Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Book Summary
Level 2 (Grades 12) Text Type: Fiction/Folktale Word Count: 245
The land animals and birds were at war. Bat wanted to be on the winning
side, so he first joined the birds. Then when the birds began to lose, he joined
the land animals. When the war ended, Bat didnt know whether to sit with
the birds or the land animals at the feast to celebrate peace. The birds and
land animals all realized what he had done and were angry. Bat hid in a cave
and that is why bats only fly at night, when no one can see them.

Skills for the Week

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Use the
Choral read
projectable
Ask and answer Cloze read:
Reading

Listen for
as your fluency and questions Content
shared book. expression Content vocabulary
vocabulary
Print copies
Vocabulary/
Word Work

Predict
of the book through Homophones
for students vocabulary
to take home.
Mechanics
Grammar
and

Plural nouns
Phonological
Awareness
Phonics/

Phonics:
Vowel pattern i

Comprehension
Comprehension

Make text-to-text Check: Compare and

connections contrast
Make Recall
predictions Story Elements: Cause and effect Comprehension
Analyze Check:
Make inferences /
characters Draw conclusions Sequence events

Write using
Writing
Shared

plural nouns
correctly
Connection
Home

Read for Identify vowel

enjoyment pattern i

Day 1
Build Background
Ask students:
Have you ever seen a bat flying at night? Tell what you saw.
Have you ever seen a bat in a zoo or a picture of a bat?
What do you know about bats?

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 1 continued Book Walk

Discuss front and back covers, title, author, and illustrator.
Ask students what they see on the cover.
On the cover, I see ______.
The title of this story is ______. (Ask a student to point to it.)
make Encourage students to predict what the text will be about, on the basis
Predictions of the title and illustrations.
Ask:
What do you think this story will be about?
What can you tell about this story just by looking at the cover?
What is the title of the story? (Ask a student to point to it.)
Where is the authors name? (Ask a student to point to it.)
What does an author do?
Where is the illustrators name? (Ask a student to point to it.)
What does an illustrator do?
Do a brief picture walk of the first few pages to highlight elements in the
illustrations relating to the story and the concept that illustrations support
what is read. Dont show all of the illustrations so that students can
predict the final outcome. This should NOT be a discussion of a potential
story sequence.

Predict through Introduce Vocabulary

Vocabulary
Vocabulary Words
cave (n.), join (v.), peace (n.), side (n.), war (n.), win (v.)
Use vocabulary cards to introduce vocabulary. Show students one
vocabulary card at a time.
Discussion:
Can you tell me what this is a picture of?
What does this picture remind you of?
This word says ______. Does anyone know what this word means?
Lets read the definition of this word.
I can use this word in a sentence: ______. (Use the word in a sentence
aloud.)
Who can use this word in a different sentence?
These words are all in this book. What do you think this book might be
about? (If students made predictions during the Book Walk, ask them
whether they want to change their predictions or keep them the same.)
What other words might be in this book?

Read 1 Read the Book

Listen for Read to illustrate fluency and expression. Stop occasionally to make brief
fluency and predictions or think aloud (self-query, prediction). The focus should be on
expression
reading for enjoyment. Have each student turn to a partner and retell the
story in their own words.

read for Home Connection

enjoyment
Send printed books home with students to read with a parent or another
trusted adult. The focus should be on reading for enjoyment.

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 2
Introduce the Book
Review the front and back covers, title, author, and illustrator.
Ask:
Where is the title of this story? (Ask a student to point to it.)
Where is the authors name? (Ask a student to point to it.)
What does an author do?
Where is the illustrators name? (Ask a student to point to it.)
What does an illustrator do?

Read 1 Read the Book

choral read Read at a slightly slower pace. Students should be encouraged to join in the
ask and answer reading if they can. The overall focus should be on enjoyment of the text
questions and the reading experience and not on total participation among students.
Have students work with a partner to write a question that would require
a reader to search the text in at least two places to find the answer.
Have them share their questions aloud and answer them as a group,
highlighting the evidence in the story that supports each answer.

Read 2 Read with Students

choral read Read at a slightly slower pace. Students should be encouraged to join
RHYME in the reading if they can.
As you read the story, emphasize important content words. For example,
on page 3 you might emphasize the words animals, war, and birds.
Continue to read, hesitating at important words on each page, allowing
students to say the words if they know them.

Text-to-text Connect to the Reading: Text-to-text

connections
Explain that good readers think of events or characters from other books
or texts they have read when they read about similar events or characters
in whatever they are reading. These kinds of connections are called text-
to-text connections.
Discussion
Ask students to talk about other folktales they have read or heard.
Have they read any folktales that tell how or why something in nature
came to be?
Encourage students to make additional text-to-text connections:
This story reminds me of another story that Ive read because ______.
When I read about ______, it reminded me of ______ because ______.
Invite students to use the stamp tool to show the part(s) of the
story in which they made a text-to-self connection.

analyze Story Elements: Analyze characters

characters
Remind students that stories have characters. Sometimes the characters
are people and sometimes the characters are animals.
Explain that characters, even animal characters, have personalities and
character traits.

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 2 continued Discussion

What can you tell about Bat by the way he acted in the story?
Would Bat be a good friend? What evidence do you have from
the story to support your thinking?
What lesson do you think Bat learned?

Day 3
Introduce the Book
Review front and back covers.
Using the vocabulary cards and character cards as prompts, ask students
to retell the story. (This can include dramatization, working with a partner
to retell the story, and so on.)

Read 1 Cloze Read with Students

cloze read: Use the masking tool to cover meaningful words in the story, for
content example, war and birds on page 3, win on page 4, and so on.
vocabulary
Read at a slower pace. Hesitate at the masked parts of the story and
have students fill in the blanks.

comprehension Comprehension Check: Text dependent

check
Ask students comprehension questions to help them think critically about
the text. Have students highlight evidence in the story that supports their
answers.
Who was fighting in the war? Point to places in the text that tell you
this. (Recall)
Why did Bat decide to side with the birds? (Cause and effect)
Why did Bat decide to side with the land animals? Show me where
the text tells you this. (Cause and effect)
What do you think the message or lesson of this story is?
(Make inferences / Draw conclusions)

Read 2 Phonics: Vowel pattern i

vowel Ask students if they can think of some words with the long /i/ sound.
pattern i Write the words on the board and have students discuss the spelling
pattern: for example: high, why, ride.
Read the Book
Project the cover and read aloud the title with students. Ask them to
identify words in the title that have a long /i/ sound. Ask a student to
use the pen tool to circle the words. Discuss the different spelling
patterns for the sound: final y, ie, igh, and the open vowel pattern, as
in Nigeria.
Project page 3 and have students read it aloud with you. Ask students
if they can find a word with the long /i/ sound on the page (sky). Ask a
student to use the pen tool to circle the word. Discuss the spelling
pattern.
Repeat with page 4 and discuss the word side, then decided on page 5,
like on page 8, and flying and night on page 12.

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 3 continued Use the pen tool to circle the word lives on page 12. Point out
that not all words follow the rules. This word has a VCe pattern but it
doesnt have a long /i/ sound.
vowel See the Home Connection on the back of the printed book for a Phonics
pattern i extension activity.

Day 4
Review Home Connection
Ask volunteers to share the words with long /i/ vowel sound that they
found in the story. Write the words next to the book cover projectable
or on the pages where the words are located using the pen tool or
the text tool . Ask students to share any of the words with the long /i/
vowel sound that they found at home.

Read 1 Read with Students

(optional) Read with students as needed for fluency and expression. You may choose
to have the only reading on this day be part of the skill lesson.

plural Grammar and Mechanics: Plural nouns

nouns
Ask one student to stand up. Ask how many students are standing. Write
one student on the board. Invite another student to stand and ask how
many students are standing. Write two students on the board. Circle the
final -s and remind students that when we are writing or talking about
more than one thing, we usually add -s or -es to the end of the noun.
Read 2 Read the Book
plural nouns Project the book page by page and read the text with students. Ask
them to tell whether there are any plural words on each page, and, if
so, to identify them. Then ask students to use the pen tool to circle
each plural word.
Depending on the level of your students, you might want to discuss
the word teeth on page 8 and explain how the plural is formed in
this word.

write using Shared Writing: Write using plural nouns correctly

plural nouns
correctly
Write the following sentences on the board: There are two bird on the
fence. One bird is little, and the other birds is large. Read aloud the
sentences with students. Ask students if they can find any errors in the
sentences. Once students identify the problem with the plurals, discuss
why the words are incorrect and how to fix them.
Write the following sentence frames on the board: I see three ______.
One ______ is ______, and two ______ are ______. Explain to students
that they will use the sentence frames to write a group story. Work with
students to compose the story. Then ask them to read it aloud with you
to see if there are any errors that need to be corrected.
Ask students to write two or more sentences on a topic of their choice.
They can use the sentence frames if they choose. Remind them to use
plural nouns correctly.
Ask students to read aloud their sentences, and have other students
identify the plural nouns and whether they are used correctly.

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 5
Read 1 Read with Students
(optional) Read with students as needed for fluency and expression. You may
choose to have the only reading on this day be part of the skill lesson
or Comprehension Check or both.

homophones Word Work: Homophones

Explain to students that some words are called homophones because they
sound the same but have different meanings. Sometimes homophones
have different spellings as well.
Write the words to, too, and two on the board. Read each word with
students and have them note that the words are pronounced the same
but are spelled differently. Ask volunteers to use the words in oral
sentences.
Repeat with the words I and eye.
Read 2 Read the Book
homophones Project page 4 and point out to students that there are seven words
that have a homophone pair. Have students read the page aloud with
you. Challenge them to find the homophones. As students find the
homophones, ask them to use the pen tool to circle the words.
Allow time for students to think about the task and see if they can
figure out which words are part of a homophone pair and what the
other words in the pairs are. Then confirm or explain to them that the
words are not (knot); know (no); to (too, two); do (dew); I (eye); side
(sighed); choose (chews). Have students use the words in oral sentences
that demonstrate their meanings.
Repeat with page 6 and the words see (sea), I (eye), you (ewe), so (sew).

compare and Comprehension: Compare and contrast

contrast Remind students that when we tell how two or more things are alike, we
compare. When we tell how the things are different, we contrast them.
Ask students to help you make a list of words that they can use when
they compare and contrast. Make a two-column chart and list the words.
Provide two concrete examples, such as an apple and an orange, and
ask students to make oral compare-and-contrast sentences to tell how
the objects are alike and different. Encourage them to use the words
from the list.
Read 3 Read the Book
compare and Project page 6 and read it with students. Have them find one way that
contrast Bat was like the birds and use the pen tool to underline the part of
the text that tells this.
Repeat with page 8, this time having students find two ways Bat was
like the land animals. Ask them to use the pen tool to underline the
parts of the text that tell this.
Discuss how Bat was different from the birds and how he was different
from the land animals. Encourage students to use full sentences and
words from the compare and contrast list to tell how he is alike and
different from them.

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Lesson Plan Level 2 Why the Bat Flies Only at Night

Day 5 continued Comprehension Check: Sequence events

sequence Explain that stories happen in a certain order. First one event happens,
events then another event, and so on. Tell a familiar story out of order. Ask
students whether or not it makes sense and why.
Point out to students that sometimes writers use signal words to help their
readers understand the order of events. Write the following words on the
board: first, next, then, finally.
Model using the word first to tell what happened first in the story about
Bat. Be sure to explain the difference between an important event and
a detail.
Ask students to tell the important events of the story in order with a
partner, using the character cards and the vocabulary cards as prompts.

Subsequent readings using the projectable tools

Use the stamp tool
to identify the most
interesting words in the text.
Use the highlight tool
to find as many words with
the beginning or ending
sound as X in one minute.
Use the masking tool
to hide the text on any page.
Have students write the text
they think should go there.
Use the highlight tool
to highlight story vocabulary
and then connect it to its
picture in the illustration. Use the text tool
Use the masking tool
to mask the verbs on one
page of text. Have the
students tell that page
in present tense.
Use the highlight tool
to identify a word in
the text.
to write in the sides as
many words as possible
that rhyme with the
highlighted word.
Use the pen tool
to write the numerals
above the number words.

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