The Drum H

Focus Question:
What lesson does this story teach about kindness?
Book Summary
Text Type: Fiction/Folktale
One of the most valuable lessons for students to learn is the importance of kindness. The
Drum tells the story of a young Indian boy who learns this lesson by showing kindness to others
and receiving kindness in return. Colorful illustrations and engaging text will keep students
interested in learning this important lesson. The book can also be used to teach students how
to determine cause-and-effect relationships as well as retell to better understand the text.
The book and lesson are also available for levels K and N.

Guiding the Reading

Lesson Essentials
Before Reading
Instructional Focus
Retell to understand text
Build Background
• Place students into small groups. Ask groups to
Identify cause-and-effect relationships
create a short skit demonstrating kindness. Have
Describe information provided by a glossary groups act out their skits in front of the class, and
Segment syllables ask the class to determine how the skits convey the
Identify consonant th digraph idea of kindness.
Recognize and use commas after • Write the word kindness on the board. Create a word
web around the word kindness by asking students
introductory words
to share synonyms and examples of kindness and
Identify and use suffix -ed writing them on the board. Explain that students
Materials will be reading a story about kindness today.
Book: The Drum (copy for each student) Introduce the Book
Cause and effect, commas after • Give students their copy of The Drum. Guide them
introductory words, suffix -ed worksheets to the front and back covers and read the title.
Discussion cards Have students discuss what they see on the covers.
Book quiz Encourage them to offer ideas as to what type of
book it is (genre, text type, and so on) and what
Retelling rubric it might be about.
Vocabulary • Show students the title page. Discuss the
information on the page (title of book,
Boldface vocabulary words also appear author’s name, illustrator’s name).
in a pre-made lesson for this title on
VocabularyA–Z.com. (*) words appear Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell
in the lesson but not the book. Explain to students that engaged readers stop now and
then while they are reading to retell in their mind what
• High-frequency words: gave, said, with
has happened so far in the story. Discuss how stopping
• Words to Know to retell the events of the story helps readers understand
Story critical: deeds (n.), goods (n.), and remember what they are reading. Explain that when
hungry (adj.), musicians (n.), robbers (n.), retelling a story or event it is important that the details
struggling (v.) are explained in order. Point out that people retell
stories as part of their daily lives, such as what they did
• Academic vocabulary: cause (n.)*, effect (n.)*, at a birthday party or how they made a peanut butter
lesson (n.) and jelly sandwich. Use a book that the class has recently
read or a familiar story, and demonstrate how to retell
the events of the story in the correct order. Invite
volunteers to help with the retelling.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill:

Cause and effect
• Discuss cause-and-effect relationships. Explain that
a cause is an action or event that makes something

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 The Drum H

Guiding the Reading (cont.) Text Features: Glossary

Explain that a glossary defines the boldface words
happen and the effect is what happens because in the book. Have students work in small groups to
of, or as a result of, the action or event. review the glossary on page 16. Ask students: How are
• Explain to students that there can be more than the vocabulary words arranged in a glossary? What is
one effect from a cause. Copy the top of the cause- the definition of the word robbers? On which page
and-effect worksheet onto the board, and write can you find the word struggling? What part of speech
Eating your veggies at dinner in the Cause box and is musicians? Have students review other vocabulary
Being healthy in the top Effect box. Ask students words in the book and discuss in groups where they
what else can happen when you eat your veggies would be found and how they know. Invite volunteers
at dinner (avoid getting sick, make your parents to share their thoughts with the rest of the class.
happy, grow tall and strong, and so on). Record
responses in the Effect boxes. Encourage students Skill Review
to look for cause-and-effect relationships as they • Model for students how to retell what you have
read this book about kindness. read so far, and then have them stop at certain
points during the story to retell in their mind what
Vocabulary they have read. Have students retell the story, from
Have students turn to the “Words to Know” box on the beginning, to a partner. Listen to see whether
the copyright page. Discuss each word with students. they include the events in detail and in the correct
Then, have students turn to the glossary on page 16. order. Encourage students to use transition words,
Explain that the glossary provides definitions for the such as first, next, then, and finally, when retelling
vocabulary words in the book. Point out the use of the story.
each content word and academic vocabulary word • Have students work in groups to periodically
in the book, and then use each word in a different review the cause-and-effect relationships in the
model sentence. Have students work in groups to story. Have groups discuss these relationships and
create posters for these words. Have them include how they affect outcomes in the story.
on each poster the word and its part of speech, the • Model evaluating details to understand cause-and-
definition, the word in an example sentence, and effect relationships in the story.
a picture illustrating the meaning of the word. Think-aloud: The story has many examples of cause-
Set the Purpose and-effect relationships. On page 6, I read that
the boy gave his stick away to a woman who
• Have students read to find out more about
was struggling to light her stove. Because of his
kindness. Write the Focus Question on the board.
kindness, the woman gave the boy bread to thank
Invite students to look for evidence in the book
him. From this, I can tell that the cause is the
to support their answer to the question.
boy gives away his stick and the effect is the boy
• Have students make a small question mark in their receives bread from the woman. This is one of many
book beside any word they do not understand or cause-and-effect relationships I read in the story.
cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in a
• Model how to complete the cause-and-effect
future discussion.
worksheet. Have students identify details in story
and circle them. Then, have students discuss the
During Reading details with a partner and determine the cause-
Text-Dependent Questions and-effect relationships in the story.
As students read the book, monitor their understanding
with the following questions. Encourage students to After Reading
support their answers by citing evidence from the book. Ask students what words, if any, they marked in
• Who is the main character in this story? What their book. Use this opportunity to model how they
is the setting? (level 1) page 3 can read these words using decoding strategies and
• Why did the boy tap everything with his stick? context clues.
(level 2) page 5
Skill Review
• Why did the boy give away his stick? What did
he receive in return? (level 2) pages 6–7 Graphic Organizer: Cause and effect
• Why was the old man lying in the dirt? (level 2) Review the cause-and-effect worksheet that students
pages 9–10 completed. Have students share their work in groups.
• Who gave the boy a drum? (level 1) page 13 Invite volunteers to share with the rest of the class
the cause-and-effect relationships they chose. Invite
• What lesson does this story teach readers about
volunteers to share what they’ve learned about being
kindness? (level 3) multiple pages
kind and why it is important.

