Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 20
Word Count: 1,353

Book Summary
Searching for the Loch Ness Monster is a story about Skye and Ross, who go on vacation to Scotland with their parents. The youngsters thought they were too old to search for an ancient sea serpent in the deep, dark waters of Loch Ness. But as they drove the length of the large lake, questions began to emerge, and their parents decided to take an informative boat ride with a local expert. As the family listened to her tell about Loch Ness and why many people believe the legend to be true, the kids began to ask questions, not realizing that they were becoming interested. The book incorporates many facts about the lake and its legend. Photographs and a map support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Understand and identify cause-and-effect relationships
• Identify and use punctuation with quotation marks
• Identify and use homophones

Materials

• Book -- Searching for the Loch Ness Monster (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Visualize, cause and effect, quotation marks, homophones worksheets
• Discussion cards

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

Vocabulary

• Content words: brogue, debunk, disembark, glens, highlanders, lair, peat, plesiosaur, scoured, sonar, sturgeon

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever gone anywhere with their family when they didn't want to be there. Encourage them to share their experiences and feelings.
• Supply books about the Loch Ness Monster and show students pictures of Nessie--the name given by local residents. Invite them to share their opinions of the legend. Ask students whether or not they believe the photos are real.

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, author's name).
• Preview the table of contents on page 3. Remind students 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: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, while reading. Visualizing is based on the words used in the text and what a person already knows about a topic.
• Read page 4 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I pause after a few pages to create a picture in my mind of the information I've read. This helps me organize the important information and understand the ideas in the book. For example, on page 4, the author describes the scenery as the family drives through Scotland. I pictured the green valleys, long and broad in the bright sunshine. I pictured the glens dotted with sheep--white and black spots on a vivid green landscape.
• Reread page 4 aloud to students, asking them to use the words in the story to visualize. Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Have students draw on their worksheet what they visualized from the text on page 4. Invite them to share their drawings.
• 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: Cause and effect

• Review or explain that a cause is an event that makes something happen, and the effect is what happens because of, or as a result of, the event. Create a two-column chart on the board with the headings Cause and Effect. Write the following sentence on the board under the heading Cause: I hit a baseball through a window.
• Model identifying a series of cause-and-effect relationships.
  Think-aloud: If I hit a baseball through a window, the window might break and I might have to pay for the window. If I had to pay for the window, I would have to take money out of my savings. If I had to take money out of my savings, I wouldn't have enough money to buy the item I was saving money for. Sometimes a cause and its effect cause other events to happen.
• Retell the series of cause-and-effect relationships about the baseball. Ask students to identify the causes and effects. Write each cause and its effect on the chart on the board. When finished, point out how each cause-and-effect relationship leads to other cause-and-effect relationships.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the following content vocabulary words on the board: brogue and highlanders. Read the words aloud with students. Ask them to share what they know about the meaning of each word. Point out to students that using familiar words might help them identify the meanings of the words. (For instance, the word highland is a compound word, and the two words that make up the compound word can help them in thinking about what highlanders might mean.)
• Write each of the content vocabulary words on a piece of poster board. Place students in two groups and assign each group to a poster. Have them discuss what they know about the meaning of their word and write a definition on the poster. Rotate the groups and have them repeat the process with the other word.
• Review both words and the information about the words that students wrote on the posters. Create a single class definition based on students' knowledge and write it on the board.
• Have a volunteer read the definition for each word from the glossary. Compare students' definitions with the glossary definitions. Use the comparison to modify the definition for each word on the board.
• Have students write a paragraph incorporating both content vocabulary words in which they guess what might happen to Skye and Ross during their trip to Scotland. Keep their predictions to review and compare after they finish reading the book.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out more about Skye and Ross's vacation. Remind them to stop after every few pages to visualize the most important information and draw on their worksheet what they visualized about it.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 5 to the end of page 8. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread. Have students draw what they visualized during one or more events of the story on their visualize worksheet.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: On pages 6 and 7, I read about how Loch Ness was formed. I pictured a huge earthquake splitting the green lands of Scotland in two. I pictured an enormous white glacier covering the trench that was formed--24 miles long and 1 mile wide! I envisioned the ice finally melting under the bright sunlight, filling the trench with water to form a lake over 800 feet deep.
• Invite students to share their drawings of what they visualized while reading. Have them explain their drawings aloud.
• Create a cause-and-effect chain on the board. Write Earthquakes created a trench under the heading Cause. Ask students to use the text and think-aloud discussion to identify the effect of this cause. (The trench filled with glaciers.) Write this information on the chart under the heading Effect.
• Introduce and explain the cause-and-effect worksheet. Ask students to write the information from the board on their worksheet. Have them identify and write on their worksheet a cause-and-effect relationship that happened as a result of the trench filling with glaciers. (Cause: The ice melted; Effect: Loch Ness was formed.) Point out how the chain connects the first cause-and-effect relationship with the second (the effect, The trench filled with glaciers, is connected to the next cause, The ice melted).
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 10. Have them visualize the information in the text as they read. Ask students to draw what they visualized on their visualize worksheet. Invite them to share what they visualized.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize as they read the rest of the story. Remind them to continue thinking about the important events of the story as they read.

