The Horrible Big Black Thing
Track your reading progress!
Sign up for a free account to track how many times you've read each book and build your reading history.
What's Inside
For children who are ready to build reading fluency, this level G book gives good practice with rereading and checking for meaning. It works well when an adult wants to listen for smooth reading and help a child think about whether the words make sense.
The short text repeats one strong idea, so readers can practice reading with expression, self-correcting, and using sentence clues to figure out tricky words. It also supports decoding with rimes and chunks, which makes it a useful choice for guided reading or independent practice.
Use it with children who are moving into more fluent reading and need practice reading carefully from start to finish.
Teaching & Discussion Guide
Use this guide to turn The Horrible Big Black Thing into a mini reading lesson at home or in the classroom.
Concepts & skills practiced
- Reading fluency
- Rereading for accuracy
- Self-correcting while reading
- Monitoring meaning
- Using sentence structure and word clues
- Decoding words with rimes and chunks
Discussion Questions
- 1 The title says a horrible big black thing keeps following someone. What clues do you think the reader should listen for to understand what that thing might be?
- 2 When a story makes something sound scary at first, what can help you figure out if it is really as scary as it seems?
- 3 What should you do if a sentence does not sound right when you read it the first time?
- 4 How does rereading help a reader when a word or sentence feels tricky?
- 5 The page copy says fluency is the key to reading. What does reading fluently sound like to you?
- 6 How can you tell whether the story makes sense as you read from one page to the next?
Words to Learn
- horrible
- Something horrible feels very bad or scary.
- following
- Following means coming after someone or staying behind them.
- fluency
- Fluency means reading smoothly, clearly, and with good expression.
- reread
- To reread means to read something again.
- self-correct
- To self-correct means to fix your reading when it does not make sense.
- meaning
- Meaning is what the words and story are about.
- monitor
- To monitor means to keep checking if something is right.
- expression
- Expression means changing your voice to match the words.
More stories you'll love
Similar books readers enjoyed after finishing The Horrible Big Black Thing
Want even more reading adventures?
Discover our collection of premium books and engaging activities that make learning irresistible.
Explore our store