Article
Jeff Harvey
Question and Answer, Partner Reading,

Interview With a Jellyfish

Question Mark gets the details about what’s up with jellyfish.

From the February 2022 Issue
Lexiles: 430L
Guided Reading Level: K
DRA Level: 16-18
Vocabulary: brain, tentacles, tangled, slippery, interview
Featured Skill: Reading Fluency,
Topic: Science,
Common Core Standards
  • RI.2.1 Key details RI.2.4 Vocabulary RI.2.5 Nonfiction text features RI.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate informational texts RF.2.4 a-c Reading fluency SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts L2.4a Use sentence-level context as a clue to a word’s meaning

Magazine View
See Student View

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFF HARVEY

Hi! I’m Question Mark.

Before you read, practice saying these words:

  • brain
  • tentacles
  • tangled
  • slippery
  • interview

1) Question Mark: Hello, jellyfish. I have questions. First, are you a fish?

Jellyfish: I am not a fish. But I live in the sea. I don’t know why they call me a fish. I have no brain


2) Question Mark: Wow! Is that true?

Jellyfish: Yes, I have no brain and no bones.


3) Question Mark: Are you made of jelly?

Jellyfish: I am not the kind of jelly from a jar. My body is a mushy blob. Turtles like to eat me.


4) Question Mark: What else can you tell me about your
mushy body?

Jellyfish: The top part is my bell. And the long things are my tentacles.

Parkerspics/Shutterstock.com

5) Question Mark: Do your tentacles get tangled?

Jellyfish: Nope. And I don’t even use a brush! They are too slippery to get tangled.


6) Question Mark: How do you eat?

Jellyfish: I catch things in my tentacles. I eat tiny sea animals.

 

7) Question Mark: Do jellyfish sting people?

Jellyfish: I don’t! But some jellyfish do. Don’t interview them.

8) Question Mark: I won’t. So are there many kinds of jellyfish?

Jellyfish: Yes! But there is no peanut butter and jellyfish. Ha!

 

9) Question Mark: You are funny for a blob with no brain.

Jellyfish: Thanks.

 

10) Question Mark: Bye, jellyfish! Keep floating on

Activities (1)
Skills Activities
Activities (1) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities

More About the Article

Science Focus

Ocean animals

In-Person Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

1. BEFORE READING

Preteach Vocabulary (3-5 minutes)

  • Play the online vocabulary slideshow. This article’s featured words are brain, tentacles, tangled, slippery and interview.

Pair Kids Up (3 minutes)

  • Partner kids up. One partner should be Question Mark, and the other should be the jellyfish.
  • Time for props! The kids who are playing Question Mark should get out a pencil or highlighter pen. That will be their microphone.

Preteach Navigating the Page (3 minutes)

  • Point out the numbers in the interview. Explain that kids will read the questions and answers in the order of the numbers. It will be important to pay attention to this when they get to the end of a column. 

2. READ THE INTERVIEW MULTIPLE TIMES (15-30 MINUTES)

  • Kids will read the interview multiple times.
  • Tell kids that they should read with expression. How should questions sound when you read them out loud? What are the personalities of Question Mark and the jellyfish?
  • Tell kids they can have fun with it. Each time they read the interview, they will get better at it.
  • First Read: Each partner should quietly read the interview to himself or herself. This is to get the meaning and the feel of the interview.
  • Second Read: Now the pairs will read their parts out loud to each other. Remember, the children playing Question Mark should hold their pencil like a microphone while asking questions. It’s OK if kids stumble on words.
  • Third Read: Now kids will read it out loud again. They are getting used to this.
  • Fourth Read: They will be amazed at how much more fluently they read this the fourth time around. They just got so much practice with reading fluency!
  • NOTE: On our website, you can find this interview read aloud with each word high-lighted along the way. Kids can listen to it to hear fluent reading modeled for them. 

3. AFTER READING

ELA Focus: Vocabulary (15 minutes)

  • Have students complete the “Jellyfish Crossword Puzzle” skills sheet to reinforce the vocabulary words used in this article.

Craft Extension: Make a Microphone (20 minutes)

  • We will have a Question Mark interview in every issue. Kids can make microphones from balls of tinfoil and toilet paper rolls to use for the interviews. Just stuff the tinfoil ball into one end of the toilet paper roll. You can keep these all year long!

Text-to-Speech