      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 each word and figure out its meaning.

• 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.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Think-aloud: On page 12, I read about scientists mapping the loch. I pictured 24 boats lined up across Loch Ness, each equipped with large sonar equipment. I pictured scientists lowering their sonar machines deep into the dark, cold waters. I pictured groups of scientists measuring sound waves on their computers, listening to the echoes created from the loch's steep sides.
• Ask students to explain how the strategy of visualizing helped them understand and enjoy the story. Lead a discussion about what Nessie is rumored to look like. Have students study the photos and illustrations in the book. Ask them to share their opinion as to whether Nessie is real or simply a myth.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the visualize worksheet. If time allows, have them share their drawings.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Discuss with students the information on their cause-and-effect worksheet. Point out the last effect in the chain. (Loch Ness was formed.) Have students reread pages 7 and 8 to identify the cause-and-effect relationship that happened as a result of peat forming in Loch Ness. (Cause: There is a thick layer of peat in Loch Ness; Effect: Light only travels as deep as a few yards.)
• Independent practice: Have students complete the cause-and-effect worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you read about two children who dreaded going on an outing with their family. But once there, the children enjoyed exploring the mystery surrounding a legendary sea creature. Now that you know this, how will it affect a decision to attend a family activity that you don't want to go to?

Grammar and Mechanics: Punctuation with quotation marks

• Have students reread the first paragraph on page 5. Ask a volunteer to read it aloud. Ask students to tell who is speaking and what she is saying. Review or explain that quotation marks are placed before and after the exact words a speaker says. Point out the comma and explain that the comma is placed before the quotation marks to separate the speaker's words from the rest of the sentence.
• Have students reread the third paragraph on page 5. Point out that the quotation marks are placed at the beginning of the speaker's words and again at the end. Ask students to tell who is speaking. Point out that there are two sentences in separate sets of quotation marks, and that both sentences are spoken by Skye. Explain that when speech is interrupted to identify who is speaking, a period or other ending punctuation is used. Then the same person continues speaking.
• Have students continue rereading page 5 to locate another instance in which speech is interrupted to identify the speaker (the fifth paragraph). Ask students who is speaking (Skye and Ross's mom). Point out the period ending the first sentence and the second set of quotation marks. Explain that each time a new person begins speaking, a new paragraph is created.

      Check for understanding: Have students reread page 8. Have them circle the paragraphs with interrupted speech in which the speaker is identified in the middle of his or her quote (there are three instances). Next, have them underline the words in between the speaker's dialogue.

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

Word Work: Homophones

• Have students turn to page 6. Read the following sentence aloud: Britain pulled away from Europe's mainland, and Scotland split in two. Have them circle the word two. Ask students to explain what the word means (the number after the number one).
• Have students turn to page 10. Read the following sentence aloud: A creature came to the surface, roared, and opened its mouth. Have them circle the word to. Ask students to explain what the word to means (a preposition in the phrase to clarify location).
• Ask students to identify which words in the sentences sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings (two, to). Write these words on the board. Explain to students that words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings are called homophones. Repeat the process for they're (page 14: But they're still learning...) and their (page 9: On the boat, their guide...). Ask students for an example of another homophone that sounds like these two words but has a different meaning (there). Have students look for a sentence in the book that contains the word there.
• Invite students to share other homophone pairs they may know. Write these pairs on the board.
• Check for understanding: Write the homophones here and hear on the board. Have students use each word in a sentence on a separate piece of paper. Invite them to share their sentences aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the homophones 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 students practice visualizing the story with someone at home and then comparing the pictures they created in their mind.

Realistic Fiction Writing Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to research the landmark Grand Canyon National Park. Have them write a story about a family that is visiting the park on vacation. Instruct students to create characters and mimic the style of the book, using dialogue to show the characters' feelings about visiting the Grand Canyon. Have students incorporate facts into the story that they learned while researching the park.

Visit Writing A–Z for a lesson and leveled materials on realistic fiction writing.

Science and Art Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to find out about all forms of plant and animal life found in Loch Ness. Have students work in groups to find out when and where each form was found, recording any other interesting facts they find about life in the loch. What would creatures like Nessie eat? Supply each group with a poster and markers to draw and write the information they discover. Post their work in the classroom.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more card and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.