Text Type: Nonfiction/Biography
Page Count: 16
Word Count: 1,457

Book Summary
Thomas Edison is a biographical text that focuses on the inspiration and motivation of the famous inventor. The book begins by telling us about "Al" as a young, curious boy, and continues through his life, highlighting the important events that shaped him and his accomplishments. It recounts how his whole life was devoted to inventing things and improving other inventions, over a thousand in number, some of which we use every day. Photographs and illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand nonfiction text
• Identify elements of a biography
• Understand and use possessive nouns
• Identify homophones

Materials

• Book -- Thomas Edison (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Dictionary
• Content vocabulary, summarize, possessive nouns 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: alkaline, astound, distraction, filament, fluorescent, for-profit, Morse code, patent, phonograph, stick-to-itiveness, telegraph

Build Background

• Ask students if they've heard of Thomas Edison. Ask if they know what he did that made him so famous. Encourage them to share their ideas.
• Discuss the importance of inventors and what they offer to the world. Give examples of inventions, such as the telephone and the light bulb, and ask students to share how the world would be different without those inventions.

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 kind of book it is (genre, text type, fiction or nonfiction, and so on) and what it might be about.
• Preview 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: Summarize

• Explain to students that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to write a summary, or a brief overview, of the most important information in a chapter. Point out that a summary often answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.
• Create a chart on the board with the headings Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Read page 4 aloud to students and model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is the most important to remember in a section. To do this, I can consider who and what the section was about, what happened, and when and why it happened. Then I can organize that information into a few sentences. This page is mostly about a curious boy named Thomas Edison. I will write Thomas Edison under the heading Who. Thomas spent his whole life exploring and improving on other inventions. I will write inventing and improving under the heading What. He spent his whole life wondering how things work. I will write whole life, and how things work under the heading Why. When I organize all of this information, a summary of the first section might be: Thomas Edison was born a curious boy who always wondered how things worked. He spent his whole life inventing and improving upon others' inventions.
• Write the summary on the board. Discuss how you used the information in the chart, along with your own words, to create the summary.
• 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: Elements of a biography

• Ask students to explain the difference between a biography and an autobiography (biography: the story of a person's life written by someone else; autobiography: the story of a person's life written by that person). Explain that this book is a biography. A biography includes information about the person's accomplishments, his or her influence on the world, and his or her personality.
• Write the words Accomplishments, Influence, and Personality in a three-column chart on the board. Ask students to explain the meaning of each of these words (accomplishments: a success achieved through practice or training; influence: an effect on someone or something; personality: the qualities that make each person unique).
• Have students return to page 4. Reread the page aloud while students follow along silently. Ask students to identify which element of a biography this information best reflects (personality). Invite students to identify the information that tells about Thomas Edison's personality and the clues from the text that support this (curious; he spent his whole life figuring out how things worked, how to make them better, and so on).
• Based on the information about Thomas Edison's personality, ask students to describe what his accomplishments might have been (invented things that help make life easier, and so on).
• Think-aloud: As I read, I can organize the important information about this person by putting it into the categories of accomplishments, influence, and personality. By categorizing the information this way, I know I will understand more about Thomas Edison and the events of his life.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Show students pictures of familiar individuals from history who had a positive influence on the world (for example: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein). Create a three-column chart on the board with the headings Talents, Goals Accomplished, and Effect on Others. Write the name of each individual on the side of the chart. Have students explain what they know about these individuals. Write the information under the appropriate category on the board.
• Discuss the information listed under the heading Talents. Point out that Thomas Edison was extremely talented at what he did in his life. Write the word develop on the board above talents and say the word aloud to students. Explain that the word develop means to make bigger or better. People can use their talents to develop new things or ways of doing something. Have students use the word develop in a sentence.
• Discuss the information listed under the heading Goals Accomplished. Have students explain the characteristics that Thomas Edison likely possessed to accomplish such goals (hard-working, never gave up, and so on). Write the word determined on the board and say the word aloud to students. Explain that the word determined describes these characteristics. Have students use the word determined in a sentence.
• Discuss the information listed under the heading Effect on Others. Have students explain how Thomas Edison had an impact on other people and the world. Explain that he left behind something that would be remembered. Write the word remarkable on the board. Explain that the word remarkable means something or someone worthy of notice, or extraordinary. These individuals often influence others. Have students use the word remarkable in a sentence.
• Point to the words develop, determined, and remarkable. Explain that each of these words is used to describe Thomas Edison in the book. Introduce, explain, and have students complete the content vocabulary worksheet. When they have finished, discuss their responses.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about Thomas Edison, stopping after every few pages to summarize the information in their mind. Encourage students to underline or write on a separate piece of paper the important information in each section.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish before others to reread the text. When students are ready, discuss the important information they underlined.
• Model summarizing important information in the book.
  Think-aloud: I made sure to stop reading after the second section of the book to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I thought about the information that answered the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Then, in my mind, I organized the important information into a few sentences. In the second section, I read that Thomas Edison was called Al as a boy, and that his mother took him out of school to teach him at home. I underlined called Al and mother taught him at home. I also read that at the age of 10 he set up a science lab and did lots of experiments, and that at the age of 12 he worked for the railroad. I underlined ten years old, did experiments, 12 years old, and job with the railroad in the book. I read that when Al was 15, he published and sold his own newspaper and that he also saved a young boy's life. I will also underline the words he was 15, published his own paper, people bought the paper, and saved a young boy's life in the book. The young boy's father was a telegraph operator who offered Al a job learning his trade. Later he would travel the country, using his skill as a telegraph operator. I will underline telegraph operator, teach Al his job, and traveled around the country using his skill in the book.
• Write the underlined information in the chart on the board. Have students share any additional information they underlined that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Write this information on the chart. Point out that sometimes not all of the questions (who, what, when, where, and why) are answered in each section. Create a summary with students for the second section based on the information in the chart. (Thomas Edison was a curious and determined young boy. Because he disliked school, his mother took him out and taught him at home, where he loved to read about science. At the age of 10 he set up a science lab and did lots of experiments, and at the age of 12 he went to work for the railroad. When Al was 15, he published and sold his own newspaper for train passengers, and that same year he saved a young boy's life. That boy's father was a telegraph operator who offered to teach Al his trade as a way of thanking him. As Al grew older, he traveled the country working as a telegraph operator.)
• Ask students to explain elements of Thomas's personality, accomplishments, and influence from the important information they identified in the section (personality: intelligent, curious, adventurous; accomplishments: published his own paper, saved a boy's life, learned Morse code; influence: was an early inventor and businessman).
• Discuss how Thomas's personality might have influenced his accomplishments. Facilitate the discussion with questions such as: How would you describe Thomas's personality? What characteristics of his personality might have influenced him to become an inventor and businessman?
• Check for understanding: Have students read pages 8 and 9. Remind them to underline information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why while reading. When students have finished reading pages 8 and 9, have them work with a partner to identify the important information they underlined (Who: Thomas Edison; What: became a full-time inventor and built a lab for science experiments; Why: was only interested in experimenting; When: 1876--a few years after he traveled the country as a telegraph operator; Where: he built his lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey). Have them work together on a separate piece of paper to create a summary of pages 8 and 9. Instruct students to include in the summary whatever important information they discussed with their partner.
• Have students work with a partner to use their summary to identify characteristics of Thomas's personality that influenced his accomplishments. Discuss the information as a group.
• Invite students to read the remainder of the book. Have them underline information in the sections that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.

