Level A

Lesson Plan Going Places

About the Book
Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational Page Count: 10 Word Count: 48

Book Summary
This simple early-level reader shows students different ways
they can get around, from planes to horses. Photos accompany
the text in one-to-one correspondence for easy reading.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives
• Make, revise, and confirm predictions to understand text
• Compare and contrast information
• Discriminate initial consonant /b/ sound
• Identify and read words with initial letter Bb
• Understand that sentences begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation
• Categorize vocabulary words

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—Going Places (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Compare and contrast, initial consonant /b/ sound, initial consonant Bb, content vocabulary
worksheets
• Discussion cards

Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may
be demonstrated by projecting book on interactive whiteboard or completed with
paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary
*Bold vocabulary words also appear in a pre-made lesson for this title on VocabularyA–Z.com.
• High-frequency words: can, go, in, on, you
• Content words:
Story critical: bike (n.), boat (n.), bus (n.), car (n.), horse (n.), plane (n.),
skateboard (n.), train (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Have students sit with a partner and talk about how people can travel from one place to another.
Model an example by saying: I can travel in a car.
• When partners have had time to think about and discuss the question, have the pairs share their
modes of transportation with the group.
• Write student’s ideas in a list on the board.

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 Level A
Lesson Plan (continued) Going Places
Book Walk
Introduce the Book
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask students
what they might read about in a book called Going Places. (Accept all answers that students
can justify.)
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author’s name).
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions
• Explain that good readers make predictions, or guesses, about what will happen in a story.
Explain that making predictions can help people make decisions, solve problems, and learn new
information. Emphasize that knowing how to make predictions is more important than whether
the prediction is right. Readers continue to make new predictions based on clues they read in
a story.
• Draw a three-column chart on the board with the headings Our Predictions, In the Book, and Not
in the Book.
• Model how to make a prediction using the cover information and then write the prediction
on the chart.
Think-aloud: I can look at the cover and the title to make a prediction about the book. On the
cover, I see a kid riding a bike. The title is Going Places. I think that the book is going to tell me
about different ways people can go from one place to another. One way people can get around
is by riding a bike. I will write the word bike in the chart under the heading Our Predictions.
What other kinds of transportation might be in this book?
• As students make suggestions, write their predictions on the chart under the heading
Our Predictions.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Compare and contrast
• Explain to students that one way to organize information in a book is to explain how topics
are alike and different. Write the words compare and contrast on the board. Point out that
explaining how things are alike is called comparing, and explaining how things are different
is called contrasting. Write the word alike under compare and the word different under contrast
on the board.
• Create a Venn diagram on the board and write the words Things That Take Us Places above it.
Label the left side Motorcycle and the right side Roller Skates.
• Model how to compare and contrast information.
Think-aloud: If I want to go somewhere on roller skates, I must move my legs back and forth as
I push my body forward. On a motorcycle, my legs would stay mostly still, and the engine would
move my body forward. This is one way that motorcycles and roller skates are different. One way
they are alike is that they both have wheels.
• Model how to write the information on the diagram. Invite students to suggest other ways that
roller skates and motorcycles are alike and different. Write students’ responses on the Venn
diagram under appropriate headings.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• Go through each page of the book with the students, talking about the pictures and using the
vocabulary they will encounter in the text.
• Point out the words on the page. Explain that the words will give them facts about going places
and that the words are read left to right.

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 Level A
Lesson Plan (continued) Going Places
• Reinforce new vocabulary and word-attack strategies by modeling how to read unfamiliar
words. Point out the word car on page 6 without reading the word. Show students how to read
the word, first by having them look at the beginning letter to identify the sound, and then
by looking at the picture. Repeat with other vocabulary words if you feel students need more
modeling. Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds and/or the parts within
words to help them sound out the words. Have them check whether a word makes sense by
looking at the picture or rereading the sentence.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out more about ways to get from one place to another. Remind them
to make, revise, and confirm predictions as they read.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Have them put a sticky note on page 4.
Direct them to read to the end of this page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before
everyone else.
• When they have finished, have students refer to the predictions in the chart on the board. Put
a check mark in the second column for any words that were discussed on these two pages.
• Model confirming predictions.
Think-aloud: The text tells us that people can go on a plane and on a train to get from one place
to another. Let’s look at our predictions on the board. We predicted that the book would tell
us about both a plane and a train. I will put a check mark next to these words in the second
column of the chart to show that our prediction was right. Do you want to make or change any
predictions before you read more of the book?
• Discuss with students how a plane is like and different from a train. Draw a Venn diagram on
the board. Label the left side Plane and the right side Train. Write student responses under the
appropriate headings.
• Have students place their sticky note on page 7.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 7. Remind them to use pictures,
sentences, and what they already know to make predictions as they read. When they have finished
reading, have them make, revise, and/or confirm predictions using the chart on the board. Discuss
whether their predictions turned out to be true or whether they needed to be revised.
• Discuss with students that when people travel, sometimes they have to cross over oceans or lakes.
Have students review pages 3 through 7 and compare the different ways to travel. Discuss which
modes of transportation would be used to cross over water.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to make, revise, and
confirm predictions as they read the rest of the story.

Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand
or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

After Reading
• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how
they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Have students refer to the prediction chart on the board. Ask them what kinds of transportation
on the list were confirmed by reading the book. Then ask them what kinds of transportation
were not in the book and place a check mark in the third column next to these words.

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 Level A
Lesson Plan (continued) Going Places
• Think-aloud: We predicted that the book might talk about going into space in a rocket. The book
did not talk about this, so my prediction was not correct.
• Ask students to explain how making, revising, and confirming predictions helped them
to understand and enjoy the events of the story.

Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture of one way they like
to travel from one place to another. Have students share their picture with the group.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Ask students to think about the different ways they can travel from one place
to another. Discuss why so many different kinds of transportation exist.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compare-and-contrast
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned that people use different kinds of transportation
to get from one place to another. Now that you know this information, what are some reasons
why a person would choose one kind of transportation over another?

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Initial consonant /b/ sound
• Say the word bike aloud to students, emphasizing the initial /b/ sound. Have students say the
word aloud and then say the initial /b/ sound.
• Say the following words aloud to students, one at a time: places, bus, ride, and boat. Have
students give the thumbs-up signal when they hear a word with the initial /b/ sound as in the
word bike.
• Check for understanding: Say the following groups of words one at a time and have students give
the thumbs-up signal if all the words in the group begin with the /b/ sound: ball, bat, boat; big,
get, balloon; top, bop, map; box, bear, banana; bug, bin, bit; bus, pug, pat.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant /b/
sound worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Phonics: Initial consonant Bb
• Have students turn to page 5. Have them point to the word boat and read it aloud with you.
Write the word on the board and underline the letter b. Explain that this letter stands for the
/b/ sound they hear at the beginning of the word boat. Have students work in pairs to look for
two other words in the book that start with the letter b. When students have found the words
bus and bike, write them on the board. Ask individual students to come to the board and circle
the letter that stands for the /b/ sound in the words.
• Check for understanding: Write the following words on the board: bat, bag, bill, big. Have students
sound out the words with you as you run your finger under the letters in each word. Ask
volunteers to come up and circle the letter that stands for the initial /b/ sound in the words.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the initial consonant Bb
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
Grammar and Mechanics: Capitalization and punctuation
• Have students turn to page 3 and look at the sentence on the page. Explain that all sentences
begin with a capital letter. Point to the capital letter in the sentence.
• Explain that this type of sentence tells something. Telling sentences end with a period. Point out
the period at the end of the sentence.

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 Level A
Lesson Plan (continued) Going Places
• Check for understanding: Have students look at all the pages after page 3. Discuss how in this book,
all sentences begin with a capital letter Y and end with a period.

Independent practice: Have students circle the capital letters and underline the periods in all
the sentences in the book.
Word Work: Content vocabulary
• Divide students into pairs. Introduce and explain the content vocabulary worksheet. Have them
cut out the picture word cards and mix them up. Then ask them to work with their partner to
sort the words into groups. Allow them to group the cards any way they wish. Examples include:
transportation that carries many people vs. transportation that carries few or one; transportation
best used for long distances vs. transportation best used for short distances; two wheels, four
wheels, no wheels.
• After students have finished sorting, ask them to share why they grouped the words the way
they did.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to take turns
reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have
them compare and contrast kinds of transportation with someone at home.

Extend the Reading

Informational Writing Connection
Use the high-frequency words you, can, go, and in to create the sentence stem You can go in ______.
Read the pattern with students. Have them draw a picture of a place to go to and the kind of
transportation they use to get there. Then have students write about their picture using the sentence
stem. Combine all the pages to create a class book on transportation.

Social Studies Connection

Select one of the modes of transportation mentioned in the book. Find nonfiction resources
at the students’ interest level and read them aloud to the group. Have students complete a web
on a favorite mode of transportation, filling it in with details they learned from the book.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write or dictate a response.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose
for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.

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 Level A
Lesson Plan (continued) Going Places
Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• consistently make relevant predictions about the book, based on available information; revise
and/or confirm these predictions as they read new information
• accurately compare and contrast information during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly identify when words start with the /b/ sound during discussion and on a worksheet
• correctly identify and write initial consonant Bb during discussion and on a worksheet
• accurately identify capital letters at the beginnings of sentences and punctuation at the end
• categorize vocabulary words and provide a rationale for the grouping

Comprehension Checks
• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric

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