Objective: Students will use simple strategies to determine meaning and increase vocabulary for reading including the use of multiple meaning, synonyms, antonyms and word relations.

Materials:

*  Book: Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

*  white piece of paper

*  computer with Internet,  word processing and spreadsheet application 

Vocabulary: convinced, scarce, spatter, pursued, triumphant, offended

Working with words: Introduction to vocabulary along with activity.

Activity: The teacher will...

1. begin lesson through activating prior knowledge by having the students answer the following question in their journal: How did you feel the first day of school? (5 minutes)

*students can begin and maintain a computer-generated journal for this unit; entries can be saved to the hard drive and student disk

2. choose 2 - 3 students to read their journal aloud

3. introduce vocabulary words and definitions

4. give each student a white piece of paper, and have them fold it into six pieces (model)- students can also use word processing and insert a table with two columns and three rows as their boxes

5. have students write each vocabulary word, definition and illustration in each box

6. have students collect data about how classmates come to school each day: What kinds of clothes do they wear? What do they eat for breakfast? Is their homework complete? 
create a chart on a blackboard with data 
then have students open a spreadsheet application 
students will type data onto spreadsheet, then use spreadsheet data to create  a bar graph to show how the class comes to school prepared each day
print graph

7. have students write prediction of the story based on title and the front cover

8. read and discuss chapter one

9. have the students go to The Dictionary Plus Web site to find synonyms and antonyms for their vocabulary words

Evaluation: The students will reflect on chapter one using the questions below and write answers, then discuss with class:

What did you think of Ramona?

Was your first day of school like Ramona’s?

Home Learning: Visit Discovery Kids and create a cross word puzzle with vocabulary words (convinced, scarce, spatter, pursued, triumphant, offended, Ramona, Quimby, Beverly, Cleary, age, eight)- save to a disk and bring to school to print.  Write a prediction for chapter two.