The International T-Shirt Challenge

The International T-Shirt Challenge
Level S

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 20
Word Count: 1,095

Book Summary
The International T-Shirt Challenge features two friends who challenge each other with weekly questions. This week's puzzler, labeled the International T-Shirt Challenge, challenges one of the friends to spend $500 on T-Shirts in five different countries. Using his weblog, he attempts to get information from kids all around the world to help complete the challenge. Photographs, illustrations, and charts support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to understand the text
Interpret charts
Identify compound sentences used in the text
Identify and create compound words

Materials

Book -- The International T-Shirt Challenge (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Prediction, 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: currency, euros, Internet, phenomenal, pesetas, pounds, rands, rupees, search engine, strategy, stumpers, weblog

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students if they have ever held a contest with a friend in which they challenged the other, either mentally or physically (sports, test scores, and so on). Encourage them to share their experiences.
Explain to students that in this story, two students have a continuing game in which they challenge the other to find answers to difficult questions. Ask them to think of resources they might use to find useful information to answer questions (books, the Internet, 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 and what it might be about.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author'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 in the book based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

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

Explain to students that good readers often make predictions about what will happen in a book based on the series of events and 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 use the title and illustrations as the basis for making predictions.
Model using the title and cover illustrations to make a prediction.
Think-aloud: When I look at the front cover, I see a picture of two T-shirts. I also see different sorts of coins. It seems as though this money could be from different parts of the world. The title of the book is The International T-Shirt Challenge. I remember that the word international means two or more countries. I wonder if the story is about T-shirts from different countries. I predict that the challenge involves getting T-shirts from different places around world. I'll have to read the book to confirm or revise my prediction.
Create a four-column chart on the board with the headings Make, Revise, Confirm, and Actual. Model writing a prediction in the first column, Make. (For example: The challenge involves getting T-shirts from different places around the world.)
Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Have students preview the covers of the book and the title page. Ask them to make a prediction before they begin reading and write it on their worksheet in the Make column. Discuss with students that the reasons behind their predictions are what make their predictions valuable. Invite them to share their predictions and why they think that event might happen.
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: Interpret charts

Explain to students that many books use charts and graphs to illustrate important concepts. Point out that there are many different types of charts that contain different types of information. Ask them to tell types of information they've seen presented in charts.
Explain to students that looking carefully at the information presented in a chart can help readers understand important information.
Model how to create a chart.
Think aloud: I would like to create a chart that records the different hair colors represented in this room. First, I need to gather information. I notice that there are different colors of hair: (list the colors appropriate to your classroom). I will write these on the board. Next, I will make a tally mark next to a hair color for each person in the room. (Draw a chart on the board with as many columns as there are colors of hair in the classroom.) Now I want to organize this information into a chart that clearly presents all of this information. I will write a label on top of each of the four columns, each with a different hair color. Then I can count up the tally marks from each hair color on the board and record the numbers in the correct columns on the chart. (Have volunteers come to the board to fill in the columns with the correct totals of the tally marks.)
Discuss the chart with students. Ask them to share the conclusions they drew from the information it contains. Have students tell the main idea of the chart (Number of People with a Certain Hair Color in the Classroom), and write it above the chart on the board.
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 Vocabulary

Write the following content vocabulary words from the book on index cards: dollar, rupee, rand, pound, and euro. Practice saying the words aloud with students. Have students explain what they know about these words. Explain that they are all different types of currency, or money, from around the world.
Write the countries South Africa, Spain, United States, England, and India on the board. Discuss with students from which country each type currency is used (South Africa: rand; Spain: euro; United States: dollar; England: pound; India: rupee). Have volunteers locate each place on the board and attach the content vocabulary word card to the map.
Give groups of students pictures of, or actual examples of, each of these types of currency. Have them discuss similarities and differences between the types of currency.
Invite students to share any other country's form of currency they know about.
For 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.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 9. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread these pages.
Model revising a prediction.
Think-aloud: I predicted that the challenge would involve getting T-shirts from different places around the world. As I read, I learned that the challenge doesn't actually involve purchasing actual T-shirts from around the world. However, it does involve learning about how much T-shirts cost in different countries around the world. I inferred this information because Web Boy's friend tells him to spend an imaginary $500 on T-shirts among five countries. That means he will have to find out how much a T-shirt costs in five different countries. I'm revising my prediction to: Web Boy will get posts on his weblog from kids from many different countries. He will have to do a lot of math in order to find out which currencies will get him closer to $500. I will write this prediction on my chart next to my original prediction in the Revise column.
Encourage students to use the information they've read and discussed to revise or confirm their prediction. Have them write their new prediction under the heading Revise on their worksheet. Remind them that if their first prediction has been confirmed or has not yet been proven, they may write another prediction in the Make column of their worksheet. Model for students how to think through whether or not their predictions were confirmed, and if not, why not. Help them to think about whether or not their reasons for their prediction were valid.
Have students turn to page 9 and look at the chart that Web Boy created. Ask what headings have been established (Country-Currency, Store, T-Shirt Price, Number, Total Price, and Change). Ask how many rows Web Boy has created to hold information (7). Ask students to think about the details of the project, and ask them what conclusions can be drawn about how the chart was set up. (Web Boy is trying to find the five countries that get him closest to spending $500 instead of just getting information from five countries; the categories he establishes on his chart provide him with detailed information about the number of T-shirts purchased with the least amount of the $500 left.)
Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 15. When they have finished reading, have them share their predictions and the outcome of their predictions. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions and write what actually happened on their worksheet.
Ask students to look at the chart on page 15. Ask them what conclusions can be drawn (T-shirts in the United States and India have a similar cost, South-African T-shirts are the cheapest, Australian T-shirts are the most expensive, and so on).
Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and confirm their predictions as they read the rest of the story.

