthesia, captivity, immune
These are words that children will encounter in the text. You may want to review and discuss these words and have children add them to the classroom word wall or dictionary. 

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as children work to understand the text. The target comprehension strategy for this lesson is: Main idea and details. 

Visual Learning
Discuss how important the photographs are for giving information that will help children understand a zookeeper's job. You may ask children how the photographs helped them understand the text. 

Before Reading

Introduce the Book
Show children the book. Have them read the title and scan the illustrations to make initial predictions about the main idea or topic.
Ask and say: What do you see on the cover? What do you think this book is about? What do the illustrations tell you about the kind of text this is? Share with the group anything else you can guess from the illustrations or title.  

Build Background
Provide suggestions to elicit prior knowledge and build background. Ask questions that uncover what children already know about the topic. What do they know about zoos and the people who work in zoos?
Ask: What does zookeeping mean? What do you think a zookeeper does? How might we learn more about what a zookeeper does?  

Book Walk
Go through as much of the book as you feel is necessary, pointing out things you think will challenge children when they read. Look at the pictures with children and discuss what they see. You may want to write down some of the words they suggest. This step helps reduce the anxiety that some children feel when they are faced with an unfamiliar book.
Cover and title page
Say and ask: What do you think this book is about? Is it fiction or nonfiction? (Nonfiction) How can we tell from the first few pages? (Headings, illustrations with labels, etc.)
Look through the first few pages.
Say and ask: It looks like there is a lot of information about zookeeping here. How can we make sure we understand and remember as much as possible? (Stop and summarize after each page. Recall important facts and connect them with what we already know about zookeeping)
This book is written in an unusual format. What do you notice about the format? (The book is written in interview format. The questions are in bold type. The interviewer's and Jeff's names are in bold type and underlined. There are no quotation marks around what Jeff says; instead, the text uses colons and typeface to set apart direct quotes) What do you notice about the pictures on the pages? (Each picture has a caption with information)
Last Page
Say and ask: This book also has an index in the back. How is it organized? How might we use this?  

Reading Strategies
Remind children to use any or all of the following strategies to help them in their reading. Ask:

• How will the pictures help you understand the text?
• How does the information you read connect to what you already know?
• What can you do if you don't understand a part you just read? Reread any sentence or page that was difficult to make sure you understand the text. Mark things you don't understand.

Ask children about the strategies they think they will use if they get to a difficult word. You may want to act as a model to show them how it might look or sound when they read. Pretend to read, getting confused or slowing down because you do not understand a part. Model a strategy that may help children gain meaning, such as rereading, asking questions, or looking at the photographs. 

Using the Worksheet
You may introduce the worksheet and have children work on it as they finish reading. 

During Reading

Hand out the books to children and ask them to read the first page.
Say and ask: Please read the first page and be prepared to summarize, or retell in your own words, the main points. What is the main thing you learn about zookeeping on this page?
Have children read the rest of the book independently. You may suggest they read through the book once, and then read a second time, marking important points with highlighters or sticky notes. They may also mark any words or phrases they did not understand or could not pronounce. You can discuss and clarify these later. During this time, you may choose to work with another group or with individuals to monitor their oral reading and comprehension of the text.
Say: I want you to finish reading the book at your own pace. As you read, stop at the end of each page and think about the important points or facts. Read through the book once, then read it again, stopping at the end of each page to mark facts, main points, or words or phrases you don't understand. 

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
Draw the children together again and discuss what they have learned about zookeeping.
Say: Share with the person next to you the important facts you learned about zookeeping.
After children have shared with one another, discuss as a group the most important facts they learned about zookeeping. 

Visual Learning
Ask: How did the photographs help you understand the text? Did the photographs change your understanding of zookeeping? Was it easy to follow the interview?  

Building Skills

Phonics
Introduce or review diphthongs with children. A diphthong is a vowel sound made by gliding from one sound to another in a single syllable: au in cause, aw in claw, ew in new, oi in oil, ou in about, ow in cow, and oy in boy.
Say: Diphthongs are a pairing of two sounds in one syllable that make a new vowel sound by gliding from one sound to the other. Write the diphthongs au –cause, aw –claw, ew –new, oi –oil, ou –about, ow –cow, and oy –boy, on the board. Look at them together and brainstorm or search through the text for words with diphthongs, making a list of diphthong words for the class word wall or dictionary: interview, cows, new, avoid, out, few, pounds, down, about, etc. 

Word Work
Mechanics: Commas
Say: Commas are used to set off information in a sentence. In the sentence Growing up on a farm, I've always liked working with hoofed animals, the comma sets off Growing up on a farm. This phrase is introduced to give you information or background related to the rest of the sentence. He could have said "I grew up on a farm. I've always liked working with hoofed animals." The comma lets you say it all in one complete sentence.
Work through the following sentences with children, putting commas where they are needed.
We run mixed species exhibits where we have birds and mammals that are safe together in the same yard.
We've had a lot of giraffe babies born here so I get to work with them a lot.
Zoo care has progressed a lot so animals live longer than they used to.
So for example each giraffe knows which stall to go into.
As a keeper you have to follow a routine because changing it confuses them.
A few years ago we had ostriches outside in the winter.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Individual Writing:
Say: Interviewing someone is a good way to learn from her or him. You are going to interview a friend to learn more about him or her. If you are going to interview someone, what is the first thing you should do? (Develop questions) How do you develop good questions? (Find out about the subject) Please write four to six questions that will help you learn more about your classmate. Leave space between each question to record his or her response. When you are recording the response, you may need to ask him or her to repeat the response so that you have time to write it down. Interviews can be bound individually or into a class book. 

Science/Social Studies Connection
Design an animal habitat exhibit. In the text, the zookeeper talks about the exhibits being interactive and as natural as possible. Have the students choose an animal and design an exhibit for it. They will need to know as much about the animal as possible: how big it is, what it eats, how it moves, whether it lives in a herd or in isolation, what kind of "furniture" it likes, etc. Children should also think about how animals can be viewed: from above or below, through glass, in open areas, with or without cameras. Have them make a drawing, diagram, model, or diorama of the exhibit. They can include a sample of the "educational material" that would be displayed in the exhibit to teach visitors about the animal. 

Reading Independently
Invite children to reread the book independently or with a partner. They might then look for and read other books about zoos or about the animal they are designing an exhibit for.

Home Connection
Invite children to take the book home to read with their families. Children might also interview a family member. 

Assessment

• Monitor children's responses in the Comprehending the Text section to assess how well they understand the text or story.
• Monitor reading to see if children are using the effective reading strategies.
• Assess children's knowledge of main ideas and details.