Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 20
Word Count: 1,771

Book Summary
In Adventures with Abuela, the Cruz children and their parents set out to discover where they'll be meeting their grandmother, Abuela, for vacation. Armed with a map of Arizona and their grandmother's clues, the children unravel a mystery that takes them from Utah to Arizona.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Ask and answer questions

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to solve the clues in the text
• Identify the author's purpose
• Identify quotation and punctuation marks in text
• Identify homophones used in text

Materials

• Book -- Adventures with Abuela (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board, colored pencils, United States map, dictionaries
• KWL chart, quotation and punctuation marks, homophones 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

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever been on a long car trip. Ask them how they kept themselves busy while traveling.
• Ask students if they have ever participated in a treasure hunt. Review or explain that in a treasure hunt, the players attempt to follow a series of clues that lead to a hidden prize. Generally they must follow the clues in sequence to find the prize.
• Make a KWL chart on the board to use as an example. Ask students what they already know about clues and how to use them to solve problems. Write their responses in the K column of the class KWL chart.
• Give students the KWL chart worksheet. Have them write what they know about treasure hunts and what they know about using clues to solve problems in the K column of their chart.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book. Show them the front and back covers and read the title. Ask students if they are familiar with the word Abuela and, if so, what it means (grandmother in Spanish). Have students discuss what else they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Review the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Direct students to the table of contents on page 3. Ask what information they can tell from looking at the chapter titles in the book (there will be some kind of special delivery, there will be four clues, and so on).

Introduce the Strategy: Ask and answer questions

• Discuss how asking and answering questions while reading, can help a reader understand and remember information in a book.
• Model using the table of contents to ask questions about Adventures with Abuela.
• Think-aloud: The first chapter in the book is titled "Special Delivery." I ask myself if the family on the front cover receives a special package or letter. The rest of the chapters begin with the word "Clue." I wonder if the clues have something to do with the adventure. Write these questions in the W column of the KWL chart on the board.
• Have students preview the rest of the book, looking at illustrations, maps, clues, and other visuals. Discuss the fact that the family seems to be traveling. Have students predict what the clues might be used for during the trip. Have them write their questions in the W column of their KWL chart. Explain that they will be adding more questions as they read.
• 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

• As students preview the book, ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students turn to page 4 and find the word puzzled in bold. Model how they can use the context to figure out the meaning of the word. Explain that the preceding paragraphs give clues about the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Say: The first two paragraphs on page 4 tell me that the two older Cruz children were expecting a special and important letter. The third paragraph tells me that the younger sister is puzzled because letters from Abuela are not unusual. Have students tell what they think the word means, based on this information. Use student definitions in place of the word puzzled as you reread the sentence to confirm the meaning of the word.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find the answers to the questions on their KWL chart.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to page 8. Have students go back and reread the chapters if they finish before everyone else.
• Model asking and answering questions.
  Think-aloud: I found the answer to my first questions about the package in the reading. Abuela's family does receive a package. I read in Abuela's letter that all of the answers to the clues can be found on an Arizona map. I know that different maps can have different information on them, so I was relieved when Abuela sent the kids a map to use. After reading the first clue, I wondered what a city's name has to do with a book. I also wondered what direction has the same letters as the word SHOUT. I'll write these questions on my KWL chart. Write the questions on your chart.
• Ask students what questions they have after reading the first clue. Have them list their questions in the W column of their chart. Then have students read the remainder of the book, looking for answers to their questions and writing new questions on their KWL chart as they read.

Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce that thinking about how to solve clues by asking questions before and during reading, and looking for the answers while reading, can help readers stay interested in a topic. It also encourages them to keep reading to find the answers to their questions and to understand and remember what they have read.
• Have students circle the questions on their KWL chart that were answered by reading the book. Ask them to share any questions that weren't answered in the book and discuss where they might go to find the answers to their questions.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Identify author's purpose

• Discussion: Ask students what new information they learned by reading the book (how to write clues; map skills; places in Arizona, such as the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest; and so on).
• Introduce the skill: Write the following terms on the board: to inform, to entertain, to persuade. Invite students to define the terms in their own words. Encourage students to give examples of times they might have said something to inform, entertain, or persuade. Point out that writers often have one of these three purposes for writing.
• Check for understanding: Ask students what the author's purpose was for writing this book (to entertain and inform). Have students turn to pages 16 and 17. Have them give examples of instances in which the author entertains and informs (provides entertainment by showing how the kids try to unscrambled the letters, informs by explaining how a scale of miles works).
• Independent practice: Have pairs of students continue looking through the book to identify how the author entertains and/or informs readers in each chapter.

Grammar and Mechanics: Quotation and punctuation marks

• Have students find the first paragraph on page 4. 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 read the second paragraph. Point out that the quotation marks are placed at the beginning of the speaker's words and again at the end. Tell students that a period is placed at the end of each sentence because each group of words expresses a complete thought. Ask students why the author doesn't tell who is speaking after the quote in this instance (the speaker was identified in the first sentence). Ask students to tell who is speaking.

Check for understanding: Have students read "Clue 2: Names and Paintings." Have them underline the characters' words using a colored pencil. Have them use a different colored pencil to circle commas and periods. Ask students to take turns reading the quotations in the chapter. Discuss what punctuation marks students underlined and circled.

• For additional practice, have students complete the quotation and punctuation marks worksheet. Discuss their responses.

Word Work: Homophones

• Write the word right on the board. Ask students to explain what the word means. If necessary, have a student look the word up in the dictionary and read the definitions. Ask students if they can think of other words that sound the same as right, but have different meanings (rite, write). Ask a volunteer to tell what the words means (a ceremonial act; to put into letters). Ask another volunteer to use the words in separate sentences. Explain that words that are pronounced the same as another word(s) but have different meanings and different spellings are called homophones. Have students provide examples of other words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings (tax, tacks; slay, sleigh; or, ore, oar; sum, some; ad, add; made, maid; son, sun; genes, jeans; and so on).
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 5 to find the word here. Tell them to read the page to determine the meaning of the word (a specific place or time). Then ask students to tell another word that sounds like here and provide its spelling and definition (hear: to perceive sound). Have students find the homophone in the first paragraph on page 7 (one) and spell and define another word that sounds the same but has a different spelling and meaning (won; to beat an opponent in competition).
• Independent practice: Give students the homophones worksheet. Discuss their answers.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing Connection

• Provide groups of students with names of two locations in two different states. Have the groups use library and Internet resources to write clues to help the other group guess their location. Have each group trade clues and see if they can arrive at the destination based on the clues.

Social Studies Connection

• In small groups, have students use library and Internet resources to research the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and other Arizona landmarks (Hoover Dam, Superstition Mountain, Colossal Cave, Grand Canyon, and so on). Have each group create a travel poster for their landmark. Have them use their posters to try to market their specific travel destination to others in the class.

• ask and answer questions before and during reading to better understand the text
• identify the author's purpose for writing; cite examples from the book
• identify and use quotation and punctuation marks in text
• identify homophones in the text

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric