#1345. guided reading lesson using BATS

4 Blocks, level: Elementary
Posted Sun Oct 10 15:35:18 PDT 1999 by deb ().
Concepts Taught: reading, learning about bats

Book Club Books
A Smart Start Reader Bats by Scholastic 0-590-96960-9
All Aboard Reading Bats Creatures of the Night by Joyce Milton 0-448-40193-2
Bats A First Nature-Fact Book 1-56156-253-0
Bats by Gail Gibbons 0-439-14787-5

Teacher Resource Books about BATS
Bats Scholastic Books Grades 1-3 by Robin Bernard 0-590-10617-1
Bats Evan-Moor EMC 535 JoEllen Moore 1-55799-385-8
Bats A Science Discovery Book by Annalisa McMorrow mm2090
(Monday Morning PO Box 1680 Palo Alto, CA 94302 www.mondaymorningbooks.com)

Another guided reading book activity
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon 0-590-48379-X

Guided Reading

Anticipation Guide
Children will answer the following questions. After reading several bat books we will revisit these questions. The children can record yes/no or true/false.

1. A bat is a kind of furry bird.
2. All bats can fly.
3. Flying foxes eat rabbits.
4. Most bats are blind.
5. Vampire bats suck lots of blood from animals.
6. Little Brown Bats hibernate for the winter.
7. Bats are nocturnal animals.
8. Bats hang by their tails.
9. A bat's wings are covered with feathers.
10. Baby bats hatch from eggs.
11. Bats are very clean animals.
12. Mother bats feed their babies milk.
13. All bats use echolocation to find food.
14. Mother bats find their babies by sight.
15. Some bats catch fish.
16. Bats build nests for their babies.
17. The smallest bat is the size of a bumblebee.
18. People would be better off without bats.

Day one
Using the book club format I will teach my class about bats (see the book club group section in The Teacher's Guide to Four Blocks, pages 58-61). THIS LESSON is totally based on the example given in the guide using different books.

I divide the kids into 4 equal groups. I follow the guide's suggestion of letting the children preview the books for 5 minutes on a book. After the 5 minutes is up, I switch the books. I have found that instead of having the kids move, it is quicker to have the books move. After the kids have seen all 4 books, I have them write their first, second, and third choice on an index card. They are reminded that they can select the other books to read during ssr time next week.

The guided reading time today is getting a bit familiar with the bat books then signing up for a book to read.

The teacher needs to plan who will be in which group, how to divide the book into three days of reading; get a KWL chart ready for each group; and post the name of the book with the names of the children in a group.

Day two
Each group has an assigned area. Each group has a marker to record on the KWL chart. Each group has a KWL chart. For the first 10 minutes the groups record as much as they can in the first two columns: What do they Know? and What do they Wonder? The teacher circulates encouraging.

The second twenty minutes the teacher explains that the groups have 20 minutes to read the pages in the first third of the book. I use paper clips to clip down the last page they read to the back cover so they know exactly where to stop. The students record what they are learning on their group's KWL chart.

The last 10 minutes the groups gather together and share what they are learning as a group. I list "bat" vocabulary on chart paper. I also will list more questions with them to help focus their learning the next day.

Day three
Repeat day two reading the second third of the books.

Day four
Repeat day three reading the last third of the books.

Day five
This is the section I do a little different from the teacher's guide.

Important Poems: Children write their own Important Poems based on The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. I use this technique often. After we have finished a unit, then I have them write an important poem to show what they remember. An important poem example: The most important thing about a pencil is you write with it. It has lead and an eraser. You write spelling words with it. You write notes to Junie B. with it. You get a new one for 25 cents from the office. But the most important thing about a pencil is you write with it.

Basically, the kids pick one fact for the beginning and the ending sentence (same fact) then they list facts in the between. I compare it to an oreo cookie. I give each kid a cookie and the figure out the top and bottom are the same...

The way The Teacher's Guide to Four Blocks works just as well. I just try to have a variety.

Day six
I begin today's guided reading with a graphic organizer called a Venn Diagram. I label one circle bats, the other birds, and the middle overlap both.

I read Stellaluna as a read-aloud sometime earlier in the unit. The kids hear and enjoy the language and the story. Then as they read with partners today, they can look for facts about birds and facts about bats. I give them a venn diagram of their own to jot notes on. I do not expect super duper independent facts yet. It is just a place to jot down notes.