The teacher orients students to the structure of the book through a collaborative investigation of differences between the illustrations on the first two pages. The teacher further guides the students in understanding the structure of the text by asking, "Can we tell which character is doing the talking or drawing?"

Students use the richly-illustrated text to provide evidence when answering questions. Even when a student struggles, he attempts to use evidence to defend his answer, and the teacher responds appropriately, acknowledging his use of evidence and then asking for another answer. 

The teacher attends to key vocabulary in the text.  In this interaction, the teacher facilitates an understanding of the meaning of "p.s." or "post-script," which the author includes throughout the text. The teacher makes a connection between the vocabulary and the content of the text, making it meaningful for students. 

The teacher asks the students to draw evidence from the text to support their understanding.  In this interaction students use picture clues to describe how hot it is in India.

The teacher focuses on key words, guiding students to understand "rickshaw" through a mini-research exploration that she has prepared.  Her selection of the word "rickshaw" is an opportunity to compare the term with a school bus-- something with which the students are familiar. The teacher uses picture and examples to make the new vocabulary a part of their knowledge. 

In this task, which has taken place through the reading of several texts, the teacher guides students in building knowledge about the world by mapping the location of the various characters they've read about.  

The teacher keeps students persevering with the task.  In this interaction, the teacher supports students in analyzing how the traffic is different in the boys' home cities of India and America.

The students demonstrate an understanding of the text while they collaboratively negotiate foundational skills in reading and writing about the text.  The cooperative group is independently working together to write "ride to school" while finding it in the text and discussing their understanding of "rickshaw."

The teacher engages the students in reasoning how the main characters greet each other differently in India and America.  Specifically, she helps the students persevere in accurately drawing evidence from the text, as they figure out that a handshake and "namaste" are both greetings in different countries.