Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 2,254

Book Summary
Desert People is an informational text about various peoples who live in deserts. It focuses mostly on the Tohono O'odham (a Native American tribe) and the Bedouins but also briefly mentions other cultures. Desert People tells about many aspects of desert life, from diet and shelter to daily routines, traditions, and customs. Photographs, tables, and a map support the text.

Book and lesson also available at levels P and T.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Summarize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand nonfiction text
• Identify details to compare and contrast people
• Understand and use prepositions in sentences
• Read and understand number words

Materials

• Book -- Desert People (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Sticky notes
• Compare and contrast, prepositions, number words worksheets
• Discussion cards

      Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may be demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary

• Content words: adapt, ancestors, arid, bountiful, caravans, climate, desolate, dung, extract, fertile, inhospitable, lush, jinn, millennia, monsoons, nomadic, oases, plateaus, precipitation, resources, stalking, sturdy, vast, vegetation

Build Background

• Draw a web on the board with the word desert in the center circle. Have students tell what they know about deserts. Attach smaller circles that contain the information they share.
• Explain that the hot deserts of the world are home to many different peoples. Ask students whether they would like to live in a desert and to explain their reasoning.

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 and what it might be about.
• Ask students if they think this book is fiction or nonfiction and to explain their reasoning.
• Show students 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 read about in the book based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

Introduce the Strategy: Summarize

• Explain to students that one way to understand what they are reading is to stop now and then during reading to summarize in their mind what they are reading about in the book.
• Model how to summarize.
  Think-aloud: As I read this book, I am going to stop every now and then to remind myself what I have read so far about desert people. This helps me remember what I'm reading and makes me think about new information. When I finish reading the book, I should be able to tell, in my own words, some of the information I have read about desert people.
• 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: Compare and contrast

• Explain that one way an author helps readers understand information in a book is to tell how topics in the book are alike and different.
• Have students look at the photographs on pages 10 and 14.
• Model how to compare and contrast using photos.
  Think-aloud: These photos show two different types of desert land. They are alike in some ways and different in some ways. One way they are alike is that they both are sandy. One way they are different is that the desert land on page 10 has cacti, while the desert land on page 14 does not.
• Model how to compare and contrast information using a Venn diagram. Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left circle Page 10 and the right circle Page 14. Explain that information relating to the desert land on page 10 is written in the left side of the left circle (cacti). Information that relates to the desert land on page 14 is written in the right side of the right circle (no cacti). Explain that in the middle where both circles overlap, information is written about what the desert lands on pages 10 and 14 have in common (sandy).
• Have students identify other similarities and differences between the desert land on pages 10 and 14. Record these on the Venn diagram.

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.
• Have students turn to page 2 and look at the Pronunciation Guide. Pronounce the words Bedouin and Tohono O'odham for students. Have them repeat the words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. For example, point out a word in bold, such as the word resources on page 6. Model how students can use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. Read the first and second paragraphs aloud. Ask students what words provide clues as to the meaning of the word resources in this text (local; food, water, and shelter). Have students follow along as you read the sentence to confirm the meaning of the word. Then have students check the glossary to confirm the word's meaning.
• Remind students to check whether a word makes sense by rereading the sentence in which it occurs.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to learn about deserts and the people who live there. Remind them to stop after reading new information to review, in their own words, what they have learned.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Give students their book and have them put a sticky note on page 8. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Have students reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• Model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: As I read, I paused to summarize in my mind what I learned about in each section. For example, when I read the section titled "Demanding Deserts," I underlined the words, phrases, and sentences I thought were most important. (Add any information that was not generated by students to the web on the board. Review the web and explain which details are important and which are not, crossing out the less-important details as you go.) After sorting through the information and deciding what is important and what isn't, I put the information in my own words to create a summary. (There are many types of deserts, each with different vegetation and wildlife. Deserts receive less than 10 inches of rain a year, which means there is not much plant growth. Some deserts get very cold, but most deserts are sunny and hot.) As I continue reading the book, I'll summarize what I've read to help me remember new information.
• Check for understanding: Have students put a sticky note on page 11. Tell them to read to the end of this page. Invite them to share the important information about the Sonoran Desert. Ask students to write a brief summary of the section on a separate piece of paper. Have them share what they wrote.
• Using the chart on page 7 have students work with a partner to compare and contrast the Sonoran Desert and the Atacama Desert and write the information on a Venn diagram on a separate piece of paper. Discuss their responses aloud as you create a Venn diagram on the board.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Remind them to think about the details in the book so they can summarize the information after 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.

