LESSON 1 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Lucy and Billy
by Pauline Cartwright
Fountas-Pinnell Level L
Realistic Fiction
Selection Summary
At the pet shop, Lucy chooses a parakeet for her birthday. She names
him Billy, and vows to teach him to talk. Lucy works at it every day,
saying, “My name is Billy.” Lucy’s brother Thomas wants to help, but
whenever Thomas talks to the parakeet, Lucy says, “Don’t do that!”
Instead of his name, Billy learns to say “Don’t do that!”
Number of Words: 317
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Realistic fiction
• Third-person narrative
• Organized chronologically
• Mild sibling rivalry
• Training a pet
• Training a pet takes great patience.
• Life has a way of surprising us.
• Simple conversational language among family members
• Dialogue, all assigned
• Mostly simple sentences
• A few complex sentences with clauses. Example: Lucy was so excited she could hardly
talk herself!
• Dialogue repeated like a refrain: My name is Billy. Don’t do that!
• Descriptive adjectives: curly, straight, floppy
• Adverbs: carefully, finally, hardly
• Mostly one- and two-syllable words
• Use of pet as both a noun and a verb
• Cheerful cartoon-like illustrations
• Illustrations support the text
• Twelve pages of text; illustrations on every page
• Two to six lines of text per page
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Lucy and Billy
by Pauline Cartwright
Build Background
Help children think about things that animals can learn, and how people can teach them.
Ask questions such as: What kinds of animals can do jobs, or perform tricks, or talk?
Have you ever tried to teach a pet to do something? Read the title and author and talk
about the cover. Tell children that this story is realistic fiction, so the characters will act like
real people.
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 3: Explain that this is a story about a girl named Lucy. Lucy wants a pet for
her birthday, and her family goes to the pet shop to find one.
Suggested language: Turn to page 3. Here is a picture of Lucy, her brother
Thomas, and her mother and father. Read the first sentence to find out what kind
of pet Lucy wants: Lucy wanted a bird for her birthday. How do you think Lucy will
choose?
Page 4: Explain that Lucy picked a little bird called a parakeet. The parakeet has
straight green feathers and a curly yellow beak. The words straight and curly have
to do with shape. Is Lucy’s hair straight or curly?
Page 8: Direct children to the illustration on page 8. Lucy named her bird Billy. Do
you think Lucy is taking good care of Billy? The book says she liked to talk to him
and to pet his floppy head. What does a floppy head look like? Show me.
Now turn back to the beginning of the story and read to find out what Lucy and her
brother teach Billy the bird to do.
Target Vocabulary
collars – leather, metal, or plastic
bands that are put around the
necks of animals, p. 4
curly – something with curves or
twists, p. 4
drooled – watered at the mouth,
p. 4
Grade 2
floppy – hanging down loosely,
p. 8
straight – something with no
curves, turns, or bends, p. 4
row – n. a number of people or
things arranged in a line, p. 3
weighed – something placed on a
scale, p. 6
stood – to be a certain height
when standing, p. 11
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Lesson 1: Lucy and Billy
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Read
Have children read Lucy and Billy silently while you listen to individual children read.
Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind students to use the Infer/Predict Strategy
text to figure out more about story parts.
and use clues in the
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: How do you think Lucy felt when she heard the first words Billy
spoke? What was she probably thinking?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Lucy wants to teach her new
pet parakeet how to talk, all by
herself.
• Training a pet takes a lot of hard
work and patience.
• Some of the language is like the
refrain of a song, because it is
repeated over and over without
any changes (“My name is Billy.”
“Don’t do that!”)
• She does not realize the parakeet
may repeat anything he hears
a lot.
• Lucy is surprised because Billy
learns to talk, but he does not
say the words she tried to teach
him.
• Sometimes what you plan is not
what happens.
• When people want to help you,
you should let them.
• The dialogue that expresses
disagreement between the
brother and sister sounds very
realistic.
• The ending is a surprise because
we expect Billy to say his name
since Lucy has tried so hard to
teach him.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite children to choose a passage from the text to act out. Tell them to think
about how Lucy and Thomas might feel as they talk to each other. Remind them to use
expression to make the children’s conversation sound realistic.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that to change a word to mean more than
one of something, add an s. For example, cage/cages; beak/beaks; brother/brothers.
Ask children to make a list of singular and plural nouns used in the story. Have them
make the singular nouns plural by adding s and the plural nouns singular by taking
away the s.
