Text Type: Nonfiction/Persuasive
Page Count: 20
Word Count: 1,167 

Book Summary
Do you think animals are capable of love? The author of this book does. She also believes that animals can feel and demonstrate loyalty, friendship, tenderness, and compassion. As evidence of this, she presents several different examples of real-life animals and how they show emotion. When you finish reading, will you agree or disagree with the author's point of view?

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summaring to understand text
• Analyze author's purpose in the text
• Identify and use compound sentences
• Understand the meaning of compound words

Materials

• Book -- Animals Feel Emotions (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Summarize, compound sentences, compound words worksheets

   Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reusable.)

Vocabulary

• Content words: abandon, amputated, compassion, devotion, ecstatically, eventually, evidence, instincts, loyalty, malignant, passive, rambunctious

Build Background

• Ask students to name types of emotions. List these on the board or chart paper. Have students describe each emotion.
• Ask students whether they have any pets. If so, ask them whether their pet loves them and how their pet shows love. Discuss their responses. Then say: Do you agree or disagree with the author's statement: Animals Feel Emotions? Let's see if you change your mind after reading the author's arguments.

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 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.
• Write the words Who, What, When, Where, and Why on the board. Read pages 4 and 5 aloud to students and model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is the most important to remember in a section. To do this, I will try to answer as many of the following questions: who or what the section was about, what happened, and when and why it happened. Then I can organize that information into a few sentences. This section is mostly about animals and emotions. The author believes that animals feel emotion but notes that other people believe these feelings are just instincts. I will write animals, emotions, and instincts under the word What. The author supports her belief that animals feel emotions with stories about animal loyalty, friendship, tenderness, compassion, and parental care that go beyond instinct. I will write this information under the word Why. When I organize all of this information, a summary of the introduction might be: Although some people believe that animal behavior is based on instinct, the author strongly feels that animals feel emotion. Animals show loyalty, friendship, tenderness, compassion, and parental care.
• Write the summary on the board. Discuss how you used the information in the chart, along with your own words, to create the 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: Author's purpose

• Write the following terms on the board: inform, entertain, persuade. Invite students to share what they already know about the meaning of each word.
• Define each word for students and write the definitions on the board (inform: to give someone information about something; entertain: to amuse someone; persuade: to try to make someone think the same way you do).
• Ask students to think of an example of each purpose from their recent reading. If needed, give examples, such as a fable, a social studies or science passage, and an advertisement.
• Think-aloud: Authors write for different reasons. Some write to provide facts about something. For example, a passage from the social studies book might provide me with information about ________. However, the purpose of the advertisement is to make me think I need to have this product/service. The purpose is not to teach me something. Sometimes authors intend to entertain with their writing. The story, The Three Little Pigs, entertains readers with a story about three pigs outsmart a wolf.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write each of the content vocabulary words in the glossary on a separate piece of paper. Place the papers around the room. Have groups of students rotate to each word to discuss and write what they know about the word's meaning. After the groups have rotated to each word, discuss as a class what each group wrote. Create a class definition for each word based on the discussion.
• Ask students to turn to the glossary on page 20. Review with them that the glossary contains a list of important (and perhaps unfamiliar) words from the text, a short definition of each word, and the page number on which it can be found. Remind students that these are the words they will find bolded in the text.
• Ask students to point to the word compassion in the glossary. Ask a volunteer to read the definition and page number. Ask students to turn to page 5 and read the sentence in which the word occurs. Ask them whether the definition in the glossary helped them to either understand the word or confirm what they thought it meant. Compare the glossary definition to students' definition for the word.
• Return to the glossary and continue reading the words and definitions. Compare each glossary definition to students' definition.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read Animals Feel Emotions, stopping after each section to mentally summarize the section and think about the author's purpose and opinion.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 6 to the end of page 10. Encourage those who finish before others to reread the section.
• Model summarizing important information in the second section, "An Elephant's Dilemma."
  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 a baby elephant named Ely was born unable to stand. I underlined baby and unable to stand. I also learned that when the herd moved on for food, Echo, Ely's mother, as well as his sister, Enid, stayed behind with him. I underlined Echo and stayed with Ely in the book. I read that Ely eventually was able to walk, and the three elephants joined up with the herd. Ely's mother displayed patience and love for her son. I will also underline the words patient, loving mother in the book.
• Write the underlined information on the board. Have students share any additional information they underlined that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Write this information on the board. Create a summary with students based on the information on the board. (When Ely, a baby Elephant was born, he was unable to stand or walk. Ely's mother chose to stay with her son rather than join the herd to look for food. After much patience and love from his mother, Ely was able to walk and rejoin the herd with his mother and sister.)
• Review the events that happened so far in the story. Discuss what might be the author's purpose for writing the story. (The book persuades readers to believe that animals show emotions by providing information about how a mother elephant shows patience and love for her son.) Ask studnets to tell whether the story of the elephants helped to convince them that animals feel emotions.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 14. Remind them to underline information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why while reading. Divide students into groups. Have each group write a brief summary of the section on a separate piece of paper. Have them share and discuss their summaries.
• Review the events of the second section. Discuss how the events of the section support one or more of the three purposes for writing.

    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 the words and figure out their 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.
• 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 animal emotions because I summarized as I read the book.
• Divide students into pairs. Assign each pair the remaining section of the book ("Malamute Mates"). Have each group discuss the information they underlined in the section.
• Independent practice: Introduce and explain to students the summarize worksheet. Have students use the information from their group discussion to write a summary of the section. When they have finished, share and discuss their summaries aloud.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review the three reasons why authors write (to inform, entertain, or persuade). Ask students what they think the author's purpose was for writing this book (persuade). Ask students whether they think the author was successful defending her argument.

   Independent practice: Have students mark examples in the book where the author persuaded readers. Have them write a brief paragraph that explains how the author persuaded readers about animal emotions and to explain their opinion about the topic.

• Enduring understanding: Authors, like advertisers, often try to persuade readers to believe their point of view. After reading this book, what things did the author do that helped or did not help you agree with her opinion? How may this help you the next time you read or write a persuasive text?

Grammar and Mechanics: Compound sentences

• Write the following sentence on the board: His front legs were bent at the wrist joints, and he couldn't straighten them. Ask students to identify two separate sentences within this longer sentence. (His front legs were bent at the wrist. He couldn't straighten them.)
• Point out that the original sentence is an example of a compound sentence. Review or explain that a compound sentence is a sentence consisting of two or more simple sentences separated by a comma and a conjunction.
• Review examples of conjunctions with students (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet). Write these examples on the board. Ask students to identify the conjunction that joined the two parts of the original sample sentence (and).
• Discuss why the author chose to join two sentences of similar content together (compound sentences with conjunctions help writers make their writing more fluent and interesting).
• Write the following sentence on the board: Echo tried to lift him with her trunk, but the calf simply couldn't walk. Ask a volunteer to come to the board to identify and circle the conjunction (but).
• Have students identify the two sentences that the conjunction connects. (Echo tried to lift him with her trunk. The calf simply couldn't walk.) Discuss how the conjunction and comma connect the two sentences, replacing the period and capital letter T in the second sentence.

    Check for understanding: Have students locate compound sentences in the book. Ask them to underline these sentences and circle each conjunction and comma. When students have finished, discuss their answers.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound sentences worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Compound words

• Write the word outside on the board. Ask students which two words they see in outside (out and side). Explain that this word is called a compound word. A compound word has two parts that make up one word meaning.
• Write the following sentence on the board: Echo was in a herd of elephants being filmed for a wildlife movie. Have students identify the compound word in the sentence (wildlife). Explain that the definitions of the two separate words can help students figure out the meaning of the bigger word (life that is wild).

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 10. Ask them to identify and circle the compound word on the page (filmmakers). Have them write the two words contained in the compound word above the word. Discuss how the meanings of the two words offer clues to the meaning of the compound word.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

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 ask someone at home whether he or she thinks animals are capable of emotions.

Persuasive Writing Connection
Review with students the meaning of the word persuade. Show students various examples of advertisements from magazines. Then ask them to work in pairs to design an advertisement to persuade people about a topic, such as getting a pet. 

Elements of Nonfiction Connection
Review the photographs throughout the book. Read the caption under each photograph with students. Discuss the purpose of placing captions under photographs (to provide clarification and elaboration of each photograph and information on nearby pages; to draw conclusions about information in the main body of the text). Ask students to explain why it might be beneficial to examine and understand these nonfiction elements in the text as they read.