Ready-to-teach lesson
Whole Book Plan
Boomer Goes to School - Grade 1 - Short lesson
TIME
OBJECTIVE
15 minutes Read the whole book and keep track of what Boomer thinks is happening and what is actually happening.
Essential question: When does Boomer find out where he is?
Materials
Text to mark
PRODUCT
A two-column list: what Boomer thinks, what is really going on
- The book
- One two-column chart for the class
- Prepared passages: Passage 1, Passage 2, Passage 3, Passage 5, Passage 7, Passage 9,
Passage 10
- Passage 1 - Boomer on his rug, the leash already in a hand behind him
- Passage 2 - standing on a bus seat among children
- Passage 3 - seen from above, crossing the pavement to the door
- Passage 5 - the classroom at playtime, a puppet theatre in front
- Passage 7 - trailing a paper streamer past the seated circle
- Passage 9 - Boomer sitting upright in the middle of the circle
Lesson sequence
1 Before reading - 3 min
- Passage 10 - boy and dog running for home, leash trailing
- Focus:
- What the reader knows before Boomer does
- Teacher direction:
- Read only the title and ask where Boomer is going.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 1, Passage 2, Passage 3, Passage 5, Passage 7, Passage 9, Passage 10 2 Read it through - 7 min
page 1
- Focus:
- An expectation, contradicted in two words
- Teacher model:
- Read the book, stopping after 'But instead'.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 1, Passage 2 3 Fill the two columns, then join them - 5 min
- Teacher direction:
- Add one clear example to each column - what Boomer thinks and what is really happening - then read page 9 and mark where the two columns finally meet.
- Expected answer:
- Boomer thinks he is going for another walk; he is really going to school. The columns meet at 'Finally, Boomer understood.'
- Prepared text:
- Passage 1, Passage 2, Passage 9
Support & extension
Above: Say what the title tells the reader that Boomer never gets told, and find the page where he works it out anyway.
Below: Fill the 'what Boomer thinks' column with the class, then find the one page where he understands.
Assessment
- Keeps the two columns apart
- Points at 'But instead' as the moment the book contradicts him
- Finds page 9 as the moment they join
page 2