Yosemite and the Badge - Lesson Plans

Yosemite and the Badge
Level V

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Realistic
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 1,856

Book Summary
Yosemite and the Badge is a story about a boy who loves the outdoors. Although Nana doesn't like the outdoors, she loves her grandson. When he tells her about his dream of becoming a Junior Ranger, she agrees to take him to Yosemite National Park to earn his badge and learns a lot through the experience. Photographs and illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Visualize

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
Sequence events
Identify compound sentences used in text
Identify and use homophones

Materials

Book -- Yosemite and the Badge (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Dictionaries
Visualize, sequence events, compound sentences, 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

Content words: conservationist, fauna, fen, giant sequoias, High Sierra, Native Americans, naturalist, oath, preserve, recite, replica, talus, verandas

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students whether they have visited a national park, and if so, to share what they did while they were there. Ask them to tell what they know about the purpose of the national park system (to conserve nature).

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 type of book it is and what it might be about.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title, author's name, illustrator's name).
Preview the table of contents on page 3. Remind students 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 any answers students can justify.)

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, while reading. Visualizing is based on the words used in the text and what a person already knows about a topic.
Read page 4 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after a few pages to create a picture in my mind of the information I've read. This helps me organize the important information and understand the ideas in the book. For example, on page 4, the author creates a setting by describing how Nana winds through the busy city streets and crowds of people. I pictured sidewalks packed with people and streets full of cars. I pictured Nana slowly walking in the crowd of people, finally making her way to a crosswalk. I pictured how traffic lights turned red, causing several cars to stop moving, and Nana making her way across the street to the boy's home.
Reread page 4 aloud to students, asking them to use the words in the story to visualize. Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Have students draw what they visualized from the text on page 4 on the worksheet. Invite students to share their drawings.
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: Sequence events

Review or explain that stories are generally told in order from beginning to end.
Model sequencing the main events of the story The Three Little Pigs. Write key words about each event in order on the board as you describe them to students.
Think-aloud: If I want someone to be able to retell the story The Three Little Pigs, they need to include certain events in order to tell the story correctly. In this story, the first event that happens is that the first little pig builds a house out of straw. Next, the second little pig builds a house out of sticks. Then, the third pig builds a house out of bricks. After that, the wolf blows down the first pig's house. Then he blows down the second pig's house. Last, he tries to blow down the third pig's house, but he can't.
Explain that certain words are often used to explain a sequence of events. Read the list of events on the board to students in order, using words such as first, next, then, and last. Ask students to identify these sequencing words from the example.
Have a volunteer use the key words on the board to sequence the events of the story out of order. Ask students to explain why the order of the steps is important (the sequence does not make sense out of order). Discuss with students that a story does not make sense when the events are out of order.
Point out the difference between the sequence of events listed on the board and a retelling of The Three Little Pigs (the retelling contains more detail and description; the list shows only the events that were most important for someone to understand the story). Ask students to provide examples of details from the story that are not included in the sequence of events.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Write the following words from the content vocabulary on a large piece of paper and hang them up around the room: conservationist, naturalist, oath, and preserve. Read each word aloud with students.
Place students in small groups and assign each group to a word. Have them discuss what they know about the meaning of their word and write a definition on the paper. Rotate the groups until each group has visited every word.
Review each word and the information about the word that students wrote on the paper. Create a definition based on students' knowledge and write it on the board.
Explain to students that sometimes they will not find any context clues that define an unfamiliar word. Review with them how to locate a word and its definition in the dictionary. Remind them to look at parts of the word that they may be familiar with to help them with the larger word. (For instance, the word conserve could help them in thinking about what a conservationist might be.)
Have a volunteer read the definition for each word. Compare students' definitions with the dictionary definition. Use the comparison to modify the definition for each word on the board.
Invite students to locate the glossary at the back of the book. Have them compare the dictionary definitions with those in the glossary. Ask students to compare and contrast the elements of a glossary and a dictionary (the glossary tells the page number on which the vocabulary word is found in the text; the dictionary gives pronunciation and part of speech, and so on).
For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read to find out more about Yosemite and the badge. Remind them to stop after every few pages to visualize the most important information, and draw on their worksheet what they visualized about it.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 12. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread. Have students draw what they visualized during one or more events of the story on their visualize worksheet.
Model visualizing.
Think-aloud: On page 9, I read about the fire on the hill. I pictured a huge orange and yellow blaze spread across a rolling green hill. I visualized an enormous cloud of gray smoke rolling down the sides of the hill.
Invite students to share the pictures of what they visualized while reading. Have them explain their drawings aloud.
Write the following events on the board: Nana gave the boy a Junior Ranger Handbook for Yosemite National Park; Nana hated the outdoors; John Muir was his favorite author; He started the activities in the book; He and Nana drove to Yosemite; They saw a huge fire on the way; They arrived at the park and picked out their campsite.
Discuss and circle the events that are the most important to correctly tell the story. (Nana gave the boy a Junior Ranger Handbook for Yosemite National Park; He and Nana drove to Yosemite; They arrived at the park and picked out their campsite.)
Ask students to tell what the story is mostly about so far (the boy trying to earn his Junior Ranger badge). Review the circled events on the board. Point out that the other information includes details that make the story interesting but are not important to the boy earning his badge.
Introduce and explain the sequence events worksheet. Have students write the circled events in order on their worksheet. Discuss the correct order and allow students time to make corrections on their worksheet as necessary.
Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 17. Have them visualize the information in the text as they read. Ask students to draw what they visualized on their visualize worksheet. Invite students to share what they visualized.
Ask students to write additional important story events in order on their sequence events worksheet. Discuss the important events as a class and write them on the board in order. (Nana and the boy visited the Indian Village and learned about the Ah-wah-nee-chee. They went to the Happy Isles Nature Center, and they toured and learned about the talus trail.) Allow students to make corrections to their worksheet.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize as they read the rest of the story. Remind them to continue thinking about the important events of the story as they read.

