How to Make a Family Tree Fountas-Pinnell Level N Informational Text

LESSON 2 TEACHER’S GUIDE
How to Make a Family Tree
by Gail Mack
Fountas-Pinnell Level N
Informational Text
Selection Summary
In this book, sample family trees accompany text that tells the purpose
of family trees. The book also explains how to collect the information
and provides directions for creating a family tree on a piece of poster
board. The selection ends by inviting readers to share their trees with
their families.
Number of Words: 928
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Informational Text
• Topic (family trees) is organized under heads (e.g., What Is a Family Tree?).
• Third-person exposition has the author directly addressing the reader.
• Pages 9–13 are directions with a materials list, subheads (steps), and a caption (p. 11).
• What a family tree shows
• How to collect information for a family tree
• Setting up your own family tree
• Making a family tree is a great way to learn about your family.
• A person can learn a lot from talking about the past with his/her relatives.
• Sharing a family tree gives a family a sense of belonging and tradition.
• Explanatory text uses direct address to engage the reader.
• One simile is used: The names hang down, like the leaves on a tree.
• A mix of short, simple sentences and longer, more complex sentences
• All four sentence types included
• Many family-related words: relatives, grandparents, mother, cousins, uncles
• Possibly unfamiliar words: related, relative, grandparents, penciled, materials
• Many multisyllabic words; 4-syllable words are: information, remembering, materials
• Singular and plural possessives
• Photographs complement text; sample family-tree graphics support text explanations.
• 13 text pages include 7 pages that are half-text and half-art, and 6 pages (step-by-step
instructions) that use subheads to break up steps.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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How to Make a Family Tree
by Gail Mack
Build Background
Help children use their knowledge of families to build interest, asking a question like: Who
are the people in your family? Read the title and author. Discuss the cover. Tell children
that this book is informational text so the words and photos give facts about how to make
a family tree.
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 2: Identify and read the headings. Explain that a family tree is a way of
showing the people in your family. Then draw attention to the graphic.
Suggested language: This is the beginning of a family tree. It shows your
relatives on both sides of your family. It shows your mother’s parents and any
brothers and sisters she has. It shows the same for your father. Your parents’
parents are your grandparents.
Pages 4–5: Explain that one way to gather information to put in your family tree is
to look through old photo albums. What’s another way to collect information about
your family?
Pages 8–13: Read the heading and flip through these pages, pointing out text
features. These pages give step-by-step directions for making your own family
tree. Step 1 includes the materials you will need. Then there are more steps to
follow, along with pictures that show what your tree might look like.
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to find out how to make a
family tree.
Expand Your Vocabulary
collect – v. to gather p. 4
grandparents – parents of one’s
father or mother, p. 3
Grade 2
penciled – to mark, draw, or
write with a pencil, p. 12
2
relatives – family members, p. 2
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Read
Have children read How to Make a Family Tree silently while you listen to individual
children read. Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind children to use the Question Strategy
questions about what they are reading.
, and ask themselves
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: Now that you know how, would you like to make a family tree for
your family? Why or why not?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• A family tree lists the names of
people in a family in a way that
shows how they are related.
• Making a family tree is a great
way to learn interesting facts
about one’s family.
• The author’s purpose is to show
readers how to make a family
tree.
• To make a family tree, collect
information—talk with relatives
and look at photo albums.
• Older relatives can tell interesting
things about the past.
• The author speaks directly to
the reader, as if the selection is
written especially for this person.
• The steps and graphics on pp.
8–13 show readers how to draw
a tree.
• Being together in a family
tree can make relatives feel
connected.
• The author has included lots of
family words to help readers
think about how people in
families are related.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Have children practice pacing by choosing a paragraph to read from the
steps on pp. 8–12. Remind them that these are directions. Point out that they should
read the steps clearly and slowly enough for the listener to understand.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that some longer words are compounds,
made up of two smaller words. Demonstrate with the word sometimes (p. 2), helping
children divide it into some and times. Have them practice dividing compounds with
these words from the text: everyone, grandparents, anyone, notebook, someone,
outline, and treetop.
Grade 2
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 2.9.
Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Compare and Contrast
Remind children that one way to think about
information in a book is to think about how two things in the book are alike and how they
are different. Model the skill, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
If I compare the family trees on pages 2 and 3, I think I’ll understand
them better. I see that the tree on page 2 names kinds of relatives:
mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, child. The tree on page 3 shows
the same thing but uses names for these relatives. So the grandmother
and grandfather are Angelica and Carlos. Their children are Carmen,
Hector, and Victor. Also, the family tree on page 3 shows who the
children married when they grew up and the names of their children.
Practice the Skill
Ask children to compare the photographs on page 14. Have them write one sentence that
tells one way they are alike. Have them write another that tells one way they are different.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about
the information in the book.
Assessment Prompts
• What is this selection mainly about?
• What words on page 2 help the reader understand the meaning of the word relatives?
Grade 2
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Give English learners a “preview” of the text by holding a brief
small-group discussion with them before reading the text with the entire group.
Vocabulary Children from other cultures may refer to relatives differently. For example,
in some cultures, terms used for the mother’s relatives are different from those used for
the father’s. Help children from such cultures connect their relatives to the terms used in
the text.
Oral Language Development
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their
English proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: What is the book about?
Speaker 1: What does a family tree list?
Speaker 2: family trees
Speaker 2: It lists people in a family.
Speaker 1: How is a family tree
like a real tree?
Speaker 1: What is a family tree?
Speaker 1: Name one way you can
collect information for a family tree.
Speaker 2: a list of family members
Speaker 2: The list of names hang
down like leaves on a tree.
Speaker 1: Name two ways you
could collect information for your
family tree.
Speaker 2: Talk to older relatives or look
in photo albums.
Speaker 2: I could talk to older
relatives. I could look in photo
albums.
Lesson 2
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 2.9
Date
Think About It
How to Make a Family
Tree
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. What is the first step when making a family tree?
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2. How do you think a family tree could help you learn
about your family?
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3. What is a family story that you would like to share
with others?
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Making Connections The author asks you to talk to an older
person in your family about when they were young. Compare
and contrast your parents’ or grandparents’ childhoods with
your own.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
Grade 2, Unit 1: Neighborhood Visit
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Grade 2
5
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Name
Date
How to Make a Family Tree
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the question below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
Why do you think that families like to have family trees? Use details from the
book to support your answer.
Grade 2
6
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Lesson 2
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 2.9
Date
Think About It
How to Make a Family
Tree
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. What is the first step when making a family tree?
2. How do you think a family tree could help you learn
about your family?
3. What is a family story that you would like to share
with others?
Making Connections The author asks you to talk to an older
person in your family about when they were young. Compare
and contrast your parents’ or grandparents’ childhoods with
your own.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 2
7
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Student
Lesson 2
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 2.13
How to Make a Family Tree
How to Make a Family
Tree
Running Record Form
LEVEL N
page
2
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
All of the people in your family are related to
you. They are called your relatives. Some of the
people in your family lived long ago.
A family tree is a way of showing the people
in your family. The tree lists their names. The
names hang down, like the leaves on a tree.
Sometimes a family tree is big and shows the names
of all your relatives. Sometimes it shows just a few.
If you want to make a family tree, start with
the names of your mother’s parents. Your mother
and her relatives make up one side of the tree.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/102 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 2
Behavior
Error
0
0
1
8
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
Word told
T
cat
cat

Error
1413613
Behavior
1
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