Dsf consulting Contents Page Introduction 0

Purpose for Listening

Core Knowledge Teacher and Student Actions The teacher explains that there were rivers in Mesopotamia that made the land fertile so that plants and animals could grow. The teacher asks students to listen for the names of the rivers and why there were important.

AIR Additional Supports Ask students the meaning of fertile soil: Who remembers what fertile soil is? [Anticipated response: Fertile means that the soil, or dirt, in these areas is rich in nutrients. Nutrients are things that plants need to grow.] Ask students what it means for “rivers to make the land around them fertile so that plants and animals can grow” and elaborate on student’s answers as necessary.

2. Presenting the Read-Aloud

A Father and His Son in Mesopotamia

Core Knowledge Teacher and Student Actions The teacher reads the text aloud to students, shows them images that relate to the text, and asks questions about the text.

AIR Additional Supports AIR recommends that teachers: Prior to the oral reading, ask students to describe what they see in the picture and pose several questions about the picture to introduce students to the text that follows, pointing to the relevant parts of the picture as they are described. During the oral reading, define challenging words as they come to them (a glossary is provided for this purpose); ask guiding questions and supplementary questions that systematically guide students to the answer(s) to the guiding question(s); and use sentence starters for ELLs with entering, emerging, and transitioning levels of English proficiency to aid them in answering the questions.