Grade 2
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 1.8.
Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Sequence of Events
Remind children that it is important to pay attention
to the order in which things happen. Knowing the order of events will help them
understand the story. Model the skill, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
To understand the story, I need to think about what happens first, what
happens next, and what happens last. When I look at the chart on page
15, I see that First has been filled in with Lucy talked to Billy every day.
When I think about what happened Next, I think that Lucy told Thomas,
“Don’t do that.” That’s because she wanted him stop talking when she
tried to teach Billy to talk. And what happened last? That’s what goes in
the bottom box.
Practice the Skill
Have pairs of children choose a favorite story and work together to tell what happens first,
next, and last in the story.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about
what happens in the story.
Assessment Prompts
• Look at this sentence: Some of the birds drooled. What does the word drooled mean
in this sentence?
• What did Lucy learn about parakeets?
Grade 2
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Pair advanced and intermediate readers to read aloud a few
paragraphs of the story. Remind them to make their voices sound as if Lucy and Thomas
are really talking.
Idiom Explain the meaning of the expression couldn’t believe her ears (page 14) and talk
about why the author used it at the end of the story.
Oral Language Development
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their English
proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Who is the girl in the story?
Speaker 1: Why does Lucy say “My
name is Billy” every day?
Speaker 1: How does Billy learn to
say “Don’t do that”?
Speaker 2: She thinks Billy will copy her
words.
Speaker 2: He hears Lucy say it to
Thomas a lot.
Speaker 1: What does Billy learn to say?
Speaker 1: How would you teach
Billy a new sentence?
Speaker 2: Lucy
Speaker 1: What does Lucy get at the
pet store?
Speaker 2: a bird (parakeet)
Speaker 1: What does Lucy want the
bird to do?
Speaker 2: Don’t do that!
Speaker 2: Possible response: I
would say the sentence over and
over and use a lot of expression.
Speaker 2: talk
Lesson 1
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.8
Date
Think About It
Lucy and Billy
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. What is the first thing Lucy tries to teach her
parakeet Billy to say?
i.ZOBNFJT#JMMZu
2. What does Lucy say every time her brother tries to
help Billy learn to talk?
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3. What is the first thing Billy learns to say? Why?
)FTBZTi%POUEPUIBUu)FQSPCBCMZMFBSOFEUPTBZUIJT
GSPNIFBSJOH-VDZUFMMIFSCSPUIFSi%POUEPUIBUu
Making Connections In Lucy and Billy, Lucy tries to teach her
pet parakeet to talk. Think about a time when you tried to teach
a person or animal to do something new. What did you teach?
Was teaching easy or hard? Why?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
Grade 2, Unit 1: Neighborhood Visit
¥)PVHIUPO.JGGMJO)BSDPVSU1VCMJTIJOH$PNQBOZ"MMSJHIUTSFTFSWFE
Grade 2
5
Lesson 1: Lucy and Billy
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Name
Date
Lucy and Billy
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
Billy learns to talk, but his words are a big surprise to Lucy. Why do you
think he learns to say “Don’t do that!” instead of “My name is Billy”? Do you
think the way Lucy said these two things made a difference?
Grade 2
6
Lesson 1: Lucy and Billy
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Lesson 1
Name
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.8
Think About It
Lucy and Billy
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. What is the first thing Lucy tries to teach her parakeet Billy to say?
2. What does Lucy say every time her brother tries to
help Billy learn to talk?
3. What is the first thing Billy learns to say? Why?
Making Connections In Lucy and Billy, Lucy tries to teach her
pet parakeet to talk. Think about a time when you tried to teach
a person or animal to do something new. What did you teach?
Was teaching easy or hard? Why?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 2
7
Lesson 1: Lucy and Billy
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Student
Lesson 1
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.12
Lucy and Billy • LEVEL L
page
3
Lucy and Billy
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Lucy wanted a bird for her birthday. The
whole family went to the pet shop.
“There must be a hundred birds in a row!”
said Thomas, her little brother.
4
Lucy looked at each bird carefully.
Some of them drooled. Some of them had
collars. Some were big. Some were small.
Finally, Lucy found the bird she wanted. It
was a parakeet with straight green feathers and
a curly yellow beak.
5
Lucy decided that her bird’s name would be
Billy.
Lucy told Dad, “Parakeets can learn to talk.”
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/87 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 2
Behavior
Error
0
0
1
8
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
Word told
T
cat
cat

Error
1413822
Behavior
1
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