LESSON 27 TEACHER’S GUIDE
The Baseball Game
by Maria Griffin
Fountas-Pinnell Level I
Informational Text
Selection Summary
A young boy describes the experience of attending a baseball game.
He even catches a ball in the stands—in his bag of peanuts.
Number of Words: 358
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Informational text
• Description
• First-person narrative
• Baseball games
• Many people love to play and watch baseball games.
• A trip to a baseball game can be a mother-son bonding experience.
• Descriptive language: They held their hats over their hearts. The flag waved in the breeze
as we sang.
• Dialogue limited to sounds at a ballpark: “Play ball!”
• Some simple sentences: Mom loves baseball.
• Many longer sentences: The home team ran out on the field, and the other team got ready
to bat.
• Words relating to baseball: games, pitches, caps, mitt, tickets, diamond, home team,
umpire, strike, bat
• Many high frequency words: always, different, enough, happy, high, near, once, stories
• Words for emphasis in all capital letters: CRACK! CRUNCH!
• Pictures support each page of text.
• Nine pages of text, illustrations on every page
• Five to eight lines of text on a page
• Two and three-line sentences, some starting mid-line
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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The Baseball Game
by Maria Griffin
Build Background
Read the title to children and ask them what is happening on the front cover. Encourage
children to use their knowledge of baseball to think about the book. Anticipate the text
with questions such as these: What do you know about baseball? Have you ever gone to a
game?
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 2: Explain that this book tells about a boy and his mom going to a baseball
game.
Suggested language: Turn to the illustration on page 2. You can see the narrator
of the book with his mother. She is full of stories about baseball games. Say the
word stories. What letter would you expect to see first in the word stories? Find
the word stories and put your finger under it. Do you like to hear stories about
sports games? Why or why not?
Page 4: Remind children that they can use information in the pictures to help them
read. Where are the boy and his mother now? How can you tell?
Page 7: Turn to page 7 and look at the picture. What are they doing now? That bag
is big enough for them to share the peanuts. Say the word enough. What letter
would you expect to see first in the word enough? Find the word enough and put
your finger under it.
Now go back to the beginning and read to find out all the different things that
happen at a ball game.
Words to Know
always
enough
high
once
different
happy
near
stories
Grade 1
2
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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Read
As the children read, observe them carefully. Guide them as needed, using language that
supports their problem solving ability.
Respond to the Text
Personal Response
Ask children to share their personal responses to the book. Begin by asking what they
liked about the book, or what they found most interesting.
Suggested language: Would you like to go to a baseball game like the one in the book?
Why or why not?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these teaching points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Because the narrator’s mom
loves baseball, she plays
baseball in the park with him and
they go to baseball games.
• Many people love to play and
watch baseball games.
• The author uses details to tell
about the game of baseball.
• Going to a baseball game can be
an adventure.
• Information about baseball is
told in a narrative.
• The baseball field is shaped like
a diamond and everyone sings
before a game.
• You can buy peanuts at the
game, watch players hit balls,
and sometimes even catch a ball.
• Spending time together doing
something the parent loves is a
bonding experience for a child
and a parent.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Support
Fluency
Invite children to choose a passage from the text to read aloud. Remind children to use
rising and falling tones in a way that is related to text meaning and punctuation. Model
how to read sentences ending with exclamation points with enthusiasm.
Phonemic Awareness and Word Work
Provide practice as needed with words and sounds, using one of the following activities:
• Clapping Syllables Have children hear and say syllables in words from the book:
tickets, players, umpire, peanuts, team, different, hungry, etc. Have them clap on each
syllable: tick-ets, play-ers, um-pire, pea-nuts, team, dif-fer-ent, hun-gry, etc.
• Possessives Have children find the phrase team’s turn on page 8. Remind them that
‘s is added to words to show that something belongs to someone or to something
else, so team’s turn means the “turn that belongs to the team.” Help them make other
possessive phrases from the book, such as Mom’s mitt or the player’s bat.
Grade 1
3
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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Writing About Reading
Critical Thinking
Read the directions for children on BLM 27.8 and guide them in answering the questions.
Responding
Read aloud the questions at the back of the book and help children complete the activities.
Target Comprehension Skill
Text and Graphic Features
Remind children to think about how words
work with art. Model how to think about how the words work with the pictures:
Think Aloud
When I look at the picture on page 2, I can see the mother and the boy
are playing baseball together. I can tell they are having a good time.
So I know that the words are going to tell about how much they enjoy
baseball.
Practice the Skill
Have children choose another picture from the book and tell how it helps them understand
the words in the text.
Writing Prompt
Read aloud the following prompt. Have children draw and write their response, using the
writing prompt on page 6.
This book tells about many things that can happen at a baseball game. Would you like to
go to a ball game? Why? Draw a picture that shows one thing you would like to see or do
at a baseball game.
Write about why you would like to go to a baseball game.
Grade 1
4
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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English Language Learners
Cultural Support Help children become familiar with aspects of the game of baseball.
They may need help with words relating to baseball, including mitt, pitch, umpire, home
plate, and strike.
Oral Language Development
Check the 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: What do you hit a ball with
in baseball?
Speaker 1: What is a baseball field
shaped like?
Speaker 1: How do you know the
mom loves baseball?
Speaker 2: a bat
Speaker 2: like a diamond
Speaker 1: What do you use to catch
a ball?
Speaker 1: What does the umpire shout
to start a game?
Speaker 2: She tells stories about
it, she plays baseball in the park,
and she goes to baseball games.
Speaker 2: a mitt
Speaker 2: “Play ball!”
Speaker 1:What does the boy eat at the
ball game?
Speaker 1: Where does the ball
land?
Speaker 2: It lands in a bag of
peanuts.
Speaker 2: peanuts
Lesson 27
BLACKLINE MASTER 27.8
Name
Think About It
The Baseball Game
Think About It
Listen to the questions. Write an answer.
Responses may vary.
1. What was the most exciting part of the baseball game?
The boy caught a ball in
his bag of peanuts.
Making Connections Think about a game or
a place you went with your family. Write some
sentences that tell what happened.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
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Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
First Pass
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Name
Date
The Baseball Game
This book tells about many things that can
happen at a baseball game. Would you like to go to a
ball game? Why? Draw a picture that shows one thing
you would like to see or do at a ball game.
Write about why you would like to go to a baseball game.
Grade 1
6
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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Lesson 27
BLACKLINE MASTER 27.8
Name
Think About It
The Baseball Game
Think About It
Listen to the questions. Write an answer.
1. What was the most exciting part of the baseball game?
Making Connections Think about a game or
a place you went with your family. Write some
sentences that tell what happened.
Grade 1
7
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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Student
Lesson 27
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 27.13
The Baseball Game • LEVEL I
page
2
The Baseball Game
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Self-Correction
Rate
Mom loves baseball. She tells
me stories about the games she
saw when she was my age. We
always play baseball in the park.
Mom pitches the ball to me, and
I try to hit it with my bat.
3
Last week, Mom and I went
to the baseball game. We wore
our baseball caps and our red
and yellow shirts. I took my
baseball mitt so I could try to
catch a ball.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/73 x 100)
(# errors + #
Self-Corrections/
Self-Corrections)
%
1:
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 1
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
1413347
Behavior
1
Lesson 27: The Baseball Game
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