Title of Text: Let’s Look at Sloths
Author/Illustrator: Janet Piehl GRL: J Series: Lightning Bolt Genre: Nonfiction, LB Animal Close Ups Standard: Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. Lesson Objectives: To ask and answer questions about key details in a text, to use inferring and use text features to help with understanding. Comprehension Strategy: Inferring Skill: Using Text Features Fluency: Accuracy Academic Vocabulary: explain or research the meanings of the words below. Discuss the morphology of the words: suffixes, taking a root word and adding to it to change the meaning of the word. Have students talk about the meaning of each word, using antonyms, synonyms and situations where each word can be used correctly. b. nursing c. ocelot a. algae d. predator e. sloth Before Reading: ENGAGE! THINK! 1. Build Background Knowledge a. Let’s look at the front and back cover. What do you know about this topic? b. What would you like to learn about the sloth? c. Go to the glossary and review the vocabulary? d. Table of contents: where would you go to find out how sloths are able to hang upside down in trees? e. Index – why do you think there are so many pages listed for claws? 2. Skill Introduction: a. Text Features – look on page 28 and 29 –how does the map and diagram help you? What have you learned by looking at it? 3. Strategy Introduction: a. Inferring – If the bus tire rolls over a nail, what would you infer 4. Fluency: Accuracy – Read page 6 inaccurately. Tell the students they should be working on reading accurately. Talk about how you read inaccurately and what you could have done better. Standard ‐ We will be asking and answering questions about key details in the text about sloths. Just as how do sloths find food and why their fur can look green? Copyright © 2012 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. Lerner Digital™ and Lerner eSource™ are trademarks of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.lernerbooks.com During Reading: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late! Check for Understanding (Stop Midway through the Book) 1.
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Tell me about a part you didn’t understand? Turn and Talk: how is using the strategy of inferring helpful in your reading? What inferences have you made so far? Were any incorrect? Why could this happen? 3. How can algae grow on a sloth’s fur? 4.
Standard‐ Let’s see if we can answer who, what, where, when, why and how questions so far. 5.
Standard‐ On page 10, what question could you ask someone by looking at the illustration? After Reading: EVALUATE! 1. What is the most important thing to remember from this book? What are the details that can help you remember this? 2. What did you learn? 3. What more do you want to learn about sloths? 4. Why are some of the sloths called three‐toed sloths? 5.
Standard: Using Text Features‐ look at page 28 and 29. How were the map and the diagram helpful? What have you learned by looking at them? 6.
Standard: Who are we reading about? What does the sloth do most of the time? When does get down from its tree? Where do sloths have their babies? Why can leaving its tree be dangerous? How does a sloth protect itself? 7. Academic Vocabulary: Find the vocabulary words in the text. Write the word and the page number that you find the word. Read the sentence and then write it. Then, write your own sentence using the vocabulary word. Writing Standard: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure. Task: Do you think a sloth is lazy? Why or why not? Use the points above to help you. IF/THEN: Using Text Features: Walk the students through the text stopping at each text feature to discuss its importance and why the author includes these in the text. Then, have students to go through the book again sharing with you what they have learned about each feature. Copyright © 2012 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. Lerner Digital™ and Lerner eSource™ are trademarks of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.lernerbooks.com