Prereading Strategies

	Identify author's purpose to improve comprehension.
	Use author's purpose to predict.

GENRE STUDY

Animal Fantasy

Tops and Bottoms is an animal fantasy. Explain that an animal fantasy is a made-up story in which the characters are animals that talk and act like people.

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.

Generate Questions Have students write their questions in their strategy response logs. Students will answer their questions in the Strategy Response Log activity on p. 237.

SET PURPOSE

Read the first page of the selection aloud to students. Have them consider their preview discussion and tell what they hope to find out as they read.

Remind students to think about the author's purpose as they read.

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 that, as they read, they should monitor their own comprehension. If they realize something does not make sense, they can regain their comprehension by using fix-up strategies they have learned, such as:

use phonics and word structure to decode new words;
use context clues or a dictionary to figure out meanings of new words;
adjust their reading rate—slow down for difficult text, speed up for easy or familiar text, or skim and scan just for specific information;
reread parts of the text;
read on (continue to read for clarification);
use text features such as headings, subheadings, charts, illustrations, and so on as visual aids to comprehension;
make a graphic organizer or a semantic organizer to aid comprehension;
use reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, or synonym finder;
use another person, such as a teacher, a peer, a librarian, or an outside expert, as a resource.

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

"Tops & Bottoms"
by Janet Stevens

Student Edition
Unit 2, pp. 228–245

An animal fantasy is a story with animal characters that behave like people. Look for ways that Bear and Hare act like people.

Bear and Hare were neighbors, but their lives were very different. Bear had great wealth and lots of land, but he was lazy and did not plant his fields. Hare was just the opposite. He had no land and was poor. The only things Hare had a lot of were family and energy.
One day Hare had a clever idea. He went to Bear and offered to be business partners. If Bear agreed, Hare would plant Bear's fields, do all the work, and give Bear half the crop. Bear could continue sleeping while Hare worked. This sounded like a truly great idea to Bear, so he agreed.
Hare asked Bear if he wanted the top or bottom of the crops. Bear asked for the tops. Then he went to sleep. Hare and his family got right to work. They planted seeds and made sure the growing plants had water.
When it was time for the harvest, they woke up Bear. "You get the tops and I get the bottoms," Hare said. So he and his family pulled up all the ripe carrots, beets, and radishes. They kept the vegetables and gave Bear the leaves that were on top.
Bear became angry. He said that Hare had cheated him. "Next time I will take the bottoms," he said.
Hare agreed, and he and his family got right to work. They planted seeds and made sure the growing plants had water. Again Bear slept while the crops grew. When it was time for the harvest, Hare went to Bear to wake him up. "You get the bottoms and I get the tops," Hare reminded him. So Hare and his family picked the ripe crops of broccoli, lettuce, and celery. They took the vegetables and gave Bear the roots on the bottom.
Again Bear became very angry and said that Hare had cheated him. "Next time I will take both the tops and the bottoms," he growled.
Hare agreed, and he and his family got right to work. They planted seeds and made sure the growing plants had water. This time Bear was half-awake when it was time for the harvest. Hare and his family were already busily picking the ripe crops of corn. "You get the tops and the bottoms of the cornstalks," Hare said. "We keep the ears of corn, because they are in the middle."
Now Bear was very, very angry. He said that Hare would never cheat him again. But Hare had another clever idea. The Hare family had earned money from the crops they had sold. They would be happy to buy some of Bear's fields.
Bear thought about their offer. He agreed to sell some of his fields.
Now Hare and his family grow crops on their own land, and Bear grows crops on his own land.
Bear learned not to sleep again through a season of planting and harvesting. And though they get along as neighbors, Bear learned another valuable lesson. He would never be partners with Hare again!



	Close
	Activate Prior Knowledge Put students in groups according to their abilities in English and have them discuss what they know about animal fantasies. If there are specific fantasies from their own countries, they can share them with the group. Have them come up with a short list of features common to fantasies. Introduce the idea of an animal fantasy, and have them consider what will happen in Tops and Bottoms. Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 61–63.

"Tops & Bottoms"by Janet Stevens

"Tops & Bottoms"
by Janet Stevens