Ask: What do you see on the cover? What do you think the book will be about?

Turn the book over to the back cover. Ask: What other information does this give us about the book?

Elicit Prior Knowledge and Build Background
Make a mind map with students around the words Ships of Discovery. Have students suggest what they already know about ships of discovery. Write their suggestions around the title.

Skim and Scan
Have students turn to the contents page. Explain that a contents page shows where they might find information on a particular subject within the book.

Ask: In what chapter might you find information on the Polynesians? On what page does that chapter start?

Have students look for each topic listed in the contents page. They should be able to find the beginning page for each topic. Explain how students can figure out how many pages are in each section by counting the pages between each section (5,6,7,8,9 equals five pages), or by subtracting the page number that a section begins on from the page number of the following section. This means that if a section begins on page 5 and the following section begins on page 10, the section will be five pages long (10 - 5 = 5).