City+Places

Day 1

 * 1) What are places you find in the city? Make a list on the board. Point out the word "place" and "places."
 * 2) "Good readers always start reading by looking through the book at the pictures, and thinking about what might happen in the book. Let's do that together." On each page, have someone say what they think it is. Be sure the word used in the book is used, and have them locate and touch tricky words in the text.
 * 3) Look at the word "skyscraper" and talk about how it has two words inside it. Tell them that one way to figure out tricky words is to look for smaller words inside the big word. Show them how you can cover up one part and then the other part.
 * 4) Talk about how good readers always think about what makes sense. If they read something that doesn't make sense, they stop and go back. Model with page 5. Read: "It is a shape." Does that make sense? Could this be a shape? No, so what do I do? Go back and fix it.
 * 5) Echo read pages 3 and 4.
 * 6) Send kids off to read independently. Have them mark a place where they had to think about what makes sense to share after.
 * 7) Share strategies, especially thinking about what made sense.

Day 2

 * 1) What do good readers do when they read? Review think about what makes sense, and add to the list: "They tap out the beginning of the word." Model it with the word "animals" on p. 6 and "different" on p. 10.
 * 2) Talk about how good readers make connections as they read. Model with one page, making a connection to a part of a city.
 * 3) Ask students to make connections as they read, and mark one connection they make.
 * 4) They read independently. Conference as they read.
 * 5) Share connections and strategies they made while they read.
 * 6) Ask: "What is the same about a skyscraper and a stadium? What is different about them?"

Day 3

 * 1) Introduce the idea of main idea. The main idea is what the book is about. What is this book about?
 * 2) Write the main idea in the center of the graphic organizer (on a big version). Demonstrate how to fill in one or two of the other boxes.
 * 3) Have students re-read, thinking about how to finish the worksheet.
 * 4) Students finish the worksheet when they are done re-reading.
 * 5) Ask: "If you don't have a car, what are other ways you can get around a city?"

Day 4

 * 1) Introduce statements versus questions. A statement is something you are telling someone; a question is asking something you don't know. Give some examples and have students say "statement" or "question."
 * 2) Look in the book to find statements and questions. Record them on a chart. Also define, look for, and record question words: words that begin questions.
 * 3) Look in the book to see what comes at the ends of statements and questions. Notice the punctuation and talk about how your voice goes up with a question and down with a statement.
 * 4) Re-read and practice how to read questions and statements.
 * 5) What are things you do in the city that you could also do in a town? Talk about finding evidence in the book. Look through the book for things that people do in the city that people also do in small towns. Put your fingers on the evidence.