Word count:
1,797 

Text Summary
The personified voice of phytoplankton, the most universally eaten organism in the sea, takes the reader through the various ocean layers. The informative text reveals how all the organisms in the ocean are linked through the extremely intricate ocean food web. Beautiful underwater photography enhances the book. 

Lesson Objectives 

Students will:

• Summarize the information in the text in the form of questions.
• Use context clues to understand content vocabulary.
• Use and understand the prefix bio-.
• Identify first-person perspective and understand its effects on a text. 

Vocabulary
Content Words
abyssal, accumulation, algae, anemone, aphotic, bioluminescence, chlorophyll, coral polyps, diphotic, euphotic, faults, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, scuttle, submersibles, trenches, zone, zooplankton 

Materials

• Book - The Amazing Undersea Food Web
• Chalkboard or chart paper
• Worksheets 1 and 2 

Before Reading

Build Background

• Ask students what they know about marine life. Have them brainstorm a list of words they associate with ocean life. Write these on the board or chart paper to reference after reading.
• Write the words zooplankton, algae, and scuttle on the board. Ask students what the words might mean. Tell students you will work with these words after reading.
• Ask students if they know what a food web or food chain is. If necessary, review the process of a food chain or food web. 

Preview the Book

• Give students their copies of the book and have them look at the cover and read the title. Talk about the cover and the title.
• Read through the table of contents with students. Have them predict the contents of the chapters from the chapter heads.
• Allow students to skim the book and ask questions or offer comments about the photographs and other visual elements. 

Word Attack Strategies
Remind students to use any or all of the following strategies if they encounter difficult words.

• Reread the sentence, paragraph, or page.
• Look for known prefixes, suffixes, or root words.
• Use context clues to help understand word meaning.
• Keep reading and think about what might make sense. 

During Reading 

Set the Purpose
Tell students that you want them to try to read the book without referring to the glossary. Allow students to highlight or mark with sticky notes words they were not able to understand. Reassure students that you will review and discuss any unfamiliar words after reading. 

Student Reading
Have students read the book silently. Allow them to highlight or mark difficult words. They may also use another color of note or highlighter to mark important points places where they were confused. 

After Reading 

Comprehension
Summarize Information in the Form of Questions
Model
Tell students that questions about a text usually take one of three forms.

• The first kind simply asks about facts or ideas that were directly in the text.
• The second kind requires that students take the information from the text one step farther either by connecting facts, computing a formula, or using previously learned information.
• The third kind requires either a creative answer or an informational answer from the student's own personal experience.

Guided Practice
Provide examples of each type of question.

• The first type might be What is the green chemical that helps plants photosynthesize?
• The second type might be How do we help protect those animals whose young live in the coral reefs?
• A third kind might be Would you like to be a phytoplankton? What are the good and bad things about being a phytoplankton?

It is less important that students answer these questions than it is that they understand how they would arrive at each answer. Ask students how they would find the answer to each question.

• If the answer is in the text, have them tell you where it is.
• If it draws on information from multiple places in the text, ask them where the information is.
• If it draws on outside information, ask where students would find it.

Independent Practice
Give students worksheet 1 and tell them they are to create questions of each kind using the information in the book. Tell them to avoid yes/no questions. You may guide them on how to skim the book for a fact or a piece of information that might make a good answer and how to form a question from that information. Have students exchange questions. If a student cannot answer another student's question relatively easily, have the question-writer revise his or her questions. 

Building Skills

Use Context Clues to Understand Vocabulary
Model
Refer to the words zooplankton, algae, and scuttle on the board.

• Underline the word zooplankton. Explain to students that sometimes, they can understand the meaning of a word by using the parts of the word.
• Ask students to find a familiar word in the word zooplankton. After students find the word zoo, ask them what word is left. Where have they heard the word plankton before?
• Knowing that the word phytoplankton means tiny ocean plants and knowing that the word zoo is associated with animals, what might zooplankton mean? Allow them to check their predictions in the glossary.

Guided Practice

• Underline the word algae. Have students find the word in the book. Pick a student to read the sentence in which it is found. Have students offer a definition from the sentence. Point out that words such as like, called, which is, is, are, and a comma followed by or can signal that the definition of the word is in the text. Have students check with the glossary.
• Underline the word scuttle on the board. Have students locate it in the text and read the sentence in which it is found. Ask a student who does not know the definition to make a guess at what it might mean. Explain to students that sometimes, there are very few context clues to help them. Ask them what part of speech the word is. Ask them who or what is scuttling. After understanding that the word scuttle is a verb that lobsters do, have them make another guess. Then, allow students to look the word up in the glossary. Reassure them that everyone has to look words up in the glossary or dictionary sometimes.

Independent Practice
Hand out worksheet 2. Explain that students are to find the words in the book and try to gain their meaning from the context. Then in the spaces provided, they are to give a definition and explain how they gained the meaning: through the parts of the word, through a text definition, through more vague context clues, or by looking it up. 

Use and Understand the Prefix bio-

• Write the word bioluminescence on the board. Circle the prefix bio- and explain that it means "life" or "living things." Tell students that many of our words, prefixes, and suffixes come from Greek or Latin words. The prefix bio- comes from the Greek word bios.
• Explain how knowing prefixes, suffixes, and commonly used Greek and Latin roots can help students understand unfamiliar words.
• Have students explore the meanings and origins of such words as biome, biosphere, biofeedback, biology, biopsy, and bionics. 

Identify First-Person Perspective and Understand its Effects

• Have students reread the first paragraph of the text. Ask them who is telling, or narrating, the words.
• Ask students what words indicate who is telling the story. Have students circle the pronouns I, me, we, and myself throughout the book. Explain that these words indicate that a book is being narrated in the first person. The first person sounds like a real person talking to you about his or her own experiences.
• Ask students how the book would change if the phytoplankton were not telling the story. How much would students enjoy the book if it were written with no narrator, as their science textbooks are? Do they find it silly to have a microscopic plant narrating its experiences as if it were human? 

Fluency

• Allow students to read the book The Amazing Undersea Food Web independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading from the book/.
• Have students take the book home. They can read it with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. 

Expand the Reading 

Writing
Have students write a first-person account from the point of view of a marine creature. They may wish to do research on the life cycle of their chosen creature before writing. Encourage them to be creative and chose a creature they may not think of as having a point of view, such as an anemone or a sea urchin. 

Assessment 

• Note if students can find the right kinds of information to formulate the three types of comprehension questions. Read their questions to see if they cite appropriate information.
• Review completed vocabulary worksheets to assess students' ability to gain meaning through context.
• Observe student discussion during the first-person perspective discussion and read their first-person accounts to see if they understand and can use the first-person perspective appropriately.