Text Type: Nonfiction Report / Explanation
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 1,742 

Text Summary
Gems fascinate almost everyone; they sparkle, shimmer, and glimmer with mystery and beauty. This leveled reader explains how gems are formed, how they are valued, and the processes by which they become jewelry. At the end of the book, students can read about some of the most famous gems. Informative and beautiful photographs accompany the book. 

About the Lesson 

Objectives

• Understand cause/effect relationships in explanatory text
• Identify simple, compound, and complex sentences and their parts
• Identify English words with non-English origins 

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Make predictions 

Materials

• Book - Gems: Treasures from the Earth (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry-erase board
• Cause-and-Effect, Sentence Types, Anticipation Guide worksheets
• Word journal (optional)

    Indicates an opportunity to use the book interactively (all activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are not consumable) 

Vocabulary

• atoms, crystals, cultured (pearls), embedded, facets, grain (of stone), lapidaries, nacre, opaque, organic gems, (coral) polyps 

Build Background

• Have students tell you what they know about precious stones. Ask whether they think they can define what a gem is and give examples.
• Give students the Anticipation Guide worksheet. Explain that the guide uses vocabulary from the book. Some of the statements are true and others are false. Students are to read the statements and make predictions about whether they are true or not based on what they already know about gems. Reinforce that there is no right or wrong answer at this point, but that you want students to think about each statement and make logical predictions based on what they know. 

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Make predictions

• Give students their copies of the book and have them look at the front and back covers and read the title. Ask students if the cover information gives them more ideas about the topic of gems.
• Have students turn to the table of contents and read the chapter heads. Have them look at their anticipation guides and suggest which chapters might provide information about the statements on the guide.
• Think aloud: There are several statements on the guide about the types of gems. I think that chapter beginning on page 16 will probably give me the information I need to check whether the statements are true or false.
• Have students preview the diagrams, maps, and photo illustrations in the book. Encourage them to comment and question what they see.
• Click here for more reading and word-attack strategies. 

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Point out the words on the anticipation guide that students will be looking for as they read: ruby, crystals, coral, carat, emerald, clarity. Many words are associated with different types of gems and the processes by which they are formed.
• Have students look in the table of contents to find the glossary. Have students turn to the glossary. Explain how to use it.

    Have students mark any words they find that are particularly associated with the topic of gems. 

Introduce the Comprehension    Skill: Cause-and-effect in explanatory text

• Model cause-and-effect: Point out to students that the text is partly a report that provides facts about gems. It also includes some explanatory text that tells them how the different types of gems are formed and how the gems are turned into jewelry. Point out that an explanation often includes cause-and-effect relationships. Review cause-and-effect.
• Think-aloud: Explanations tell me processes, and processes often have cause-and-effect relationships. I look for words like first, when, then, second, last, finally, and after. They tell me that the steps are going in a certain order, possibly because one step causes another. I also look for action verbs rather than to-be verbs. Actions can signal a sequence of events.
• Check for understanding: Read the paragraph on page 7 with students. Ask them what the purpose of this paragraph is. Point out action verbs that show that something is happening. For example: form, squeezed, forces, melts, cools, evaporates. Ask students to point out one cause-and-effect relationship in the paragraph (mineral is squeezed--atoms arrange themselves in smallest shape possible; mineral gets hot--melts--cools--sapphires formed; minerals dissolve in water--water evaporates slowly--mineral left behind forms crystal.) 

Set the Purpose

• Tell students that they will read the explanations closely, looking for cause-and-effect relationships.
• Introduce and explain the Cause-and-Effect worksheet. Students will be writing the explanations with their steps in order to preserve the cause-and-effect relationships.

Guide the Reading

• Ask students to read to the end of page 7 and then pause. If they finish before the others, they should go back and reread the pages. When students have all read to page 7, have them refer to the Anticipation Guide to see if they can confirm any of the statements. They should be able to check statements number 1 and 2. Have them revise the statements by writing in the correct information.
• Ask students if they want to revise any of their true or false answers before continuing their reading.
• Have students read the rest of the book and look for further information.
• As students read, monitor their reading and intervene to help them work out words that they are having difficulty with.

    Tell students to write a question mark in their books beside any word or phrase they do not understand. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows. 

Reflect on Reading Strategies

• Ask students what strategies they used to work out unfamiliar words. Have them tell you any places in the text that they have marked with a question mark, and model strategies they might use to work out the words.
• Talk about how making predictions prior to reading and during reading helps them understand the information in the text.
• Have students confirm the information on the Anticipation Guide. Allow time for them to discuss their answers and complete the worksheet. 

Apply the Comprehension    Skill: Cause-and-effect in explanatory text

• Discussion: Have students tell you in their own words what they learned about how crystals are formed. Point out the cause-and-effect relationships in the process. Emphasize that the sequence of events is critical because one event causes the next. Have them check the book to confirm their answers.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the Cause-and Effect worksheet. Guide them as needed.
• Extend the discussion: Have students share their worksheets. Discuss other aspects on the topic of gems, such as the four C’s and what they mean, and the Mohs scale. Point out the sidebars and have students tell you what they learned from reading them. 

Vocabulary: Word origins

• Have students reread the sidebar on page 13. Discuss what the word carat means and the origin of the word. Have students reread the sidebar on page 10 to find out where the name of the Australian opal-mining town Coober Pedy comes from. Ask students to think of towns in their state, province, or country whose names have come other cultures or languages (such as Native American or European).
• Provide or have students brainstorm a list of commonly used words derived from other cultures, such as café, ballet, soldier, taco, coyote, maize, moose, chic, and bureau. Discuss where the words originated. Have students use a dictionary to check the origins. 

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Simple, compound, and complex sentences and their parts

• Review the three types of sentences: simple (subject, verb), compound (subject, verb, conjunction, subject, verb) and complex (phrase, subject, verb, phrase). Review that many sentences have objects, or things that the subject and verb act upon. Objects do not affect the sentence type.
• Provide examples on the board of each type of sentence. Simple: Crystals are very pure minerals. (subject: crystals; verb: are; object: very pure minerals) Compound: Some crystals form cubes, but others form columns. (subject: some crystals; verb: form; object: cubes; conjunction: but; subject: others; verb: form; object: columns). Complex: Stones often form in layers that make streaks and lines called the grain. (subject: stones; verb: often form; phrase: in layers; phrase: that make streaks and lines called the grain)
• Explain how to determine the difference between the three types of sentences. Simple sentences have just a subject and verb, and sometimes an object. Compound sentences are two complete simple sentences joined by a conjunction. Complex sentences are a simple sentence with a phrase attached. Review that a phrase is a part of a sentence that can have a subject, verb, or both, but does not form a complete sentence. Review how to read a phrase standing alone to determine whether it is a phrase or a complete sentence.
• Introduce and explain the Sentence Type worksheet. Students will determine whether the sentences are simple, compound, or complex, and then they will circle and label the separate parts of the sentences as subjects, verbs, conjunctions, or phrases.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Have partners take turns reading alternate pages. 

Home Connection

• Have students take their books home to share with family members. 

Writing

• Have students select one of the gems from the book and write a more detailed description of it. Have them research the gem first to find additional information. 

Social Studies Connection

• Have students research the major gem mines and collection locations around the world and put them on a world map. They can also research the mining techniques that apply to each gem. Which gems are the hardest to take from the earth? What do students think this does to the value of a gem?

Monitor students as they interact during group activities, and review their completed worksheets to determine if they can:

• make logical predictions while previewing the book.
• identify cause-and-effect relationships used in the explanatory sections of the text.
• understand that many of our words come from different cultures.
• Identify different sentence types and their parts.