Book Summary

In this sequel to the award-winning bestseller No, David!, young David heads off to school for the first time. And David’s teacher certainly has her hands full! From running, yelling, and pushing with abandon to chewing gum in class, David’s high-energy antics fill each day with trouble. David’s unruly romp through school is sure to bring a smile to the face of even the best-behaved reader. As all the books in this series do, this one ends with young David learning that, despite the difficulties he gets into, he will always receive plenty of encouragement and love.

Inspired by his own experiences as a child, David Shannon created the David books to capture how hard it can be to do the right thing when you are a little kid; and how funny it can be when you make those inevitable mistakes.

Teaching the Book

I will not disrupt class. I will not disrupt class. David’s handwriting decorates the back cover of David Shannon’s hilarious book, giving away what happens on David’s fateful, first day of school. With the text integrated into the art, this picture book provides a perfect opportunity for students to relate story details to the accompanying illustrations. Activities engage students in writing speech balloons for characters, performing a mini-play, and drawing pictures of David.

Subject Focus: School Rules
Comprehension Focus: Integrate Illustrations and Story Details
Language Focus: Verb Endings and Contractions

Get Ready to Read

Pre-Reading Activities

School Rules

Tell students that they will read a book about a boy named David and his first day of school. David has a lot to learn—especially about school rules. Draw a concept map on a whiteboard or chart paper and write the words School Rules in the middle. Then add the words “Wait Your Turn” to the map. Ask students for examples of how students have to wait their turn at school. Is it a good idea for students to wait their turn? What happens if someone doesn’t wait his or her turn? How does it make other students feel? Next, ask students to suggest other school rules to add to the concept map and discuss why each rule is helpful.

Preview and Predict

Ask students to look at the cover of David Goes to School and think about how David might act in school. Have them predict whether or not David will obey the school rules.

Vocabulary

Verb Endings and Contractions

Introduce beginning readers to the vocabulary words, explaining that six of the words are verbs with special endings to let you know when the action took place. The other two words are called contractions and are shortened forms of two words put together.

Use Resource #1: Vocabulary Cards and distribute copies to students. Ask students to find the shorter word within the six verbs. Show them how the contractions are formed from two smaller words: you’re = you are; don’t = do not.

• yelling
• pushing
• running
• started
• staying
• finished
• you’re
• don’t

Ask students to cut apart their vocabulary cards to play a game. Then read a definition from the list below and ask students to hold up the matching vocabulary card. For words with inflected endings, have students say the root or base word. For words that form contractions, ask them to say the contraction that is formed by the two words that you read.

1. talking very loudly (yelling; yell)
2. moving quickly with your legs (running; run)
3. keeping in the same place (staying; stay)
4. pressing against somebody to move them (pushing; push)
5. began something or was the first one (started, start)
6. ended something (finished, finish)
7. do not (don’t)
8. you are (you’re)

As You Read

Reading the Book

Read-Aloud

Read the book aloud with fluency and expression. If possible, project the book on a whiteboard or screen. Ask students where the text is located in the book. Help them understand that it is written on pieces of paper like a first-grader would write. Point to the text as you read it aloud.

Shared Reading

Reread the book and ask students to read their copies at the same time. Pause at each page so students have time to study the illustrations. Stop every few pages and have students predict what might happen next to David at school. If students are able, encourage them to read the text aloud with you.

Big Question: Critical Thinking

Ask students to think about this question as they read and be ready to answer it when they have finished the book. Write the question on chart paper or have students write it in their reading journals. Do you think David will follow the rules on the next day of school? Why or why not?

Comprehension Focus

Integrate Illustrations and Story Details

The text and the illustrations in David Goes to School are complementary and together create the humor and plot of the story. Help students understand how to read an illustration for its meaning and how to integrate it with the text. Project pages 2–3 on a whiteboard or screen and model for students how to connect the story detail with the illustrations.

Model: First, I’m going to read the text of the story again: “David! You’re tardy!” I know that tardy means late. Now I’ll take a close look at the illustration, or picture. I see David peeking his head around the door, which must have been closed when class began. He has a curious look on his face as though he’s saying, “Am I going to be in trouble?” I see the other students’ jackets and hats on the hangers, so everyone else must be there already. Let’s look at the next page together. The text says, “Sit down, David!” Who do you think is saying those words? Why do you think David is in trouble? How do you think he is affecting the rest of the class?

Continue to discuss the relationship between the illustrations and the text with students. Use the organizer on Resource #2: Integrate Illustrations and Story Details to record the words in the text and connect them to what is happening in the illustration.

After You Read

Questions to Discuss

Lead students in a discussion of these focus story elements.

1. School Rules

Why does the teacher want David to follow the school rules? Do you think the other students in the class want him to follow the rules? (Sample answers: The teacher probably can’t teach with David making noise and acting up. The other students want David to respect them.)

2. Integrate Illustrations and Story

Details Look at the last two-page illustration in the book on pages 28–29. What is the teacher giving to David? What is she saying? Does this surprise you? Do you think she should have been meaner to David? (Sample answers: The teacher gives David a star and tells him that he did a good job. It was surprising, but I think it makes David want to follow the rules when he comes back to school.)

3. Verb Endings and Contractions

The word goes is in the title of the book. What is the root or base word in goes? What does goes mean? (Sample answers: The root or base word is go. Goes means the same as is going.)

Questions to Share

Encourage students to share their responses with a partner or small group.

1. Text-to-Self

What school rule do you find most difficult to follow?

2. Text-to-World

How is kindergarten different from preschool? How is first grade different from kindergarten?

3. Text-to-Text

What is another book that you have read about school? What other problems did a character have at school in the book?

Content Area Connections

Science/Health

Eat Smart

Discuss healthy eating with students by using the information provided by the USDA. Review the major food groups with students and then ask students to identify each of the major food groups in the illustration of David’s food fight in the cafeteria!

Literature

No, David!

Read aloud David Shannon’s first book about David, No, David! Explain that, in this book, it’s David’s mother who tells him about her rules. Before reading, have students predict what sort of trouble David might get into at home. After reading, ask them to compare the stories and illustrations of the two books.

Art

Drawing David

Tell students that author David Shannon first drew David when he was five years old! As an adult, he used those drawings to create his books about David. That’s why David looks like he was drawn by a five-year-old. Challenge students to see if they can draw their own version of David. Ask them to choose a favorite picture of David’s face, and then try to draw it themselves. Have students post their “Davids” on the wall and compare them.

Language Arts

Oral Language Play

Assign students parts in this mini-play about old friends and new friends at school. The play encourages students to recite a short part of the play aloud and provides social interaction and fluency practice.

Extension Activities

Reading/Writing Connection

David Comes to Class

After David has tickled students’ imaginations, challenge them to imagine what would happen if David walked into their classroom one morning. Provide the following frame for students’ stories:
One day, David walked into our classroom.
First, David_ _____________________________.
Next, David______________________________.
Then, David______________________________.
Finally, we all_ ____________________________!

Don't Forget the Big Question

Critical Thinking

Give each student an opportunity to answer the big question. Encourage students to support their answers with details and evidence from the text. Tell them there is more than one right answer. Do you think David will follow the rules on the next day of school? Why or why not?

Big Activity

Speech Balloons

Guide students to go back to pages 18–19 in which David is cutting in front of everyone in the cafeteria line and the teacher says, “Wait your turn, David!” Challenge students to study the picture carefully, imagine what the other students are thinking, and write the dialogue that students might be saying to each other. Remind them that the expressions on the other students’ faces can be clues to what they might be saying. Then distribute copies of the Big Activity: Speech Balloons. Ask students to fill in words for two of the characters in the illustration and write what David is thinking in the thought bubble.

Storia Enrichments

To assess and enhance students’ comprehension, this Storia eBook contains a Reading Challenge Quiz, as well as the following enrichments:

• Picture Starter
• Starting Letters
• Touch the Page (2)
• Memory Match
• Scratch & See
• Sequencing
• Multiple Choice With Pictures

About the Author/Illustrator

Internationally acclaimed picture-book creator David Shannon has been an artist since the age of five when he wrote and illustrated his first book. On every page there were pictures of David doing things he was not supposed to do accompanied by these words: No, David! Many years later, Shannon was inspired to write and illustrate his now-classic bestseller and Caldecott Honor Book No, David!

In an interview, David Shannon had this to say about David: “Kids ask me all the time if I was really as bad as David when I was a boy. Well, I was a handful, but I wasn’t that bad! Some of the stuff in the books are things my brother, my nephew, or my friends did. . . . Anyway, I rolled all these stories together and made David do all of them! After all, I don’t know any kid who gets in that much trouble. Do you?”

Shannon has written and illustrated numerous award-winning, bestselling books, including A Bad Case of Stripes; Alice the Fairy; The Rain Came Down; and three more picture books featuring David: David Gets in Trouble; David Goes to School; and most recently, It’s Christmas, David! He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, their daughter, and their dog, Fergus.

Watch a video interview with David Shannon on the Scholastic website.

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