• 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

• Ask students to explain how the strategy of summarizing helped them understand the book.
  Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me understand and remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about different kinds of deserts and the people who live there, because I summarized the information in my own words as I read the book.
• Independent practice: Have students write a summary of pages 13 and 14 (The Bedouin) on a separate sheet of paper. If time allows, invite students to read their completed summaries aloud.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Review with students the similarities and differences between the Sonoran Desert and the Atacama Desert. Add any new information to the Venn diagram on the board. Review how the information is organized in the Venn diagram.
• Check for understanding: Have students provide examples of how the Australian Aborigines and the Atacama Indians are alike and different. Record this information on a new Venn diagram on the board.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare and contrast worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses aloud.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about different types of deserts and the people who live there. You learned that, for thousands of years, people have adapted to deserts. Now that you know this information, do you think people living in the desert will need to continue to adapt in the future? If so, why?

Grammar and Mechanics: Prepositions

• Explain that prepositions are words that show a relationship between things. They provide information about where, when, how, why, and with what something happens. For example, in the sentence I'll do this after lunch, the word after is a preposition that provides information about when something happens.
• Ask students to turn to page 4. Write the following sentence from the third paragraph on the board: Imagine that you feel hungry in this desert. Point to the word in. Have a volunteer explain how the preposition is used in this sentence (it explains where you are imagining that you feel hungry).
• Explain that prepositions are also defined as relationship indicators; they explain the relationship of a subject to the rest of the sentence. Have a volunteer draw a rabbit on the chalkboard. Have another volunteer draw a cactus in front of the rabbit. Write the following sentences on the board: The rabbit goes _____ the cactus. The rabbit is _____ the cactus.
• Next, draw a line from the rabbit over, under, through, beside, and to the cactus, one at a time. Have a volunteer come to the board and write each preposition in the correct sentence.

      Check for understanding: Have students look through the text and circle examples of prepositions. Record on the board the prepositions that students identify in the book. Discuss the type of information each preposition provides (how, when, why, and so on) and how each one links the words in the sentence. 

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

Word Work: Number words

• Explain that when reading aloud, readers will sometimes encounter different symbols, numbers, and abbreviations in the text. Good readers read these parts of the text fluently, just as they read the words.
• Direct students to page 9. Ask them to find the numbers in the text (49° Celsius, 120° F, 30.5 centimeters, 12 in). Review or explain that the numbers are called cardinal numbers and that they are used to describe an amount. Point out that a cardinal number is read in the same manner as the written word for the number. Practice reading the numbers and symbols aloud. Explain that when reading 30.5, it is read "thirty point five."
• Write the numbers from page 9 on the board and have volunteers come up to the board to write their word equivalents (forty-nine, one hundred twenty, thirty point five, twelve).
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 14. Ask them to find the numbers in the text (8 million square kilometers, 3.5 million sq mi, 25 millimeters, 1 in). Have volunteers read the numbers and symbols aloud. Write the numbers on the board and ask other volunteers to come to the board to write their word equivalents (eight million, three point five, twenty-five, one).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the number words worksheet.

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 create a Venn diagram and use it to compare and contrast something at home (for example, two foods, two people, and so on).

Informational Writing Connection
Provide print and Internet sources for students to further research one of the following desert peoples: Kalahari Bushmen, Atacama Indians, or Australian Aborigines. Have them write an informational report, including at least three paragraphs and two illustrations or photographs. Require an error-free final copy to be read aloud to a partner of their choice. Display their work on a bulletin board titled Desert People.

Visit Writing A-Z for a lesson and leveled materials on expository report writing.

Social Studies Connection
Using books and Internet reference materials, have groups of students research the types of clothing, baskets, and other things worn and used by each of the six groups of desert people mentioned in the book. Have students create Desert Art posters that show written and visual examples of various kinds of desert clothing. Post them on the Desert People bulletin board alongside their reports from the Writing Connection activity.

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 cards 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.