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 The Drum H

Guiding the Reading (cont.) Grammar and Mechanics:

Commas after introductory words
Comprehension Extension • Explain that commas are used by writers in many
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and ways. Discuss that some of the uses are to separate
strategies not explicitly taught with the book are an introductory word or phrase from the rest of the
provided to be used for extension activities. sentence, to separate a list of three or more items,
and to separate clauses within sentences.
Response to Focus Question
• Write the following sentence from page 4 on the
Have students cite specific evidence from the book board and have students locate it in their book: One
to answer the Focus Question. (Answers will vary. day, Mother gave the boy a stick. Ask a volunteer
Sample: The boy learned that, when you are kind, to come to the board and circle the comma. Explain
kindness comes back to you.) that the words one day are introductory words and
Comprehension Checks that the comma separates them from the rest of
the thought. Remind students that this is one of
• Book quiz • Retelling rubric the many uses for a comma.
• Check for understanding: Have students look
Book Extension Activities through the book with a partner to locate
commas. Ask them to share with the class the
Build Skills commas they found and how they were used.
Phonological Awareness: Segment syllables • Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the commas-after-introductory-
• Explain to students that every word contains one
words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their
or more parts. Point out that these parts are called
answers.
syllables and one way to identify them is to clap out
the parts in a word. Provide several examples for Word Work: Suffix -ed
students using the following words: India, mother, • Write the word shouted on the board and read it
robbers, drum, lesson, kindness, musicians. aloud to students. Ask students to identify the root
• Provide practice for students to identify the number word (shout).
of syllables in a word by having the class clap out • Explain that a suffix is a syllable or group of letters
the first names of students in the class or the last added to the end of a word to change its meaning.
names of teachers in the school. Discuss that an example of a suffix is -ed, which
• Check for understanding: Have students work in shows that something happened in the past. Have
small groups and invite each group to clap out the a volunteer come to the board and circle the -ed in
syllables in the first and last names of five famous the word shouted. Then have students use the words
athletes, actors, musicians, or celebrities. shouted and shout in sentences, highlighting that
shouted shows that something happened in the past.
Phonics: Consonant th digraph
• Write the following words on the board: play,
• Write the title of the story, The Drum, on the climb, yell, and dance. Read each word aloud with
board. Underline the word the and read it aloud to students, and have them act out the words. Have
students. Ask what sound they hear at the beginning volunteers add the suffix -ed to each word and use
of the word the and what letters make this sound. the past-tense form in a complete sentence.
Underline the consonant th digraph.
• Read pages 3 through 5 aloud as students follow
• Explain that the letters t and h together make the along. Encourage them to locate words containing
/th/ sound. Write the following words on the board, the suffix -ed. Have students circle the suffix -ed
leaving out the consonant th digraph: thanks, and underline each root word. Review students’
think, thick, bath, math, sixth. Invite volunteers findings as a class.
to the board to add the consonant th digraph and
• Check for understanding: Have students work in small
read each word aloud as a class.
groups to reread the rest of the story and circle
• Check for understanding: Review pages 3 through 7 all the suffix -ed words they find. Then have them
with students and have them circle all the words underline the root word. Have students share their
containing the consonant th digraph. Invite findings with the class.
volunteers to share their findings with the class.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
• Independent practice: Have students review pages 8 students complete the suffix -ed worksheet. If time
through 15 and circle all the words containing the allows, discuss their answers.
consonant th digraph. Invite students to share their
findings with a partner. Connections
• See the back of the book for cross-curricular
extension ideas.

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