Text Type: Fiction/Realistic/Narrative
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 2,299

Book Summary
The Black Stones tells the story of eleven-year-old twins who learn how to put aside their differences and get along with each other. Tala finds two obsidian stones and wants to learn more about how they were formed from a scientific viewpoint. Her brother Paco isn't interested in science and wants to find out if the stones are lucky charms or have magical properties. Their mother forces them to work together to find the answers. The twins are surprised to find out that they like working together. Illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Compare characters to self
• Understand changes in dialogue to identify a new speaker
• Identify and form compound words

Materials

• Book -- The Black Stones (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Visualize, Venn diagram, compound words 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: beseech, clutched, discovered, embedded, examine, experiment, furious, implore, intention, legend, obsidian, Pinal Apache, polished, research, results, rigid, search engine, spewing, translucent, volcanic, warrior, website

Build Background

• Arrange with the school librarian to provide photographs of Apache warriors and obsidian stones from a nonfiction children's book or children's encyclopedia.
• Discuss what students know about Apache warriors. Ask if anyone knows what obsidian stones are and, if so, to explain what they look like.
• Ask students to close their eyes and visualize, or picture in their mind, a black translucent stone, wet from the water and glistening in the bright sunlight. Ask them to share what they see.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book. Show them the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this 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, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Direct students to the table of contents on page 3. Ask them what information they can tell from looking at the chapter titles in the book (there will be some kind of experiment, they will search for answers, and so on).

Introduce the Strategy: Visualize

• Tell students that one strategy readers use to understand what they are reading is to make pictures in their mind as they read. Visualizing, or making mental pictures, helps readers understand and remember what they are reading.
• Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause to create a picture or movie in my mind of what the author is describing. This helps me keep track of the important information. It also helps me stay involved in the book. I know that good readers do this when they read, so I am going to visualize as I read this book.
• Have students look at the glossary at the back of the book. Point out that the words are listed in alphabetical order with definitions and page numbers to tell readers where information about each word is found.
• Invite students to preview the rest of the book by looking at the illustrations and chapter titles.
• 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 Vocabulary

• As students preview the book, ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the bold word translucent on page 4. Explain that they can look at the letter the word begins with and then use what they know about syllables and vowels (one vowel sound per syllable) to sound out the rest of the word. Tell students to look for a clue to the word's meaning in the sentence. Explain that other information in the paragraph or in the illustrations may also provide information about the unfamiliar word.
• Model how to use the glossary or a dictionary to find the word's meaning. Have a volunteer read the definition for translucent in the glossary. Have students follow along on page 4 as you read the sentence in which the word translucent appears to confirm the meaning of the word. If time allows, preview other vocabulary words, such as examine and research, in a similar fashion before students begin reading.
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to learn about obsidian stones and Apache warriors. Remind them to stop to visualize as they read to help them remember and understand what they're reading.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 11. Have them go back and reread the chapters if they finish before everyone else.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: When I read about Tala holding the black stones up to the sun, I paused to picture in my mind how that would look. I envisioned the light glittering through them, changing them to a clear, translucent color.
• Invite students to share pictures they visualized in their mind while reading.

Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word.

Encourage students to make a movie in their mind of the book as they read. As each new character is introduced, have them write the name of the actor or friend they would like to see play that role in their movie.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Ask students how visualizing helped them understand and remember what they read. Encourage students to give examples to support their reasoning.
• Think-aloud: When I read the Legend of the Apache Tears, I paused to picture in my mind. I envisioned the Apache women grieving for their lost loved ones, crying the many tears that rested in the river below. This helped me to understand what I had read and to remember that part of the book.
• Have students complete the visualize worksheet to show how they used the strategy of visualizing to help them understand and remember what they read. Discuss their responses aloud once everyone has finished working independently.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Compare characters to self

• Discussion: Ask students to name the main characters in the story (Tala, Paco, and their mother). Explain that the author chose siblings, Tala and Paco, to help readers understand the importance of learning how to work together and get along. Ask students if they have ever had a difficult time getting along with someone, such as a sibling or a friend. Invite them to share the problem and how it was resolved.
• Introduce and model the skill: Explain to students that good readers often compare themselves to characters in the book they are reading. This strategy helps them understand the story in a more personal way.
• Think aloud: When I read page 5, I saw how frustrated Tala became when Paco kept trying to take the stones from her. I know I may have been upset in the same situation, but I don't think I would have cried to my mother. In some ways I am like the character, and in some ways I am different from the character. (Personalize examples as necessary.)
• Model how to compare and contrast information using a Venn diagram. Draw a Venn diagram on the board. Label the left circle Tala and the right circle Me. Explain that you can write things that only Tala does on the left side of the left circle. (Tala cries to her mother.) You can write things that only you would do on the right side of the right circle. (I would keep it to myself.) Explain that in the middle where both circles overlap, you can write things that both you and Tala would do. (We would both get upset.)
• Check for understanding: Invite students to offer new ideas to add to the Venn diagram on the board. Encourage them to think of examples from Tala's perspective as well as theirs and to think about things that they might have in common with Tala. Add new information to the middle section of the diagram.
• Independent practice: Have students practice comparing characters to themselves by completing the Venn diagram worksheet. If time allows, meet with students individually to discuss their answers.

