LEVEL A

Lesson Plan He Runs

About the Book
Text Type: Fiction/Realistic Page Count: 10 Word Count: 38

Book Summary
The boy in this book always seems to be late—
or does he just enjoy running? Students follow
the boy as he sprints to the bus, to the plane,
to school, and finally, back home. The book
continues to reinforce essential high-frequency
words in repeated sentence patterns.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy
• Ask and answer questions

Objectives
• Use the reading strategy of asking and answering questions to understand text
• Make inferences
• Listen for alliterative sounds
• Associate the letter Bb with the /b/ sound
• Understand that some words are action words
• Categorize words

Materials
Green text indicates resources available on the website
• Book—He Runs (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Make inferences, categorize information worksheets
• Discussion cards

Indicates an opportunity for students to mark in the book. (All activities may
be demonstrated by projecting the book on interactive whiteboard or completed
with paper and pencil if books are reused.)

Vocabulary
• High-frequency words: he, the, to
• Content words:
Story critical: boat (n.), plane (n.), pool (n.), school (n.), store (n.), train (n.)

Before Reading
Build Background
• Ask students to think of a time when they were running. Ask where they were going and how
it felt to be running. Ask: Were you running to get somewhere or just running for fun? Were
you late? Do you sometimes run even when you don’t need to?

Book Walk
Introduce the Book
• Show students the front and back covers of the book and read the title with them. Ask what they
think they might read about in a book called He Runs. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) He Runs
• Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author’s name,
illustrator’s name).
• Write the following repetitive sentence on the board: He runs to the _____. Read the sentence
aloud, pointing to the words as you read them to students. Have students read them aloud.
Explain that these words repeat throughout the book.
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Ask and answer questions
• Model the strategy of asking and answering questions as you preview the cover information.
Think-aloud: When I look at the cover of the book, I ask myself questions about what I am about
to read. I see a boy running to school. I wonder: Why is he running? That’s a good question, and
I’ll write it on the board so I can remember it. Then I look at the back cover, and I see the boy
running to a house. I wonder whose house it is. That’s another good question. Asking questions
gives me a purpose for reading the book. I want to read to find out the answers to my questions.
• Record your questions on a chart. Ask students if they have any questions as they look at the
cover pictures.
• Show students the title page and model asking and answering. Say: I wonder where the boy is
running to in this picture? As you preview the book with students, encourage them to ask and
answer questions. Before showing each new page, have students predict where the boy might
be running to next.
• As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted
strategy presented in this section.
Introduce the Vocabulary
• As you preview the book, use the language pattern of the story in your discussion. For example,
say: Where is the boy running here? Yes, that’s right, he runs to the train.
• When you preview page 3, comment on the fact that your question from the title page is
answered on this page. Say: I wondered where the boy was running when I looked at the
title page. I can see from this picture that he runs to the bus.
• Remind students that they can look at the pictures and the beginning letters of words to
understand the words, and then confirm by rereading the whole sentence to see if a word
makes sense.
Set the Purpose
• Tell students as they read the book to look for answers to the questions they posed prior to reading.

During Reading
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Give students their copy of the book. Ask them to place a finger on the
page number in the bottom corner of page 3. Have them read to the end of page 5, using
their finger to point to each word as they read. Encourage students who finish before others
to reread the text.
• Ask students if they have any other questions after reading these pages. Reinforce the questions
posed prior to reading.
Think-aloud: I still haven’t found out why the boy is running to all of these places. Maybe I will find
out as I read more of the story.
• Have students read the remainder of the book.

Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word they do not
understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) He Runs
After Reading
• Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model
how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• Ask students if they had other questions as they were reading. Reinforce that asking themselves
questions about what they are reading helps keep students interested in reading to find out
the answers.
• Think-aloud: Good readers often ask themselves questions about what they are reading to make
sure they understand what is happening and to help them sort out things that are not clear.
I didn’t find out why the boy was running, but I did find out that he was running to his home
at the end of the book.
• Ask students if they had difficulty with any of the words in the story. Use this as an opportunity
to teach word-attack strategies.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Make inferences

