Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 1,822

Book Summary
Natural Wonders of the World teaches readers about five of the natural wonders: the Grand Canyon, Paricutin, Victoria Falls, Mount Everest, and the Great Barrier Reef. The book explains how the structures were formed and where they are located. Maps, charts, and photographs support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand nonfiction text
• Understand and identify cause-and-effect relationships
• Read measurements and abbreviations fluently
• Recognize and use synonyms and antonyms
• Use a thesaurus

Materials

• Book -- Natural Wonders of the World (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Summarize, cause and effect, synonyms and antonyms 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: breeding, cinder cones, downstream, erosion, fissure, geologists, Havasupai, Himalayas, landforms, mountaineers, plateau, plunge pool, polyps, Sherpa, species, yeti, Zimbabwe

Build Background

• Ask students if they've ever been to a national park or a famous outdoor landmark. Encourage them to share their experiences. Discuss why people might want to visit these special places.
• Encourage students to share what they enjoy about being in natural environments, such as the forest, ocean, desert, and so on.
• Explain that natural structures are sometimes so amazing and beautiful that they fill us with wonder and make us ponder how they were formed. Ask students to share a time when they may have experienced a feeling of wonder when in nature.

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. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Preview the title page. Talk about 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 learn about natural wonders in the book, based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Review how stopping to summarize what is happening in a book while reading is a strategy that good readers use to make sense of text.
• Model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize what I've read, I decide what's important and what isn't. Then, in my mind, I organize the important information into a few words or sentences and think about them for a while. Then retell the important information in my own words.
• 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 photographs and charts. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the word erosion on page 5, and then ask them to locate the pronunciation within parentheses (e-RO-zhun) directly after the word. Review or explain that when reading these broken syllables aloud, any syllable written in all capital letters is read with more emphasis. Point out that each syllable has one vowel sound and is spelled phonetically to help readers pronounce the word correctly. Ask students why the third syllable (zhun) is spelled with a zh instead of with an s (because the s makes the zh sound in the word erosion). Practice pronouncing the word erosion with the class. Repeat the exercise with other words in the text (page 9: Parícutin and fissure; Page 18: yeti and Abominable).
• Have students preview the rest of the book.
• Review or explain that the index contains an alphabetized list of topics in the book and page numbers that tell where to find information about each topic.
• Explain that the glossary contains a list of vocabulary words along with their definitions and the pages on which the words are used.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about natural wonders of the world, stopping after every few pages to summarize the story in their minds.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 11. Encourage students who finish early to go back and reread.
• Model summarizing important information in the book.
  Think-aloud: I made sure to stop after the first pages to summarize what I've read so far. First, I decided what was important and what wasn't. Then, in my mind, I organized the important information into a few sentences and thought about them for a couple of moments. I thought about how natural wonders are landforms that have been created by nature, not humans. I remembered that the Grand Canyon was formed over millions of years by water erosion.
• If possible, provide a world map to review with students where the Grand Canyon and Paricutin are located. Discuss how the photographs and captions provide readers with additional information.
• Invite students to read the remainder of the book. Remind them to think about each of the five natural wonders so they can summarize the important information about each one in their minds.

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 the word and figure out what it means.

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 share any other questions they had while they were reading. Discuss how summarizing during reading keeps readers actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they read.
• For practice with summarizing, have students complete the summarize worksheet. Have students read their summaries aloud when finished.

• Discussion: Ask what students think the author's purpose was for writing the book, and what they might have learned about natural wonders that they didn't already know.
• Introduce and model the skill: Discuss cause-and-effect relationships. 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. For example, if the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, a puddle will freeze. The freezing temperature is the cause, and the frozen puddle is the effect.
• To illustrate a cause-and-effect relationship from the text, have students turn to page 5. Ask them to explain the cause of the Grand Canyon (erosion). Ask them to describe the effects of erosion (wearing away of the land, water carrying away sediment and so on).
• Check for understanding: Have students read page 7 to find the cause of a rattlesnake shedding its skin (it outgrows its old skin) and the effect of the new skin (the snake continues to grow, a new rattle is added to its tail). Allow students to share their findings.
• Independent practice: Have students practice identifying cause-and-effect relationships by completing the cause and effect worksheet. When they have finished, have students discuss their work and explain their answers. 
• Extend the discussion: Ask students how Natural Wonders of the World changed what they know about these landforms. Ask if they would like to visit any of them and, if so, which ones and why.

Grammar and Mechanics: Measurements and abbreviations

• Direct students to the first paragraph on page 15. Ask them to find the measurement for the Himalayan Mountains [8,848 meters (29,028 ft.)]. Ask students why they think the author gave the measurement in both meters and feet. Discuss that because different countries use different units of measurement, both are provided. Point out that the two measurements given represent the same distance. Review or explain that when reading these measurements silently, readers usually choose to associate with the unit of measurement with which they are the most familiar. When reading aloud, tell students to say the word or before reading the second measurement. Practice reading the measurement with the class: 8,848 meters, or 29,028 feet.
• Ask students to turn to page 16. Encourage them to find the numbers that identify temperatures [(-36° C, -33° F), (-60° C, -76° F), (-19° C, -2° F)]. Review or explain that when reading these numbers aloud, the ° is read as degrees. Point out that the C stands for Celsius and the F stands for Fahrenheit, and that the minus sign before the numbers is read as negative. Practice reading the numbers and symbols, reminding students to say the word or before reading the second temperature: negative thirty-six degrees Celsius, or negative thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit, and so on.
• Check for understanding: Write the following examples from the text on the board and ask volunteers to read them aloud:
  
  454 kilograms (1,000 lbs.)
  
  -60° C (-76° F)
  
  1.8 meters (6 ft.)
  
  -19° C (-2° F)
  
  1,609 kilometers (1,000 mi.)

Word Work: Synonyms and antonyms

• Write the word beautiful on the board. Ask students to suggest a word that means almost the same thing (pretty, lovely). Review or explain that a word that means the same or almost the same as another word is called a synonym. Ask students to suggest a word that means the opposite of beautiful (ugly, hideous). Review or explain that a word that means the opposite of another word is called an antonym.
• Have students turn to page 15 and read the first sentence again. Ask them to find the word that tells what Mount Everest is like, in addition to tall (spectacular). Ask them to suggest a word that means the same or almost the same as spectacular (magnificent). Ask students to suggest a word that means the opposite of spectacular (boring).
• Show students a thesaurus. Use the example above to explain how a thesaurus is used, writing the synonyms and antonyms for spectacular on the board.
• Check for understanding: Give pairs of students a thesaurus. Ask them to find the word large and have them name the synonyms listed. If the thesaurus lists antonyms, have them find the antonyms for large. If needed, provide additional practice using a thesaurus.
• Independent practice: Give students the synonyms and antonyms worksheet. Check students' responses.

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 Internet and other resources for students to research other natural wonders mentioned in the book (the Northern Lights, the Barringer Meteorite Crater, Ayers Rock). Have students choose one wonder to research independently. Have them compile and present their findings in a report format that includes information about where the natural wonder is located, how it was formed, its age, the impact its presence has on the local economy and tourism, and so on.

Social Studies Connection

• Provide each student with a copy of a world map. Have students draw an icon to represent the natural wonder they researched and use it to mark the natural wonder's location on the map. Display the maps with the reports written during the Writing Connection. Label the display "Natural Wonders of the World."

• consistently use the strategy of summarizing to better comprehend the text
• understand and identify cause-and-effect relationships in text
• fluently read measurements and abbreviations
• identify, select, and use synonyms and antonyms
• understand how to use a thesaurus

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric