The Right Tools for the Job / Arnold Saves the Day Lesson Plan by Okapi

Lesson Plans Fluent reading stage Level L (24)

The Right Tools for the Job explains how animals use their different body parts to get the food they need. Running words: 697 Text type: Explanation

Arnold Saves the Day is a narrative about an anteater called Arnold. The other animals think that eating ants is disgusting, so Arnold stops. Soon, the animals have lots of problems with ants. They realize they need Arnold to eat ants after all. Running words: 651 Text type: Narrative

Content vocabulary

acid anteater/s ants beak beavers blood claws eyesight fangs flowers giraffe gnaw grasshopper hovering hummingbird/s hyena/s insects juices leaves nectar poison prey scavengers snouts spiders stomach sucking survive teeth termites thorns tongue/s tool/s turkey vultures vampire bats

Phonics

• Identifying “ngue” making the /ng/ sound as in tongue • Identifying “ough” making the /ew/ sound as in through

Text features The Right Tools for the Job

• Headings; sub-headings; fact boxes • Summary chart with photographs

Arnold Saves the Day

• Dialogue • Contents page; chapters with headings

Reading strategies

• Reading and interpreting a summary chart • Using word parts or syllables to decode

Correlations with State Standards Reading literature 2.RL.4 Describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. Informational texts 2.RI.8 Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text. Foundational skills 2.RF.3a Distinguish long and short vowels when reading regularly spelled one-syllable words.

Writing 2.W.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects. Speaking and listening 2.SL.6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification. Language 2.L.5b Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs and closely related adjectives.

Lesson 1

Lesson 2 Arnold Saves the Day

The Right Tools for the Job

Key concepts • S ome animals eat food that is difficult to reach, collect, or get to. • T hese animals have the right body parts to get the foods they need.

Returning to the book Provide multiple opportunities for the students to reread and interact with the book – with teacher support, with a partner, and independently. Choose activities that are appropriate for your students.

Before reading

After reading

In small groups, students could perform a readers’ theater of the book. Encourage the students to adjust their voices, depending on whether they are the narrator or a character. Say: Help the audience understand the story by changing your voice when you change roles.

Getting ready to read

Talking about the book

Word work

Support the students in activating their prior knowledge. Ask what the students know about anteaters. If necessary, read the section on anteaters in The Right Tools for the Job (pages 16 and 17). Say: Anteaters eat ants. What might happen if anteaters stopped eating ants? Students could talk about this.

Have the students talk about the book. Promote discussion by choosing questions that are appropriate for your students. Ask them to support their thinking by referring to the illustrations and the text in the book. Why did Arnold stop eating ants? What happened to the other animals when Arnold stopped eating ants? (Literal) Why did the animals tease Arnold for eating ants? How did this make him feel? Why was he sad about this? How do you know the other animals changed their thinking about Arnold? What might Arnold have learned from this? (Inferential) What messages do you get from this story? (Synthesizing) What do you think the author is trying to say about being yourself? Do you agree? Explain your answer. (Critical)

After reading

Getting ready to read

Talking about the book

Word work

Support the students in activating their prior knowledge. Have the students look through factual books about animals. Ask them to discuss what they see. Say: What foods do the animals eat? How might they get these foods? Many animals have body parts that help them to get the food they need.

Have the students talk about the book. Promote discussion by choosing questions that are appropriate for your students. Ask them to support their thinking by referring to the photographs and the text in the book. What helps the giraffe eat the food it needs? Spiders and anteaters don’t have teeth. How do they eat their food? (Literal) Why do animals have body parts that are different shapes and sizes? How does the way an animal looks give you clues about what that animal might eat? (Inferential) Think of another animal that could have been in this book. What information could have been written about this animal? (Synthesizing) What would the author have needed to know in order to write this book? (Critical)

Introducing the book Give each student a copy of The Right Tools for the Job and have them read the title. Refer students to pages 2 and 3 and have them read the contents page. Ask: How is the information organized in this book? Have the students choose an animal listed on the contents page. Then have them turn to that page and look at the photographs and captions. Ask: What tools does your animal use to get food?

During reading Ask each student to read the text independently. Monitor the students as they read and support them where appropriate. If necessary, ask the students to stop reading and remind them to use the reading strategies you are focused on. For example, are the students able to read the summary chart on pages 22 and 23? Do students understand the purpose of a summary chart like this one? Ask: What is this chart about? Why did the author include this chart in the book? Do you think it is a good way to present information? Why?

Reviewing reading strategies Encourage students to identify what they did to help themselves as readers. Ask: Can you explain some of the things you did that helped you make sense of this book? What strategies did you use? If appropriate, comment on how well the students interpreted the summary chart. Say: That was good reading. Good readers know how to read information presented in different ways.

ELL support • The introduction and conclusion state and • •

restate the key concepts. Labeled photographs support and extend the text. Headings and sub-headings signal content.

Provide multiple opportunities for the students to reread and interact with the book – with teacher support, with a partner, and independently. Choose activities that are appropriate for your students.

