Text Type: Fiction/Adventure
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 1,909

Book Summary
In The Great Gallardo's Books. Miguel has to write an essay for homework explaining why reading is an adventure. Miguel doesn't like reading much and is uninspired by the topic until he finds a mysterious trunk in the loft of his mother's shop. The trunk is full of books that show Miguel how reading can be a real adventure.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to better understand text
• Identify literary genres
• Identify similes
• Use synonyms

Materials

• Book -- The Great Gallardo's Books (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board, thesauruses and/or dictionaries
• Identify genres, similes, synonyms 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: awe, biography, breeches, confetti, contraptions, crater, high-tech, intimate, laboratory, lasso, perilous, plastered, resort, sagebrush, science fiction, skeleton key, transported, Western

Build Background

• Write the words fiction and adventure on the board. Have students tell what they know about each of these terms. (Fiction refers to books and stories that describe imaginary people and events. Adventure refers to a specific genre of book that describes an exciting or extraordinary event or series of events.)
• Explain that just as there are many types of shoes with specific styles and functions (sandals, hiking boots, ballet shoes, high heels, tennis shoes, and so on). Similarly, there are also many types of writing with specific styles and functions. The Great Gallardo's Books is a fiction book that is part of adventure genre (a book written about imaginary people and events that describes an extraordinary series of events).

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book. Show them 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.
• 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 students what they can tell about the book from looking at the chapter titles. (Accept answers that show students are thinking about what the book might be about.)

Introduce the Strategy: Visualize

• Tell students that good readers often visualize, or picture in their mind, what a book might be about before they start reading. Ask students how this strategy might help readers understand and remember what they read.
• Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after several pages to create a picture in my mind of what the author is describing. This helps me keep track of the important information, and it also helps me make sure I understand the ideas in the book. I know that good readers do this when they read, so I am going to visualize as I read this book.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, encourage students to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text. Engage students in a conversation in which they use the vocabulary words.
• 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 context clues within a sentence or in surrounding sentences to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the bold word confetti on page 6. Model how they can use context clues to figure out the word's meaning. Show students that by reading the paragraphs before the word, they learn that there is an old red ladder. They also learn that the red paint is peeling off of it. The sentence containing the bold word tells that red paint chips fluttered down like confetti. These clues suggest that confetti might refer to small pieces of colored paper. Have students check the glossary on page 24 to confirm the word's meaning.
• Have students look at the glossary at the back of the book. Point out that the words are listed in alphabetical order with definitions and page numbers to tell readers where information about each word appears. Ask which page tells about acrostics (page 7).
• 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.

Set the Purpose

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 7. Tell them to visualize what is happening and what might happen next. Have students go back and reread the chapters if they finish before everyone else.
• When students have finished reading, have them tell how they used descriptive words and phrases in the book to visualize places and events in the story.
• Think-aloud: The author's words were very descriptive. For example, the author's description of rain on page 4 (Raindrops splattered the asphalt like a million exploding firecrackers) helped me visualize a rainy Saturday afternoon.
• Ask students what they visualized as they read the second paragraph on page 6.
• As students read the remainder of the book, remind them to visualize what is happening in the book and what might happen next.

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 figure out what the word means. Explain that you will talk about the words they mark when they have finished reading.

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. Have students use the words in sentences to reinforce their understanding of the wordsÕ meanings.
• Discuss how visualizing keeps readers involved in the reading process and helps him or her understand and remember the story.
• Think-aloud: The author's descriptive writing helped me see very detailed pictures in my mind. I could see Ben Franklin when he popped up in his bathtub. I saw Cowboy Max's braid with the red ribbon fall out from under her cowboy hat. I could see Miguel leaping without gravity to get near the crater.
• Ask students to share what they visualized while reading.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Identify genres

• Discussion: Write the phrase literary genres on the board. Name some synonyms for genre, such as kind, sort, type, and variety. Explain that a genre is a specific type of artistic work. For example, music is a kind of art that can be divided into specific types, or genres (rock and roll, jazz, rap, and so on).
• Introduce and model the skill: Review or explain that books can be divided into fiction and nonfiction categories. These two main categories can be further divided into genres. Write examples of common literary genres on the board (biographies, westerns, science fiction, mysteries).
• Check for understanding: Have students name examples of books they have read or movies they have seen that would belong to one of the genres written on the board.
• Have students turn to page 8 and read the second paragraph aloud. Ask students what literary genre The Story of Benjamin Franklin is (biography). Ask what Miguel thinks about reading biographies after visiting Ben in his bathtub. Have students turn to page 11 and read the second paragraph aloud. Ask students what genre Riding Roundups is (Western). Ask students to turn to page 15. Have volunteers read the second and third paragraphs aloud. Discuss how the book title hinted at the book's genre (science fiction: Creature, Crater).
• Independent practice: Give students the literary genres worksheet. If possible, have them complete the worksheet as part of a library activity. Discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Have available a selection of books for students to look at and discuss. Decide which literary genre each book belongs to. Remind students that some books may belong to more than one genre.

Grammar and Mechanics: Similes

• Review or explain that a simile makes a comparison by using the words like or as. Write the words like and as on the board. Tell students that these words are often signals that they are reading a simile.
• Write the following on the board: Raindrops splattered the asphalt like a million exploding firecrackers. Have students tell what is being compared in this sentence (raindrops and firecrackers). Have them identify the signal word.
• Check for understanding: Have students identify the simile and signal word in the last paragraph on page 5. (His mind was empty, like the pickle jar.) Tell students to turn to page 6. Ask them to identify the simile and signal word on this page. (Red paint chips fluttered down into his hair like confetti.) Work with students to come up with other similes to describe an empty mind or fluttering paint chips.
• Have students complete the similes worksheet. Discuss their responses.

Word Work: Synonyms

• Write the word munched on the board. Ask students to suggest a word that means almost the same thing (crunched, chewed, chomped). Review or explain that a word that means the same or almost the same as another word is called a synonym.
• Have students turn to the second paragraph on page 6 to find the words that describe what Miguel does (tugged, quickly). Ask students to suggest a synonym for tugged (pulled, heaved) and a synonym for quickly (rapidly, hastily). Have students turn to page 7 to find the word that describes the magazines and newspapers (old). Ask students to suggest synonyms for old that could be used in the text (aged, vintage, shabby).
• Check for understanding: Give students a thesaurus. Model how to find the word tugged and then confirm the synonyms suggested. Explain that some dictionaries also list synonyms.
• Have students use a thesaurus to complete the synonyms worksheet.

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

• Have students choose a literary genre that was not mentioned in the book (fantasy, drama, mystery). Have them use the title of a real or made-up book to write a chapter about Miguel's next adventure. Encourage them to use descriptive language and similes to help readers visualize what Miguel is feeling and experiencing. Invite volunteers to read their stories to the class.

Science and Social Studies Connection

• Have students use print and Internet resources to research Benjamin Franklin, women of the Wild West, or space exploration. Encourage them find examples of fiction and nonfiction books for all three topics. Then have students read one of the books and prepare an oral book report that includes mention of the book's genre. Invite students to share their reports with the class.

• visualize information and events in text to enhance memory and understanding
• understand and identify literary genres in discussion and to complete a worksheet
• identify similes in the book and tell what is being compared; apply understanding of similes to complete a worksheet
• locate synonyms in a thesaurus to complete a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric