Art for the Birds - Scholastic

1 Literacy Place for the Early Years—Grade 1 © 2011 Scholastic Canada Ltd.

Art for the Birds

Written by Tara HarteIllustrated by Kara-Anne FraserText Type: Fiction: Narrative—Realistic Story

Summary: A group of students learn what they can do to help protect wild birds from flying into the windows of their classroom, and encourage others to take the same action.

Text Features

Print Concepts • conventions of a letter• punctuation: exclamation marks, question marks, quotation marks• words in capitals for emphasis

Visual Literacy • letter format for one page• thought bubble

FIRST READINGReading Strategies

Comprehension• range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson

(Analyzing, Sequencing, Making Connections, Predicting, Inferring, Synthesizing, Evaluating, Self-Monitoring)

• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Analyzing/synthesizing

Working with Words • comprehending vocabulary from pictures and text

Assessment OpportunitiesNote each student’s ability to:• attend to and understand the story • make connections across ideas from the Read Aloud and the first Shared Reading piece• discuss the text with a partner (on-topic)• analyze and synthesize based on the information (visual and print)

Time: approximately 30–35 minutes


BEFORE READINGEstablishing the Inquiry Focus

• Briefly review with students what they have already learned about actions that make a difference to the world. [Making connections]

• Tell students that we are going to learn more about how one action can help make the world a safer place.

Activating and Building Background Knowledge• Show students the front cover of Art for the

Birds and together read the title and author’s and illustrator’s names. Ask them to predict what the book will be about. [Predicting/inferring]

• Show the back cover and read together the text on the back. Connect the information on the front and back covers through discussion. [Making connections/predicting]

Setting a Purpose for Reading• Ask students to read to find out what the

students did to help the bird. [Analyzing/synthesizing]

DURING READING• Read each page with the class, pausing to discuss new vocabulary and information.

You may wish to alternate between discussing with the whole class and having partners discuss together. Discuss content by offering prompts:

- (p. 2) What does the word ‘THUMP’ mean in the story? What happened? [Analyzing/inferring]

- (p. 4) What could have happened to the bird? [Inferring/making connections] - (p. 4) Who is the ‘I’ in the story, or who is telling the story? [Analyzing/

inferring] - (p. 5) How do we know who is saying what? [Analyzing] - (p. 6) What caused the bird to fly into the window? [Analyzing] - (p. 7) How do we know when a question is being asked? [Analyzing/making

connections] - (p. 10) What action do the students want to take to help birds? [Synthesizing/

analyzing] - (p. 12) Did the students’ actions work? Why, or why not? [Analyzing/

synthesizing/inferring]

Do our actions affect the world in different ways? Give me an example of one action we can do or have done to help the environment. Where did we learn that? How does that action help the world?

We are going to learn about how we can help make the world a safer place for living things.

Look at the front cover of this book. What do you think the title ‘Art for the Birds’ might mean? Why? What do you think this book will be about?

How do you think the title of the book relates to what we just read? Have you ever had a bird fly into your window at home? Did you find out why? Did you do anything so that it wouldn’t happen again? What do you think the students could do to help?

As we read this story, let’s try to find out if the class was able to help, and, if so, how they did so.


• Clarify any vocabulary that may be problematic for students’ comprehension (e.g., ‘THUMP,’ ‘saw the sky in the window’), using picture and contextual support.

AFTER READING

• Ask students to discuss with a partner what they have learned about how the students solved the problem. [Analyzing/synthesizing]

• Ask students if they can remember another way to help birds from another book that they have recently read. [Making connections]

• Ask students to think about the story in relation to the inquiry question: How can my actions make a difference? [Making connections/synthesizing]

• Have students create pieces of art for their classroom windows. To tie in with How to be an Eco Class, encourage students to reuse scrap materials to make their art. If desired, students may cut out and colour or cut and paste materials on to a copy of the Art for the Birds BLM.

SECOND READINGReading Strategies

Comprehension• a range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Analyzing/synthesizing

Working with Words• learning high-frequency wordss

Assessment OpportunitiesNote each student’s ability to:• make connections between illustrations and words• analyze and synthesize information• evaluate the action taken• recognize high-frequency words


How do we know what ‘saw the sky in the window’ means? What is another way of saying that?

What did this class do? Why did they do it? What was the important thing that their action did for birds?

Where did we read something else about a way to help birds? What did that text suggest to help the birds?

How did the class’s actions make a difference to the world? What will happen because of the actions they took?


BEFORE READING

Revisiting the Inquiry Focus • Remind the students that you are looking at

ways that an action can make a difference to the world. [Making connections]

Activating and Building Background Knowledge• Ask students if they think that the

students in the story took action that had a positive effect on the world. Model a response, giving a reason for your opinion. [Evaluating]

Setting a Purpose for Reading• Ask students to read the story with you

and look for places where the illustrations give more information about the story. [Analyzing/synthesizing]

DURING READING• Read the story and discuss how the

illustrations give additional information about the story throughout. Use prompts to help focus students. [Analyzing/inferring/evaluating]

- (pp. 2–3) How do we know what and where the ‘THUMP’ is? What information does the illustration give? [Analyzing]

- (p. 3) What do you think those stars on the window mean? [Inferring] - (p. 4) What tells us that the bird is hurt? [Analyzing/inferring] - (p. 7) What information does the illustration give us about the bird on this

page? [Analyzing] - (pp. 8–9) How do we know what the girl means by saying that they could

make window art? What information does the illustration give us? [Inferring/analyzing]

- (pp. 8–9) Which is the most effective way of telling us about the window art? [Evaluating]

AFTER READING • Ask students to share what information they

learned from the illustrations in the book, and briefly discuss how the illustrations helped them understand the text. [Analyzing/synthesizing]

• Invite students to share their opinions on the illustrations, explaining which of the illustrations they like best and giving supporting reasons for their choice. You may wish to have students write a sentence or two to explain their thoughts.

• Ask students to volunteer ideas for other elements of the story they would have liked to have seen illustrated. Students may work together in pairs to create the ‘missing’ illustrations.

Tell your partner one way that the class had a positive effect on the world. I could tell my partner, “The art saved the windows from getting broken.” What will you tell your partner?

When we read the story the first time, we found out what happened with the bird and the class, but how did the book tell us that? As we read the book again, think about where the text and art give us different information that helps us understand the story.

How did we know about the bird and if it was hurt? How did the author tell us?

What is one thing you think you can do to make a difference in the world? What are other things we have learned about that can make a difference?


Working with Words • There are several words from the Grade One high-frequency word list that appear in

the book: ‘for,’ ‘into,’ ‘how,’ ‘help,’ ‘by,’ ‘was,’ ‘us,’ ‘when,’ ‘said,’ ‘see,’ ‘what,’ ‘saw,’ ‘on,’ ‘would,’ ‘there,’ ‘ if,’ ‘other,’ ‘they,’ ‘could,’ ‘make,’ ‘that,’ ‘big,’ ‘them,’ ‘not,’ ‘of,’ ‘school,’ ‘our,’ ‘but,’ ‘then,’ ‘away,’ ‘made,’ ‘so,’ ‘you,’ ‘did,’ ‘will,’ ‘from,’ ‘be.’ Identify one word (e.g., ‘said’), reread the text containing the word, and frame it with a cardboard word frame, a rectangle of coloured acetate, water-soluble highlighter, or Wikki Stix. Reread, having students finding the word ‘said’ wherever it exists.

• Choose another one of the high-frequency words to outline and find as the text is reread. Do a brief activity to help them remember the word. [High-frequency words]

• Choose activities to introduce high-frequency words and practise them. (See ‘Rhythm to Introduce Five New Words of the Week’ lesson on page 52 or ‘Building New Sentences from Word Wall Words’ lesson on page 63 of the Grade One Working with Words Guide.)

THIRD READINGReading Strategies

Comprehension• a range of comprehension strategies is integrated throughout the lesson• the comprehension purpose for reading focuses on Sequencing

Working with Words• building words

Assessment OpposrtunitiesNote each student’s ability to:• join in with the reading• help with sharing ideas • understand the sequence of events that led to the action• recognize high frequency words• build words from letters


BEFORE READING

Revisiting the Inquiry Focus • Ask students if they think our actions can make

a difference. Relate this to all three texts that have been read in this unit, showing the covers of the texts. [Making connections/evaluating/synthesizing]

We have read three texts about how people can make a difference in the world. What are some of the actions that we’ve read about?

What is the first letter of the word? How many letters are in the word? Let’s say them together and clap for each letter, o-t-h-e-r says ‘other.’


Activating and Building Background Knowledge• Ask students to tell a partner in sequence what

the students did to create a safer environment for the birds. [Making connections/sequencing]

Setting a Purpose for Reading• Tell students that we are going to reread to determine in what order the events

happened, and how the problem was solved. [Analyzing/sequencing] DURING READING

• Divide the class into groups and assign each group a character in the book (the narrator, the teacher, Malick, Katie). Read each page, prompting each group to read together their character’s text. Ask the entire class to read the letter on p. 11 together.

• Pause at each page and discuss what happened first, second, third, and so on. You may wish to make jot notes on the board or chart. Note: You may consider using the ‘Retell Text Organizer’ on page 115 of the Grade One Writing Guide to organize the sequence of events.

AFTER READING

• Ask students to tell a partner the order of events in the story. [Sequencing]

• Divide the class into groups of five to reread and then practise and perform a dramatic retelling of the story in their own words. Assign a role (narrator, Malick, Mr. Sloane, Katie, the principal) to each student.

• Refer to the ‘Action to Make a Difference/Effect on Earth’ chart created during the lesson for 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World. Ask students for suggestions for other actions to add to the chart, based on what they read in Art for the Birds. Encourage students to share the pen with you as you write.

Working with Words• For a demonstration lesson for the following word solving and building activity, see

Literacy Place for the Early Years Grade One Working with Words Guide, pp. 71–74. See also the reproducible large letter cards on pp. 159–172 and small letter cards on pages 155–158 of the Grade One Working with Words Guide. [Building words]

Key Word: principalContext: Art for the Birds, page 10

What happened first in the story? Then what happened second, or next? Try to tell your partner the story in the order that the events happened.

Tell your partner what the class in the story did to make the school a safer place for birds. Try to tell the story in the order the events happened.


Building Words

aI

an in

can car cap lap rap nap ran pan pal nip rip lip pin

clap clip pain pair plan

principal

Word Pattern Sorts

Words starting with ‘p’palpanpinplanpainpairprincipal

rhyming pattern ‘ip’clipriplipnip

rhyming pattern ‘ap’lapcapnaprapclap

Transfer to a Reading Context

- slap (Tom will slap the puck in the net.) - ship (We will sail on the ship.) - Peter (Peter went to the office.)

Transfer to a Writing Context - map (I want to write ‘Can we find Edmonton on the map.’ Which rhyming

pattern will help me spell ‘map’?) - flip (I want to write ‘I will flip the pancakes now.’ Which rhyming pattern will

help me spell ‘flip’?) - park (I want to write ‘Let’s go to the park now.’ Which letter does ‘park’ start

with?)

FURTHER READINGSMany texts benefit from being reread with students to enable the books to become familiar and to increase participation in the shared reading. Over time, share the pointer with students in turn, so that they demonstrate how to track print in the text.

Teaching Tip: Rereadings can occur with a whole-class group or in small groups. If you have students who need more support, consider a small-group session using the small versions of the text to provide more individualized assistance.

In each rereading, select ideas from the following three areas based on the needs of your class or a group of students:


Print Concepts, Book Handling, and Text Features • Encourage students to participate in using the

pointer to track print. Their confidence will develop as the text becomes more familiar. Offer prompts to refine and expand print concepts. [Tracking print]

• Together with students, examine the characters’ dialogue in the story, looking for quotation marks.

• Attend to big (capital) and small letters in texts.

Focusing on Comprehension• Display the digital cloze version of the text on the CD. Working with the whole

class or with a small group, reread together and encourage students to supply the missing words (spaces for the words highlighted in yellow). You may decide to pause to consider word predictions and prompt, “Does that make sense?” or “Does that sound right?” Then click on the colour-highlighted spot to reveal the word, saying, “Let’s check that out.” An option on the tool bar allows you to create your own cloze versions of the text to meet the needs of the students you are working with. Click on the ‘Help’ button to find out how to use the different features of the digital texts.

• Ask students to recall how the students in the story communicated their idea to the principal. Reread the letter together and then discuss how the students structured their letter to explain the problem and solution. [Analyzing/evaluating]

• Discuss why the students in the book may have chosen their designs for their window art. Invite students to speculate on whether the designs are appropriate or not, and make suggestions on other possible designs to use.

Working with Words• You can choose any of the other high-frequency words (‘into,’ ‘how,’ ‘help,’ ‘for,’ ‘by,’

‘was,’ ‘us,’ ‘when,’ ‘said,’ ‘see,’ ‘what,’ ‘saw,’ ‘on,’ ‘would,’ ‘there,’ ‘other,’ ‘they,’ ‘could,’ ‘that,’ ‘big,’ ‘them,’ ‘not,’ ‘make,’ ‘our,’ ‘but,’ ‘then,’ ‘away,’ ‘made,’ ‘so,’ ‘you,’ ‘school,’ ‘did,’ ‘from,’ ‘will,’ ‘be’) for lessons. (See the ‘Finger Printing’ lesson on page 49 or ‘Morning Message: What Word Do You See?’ on page 55 in the Grade One Working with Words Guide for lesson ideas.)

• Provide students with letter cards and have them build the high-frequency words in partners. Model the making of the words in the pocket chart. Always provide a contextual sentence. [Word building]

Where do I start to read on this page? What is the first word? Show me the first letter of that word. What do I read after that word?

What punctuation marks tell us that someone is speaking? Where are the quotation marks for what Malick said? What does he say?

There is a big ‘W’ in ‘We’ as it starts the sentence on page 4. Can you show it to me? Now find me a small letter ‘w.’

How did the students tell the principal about their idea? In what order did they give the information? What reasons did they give? Do you think the letter was convincing to the principal? Why or why not?

Make the word ‘said.’ Tell me what we learned that Katie said.(Demonstrate in the pocket chart.)


Note: Reproducible large letter cards and small letter cards can be found in the Grade One Working with Words Guide, pages 155-172.

Teaching Tip: After several rereadings, the big book, the six small books, and the audio CD of the fluent reading and audio cloze version of the text can be placed in the classroom for independent exploration.

EXTENDING THE INQUIRYYou may consider using some of the following suggestions to extend the inquiry.

• Ask students to go to a buddy class to talk to their buddy about what each person can do to make a difference in the world. They can ask their buddy about what their class is doing to make a difference.

• Have students explain to a partner what they drew as a piece of window art and why they chose that design. [Making connections/evaluating]

• Ask students to choose a puppet from the selection of puppets in the Grade 1 Oral Language Kit to represent a character from the book. Have each student then retell a partner what that character said in the story.

• Encourage students to talk to their families about what each of them can do at home to help make a difference in the world, or more specifically, how to keep wildlife safe.

• Select other books about how our actions can make a difference to read to the class such as:

- The Curious Garden by Peter Brown: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009 (Fiction: a book that highlights what one boy does to help plants to grow thus transforming a part of a city)

- Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.: Henry Holt and Company, 2003 (Info-fiction: a rhyming text introducing various endangered animals)

- Caribou Crossing: Animals of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by Andrea Helman: Sasquatch Books, 2009 (Non-fiction: a visit to an arctic wildlife refuge, showing how the wildlife depend on their habitat and one another to survive)

- Planet Patrol, A Kids’ Action Guide to Earth Care by Marybeth Lorbiecki: Two-Can Publishing, 2005 (Non-fiction: a guide to protecting the environment) Note: choose small sections of the text to read to the class.

- Heroes of the Environment by Harriet Rohmer: Chronicle Books, 2009 (Non-fiction: collection of short accounts describing how individuals have helped the environment in various ways)

Art for the Birds - Scholastic

Documents

Transcript of Art for the Birds - Scholastic