Developing fluency

Before reading

Write a list of the animals from the book on a chart (beavers, giraffes, hummingbirds, spiders, vampire bats, anteaters, turkey vultures, hyenas). Say: These animals are in the book we are going to read. All these animals have body parts that help them get the food they need. What might these body parts be? Make a list.

• Some animals eat food that is difficult to reach, collect, or get to. • These animals have the right body parts to get the foods they need.

Returning to the book

Developing fluency Students could work in small groups and read a chapter each. Encourage the students to read fluently and attend to the punctuation. Say: Make sure you are pausing in the right places so that your partner understands the information you are reading.

Vocabulary building

Key concepts

Phonics Write the word tongue on the board. Ask: What sounds can you hear in this word? Underline the letters that make the /ng/ sound (tongue). Ask: What other words do you know that have the /ng/ sound in them (sing, king, sink, pink, etc)? Ask: What letter/s make the /ng/ sound in these words? How is this different from the way tongue is spelled? Explain that “ngue” making the /ng/ sound is uncommon.

Exploring words Refer students back to the list of words made during the Vocabulary building section. Ask students to look through the book to find words that aren’t on the list. Write these next to the original list and talk about the meaning of each word. Ask: What new words have you learned from reading this book? What words on our list were not in the book? Why? How was our list different from the words the author used in the book?

Writing Students could write about an animal they know and the body parts it uses to help it get the food it needs. For example, you could say: What does a lion have to help it get food? What body parts help it to rip meat apart?

Sharing and presenting Students could illustrate their writing and share it with the group.

Vocabulary building Write a list of content words on a chart (anteater, tongue, ants, giraffe, leaves, spider, juices, sucking, dead, animal, blood, scratching). Say: What words on the list do you know? Talk about each word and its meaning.

Introducing the book Give each student a copy of Arnold Saves the Day and have them read the title. Ask students to read the contents page and discuss what they know about Arnold (e.g. he is an anteater, he is having a bad time, he does not have any friends, etc). Have the students look through the book. Say: What else do you know about Arnold? Turn to pages 14 and 15. What is Arnold trying to do?

Reviewing reading strategies Encourage students to identify what they did to help themselves as readers. Ask: What strategies did you use? What are some of the things you did to help yourself?

ELL support

During reading Ask each student to read the text independently. Monitor the students as they read and support them where appropriate. If necessary, remind them to use the reading strategies you are focused on. For example, check that students are using word parts and syllables to decode. Do they scan words to check for parts they know? Are they using what they know about compound words, affixes, and root words? Ask: What did you do to figure out that word? What part of the word did you look at to help you figure it out?

• Title signals content. • Illustrations show how the characters are feeling. • Content vocabulary is supported by the context.

Phonics Write the word through on the board. Ask: What words rhyme with through? Make a list. Ask: What is similar about these words? What is different? Explain that the /ew/ sound can be represented in different ways, and that “ough” is an uncommon way to represent this sound.

Exploring words Write the word nasty on a chart. Ask: What does this word mean? What other words could we use instead of nasty (mean, cruel, horrible)? Say: These words are called synonyms. They have a similar meaning. Write other words from the book on the chart (e.g. little, disgusting, ignored, sobbed, excellent, happy, yelled, complain). Ask students to work with a partner to come up with synonyms for each word.

Writing Ask students to talk with a partner about how Arnold felt at different times throughout the story. Students could then write about the way Arnold’s feelings changed throughout the story, and what caused this to happen.

Sharing and presenting Students could work with a partner and take turns reading their writing.

Synthesizing: Talk about the pair After students have read both The Right Tools for the Job and Arnold Saves the Day, ask: What do you know about animals and how they get their food? Give an example of an animal’s body part that helps the animal to get food. Small groups of students could choose an animal and make an information poster about it. They could write

about which body parts help the animal get the food it needs. Encourage groups to include writing, pictures, and labeled diagrams on their posters. Students could work further with these books by completing the Activity card.

Activity card

Blackline master Animal memory

Invent an animal

What to do: 1. Cut out the cards below.

What to do: 1. T hink and talk Invent an imaginary animal that has the “right tools for the job”. Make sure your animal has the right body part or parts to get the food that it needs. 2. Make Use plasticine to make a model of your invented animal. 3. E xplain Write a description that explains the food your animal eats and the body parts that help it do this.

2. W ork with a partner and place the cards upside down in three different groups (animals, foods they eat, body parts that help them eat food). 3. T ake turns picking a card from each pile. If the three cards match, you keep them and get another turn. Continue until all the cards are gone.

Animal beaver

Food

vampire bat Bark, leaves, grass

giraffe

Body part

anteater Leaves

Blood

Teeth

Sensors and sharp teeth

Ants, termites

Long neck and long tongue

Sharp claws, long snout, sticky tongue

Long, thin beak, grooved tongue, and fast beating wings

Strong wings, good sense of smell

Fangs with poison

Strong jaws and teeth, strong acid in stomach

hummingbird turkey vulture Nectar from flowers

spider

Dead animals

hyena Insects

Dead animals

Example: T his imaginary panda has wings so it can fly up high, and a long tail so it can hang upside down. These body parts help it find more leaves to eat.

Assessment Can the student use content knowledge to play a game? Can the student recall information from the text?

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