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.

After Reading

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 predicted that Web Boy would get posts on his weblog from kids from many different countries and would have to do a lot of math in order to find out which currencies would get him closer to $500. My prediction was correct. I learned that Web Boy received six responses to his question, making a total of seven countries (including his own) represented on the chart. However, he did do a lot of calculations to find out which countries' currencies would total the closest to $500. I will write this information next to my prediction under the heading Actual.
Independent practice: Have students complete their prediction worksheet. Invite them to share their predictions, reasoning, and revisions, and to tell how their predictions related to the actual outcome of the story. Ask students to explain how the strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them understand and enjoy the story.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Discussion: Review the information in the completed chart on page 18. Ask students to identify the main idea of the chart. (T-shirt prices vary in different countries.) Create a title for the chart. Have students identify supporting details from the chart (none of the prices per T-shirt were the same, T-shirt prices were the highest in Australia, and so on).
Independent practice: On a separate sheet of paper, have students gather information and create a chart that represents information from their immediate area, such as the price of the same item at different stores or the number of students in each grade level at their school. Check individual data and charts for demonstration of understanding.
Enduring understanding: In this story, you learned about currency and the price of goods in different countries. Now that you know this information, why do you think currency is different from place to place, even though we all live in the same world?

Build Skills

Grammar and Mechanics: Compound sentences

Write the following sentence on the board: I composed a post for my weblog, and then I posted it. Ask students to identify the two separate sentences within this longer sentence. (I composed a post for my weblog. Then I posted it.)
Point out to students 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 with students examples of conjunctions (and, but, for, or, so, and yet). Write these examples on the board.
Ask students to identify the word that joined the two parts of the sentence on the board (and). Discuss how the conjunction and comma connect the two sentences, taking the place of the period in the second sentence.
Discuss how the author chose to link these two sentences instead of writing two short sentences, one after another. Invite students to explain a purpose for using compound sentences in writing (compound sentences with conjunctions help make writing more fluent).
Write the following sentence from page 14 on the board: Our parents usually pay for them, so I use my money to buy CDs. Ask a student to come to the board to identify and circle the conjunction (so) and the comma.
Have students identify the two sentences the conjunction connects. (Our parents usually pay for them. I use my money to buy CDs.)

Check for understanding: Have students locate compound sentences in the book. Ask them to underline these sentences in their book and circle each conjunction and comma. When finished, invite students to share 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 worldwide on the board. Ask students which two words were joined together in the word worldwide (world and wide). Explain that this word is called a compound word. A compound word contains two words that together create one word meaning.
Write the following sentence on the board: I was past the halfway point, but I wasn't home free. Have students read the sentence and identify the compound word (halfway). Ask them which two words are joined together in the word halfway (half and way). Explain that the definitions of the two separate words can help students figure out the meaning of the bigger word (half of the way finished).

Check for understanding: Have students read page 9 in their book. Have them identify and circle the compound words on the page (everything and dinnertime). Ask students to circle the two words contained in each compound word. Have them use these words to discuss the meaning of each larger word with a partner. Then discuss the meaning of each word with students as a group.

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

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to read parts of the book with each other.

Home Connection

Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students also take home their prediction worksheet and explain to someone the process of making, revising, and confirming predictions.

Extend the Reading

Math and Technology Connection
Read and have students complete the International Travel Master Mind Quest on page 19 of the book. Have them take notes about the decisions they make and the reasons that support them as they plan their trip.

Narrative Writing Connection
Have students complete a personal narrative about their completion of the International Travel Master Mind Quest. Have them provide details on how they planned their trip, including where they decided to go, their budget, where they will stay, where and what they will eat, how they will get there, and which sites they will visit. Remind them to include information that explains their reasoning for each decision.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently make reasonable predictions and then modify and/or confirm those predictions during discussion and on a worksheet
analyze facts to create and fill out charts during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly recognize and form compound sentences during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly identify and form compound words during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

Go to "The International T-Shirt Challenge" main page