LESSON 5 TEACHERS GUIDE

Where Is Gus-Gus?
by Claire Daniel

Fountas-Pinnell Level L
Realistic Fiction
Selection Summary
Mom takes Bernie and his friends, along with their various pets, to
visit Grandma at the Gentle Creek Home. Everyone enjoys the visit
until the pets get out of control and start chasing each other, and
Bernies puppy, Gus-Gus, cant be found. Grandma goes to her room
for a nap and finds Gus-Gus hiding under her blankets.

Number of Words: 861

Characteristics of the Text

Genre
Text Structure

Content
Themes and Ideas

Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity

Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features

Realistic ction
First-person narrative
Organized chronologically
Problem presented halfway through story
Visiting Grandma at senior citizens home
Wide variety of pets; their habits and personalities
Older people have wisdom to share.
Keeping pets in control is important.
Each animal is unique, just like each person.
Realistic dialogue
Child narrator
Some compound sentences: We all yelled at our pets to stop chasing one another, but I
dont think they heard us.
Questions and exclamations in dialogue
Split dialogue
Animal names, such as hamster, monkey, rabbit
Many verbs, some of which might not be familiar, such as groaned, insisted, bellowed,
shrieked, snuggled
Colorful illustrations support the text
Eleven pages of text with illustrations
Two pages without illustrations
Placement of text varies

2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Where Is Gus-Gus?

by Claire Daniel

Build Background
Help children think about the responsibility involved in caring for a pet. Build interest by
asking questions such as the following: What would you do if your pet was lost? Read the
title and author and talk about the cover illustration. Tell children that this story is realistic
ction, so the characters are going to act like real people.

Introduce the Text

Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 2: Explain that this is a story about a boy named Bernie. Bernie has two pets:
a dog named Oscar and a puppy named Gus-Gus.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2. Here is a picture of Bernie right after Mom
has woken him up. Bernie says: I groaned. What does this tell you about how
Bernie is feeling?
Page 5: Have children read the rst sentence, and then explain the setting: This
is a picture of the Gentle Creek Home where Grandma lives. Many older people
live here with her. Bernie and his friends have come to visit. Why do you think the
children brought along their animals?
Page 6: What do you think is happening in the illustration on page 6? Find the
sentence: Simons monkey shrieked at the other pets. What kind of sound is
a shriek?
Page 7: Now read the sentence with the highlighted word: Then Grandma
bellowed, Stop! How do you think Grandma sounded when she bellowed? Is a
bellow loud or soft? What kinds of things make you bellow?
Now turn back to the beginning of the story and read to nd out what happens to
when Bernie visits Grandma.

Expand Your Vocabulary

bellowed made a deep loud
roar like that of a bull, p. 7

groaned uttered a deep moan

of pain, grief, or irritation , p. 2

shrieked uttered a sharp shrill

cry, p. 6

insisted made a demand;

requested urgently, p. 2

Grade 2

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Read

Have children read Where Is Gus-Gus? silently while you listen to individual children read.
Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind children to use the Visualize Strategy
to picture what is happening as they read.

and to use story details

Discuss and Revisit the Text

Personal Response

Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.

Suggested language: Do you think it was a good idea to bring all the pets to Grandmas
home? Why or why not?

Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text

Thinking Beyond the Text

Thinking About the Text

Grandma lives with other older

people in a quiet senior citizens
home.

Younger people and older people

can have fun together.

Bernie tells the story from his

point of view, using the word I.

Animals can make us laugh.

The illustrations are humorous,

especially the portraits of the
animals.

Bernie and his friends visit

Grandma and bring many pets.
The pets make a lot of noise and
get out of control.

Pets in public need to be well

behaved, just like people

Bernies puppy Gus-Gus hides in

Grandmas bed.

The story is mostly realistic,

though it is unlikely that people
would let animals loose at a
home for seniors.

2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.

Choices for Further Support

Fluency Invite children to choose a passage from the text to read aloud. Remind them
to read the dialogue with good phrasing and expression, and to say the conversations
as if the characters were really speaking.
Comprehension Based on your observations of the childrens reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that the ending ed added to an action word,
such as groaned or gathered, shows that the action happened in the past. The ending
ing shows that something is happening in the present. Have children make a list of
words from the story that end in -ed. Have them make new words by changing the
ending to ing.

Grade 2

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Writing about Reading

Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 5.9.

Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.

Target Comprehension Skill

Story Structure
Remind children that stories have characters, a setting,
and events that happen, called the plot. Usually the events include a problem that the
characters face, and a solution to the problem. Model the skill, using a Think Aloud like
the one below:
Think Aloud

In this story, the main character is Bernie. The other characters are Mom,
Grandma, and Bernies friends. The setting is the Gentle Creek Home,
where Grandma lives. The problem of the story is that Bernies puppy is
missing. Bernies problem is solved when Grandma finds Gus-Gus in her
bed.

Practice the Skill

Have children share an example of a character, setting, and problem in another story.

Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text

Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about
what happens in the story.

Assessment Prompts
What seems hard to believe in this story?
Which words on page 13 help the reader understand the meaning of the word
snuggled?

Grade 2

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English Language Development

Reading Support Provide more support for children by clarifying tricky vocabulary
such as insisted, gathered, noticed, shrieked, bellowed, snuggled.
Idiom Explain the meaning of the expression show up (page 3) and talk about how Mom
expects Gus-Gus to come out from hiding.

Oral Language Development

Check childrens comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their
English prociency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate

Intermediate

Early Advanced/ Advanced

Speaker 1: Who does Bernie go to

visit?

Speaker 1: What happens when the pets

notice one another?

Speaker 1: What does Gus-Gus

like to do?

Speaker 2: Grandma
Speaker 1: What kind of pets does
Bernie have?

Speaker 2: They chase each other and

make a lot of noise.

Speaker 2: He likes to hide under

blankets.

Speaker 1: Why is Bernie worried?

Speaker 2: a dog and a puppy

Speaker 2: No one can nd Gus-Gus.

Speaker 1: Why do you think GusGus left the living room?

Speaker 2: It was very noisy and
the animals were chasing each
other.

Speaker 1: Where does Bernie nd

Gus-Gus?
Speaker 2: in Grandmas bed

Lesson 5

Name

BLACKLINE MASTER 5.9

Date

Think About It

Where is Gus-Gus?
Think About It

Read and answer the questions.

1. Where do Bernie and his mother go on Saturday

morning?
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2. Why do you think that Bernie and his friends bring
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3. Grandma says that pets teach us how to love.
Do you agree? Explain your answer.
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Making Connections Think about all the different animals you

read about in Where Is Gus-Gus? and Teachers Pets. Which
animal do you think makes the best pet? Why?
Write your answer in your Readers Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It



Grade 2, Unit 1: Neighborhood Visit

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Grade 2

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Name

Date

Where Is Gus-Gus?
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the question below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
On the last page of the story, Grandma tells Bernie to visit again. She says,
Pets teach us how to love. They even remind us to laugh. What does this
statement show you about Grandmas character and personality? Do you
think she has a good sense of humor? How can you tell?

Grade 2

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Lesson 5

Name

Date

Think About It

BLACKLINE MASTER 5.9

Where Is Gus-Gus?
Think About It

Read and answer the questions.

1. Where do Bernie and his mother go on Saturday

morning?

2. Why do you think that Bernie and his friends bring

their pets to the Gentle Creek Home?

3. Grandma says that pets teach us how to love.

Do you agree? Explain your answer.

Making Connections Think about all the different animals you

read about in Where Is Gus-Gus? and Teachers Pets. Which
animal do you think makes the best pet? Why?
Write your answer in your Readers Notebook.
Grade 2

Lesson 5: Where Is Gus-Gus?

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Student

Lesson 5

Date

BLACKLINE MASTER 5.13

Where Is Gus-Gus? LEVEL L

page

Where Is Gus-Gus?
Running Record Form

Selection Text

Errors

Self-Corrections

Accuracy Rate

Total SelfCorrections

One Saturday morning, I was sleeping.

Suddenly, I heard something I did not want to
hear.
Moms voice boomed, Wake up, Bernie!
I groaned. But its the weekend. I want to
sleep.
Bernie! she insisted. Were going to see
Grandma today. Remember?

I did remember. My friends and I were going

to visit Grandma at the Gentle Creek Home. We
were all bringing our pets.
My dog Oscar licked my sleepy face. He was
ready to go even if I wasnt.

Comments:

(# words read
correctly/81 100)

Read word correctly

Code

cat

Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase

Omission

cat

cat

Grade 2

Behavior

Error
0
0
1

Substitution

Code
cut
cat

Self-corrects

cut sc
cat

Insertion

the

Word told

T
cat

cat

Error

1413616

Behavior

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