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students write their yes or no guess, and everyone reads the next sentence chorally: “The capital of Japan is Tokyo.”

      Miss G. asks students what the capital of the United States is and what the capital of their state is. She explains that the capital is the place where government happens. She writes the words capital and capitol on the board and helps students distinguish between these words that sound alike but have different meanings.

      Students record their guesses and read the next sentence together: “Rice, fish, and seaweed are staples of the Japanese diet.”

      Miss G. asks students to name some staples of their diet. Students express amazement that anyone might eat seaweed, but several students think Japanese people probably eat a lot of rice and fish. As they are making their guess, they want to know if all three have to be staples of the Japanese diet if they guess yes. She assures them that a yes guess has to include all three. It is clear from their response that they are eager to read the magazine article and see if Japanese people eat a lot of seaweed.

Before proceeding to the next sentence, Miss G. picks up the stapler from her desk and helps the students realize that they know another meaning for staples. One student chimes in that it can also be the store Staples.

      The lesson continues as Miss G. leads the students to read each sentence chorally, builds meaning vocabulary, and has students guess yes or no for each of the remaining statements.

       TIP

       Have the less able reader hold the text and sit in the middle. This increases the chances that the student will be engaged, and holding the text confers status!

       I Do, and You Watch

      When the class has read all the statements, and Miss G. has developed all the key vocabulary, Miss G. asks students to gather in their assigned trios and hands the magazine to one student in each trio who quickly positions him- or herself in the middle between the other two students. Miss G. has learned that students work together and interact more when they have only one copy of the text to share. Even though she has enough copies of the magazine for everyone, students will only use one per trio for this lesson.

      When the students are positioned in their trios, she has everyone turn to the page where the article begins and draws students’ attention to the map at the beginning of the article. She models how to determine if the first statement is true by thinking aloud about the map and letting them listen in on her thinking.

      She says, “Here is a map, and I find Japan here. I see that Japan is in Asia, so the first statement must be false. Japan is not on the continent of Europe. It is in Asia. I will change the first statement to make it true.” (See figure 1.2.)

      Figure 1.2: Sample Guess Yes or No sheet with revisions.

      “Now, I will read this paragraph and see what I can find out about any of the other statements.”

She reads the paragraph aloud and then explains her thinking. “This paragraph tells us that there are many volcanoes in Japan, and that Mt. Fuji is the tallest mountain and has not erupted in hundreds of years, but scientists think it could erupt at any time. I conclude that Mt. Fuji is a volcanic mountain, so I don’t need to change the second statement because it is true.”

       I Do, and You Help

      After modeling how to determine the truth of the first two statements, she invites students to help her with the next two.

      “Let’s read the next paragraph together,” she says. “After we read it, we’ll figure out what it tells us about any of the remaining statements.”

      Miss G. and her students read the paragraph and decide to make the third sentence true by changing lowest to highest. (See figure 1.3.)

      Figure 1.3: Sample Guess Yes or No sheet with revisions.

      They look at the country map of Japan and conclude that the star next to Tokyo indicates that Tokyo is the capital, which means sentence four is true and doesn’t need to be changed.

       You Do It Together, and I Help

      “Now that you understand what to do, work together to complete the remaining statements. Read the paragraphs together, talk about any visuals, and decide together which statements are true and how to turn the false statements into true statements,” Miss G. says to her students.

      She circulates among the groups, making sure that students explain their thinking to justify whether a sentence is true or false. She notices one group of students changing a false sentence by simply inserting the word not: “Japan is not the world’s largest economy.”

      She helps them change the sentence without using the word not: “Japan is the world’s third largest economy.”

      She then makes a new rule and announces it to the class: “When making a false sentence true, the word not is NOT allowed!”

       TIP

      Don’t let students take the easy way out and use the word not to make false statements true. Disallowing the word not requires students to think about how to make a false statement true.

       The Class Debriefs

      After the trios finish reading, verifying, and changing sentences, the class regroups and focuses on the last six statements. If students believe that statements were already true, Miss G. has them locate and read aloud the place in the text that confirms these statements. They also read aloud portions of the text that let them decide that statements were false and share their thinking to determine that.

      One student says, “You can see on the map that Japan is made up of lots of islands in the Pacific Ocean—not the Atlantic Ocean!”

      Students express amazement that seaweed is indeed eaten almost every day in Japan and point out that the article didn’t talk about life expectancies in the United States, which they intend to find out. (See figure 1.4 for a sample student-completed sheet.)

      Figure 1.4: Sample student-completed Guess Yes or No sheet.

      To conclude the lesson, Miss G. asks students to look back at the article and write one more true statement or find one that they can easily turn into a false statement. She asks students to do this individually and not to tell anyone whether their statement is true or false. When students have had two minutes to write this new statement, she lets several students read theirs to the class and call on other students to guess whether it is true or false and to turn false statements into true statements.

       TIP

       Creating these statements helps students read carefully and supports the development of close reading.

       Planning and Teaching a Guess Yes or No Lesson

      Create ten statements about the text using key vocabulary, including false statements that can easily be turned into true statements. Write some statements that require students to make logical inferences. Use the following seven steps when teaching a Guess Yes or No lesson. The first time or two, it helps to have ten statements so there

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