Build Background

• Give students a copy of the book. Have them look at the animal on the cover. Ask students to imagine that this animal shows up injured near their house. Invite them to explain what they would do in this situation.
• Ask students if they've ever seen an injured animal in the wild. Encourage them to share their experiences. Discuss why it is important to get an adult's help and not tot touch the animal. Invite students to share what they know about the process of helping injured wildlife.
• Explain that caring for and rehabilitating injured animals takes a trained professional, and that the people who work as animal rescuers and rehabilitators need to provide the animals with adequate space, shelter, food, attention, and medical care.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students their book. Guide them to the front and back covers of the book 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.
• Show students 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 that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to summarize paragraphs, sections, or chapters mentally or on paper. Explain that a summary is a brief overview of the most important information in the text.
• Read page 4 aloud to students and model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize, I decide which information is important from what I've read. Then, in my mind, I organize the important information into a few words or sentences. For example, the text on page 4 describes animals that are hurt or sick. I will underline this information in my book. The page also describes the people who help these animals. I will underline the words some people know just what to do, they know if they can help, and know what care to give. When I look at this important information, a summary of page 4 might be: Animals are sometimes hurt or sick. However, it is important to leave these animals alone. Trained people will do all they can to help these animals get better.
• Invite students to practice summarizing the important information in a familiar story.
• 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 writers present the events of a story in a particular order. Signal words are often provided to help readers identify the order of the events. Ask students to identify examples of signal words (today, first, next, then, last, finally, dates, and so on).
• Model how to sequence events.
  Think-aloud: I know that a process, like a story, also has a sequence of events. For example, when I call someone on the phone, first I lift the receiver off the hook. Next, I dial the number using the number pad on the phone. Then, I hold one end of the receiver to my ear. Last, I speak into the other end of the receiver.
• Have volunteers explain the order of a simple process, such as making a sandwich or getting ready for school. Use time and order words (first, next, and so on) to record the steps on the board.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the following words from the content vocabulary on the board in order: rescue, disaster, predators, orphaned, quarantined, incubator, flight cage, release.
• Give groups of students several pieces of blank paper. For each word, have them write or draw what they know about the word. Create a definition for each word using students' prior knowledge.
• Review or explain that the glossary and dictionary contain a list of vocabulary words and their definitions.
• Model how students they can use the glossary or a dictionary to find a word's meaning. Have students locate the glossary at the back of the book. Invite a volunteer read the definition for predators in the glossary. Have students compare the definition with their prior knowledge of the word. Then have students follow along on page 9 as you read the sentence in which the word predators is found, to confirm the meaning of the word. Repeat the exercise with the remaining vocabulary words.
• Show students the picture of the baby bird on page 15. Have them use the vocabulary words in the order in which they appear on the board to create a story about the rescue of the baby bird. Have each student use one vocabulary word to add on to the story. Repeat the activity after reading the book to check for student understanding of the vocabulary.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out more about wildlife rescue, stopping after every few pages to summarize the events of the book in their mind. Encourage students to underline or record on a separate piece of paper the important information in each chapter.

During Reading 

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 8. Encourage those who finish before others to reread the text. When students are ready, discuss the important information they identified.
• Model summarizing important information in the book.
  Think-aloud: I made sure to stop after the first few pages to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I decided which events were important. Then, in my mind, I organized the important events into a few sentences. A summary for this chapter might be: Wildlife rehabbers help many types of animals who are sick, injured, or orphaned. Rehabbers are trained to care for, feed, house, treat, and handle these animals.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to page 12. Invite them to share the important information in the chapter. Ask students to write a brief summary of the chapter on a separate piece of paper or at the bottom of page 11. Have them share what they wrote.
• Ask students to read the remainder of the book. Remind them to think about the important details in the book so they can summarize the information in their mind 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 skills and context clues.
• Ask students to explain or show 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 how wildlife is rescued because I summarized the important information as I read the book.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the summarize worksheet using one of remaining chapters in the book. Have them read their summaries aloud when finished.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Direct students to the table of contents. Ask them to identify the three major steps that wildlife rehabilitators take, using the chapter titles as clues (rescue, rehabilitation, release). Ask students to use sequencing words to define these steps in order. (First, they rescue the animal. Next, they rehabilitate it. Finally, when it is ready, they release it back into the wild.) Write the example sentences on the board, underlining the three sequencing words (First, Next, Finally).
• Remind students that a particular order of events happens within each of the three steps. Have students reread "Rescue." Invite them to share the steps that should be taken to rescue an animal (do not touch the animal, tell an adult, call a wildlife rehabber, watch the animal from a safe distance, and so on).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the sequence events worksheet. When they have finished, discuss answers aloud.
• Extend the discussion: Have students list the types of wildlife that live in the local area. Ask them to discuss ways they can help protect the land so that wild animals can continue to find food and shelter.

Build Skills 

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 8. Write the following sentence from the book on the board: They learn to care for animals in the homes and backyards of rehabbers. Point to the word in. Have a volunteer explain how the preposition is used in this sentence (it explains where they learn).
• 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 log in front of the rabbit. Write the following sentences on the board: The rabbit goes _____ the log.
  The rabbit is _____ the log.
• Next, draw a line from the rabbit over, under, through, beside, and to the log, one at a time. Have a volunteer come up and write each preposition in the correct sentence.

    Check for understanding: Have students look through the text and circle examples of prepositions. On the board, record the prepositions 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.

Word Work: Suffix -ion

• Have students define suffix. (A suffix is a word part added to the end of a base word to change the meaning of the word or to change its part of speech.) Have students provide examples of suffixes and explain how each one changes the meaning of the original word.
• Write the word quest on the board. Ask a volunteer to tell the meaning of the word or look it up in the dictionary (to search for). Write the word question on the board. Explain that the suffix -ion has been added to make a new word. Ask a volunteer to tell the meaning of the new word (to ask for further information about something).
• Ask students to explain the similarities between the meanings of the two words (both definitions involve the search for more information).
• Explain that the suffix --ion means the process of doing something.
• Write the word migrate on the board. Have a volunteer use the dictionary to find the definition of the word migrate (to move from one region to another). Write the word migration on the board. Have students use the definitions of the word and the -ion suffix to explain the meaning of the new word (the process, or steps, taken to move from one region to another).
• Explain that when the --ion suffix is added, the spelling of the base word may change. Ask a volunteer to tell how the spelling of the base word migrate was changed when the suffix was added (the e was dropped before adding the suffix -ion).
• Check for understanding: Write the words elevate and adopt on the board. Ask students to define each word. Have them tell whether a spelling change is needed when the suffix is added. Have volunteers write the new words on the board: elevation and adoption. Discuss how the meaning of each word was altered when the suffix was added.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the suffixes worksheet. Discuss the words students made, once all students have finished their work independently.

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 discuss with someone at home the steps he or she will take if a sick or injured animal is found.

Extend the Reading 

Writing and Art Connection
After completing the Social Studies Connection detailed above, have students write a research report on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Have them write five paragraphs explaining the spill, the wildlife affected, the rehabilitation efforts on behalf of those animals, the successful release of animals, and the environmental ramifications of the spill.

Social Studies Connection
Provide print and Internet resources for students to research the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska, U.S.A. Have them look for information about injured wildlife, rehabilitation centers, and the efforts of rehabbers. Have students find out how many and what types of animals were affected, as well as how many releases back to nature were possible.

Assessment 

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• consistently use the strategy of summarizing to better comprehend the text
• accurately sequence events of the nonfiction text on a worksheet
• correctly identify and use prepositions during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand the use of the suffix -ion during discussion and on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

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