Extend the discussion: Ask students what they thought of the book. Ask if they would be interested in learning more about Apache warriors. Discuss where they might find more sources on this topic.

Grammar and Mechanics: Dialogue

• Write the following on the board: "It's okay to be angry," her mother said. Ask students if they can tell which words are being spoken. Review or explain that quotation marks are the punctuation marks around dialogue in the text. Discuss the difference between what is being said aloud by the character (It's okay to be angry) and what is not (her mother said).
• Discuss the different words authors use to depict dialogue. Remind students that these words may come directly before or after the quotation marks to show that the character is speaking. Brainstorm and create a list on the board of different words authors may use instead of the word said (pleaded, yelled, replied, and so on).
• Direct students to page 13 in the book. Read the page aloud as students follow along. Ask students to identify which words are being spoken (You can decide, Maybe we should search for the name of our stones, I don't care about volcanoes, and so on.) and which words are not being spoken (he said to his sister, Tala suggested, Paco said).
• Point out the last two lines on the page: "Volcanic glass!" and "Good luck!" Ask students to identify which person is speaking for each line. (Tala says "Volcanic glass!" and Paco says "Good luck!") Point out that while it does not specifically say who is speaking, readers infer which person is speaking because of a pattern that was set in the dialogue above. First Paco spoke, then Tala, then Paco, so readers can infer that Tala would speak next, followed by Paco. Context clues also remind readers that Tala is the one interested in volcanic glass.

Check for understanding: Have students find and circle all of the places in the book where someone is speaking. Ask them to write in the margin the name of the speaker near each paragraph that contains dialogue.

• Extend the discussion: Assign character parts and have students take turns reading the dialogue aloud.

• Review or explain that when two short words are combined to form a new word, the new word is called a compound word.
• Write the words riverbank, good-luck, and Pinal Apache on the board. Tell students that these are examples of different types of compound words. Each example has two parts that make up one word meaning; however, some compound words are separated by hyphens, some are joined, and some are separate.
• Have students turn to page 5 in the book. Read the following sentence: Tala hugged her knees and listened to her brother's footsteps as he leaped from rock to rock, moving closer and closer. Have students identify the compound word (footsteps). Ask students to identify the two separate words that make up the compound word (foot and steps). Discuss the concept of compound words (combining two separate words to make a new word). Explain that the definitions of the two separate words can help students figure out the meaning of the bigger word (the steps being made by feet).
• Have students turn to page 10 in the book. Read the first paragraph aloud while students follow along. Ask them to identify three compound words (everything, sunset, seashell). Ask students to identify the two separate words that make up each compound word (every and thing, sun and set, sea and shell). Discuss the definitions of each word, using the smaller words to figure out the meaning.
• Check for understanding: Repeat the exercise above on page 9. Have students look for four different compound words (sometimes, everyone, someday, and outstretched). Encourage students to name other compound words they know and list them on the board.

Extend the discussion: Have students use the inside front cover of their book to write compound word along with the definition of the term (a word formed by combining two separate words to make a new word). Have them write examples with the definition.

• Independent practice: Have students complete the compound words worksheet. Discuss their answers aloud once everyone has finished working independently.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read aloud to their parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Tell them to have their audience describe the pictures they visualize as they hear the story read.

Writing Connection

• Have students create their own version of the Legend of the Apache Tears. Ask them to think of an original idea, telling why the black stones turn translucent when raised to the sunlight. Alternately, allow students to choose the option of writing a letter to Paco and Tala from their mother's perspective. It should be written to the twins in appreciation of her new necklace.

Science Connection

• Provide print and Internet resources for students to research volcanic glass and obsidian stones. Tell them to look for scientific explanations as to how they are formed, how old they are, where in the world they are found, and other interesting facts. Have them research the difference between magma and lava and tell which one is more likely to produce obsidian.

• use the reading strategy of visualizing to better comprehend and remember the text
• compare characters to self to personalize meaning
• understand changes in dialogue; identify when a new speaker begins taking
• recognize and form compound words

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric