KEY IDEA Scientists want to find out if there was once life on Mars, so they sent rovers to search for clues about water and life on the dusty planet.
PREVIEWING THE TEXT
Invite students to read the title of the text with you. Reintroduce the learning focus from prior sessions, explaining that you’d like them to lead some of the thinking.
We’re going to read a new selection today. Listen as I read the title and then read it with me. We’re going to practice the same thinking that we used with our last two selections. We’ll think about the main idea and retell key ideas that help us learn about it. This is a short text, and we’ve had practice doing this, so let’s get started.
CLOSE READING OF THE TEXT
7minutes
Invite students to join in the reading as they feel comfortable. Reread the title and then read the first paragraph.
Let’s reread the title together and read to the end of the first paragraph. The title tells us what the selection is mostly about: a rover on Mars. Our goal is to find out about the rover. We’ll pay attention to the key details that tell about the rover . . . What did you learn so far?
Mars is a planet. It’s dry and dusty. Maybe there was water there once. Scientists want to find out.
So what did they do? They sent a rover.
We don’t know what a rover is yet. Let’s look at the picture to see if it gives us an idea about what a rover is. Now let’s keep reading to find out more about a rover.
Read the second paragraph. Encourage students to think about the main idea and the key details.
Let’s read about a rover. As I read, listen for the key details that tell about it. The details will help us understand the main idea better. . . . Who can tell us what a rover is?
It’s a robot on wheels.
Who knows what a rover does?
It moves around. It takes pictures. It looks for clues.
You noticed a lot of details. What do they tell us about the rover? A rover is a robot. It is looking for clues about water and life on Mars.
3minutes
13
RF.K.3, L.K.4
PHONICS & VOCABULARY Decoding in Context
SL.K.1a
COMPREHENSION Rules for Discussion
RI.K.4 VOCABULARY Unknown Words
ELL SUPPORT
RI.K.2 Discussing the Text
Ask students questions at students’ language proficiency and provide the following sentence frames for student responses: This text is mostly about ___. I know because ___.
Point to the word life (without saying it) for students to locate in the text. Then use the Sound, Read, and Check routine to help students decode the word.
I am going to show you how to use the Sound, Read, and Check strategy to read a word. When I first try to sound it and blend it, I get liff. Now I’ll the read the word in the sentence. Then I’ll check to see if it makes sense. . . . Does liff
make sense here? No. I will try to correct it. (Say life.) Now I’ll check again. Does it make sense now? So when you come to a word you do not know or doesn’t seem to make sense, you can try to sound it out, reread the whole sentence again, and then check to see if it makes sense. Remember—sound, read, and check.
DISCUSSING THE TEXT
10minutes
Explain to students that when they talk with a classmate, they need to follow some rules for discussion.
As we share our thinking with partners or in groups, it’s important that we follow the rules for discussion. The rules will help us have a good discussion experience. Start by listening carefully and respectfully to the person who is speaking. Then take turns speaking. Make sure a speaker has finished before jumping in with your comments. Everyone in the group should talk about the same topic.
Guide students in a discussion about the rover on Mars.
Let’s talk about what a rover is and what it does. Who can start us off?
A rover is a robot. It is on Mars. Scientists sent it to look for life and water there. How does a rover do this?
It has tools. It takes pictures. It moves around.
You have found a lot of details that tell us what a rover is.
Focus on the word robot in the first sentence of the second paragraph.
Let’s have a close read of the second paragraph. Who has a question about the word robot?
What is a robot?
Who can answer this question? It’s a machine that can do things.
What does this robot do? Use details from the text to answer.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
?
What is out there in space?40 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
It sounds as if this robot has a special purpose. Any thoughts? Scientists sent it to move around and study Mars.
Right. This robot is a rover.
TEACHER’S CHOICETEACHER’S
CHOICE
PHONICS FOLLOW-UP
Write life and like on a whiteboard or easel. Underline the f of life and the k of
like. Guide students to use the Sound and Say routine to read these words. Let’s practice reading words that have similar spellings using our Sound and Say
routine. We’ll try it together. (Point to the underlined letter of the word.) Sound it. (Students say the underlined sound.) Now say the word. (Repeat for the next word.) Let’s go back to page 10 and read the word life in the text.
TEACHER’S CHOICETEACHER’S
CHOICE
CONNECTING TO THE THEME
Prompt a discussion about the theme, Our Solar System, and the Essential
Question, What is out there in space? Encourage students to think about how the selection fits into the theme.
We’ve read several selections about our solar system—the sun, the International Space Station, and the rover on Mars. We’ve learned that the sun is very
big, hot, and bright. We’ve learned that the Space Station is a place where astronauts can study space. And today, we’ve learned that a rover is a robot that looks for clues about life on Mars. Now let’s talk with a partner about what we’ve learned about our solar system. Then we’ll share our thoughts.
Invite students to share their ideas.
You’ve had some time to share your ideas. Who’d like to tell us about your conversation?
There are lots of different things in our solar system. Some are very big. Some are robots.
Any other thoughts?
Some things in space were already there, like the sun. Some we put up there. We sent the International Space Station and the rovers into space.
Shared Reading (Continued)
RF.K.3d
PHONICS & WORD RECOGNITION Similarly Spelled Words
RI.K.9
INTEGRATION Compare Texts
PHONICS
Turn to page 141, Lesson 93, in the Bookshop Phonics Teacher’s Guide.
SMALL GROUP READING
Turn to the Theme at a Glance fold-out in this Teacher’s Edition to choose books based on whole group instructional focus and/or reading level, interest, or other criteria.
WRITING WORKSHOP
Turn to pages 54–55 for
performance task shared writing instruction.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Constructed Response Question What does the rover do on Mars? Use examples from the text to help you answer the question. W.K.8, RI.K.2 RESEARCH Gather Information TEACHER’S CHOICETEACHER’S
CHOICE
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE: COLLECT TEXT
EVIDENCE
E-RESOURCEE-RESOURCE Formative/Summative Assessment Have students use the blackline master on page 56 for collecting evidence as they answer the following question:
What does the rover do on Mars? Use examples from the text to help you answer the question.
VOCABULARY
L.K.5c As part of their work on
identifying real-life connections between words and their use, have students create pages in their vocabulary notebooks that list one of their favorite places and the real-life words that are related to it. Encourage students to compare the words that describe their favorite place to those in the text that describe Mars.
LEARNING FOCUSES RI.K.2, RI.K.5*, RI.K.7
Students read closely to use text features to navigate the text as they describe the relationship between photographs and what they read. They continue to identify the main topic and retell key details.
TODAY AT A GLANCE
SHARED READING
pp. 42–43
SMALL GROUP READING
(see Theme at a Glance)
PHONICS
Bookshop Phonics Teacher’s Guide Lessons 94–95, pp. 142–143
WRITING WORKSHOP
pp. 54–55
42 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM