First Grade Exemplar
Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats
By Ann Earle
Unit: Three
Learning Objective: In this exemplar students will have numerous opportunities to read closely and
analyze text to gain meaning. Students will through teacher oral reading and scaffold discussion of text
dependent questions recognize that information is gained through careful reading and rereading of
texts. Vocabulary is learned from context and writing supports deeper understanding of what is read.
Reading Task: The book is first read aloud in its entirety to the students at least one time without asking
the text dependent questions. Students will then, with teacher guidance, and support revisit chunks of
the text to practice continually attempting to clarify the meaning of the text through inferences.
Discussion/Language Task: Through the use of a series of text dependent questions, the students will be
guided to engage in thinking that will deepen their understanding of key ideas and structure.
Writing Task: As a culminating activity, students synthesize their understanding in a brief writing piece.
Students will utilize the notes they took during the Read Aloud and the text to assist them in writing
from sources.
Common Core State Standards that are addressed in this unit:
RL.1.1, RL.1.2, RL.1.3, RL.1.4, RL.1.5, RL.1.6, RL.1.7, RL.1.9. RL.1.10
RI.1.1, RI.1.2, RI.1.3, RI.1.4, RI.1.5, RI.1.6, RI.1.7, RI.1.8, RI.1.9, RI.1.10
RF.1.1, RF.1.2, RF.1.3, RF.1.4
W.1.1, W.1.2, W.1.3, W.1.5, W.1.6, W.1.7, W.1.8
SL.1.1a-c, SL.1.2, SL.1.3, SL.1.4, SL.1.5, SL.1.6
L.1.1a-j, L.1.2, L.4a-c, L.1.5a-d, L.1.6
Formative Checkpoints:
Turn and Talk
Journal Entries
Exit Tickets
Literacy Structure/Components:
Interactive Read-Aloud, Small Group Instruction/ Guided Reading and Independent Reading
Teacher Instructions
Preparing for Teaching
1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the
students. This is a description for teachers about the big ideas and key understanding that
students should take away after completing this task.
Big Ideas and Key Understandings
Every animal serves a purpose and man should share the earth with them.
Synopsis
Bats are mammals that live in caves and hunt for food at night. They have the ability to make
high beeping sounds which help them to hunt for insects.
2. Read the entire selection, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
3. Re-read the text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and
teaching Tier II/academic vocabulary.
During Teaching
1. Students read the entire selection independently.
2. Teacher reads the text aloud while students follow along or students take turns reading aloud to
each other. Depending on the text length and student need, the teacher may choose to read the
full text or a passage aloud. For a particularly complex text, the teacher may choose to reverse
the order of steps 1 and 2.
3. Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discuss the questions,
continually returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and
discussion (i.e., whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, group
work, etc.)
Text Dependent Questions
Text-dependent Questions
Evidence-based Answers
1.
What do bats eat? (Page 7)
They eat a lot of insects.
2.
Why shouldn’t you be scared if a bat flies
past your head? (Page 7)
How do bats protect farmer’s crops and
people? (Page 8)
Why does the author write that bats are
“terrific hunters”? (Page 8 and Page 15)
It won’t get in your head since it’s probably trying to catch
a juicy mosquito.
They help get rid of insects that bite people. They zap
moths, beetles and grasshoppers that eat farmer’s crops.
A brown bat can catch 150 mosquitoes in 15 minutes. A
gray bat can eat 3000 insects in one night. They are also
expert fliers.
Bats can hear things that people can’t. Bounced sound
waves come back to bats as echoes. The echoes help bats
know the kind of insect that is near and exactly where it is.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How can bats tell when insects are near?
(Page 11)
How does a bat use echolocation to catch
insects?
How does a bat use its wings to catch an
insect? (Page 16)
7.
Why do bats hang upside down? (Page 19)
8.
“In winter, many bats hibernate.” Explain in
your own words what the word hibernate
means. (Page 22)
Why is it important not to disturb bats while
they are hibernating in caves? (Page 23)
9.
10.
11.
12.
Alliteration means repeating the first letter of
words. Find an example where the author
uses this in the text. (Page 3)
List some ways in which people harm bats.
(Page 26)
How can people help bats?
(Page 26-27)
A flying bat can move its wings in the same way that
people can move their fingers. Since a bat can quickly
change the shape of its wings, it can zigzag fast and catch a
bug that is trying to escape.
Bats hang upside down when they sleep or clean
themselves.
It means that they sleep deeply through the winter.
You would wake them up and they would fly to another
part of the cave. Every time the bats are disturbed they
use up a month’s supply of fat. If they use up too much
stored food, they will starve before spring.
The title of the book Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats is an
example of alliteration since each word begins with the
same letter(s).
People harm bats when they visit caves where they are
hibernating, bother baby bats when they destroy old barns
and cut down forests.
Some people have bat houses in their yards. Parks and
nature centers may have houses for large group of bats.
Some caves have gates at the entrance so bats can zip
easily through them.
Tier II/ Academic Vocabulary
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE
MEANING
sufficient context clues are
provided in the text
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues
provided in the text
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO
UNDERSTANDING
Words addressed with a question or
task
Page 7 – probably
Page 10 – echoes
Page 11 – bounce
Page 11 – echolocation
Page 15 – expert
Page 15 – membrane
Page 25 – mammals
Page 8 – crops
Page 8 – munch
Page16 – dodges
Page 16 – zigzag
Page 22 – hibernate
WORDS WORTH KNOWING
General teaching suggestions are
provided in the Introduction
Page 21 – clover
Page 26 – feast
Page 28 – flutter
Page 7 – juicy
Page 7 – chomp
Page 8 – gobble
Page 16 – scoop
Page 23 – starve
Page 25 – nurseries
Culminating Writing Task:
Using evidence from the text explain why bats are very important in nature and to man.
Answer:
Bats are useful to man since they help to remove insects that bite people. They eat moths, beetles, and
grasshoppers which eat farmers’ crops. In this way they reduce the number of insect pests that attack
the crops which are the foods that people eat. In some places there are not enough bats to keep down
the insects.
Additional Tasks:

Create a fact book about Bats using details from the texts, “Bats” and “Zipping, Zapping,
Zooming Bats.” Use your notes to help you.

Reread the text “Zipping, Zapping, Zooming Bats “and create a diorama of the bat’s habitat using
details and illustrations from the text. Students will have three minutes to do a presentation of
their diorama to the class. Write out the presentation in the space provided.
Note to Teacher:
Students will use the Bat pattern in their journal to complete the fact book about Bats. Students will
need additional copies of the pattern. After completing the books, the teacher can display the students’
books in the classroom.
Teacher should have a sample diorama to show the students. Explain to the students that the diorama
should include the following:

Drawings must be labeled and factual.

Presentation must be written out using evidence from the texts.

Students can use their notes as well as the evidence charts in the classroom.