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.

After Reading

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

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.
Think-aloud: On page 19, I read about the gigantic sequoia trees and how the boy compared himself to an ant standing next to them. I pictured a tree trunk as long as a car stretching high up into the sky, and how small the boy looked standing next to the base of the trunk. I pictured large branches growing out of the tree several feet from the ground.
Ask students to explain how the strategy of visualizing helped them understand and enjoy the story.
Have students complete the visualize worksheet. If time allows, have them share their pictures.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Discussion: Review the sequence of events students wrote on their worksheet using sequencing words (first, next, then, after that, and so on). Point out how they used their own words to write about each event.
Independent practice: Have students complete the sequence events worksheet by identifying the remaining important events of the story. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Enduring understanding: In this story, the boy was inspired to help preserve nature. Now that you know this information, in what ways do you think nature conservation is important, and what could you do to help?

Build Skills

Grammar and Mechanics: Compound sentences

Write the following sentence on the board: That left only three more activities, and the badge would be mine! Ask students to identify two separate sentences within this longer sentence. (That left only three more activities. The badge would be mine!)
Point out that the original sentence is an example of a compound sentence. Review or explain to students that a compound sentence is a sentence consisting of two or more simple sentences separated by a comma and a conjunction. A simple sentence contains its own subject and verb.
Review with students examples of conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet). Write these examples on the board. Ask students to identify the conjunction that joined the two parts of the original sentence (and).
Discuss why the author chose to join together two sentences of similar content (compound sentences with conjunctions help writers make their writing more fluent).
Have students turn to page 19 and read the first sentence: It was tough to leave the peaceful water, but the hotel turned out to be equally stunning. Have students point to the conjunction in the sentence (but). Ask a volunteer to identify the two sentences the conjunction connects. (It was tough to leave the peaceful water. The hotel turned out to be equally stunning.)

Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 13 to find and underline the compound sentence. (I asked Nana if she would help me, and she said she would.) Have them circle the conjunction that connects the two sentences (and). Check students' books for individual understanding.

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound sentences worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Homophones

Have students turn to page 11. Read the following sentence aloud: Now that she was here, I think Nana wanted to help preserve Yosemite as much as I did! Circle the word here. Ask students to explain what the word here means (the place where you are at).
Have students turn to page 19. Read the following sentence aloud: We took the shuttle to the Mariposa Grove, and from there, we took the tram ride to see and hear about the "Big Trees." Circle the word hear. Ask students to explain what the word means (to listen to someone or something).
Ask students to identify which words in the sentences sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings (here, hear). 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. Repeat the process for their (page 15) and there (page 19).
Invite students to share other homophone pairs they may know. Write these pairs on the board.
Check for understanding: Write the homophones here, hear, there, and their 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 practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the homophones worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

Allow students to read their book independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book.

Home Connection

Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students practice visualizing the story with someone at home and then compare the pictures they created in their mind.

Extend the Reading

Narrative Writing and Art Connection
Discuss the boy's goals in this story and how his Nana helped him achieve them. Talk about the importance of making goals and invite students to think about things that are important to them. Have students write about goals they have set for themselves and have them share how they plan to achieve their goals.

Social Studies Connection
Supply books and links to Internet websites for students to learn more about John Muir. Have them find out about the things he did to preserve nature and the things that influenced him in his life. Lead a class discussion about the famous conservationist and naturalist, asking why he is important to the history of the United States.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

consistently use the strategy of visualizing to comprehend the text during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately sequence events in the text during discussion and on a worksheet
recognize and understand compound sentences during discussion and on a worksheet
accurately identify and understand the use of homophones during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

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