      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

• Divide students into small groups. Assign each group one of the following sections from the book: "Important Inventions," "A Special Project," or "Other Exciting Ideas." Have each group discuss the information they underlined in their section. Have them use the information to write a group summary of the section. When students have finished, share and discuss their summaries aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce and explain the summarize worksheet. Have students summarize the final section, "A Remarkable Man," on their own. Invite volunteers to read their summaries aloud once everyone has finished their work.
• Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about Thomas Edison because I summarized as I read the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Invite students to share information about Thomas Edison's accomplishments (invented the electric light bulb, the motion picture camera, and fluorescent electric light).
• Ask students to explain how these accomplishments have influenced others (they model the importance of challenging oneself and being persistent with one's goals; his inventions make the world an easier place to live).

      Independent practice: Have students use the inside front cover of their book to create a three-column chart with the headings Personality, Accomplishments, and Influence. Have them reread pages 12 and 13, "A Special Project," and write information that describes each of the elements of a biography on the chart in their book. When students have finished working, discuss their answers.

• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about a very successful man and his curious, tenacious nature. Now that you know this information, how might personality influence a person's accomplishments?

Grammar and Mechanics: Possessive nouns

• Write the following sentence on the board: Al's parents allowed him to take a job with the railroad. Read the sentence aloud, pointing to the word parents. Ask a volunteer to explain whose parents the sentence is referring to (Al's). Explain that the word Al's shows that the parents belonged to Al.
• Review or explain that words like Al's are called possessive nouns. A possessive noun is formed by adding an 's to the end of a word to show ownership, or possession.
• Direct students to page 11. Have them find a possessive noun on the page (everyone's). Ask a volunteer to read aloud the sentence containing the possessive noun everyone's. Ask another volunteer to explain what belongs to everyone (their amazement).
• Explain that there are exceptions to the rule of adding 's to a noun when creating a possessive noun. Write the following sentence on the board: There is a story that Edison used the telegraph operators' code to ask Mina to marry him. Ask a volunteer to come to the board and circle the possessive noun (operators'). Ask students to tell what is different about this possessive noun (the apostrophe comes after the s). Explain that the noun operators already ends in -s and is not pronounced with an extra /s/ sound at the end of the word, so only an apostrophe is added. Ask students what the operators have ownership of in the sentence on the board (a code).
• Remind students that a contraction using 's is not the same as a possessive. For example, it's is a contraction for it is and does not show ownership.

      Check for understanding: Have students circle the possessive nouns in the book and underline the item that each one owns.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the possessive nouns worksheet. If time allows, discuss student responses once everyone has finished working independently.

Word Work: Homophones

• Have students turn to page 8. Read the following sentence aloud: For example, he found a way to send four messages at once instead of just one. Write the word four on the board. Ask students to explain what the word four means (the number representing a group of four objects or people).
• Read the following sentence on page 8 aloud: He made a machine that allowed lawmakers to press a button to tell whether they were for or against a bill. Write the word for on the board. Ask students to explain what the word means (in favor of).
• Ask students to identify which words in the sentences sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings (four, for). 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.
• Write the homophones one/won and whole/hole on the board. Have students work with a partner to use each word in a sentence on a separate piece of paper. Invite them to share their sentences aloud.
• Check for understanding: Write the homophones son/sun and knew/new 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 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 summarizing each section with someone at home.

Biography Writing Connection
Have students interview a family member and write a biography of his or her life. Remind them to include information about his or her personality, accomplishments, and influence on others. Discuss writing from a third-person point of view.

Social Studies Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to learn more about Morse code, its uses, and why its creation was so important. Print out copies of the code for students to practice tapping out the rhythm for each letter. Then have students work in pairs to write and tap out different words.

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.