Show students the front cover of the book. Read the title. Ask students what they think is going on in the picture. (Where is the picture taken? Looking at the expressions on the children’s faces, how do you think they feel? Who do you think Miss Nelson is?)

After reading p. 7, stop and ask, “Miss Nelson said something will have to be done. What do you think she will do?”

Read p. 8 and before turning the page, ask students, “Who do you think the unpleasant voice is coming from?”

Read p. 15 and ask the children, “Where do you think Miss Nelson is?”

Read through p. 14 and ask students what they can infer about Miss Viola Swamp. Do the students like her? What evidence do they have to support their thinking?

Read p. 26 and ask students who they think the sweet voice belongs to? Why?

Read p. 30 and using the text and picture, what can students infer about Miss Nelson’s secret?

Show the text from p. 8 using an overhead or write the text on chart paper. Model for students how to use the punctuation when reading. Break it into sections, modeling and having them try. Then, read through the text all together.

Pages 10, 14, and 28 also allow for great explicit instruction in fluency.

Use words in the text such as mis-behaving, un-pleasant, whisper-ed, and giggle-d to model this strategy. Discuss how these word parts change the meaning of the word.

Encourage the use of the thesaurus when discussing certain words in the story.

What other words could work as a substitute?

P. 3 ~ whizzed 
P. 4 ~ sweet 
P. 5 ~ squirmed 
P. 6 ~ rude 
P. 8 ~ terrible, unpleasant 
P. 10 – ugly 
P. 20 ~ gobbled