Guided and Independent Reading Kit Sample material from the ...

Biodiversity
Meet the Muskox 5
Level: Well Below (R)
LITERACY FOCUSES
Reading: Visualizing
Text Patterns: Identifying
Characteristics of Descriptive
Text Pattern
Writing: Planning for Concise
Writing
Listening: Creative Listening
SCIENCE FOCUS
Characteristics of vertebrates
VOCABULARY
These words may require
some prereading introduction:
shaggy
bison
butt (verb)
ice age
Bering Land Bridge
tundra
insulation
coarse
shed (verb)
MATERIALS
• Transparency 59: Descriptive
Text (Writing Focus)
• Guided Reading Card 6:
Hilarious Honkers (Listening
Focus)
Before
During
• Before distributing the selection, say:
- Close your eyes and visualize two football players wearing shaggy fur
coats running across a field and slamming their heads into each other.
Sound crazy The furry animals we are going to read about butt heads
just like that—and they don’t have helmets!
• Then ask:
- Do you know of any animals that butt heads Why do they do it
Tell students they are going to read about the muskox, and explain that
the plural of muskox is muskoxen.
• Distribute the selection and have students preview the photos.
Then ask:
- Does the muskox remind you of any other animals Which ones
Remind students that comparisons to familiar things can help them
visualize, and review other things students can do to help them visualize
(draw a visual organizer in your mind; identify important information
so you can draw accurate pictures in your mind; use numbers to
visualize quantity).
Page 1
• Say:
- As you read this page, I’d like you to draw a visual organizer in your
mind. Visualize the pictures you would include in a visual organizer
for important information on this page.
• When students have finished reading, invite them to share the pictures
they visualized for their visual organizer.
• Ask:
- What comparisons on this page helped you visualize
- What numbers did you notice on this page How can these numbers
help you visualize
Page 2
• Have students read the page to look for important information they
can use to draw accurate pictures in their minds.
• After students have read the page, invite them to share what they
visualized, and ask them what important information they used to
help create accurate pictures.
10 Nelson Literacy 6a
NEL