Build Background

• Ask students to tell what they know about bats. Ask if they've ever had bats in their house. If so, ask what they did to get rid of them.
• Make a KWL chart on the board. Hand out the KWL chart worksheet. Review or explain that the K stands for knowledge we know, the W stands for questions we want to know, and the L stands for the knowledge we learned. Tell students to write the information they know about bats in the K column of their chart. Write the information students share on the KWL chart on the board.
• Ask students what they would like to know about bats. Tell them to write their questions in the W column of their KWL chart.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Show students the table of contents and explain that the chapter titles give clues about the contents of the book. For example, ask students what they expect to read about in the chapter titled “Blind as a Bat.”

Introduce the Strategy: Connect to prior knowledge

• Explain to students that having some prior knowledge about a topic and making a connection with what they know while reading helps them understand and remember the information in the book.
• Model using the cover of the book to connect to prior knowledge.
• Think-aloud: When I read the title of this book, I wondered how bats could get into a house's attic since I've heard bats are blind. I also wondered whose house they got into. I'm going to write these questions in the W column of my KWL chart. I'll have to read the book to find the answers to my questions.
• Ask students to preview the rest of the book, including the illustrations. Remind them to write any new questions they have in the W column of their KWL chart.
• As students read, they should 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

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out a word. They can look for base words within words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. For example, write the words Eptesicus fuscus on the board. Ask students if they know what these Latin words mean. Direct students to page 8 to find the bold words in the text. Review or explain that students can usually use context clues in the sentence containing the unfamiliar words, or in preceding sentences, to figure out the unfamiliar words. In this case, the preceding sentence tells the meaning of the unfamiliar word (big brown bats). Ask students to turn to page 20 and read the glossary definition for Eptesicus fuscus. Tell students they can also check the meaning of words by looking them up in a dictionary.
• Remind students to check whether a word makes sense by rereading the word(s) in the sentence.
• Have students continue looking at the glossary on page 20. Have them read the glossary words and their definitions aloud. Next, have students turn to the pages indicated and read each glossary word in the sentence in which it appears. Use context clues in the surrounding sentences to work out unfamiliar vocabulary words as necessary.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to answer their questions about the book. Tell them to add any questions they think of to the W column of their KWL chart.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Review or explain that this story is written in the first-person, narrative style. The author is retelling events as if they actually happened. Have students read pages 4 through 10. Tell them to write answers they find to their questions in the L column of their KWL chart. If they finish before everyone else, they can go back and reread.
• When they have finished reading, have students share their questions and the answers they found. Have them add any additional questions they thought of while reading to their KWL chart.
• Discuss beliefs that students may have had about bats before reading the book (bats are related to mice, bats are blind) and how these ideas are untrue.
• Model answering a question on the KWL chart.
• Think-aloud: I learned that bats can see, so that must be how they got in the attic. I can write this answer in the L column of my chart. (Bats can see to get into an attic.) I also wanted to know whose house the bats got into. I learned that they got into Gram's attic. I'll write the answer to this question on my KWL chart, too.
• Tell students to think about what they know about bats as they read the remainder of the book. Ask them to write new questions and answers they find on their KWL chart as they read.

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

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce that connecting to prior knowledge as they read keeps them involved in what they're reading and helps them understand and remember what they have read.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Sequence events

• Discussion: Ask students to tell what the author's purpose was for writing the book. Ask what they learned about bats. Ask what they learned about clam digging.
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that many writers present the events in a story in the order in which they happened, but some writers do not. It is then up to the reader to look for signal words, such as today, then, first, and after, or time references, such as dates, to help them put the events in the order in which they occurred. Ask students to think of the steps, or sequence, involved in making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Have students list the steps as you write them on the board. Remind students to be specific. (1. Get out the bread, peanut butter, and jelly. 2. Get out the knife and spoon, etc.)
• Check for understanding: Tell students to turn to page 14. Ask a student to read the second paragraph aloud. Ask another student to tell what the first step in clam digging would be (finding out when there's a full moon).
• Think-aloud: When I read about clam digging, I wanted to remember the steps so I would know how to dig for clams myself someday. It sounds like fun.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the sequencing worksheet. Discuss their responses.

Grammar and Mechanics: Similes and metaphors

• Review or explain that a simile compares two things by using the word like or as. Write the words like and as on the board. Explain that these words often signal the use of a simile. (The man was as quiet as a clam.) Review or explain that a metaphor compares two unrelated things without using the word like or as. (That man is a snake.)
• Check for understanding: Tell students to turn to page 10. Ask a student to read the paragraph aloud. Ask another student to tell why the expression in italics is a simile (it compares being blind to a bat using the word as). Ask why the author used this simile (to bring attention to the fact that it's a common and untrue expression).
• Check for understanding: Have students reread page 9. Ask them to find the metaphor on the page (flying rats). The book explains that bats are more closely related to humans than to mice. Calling them flying rats is comparing them to an animal that most people strongly dislike and think of with disgust.
• Independent practice: Have students complete the similes and metaphors worksheet. Discuss their answers.

Word Work: Allegories

• Explain that an allegory teaches a lesson or contains a message. It has two meanings--a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
• Check for understanding Have students turn to page 19. Ask a student to read the first paragraph aloud. Ask another student to tell what the allegory is (… now that you've had sand in your shoes). Ask students to tell what this means literally (to have sand in your shoes). Ask students to tell what it means symbolically. (Once you've been to the beach, you'll want to return.) Ask students if they believe this allegory is true for every person who gets sand in their shoes.

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 and Art Connection

Ask students to write, compose, or artistically create an allegory of their own. Remind them that an allegory must have two meanings--literal and symbolic. Have them start by deciding what message or lesson they want to teach. Have students share their allegory with the group. Ask the class to decide what the message is that the author or artist is trying to convey.

Science Connection

Discuss eating seafood. List on the board the various kinds of seafood students have eaten. You may need to add your own seafood-eating experiences for variety. Provide print and/or Internet resources for students to choose and research a creature mentioned in the seafood discussion. Have students write about their chosen food and make a poster that includes a photo and a recipe from the Internet. Label your display Bon Appétit!

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use a KWL chart to connect to prior knowledge
• understand and identify a sequence of events in discussion and on a worksheet
• identify and create similes and metaphors to complete a worksheet
• understand allegories

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric