Prereading Strategies

	Identify main idea and supporting details to improve comprehension.
	Use graphic organizers to identify main idea and supporting details.

GENRE STUDY

Expository Nonfiction

Penguin Chick is expository nonfiction. Explain that expository nonfiction gives us information about the real world. We read expository nonfiction to find out information.

PREVIEW AND PREDICT

Have students preview the selection title and illustrations and discuss the topics or ideas they think this selection will cover. Encourage students to use lesson vocabulary as they talk about what they expect to learn.

Predict Have students write their predictions in their strategy response logs. Students will check their predictions in the Strategy Response Log activity on p. 161.

SET PURPOSE

Discuss with students how we keep ourselves warm and how they think animals keep themselves warm. Point out the question on p. 155. Have them consider their preview discussion and tell what they hope to find out as they read.

Remind students to read for main ideas and supporting details.

STRATEGY RECALL

Students have now used these
before-reading strategies:

preview the selection to be
aware of its genre, features,
and possible content;
activate prior knowledge about
that content and what to expect
of that genre;
make predictions;
set a purpose for reading.

Remind students to be aware of and
flexibly use the during-reading
strategies they have learned:

link prior knowledge to new
information;
summarize text they have read
so far;
ask clarifying questions;
answer questions they or
others pose;
check their predictions and
either refine them or make new
predictions;
recognize the text structure the
author is using, and use that
knowledge to make predictions
and increase comprehension;
visualize what the author is
describing;
monitor their comprehension
and use fix-up strategies.

After reading, students will use these
strategies:

summarize or retell the text;
answer questions they or
others pose;
reflect to make new information
become part of their prior
knowledge.

AudioText

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham

Student Edition
Unit 2, pp. 154–167

Expository nonfiction gives information about the real world. Read for facts about emperor penguins that you might not know.

On a cold winter day in the frozen Antarctica, a female emperor penguin lays an egg. Now the father penguin takes over. The father rolls the egg onto his feet and into a brood patch. Here the egg will stay warm in a fold of skin covered by feathers. The father will care for the egg until the baby penguin hatches. Then he will care for the newly hatched chick. While caring for the egg and chick, the father does not eat. He lives off his body fat. He spends his time with other fathers. They stand close together to help keep each other warm.
As the father cares for the egg, the mother joins other female penguins that leave the rookery where they laid their eggs. They are hungry and must travel far to reach the sea. Once there each mother dives into the sea, using her flippers to swim in search of food. She feeds on sea creatures including krill, very small sea organisms that look like tiny shrimp.
While the mother is gone, the chick grows inside the egg. When it is time for it to hatch, the chick pecks at the inside of the egg. Soon the egg cracks and breaks apart, and the chick emerges wet and tired. The chick cannot survive in the cold, so it snuggles in the father's brood patch to stay warm.
After feeding, the mother makes the journey back to the rookery. On her return, she cuddles with her chick and begins to preen its down feathers. The soft down helps protect the chick from the cold. She also feeds the chick by bringing up food she had in her stomach and giving it to the chick.
Now she will stay with the chick and the father will go for food. He will feed himself and come back with food in his stomach for the chick.
The parents continue to take turns caring for the chick and going for food. All the time, the chick is growing. Soon it is big enough to leave the brood patch. It cuddles with other young penguins to stay warm, but it returns to its parents for food.
Over time, the chick grows waterproof feathers. Then the chick can go to the sea and hunt for food. In a few years, it will be old enough to find a mate and have its own egg.



	Close
	Activate Prior Knowledge Have students share what they know about Antarctica and penguins with their peers. Students can write a short list of their ideas they can refer to as they are reading to help them understand the selection. Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 40–42.

"Penguin Chick"by Betty Tatham

"Penguin Chick"
by Betty Tatham