• Discussion: Ask students if they had any idea why the boy might have been running to the school.
Accept all reasonable answers.
• Introduce and model: Tell students that although the book doesn’t tell why the boy was running,
they can make a good guess. They probably have also had to run to school sometimes, and they
can make a good guess, based on what they know about why students sometimes run to school.
Discuss the ideas that students have: the boy may have been late, he may be excited because
something unusual is happening that day, he may be eager to see his friends, and so on. Point
out that these guesses are all possible reasons that make sense. There is no right or wrong
answer. These good guesses are called inferences.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to make an inference about why the boy might have been late
for school: he got up late, he missed his bus, his mother’s car had problems, he and his mom were
stuck in traffic, and so on. Talk about why these ideas are all good inferences because they are
based on things that could really happen. Make sure students understand that they cannot find
the answer to these inferences in the book. Basing an inference on prior experiences and what
they see in the book will help them to know whether or not the inference is a good one. Have
students make an inference about what exciting things might be happening at the boy’s school.
• Have students look at page 4. Ask what they think the boy will do at the train. Encourage
students to think of a variety of possibilities. For example, he may be meeting someone who
is traveling on the train, he may be going somewhere on the train, he might like to watch
trains, and so on.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the make inferences
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Extend the discussion: Instruct students to use the last page of their book to draw a picture
of a place they would like to run to. Have students share their picture with the group.

Build Skills
Phonological Awareness: Alliteration
• Say the following rhyme:
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
• Ask students what was funny about the rhyme (so many of the words started with the /p/ sound).
• Repeat the rhyme and have students count the number of times they hear the /p/ sound.

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) He Runs
• Check for understanding: Have students make a silly alliterative sentence that uses the first letter
of their name, for example, Bonnie bakes beautiful buns. Have students share their sentence
with the class.
Phonics: Sound/symbol relationship for Bb
• Write the letter Bb on the board and ask students to tell you its name. Tell students that the
letter Bb stands for the sound they hear at the beginning of the words Bonnie and buns.
• Have students turn to page 3 and find a word that starts with the /b/ sound (bus). Have students
put their finger on the letter in the word that stands for the /b/ sound.
• Repeat with the word boat on page 5.
• Check for understanding: Ask students to find things in the room or outside the window that start
with the /b/ sound. As volunteers name the things they see, have the rest of the class give the
thumbs-up sign if the words do indeed start with the /b/ sound.
Grammar and Mechanics: Verbs
• Review that some words are called action words. Action words tell something a person does,
such as sing or dance.
• Ask students to name an action word they read in the book (runs). Then ask students
to brainstorm other words that tell an action (jump, sit, sing, skate, swim, dance, laugh).
• Have volunteers act out an action while the rest of the group guesses what it is.

Check for understanding: Have students circle the action word on each page of the book.
Have them compare the words they circled with a partner.
Word Work: Categorize information
• Ask students what boat, train, plane, and bus have in common (they are all forms of
transportation). Explain that you can put these words into the category of transportation
(or ways to travel somewhere).
• Then have students tell you what the words school, store, pool, and home have in common
(places). Explain that these words can be put into the category of places.
• Check for understanding: Say the following category title aloud: fruit. Have students name things
that belong in this category. Repeat with other categories, such as colors, songs, and holidays.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the categorize information
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Build Fluency
Independent Reading
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading
parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.
Have them share with someone at home why they think the boy might be running on each
page of the book.

Extend the Reading

Realistic Writing and Art Connection
Use the sentence pattern I run to the _____. to create a chart. Model by completing the first
sentence and then ask each student for a word. Write their responses on the chart. Ask students
to illustrate their sentence. Display students’ pictures and the chart in the classroom. Encourage
students to read the chart to one another.

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 LEVEL A
Lesson Plan (continued) He Runs
Math Connection
Create a graph with the names of various types of transportation. Have students share which
types of transportation they have been on. Graph their responses. Discuss which type
of transportation had the most and least responses. =

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book
are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used
with students:
• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more cards and write a response, either as an essay
or as a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions
as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.

Assessment
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• ask and answer relevant questions about pictures in the book as they read
• make logical inferences, based on prior knowledge and book information; understand
that the inferences cannot be proved by reading this book; complete a worksheet
• recognize alliteration in oral sentences; create alliterative sentences using the first
letter of their name
• associate the letter Bb with the /b/ sound
• recognize that some words name actions
• categorize things into meaningful groups; complete a worksheet

Comprehension Check
• Retelling Rubric

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