Before reading, show the students the cover and read the title. Ask, “What do you think this story will be about?” and “Who do you think will become a pirate?” After reading part of the story, confirm if their predictions were true and have them give support by telling you what part of the text proves they were right.

P. 9: “What do you think Jeremy will do with the pirates?” 
P. 11: “Do you think Jeremy will like being a pirate?” 
P. 14: “Do you think that Jeremy and the pirates will find a safe place for their treasure? 
P. 26: “Where do you think Jeremy’s digging spot is? Why?”

Since this story is about pirates, it uses a lot of pirate language that students may not be familiar with. This strategy is helpful to use for a book like this to make sure that students understand what they are reading.

Model this strategy by asking the following questions to yourself as you are reading:

P. 5: “What does it mean when the pirate says, “Shiver me timbers!”?

P. 8: “What does the word ‘matey’ mean?”

P. 15: “There were some things on this page I didn’t understand. Do I need to read this page again?”

P. 20: “How do I think this story will end?” Then think-aloud and give a prediction as to how it will end.

After reading this story aloud to the students, introduce them to other books about pirates so they can just keep reading and reading and reading to improve their fluency. Some suggestions include:

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers by Melinda Long 
The Pirate Cruncher by Jonny Duddle 
Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy 
Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel 
There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish by Jennifer Ward.

Students might also be interested in books written by the illustrator, David Shannon. Some of his books include:

Alice the Fairy 
Jangles: A Big Fish Story 
A Bad Case of Stripes 
Good Boy, Fergus!

There are many opportunities in this book to model and teach intonation. Besides using ending marks such as exclamation points and question marks, commas, and parentheses, the author also uses text features, such as big bold letters when the group of pirates talk or shout. The following phrases are ones you could possibly read to model this strategy.

P. 5: “Shiver me timbers!”
P. 8: “A good one to boot!”
P. 8: “What be your name, matey?”
P. 9: “Aye! Treasure!”
P. 14: “Got to find a safe place for this here treasure. It’s high time we’re off!”
P. 18: “Aargh! Soccer!”
P. 20 “But nobody tells pirates to go to bed, take a bath, or to brush their teeth. (Maybe that’s why their teeth are green.)”

As you are reading, stop when you come to a word that the students may not know. For example, on page 8, it says, “He looked at the moat, then yelled back to his crew.” Model this strategy by saying, “I am not sure what the word “moat” means. Let’s look it up in the dictionary to find out its meaning.” Using the dictionary underneath the document camera, look up the word “moat” and discuss its meaning.

Other possible words you could use to model this strategy are: slathering, chanteys, scurvy, swabbing, batten, hatches, mast, and yonder.