lessons

During reading I recommend using the format Book Club groups. Have the students scan the four biographies and choose which three they would like to read. Then assign the children a biography based on their choices. See Guided Reading The Four Blocks Way, chapter 22, pages 192-203 for examples. There is a specific Book Club example with a biography.

After reading — Have the students fill in a graphic organizer similar to this one:

Family	Places lived	birth
What special fact about the person	Name of the Person	early years
Work	death	later years

Writing Extension — (pages 282-283) Write a biography — Choose a person you want to know more about. That person might be an explorer, a president, or a sports star. Look up facts about the person in books, in the encyclopedia, or on the internet. Write a biography of that person. Tips for the teacher: You should model this lesson for the students. You could write a portion then the children write that portion.

The basal suggests evaluation for the Comprehension Strategy Focus. It states, "As you read about a boy who loves to draw pictures, evaluate the way the author uses words and pictures to tell the story (Page 292)"

In the book, Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way, Evaluating and Applying are described like this: "Perhaps the most lasting traces you have of the multitude of things you have read across the years are the opinions you form and actions you take based on what you read. ... Not all your opinions or evaluations will be momentous. You also form smaller opinions as you read. ... How much you evaluate and apply of what you read depends on all kinds of factors — what you are reading, why you are reading it, the mood you are in while you are reading it, the particular life challenges and opportunities facing you at the moment you read it, etc. Evaluating and applying is a strategy your brain uses while you read to understand, enjoy, and learn (pages 46-47)."

While it is true that we need to teach evaluation, a better tool may be an author study or connecting evaluation to the self selected reading time so the students are reading books that they are interested in.

Set purpose for reading — While you are reading today notice how did the other characters in the story feel about Tommy=s talent for drawing.

RIVET is a good strategy for introducing vocabulary words. See pages 328-329 for the selection about sign language including these vocabulary words:

Comprehension Strategy Focus — A boy who is deaf goes to a concert with his classmates. As you read, stop to summarize the important facts in the story.

In the book, Guided Reading the Four Blocks Way, summarizing and concluding are described like this: "As you read, your brain synthesizes information from the words to comprehend the sentences, information from the sentences to comprehend the paragraphs, information from paragraphs to synthesize sections, and so on, as you move through the text. You make inferences. The text may not specifically say something, but you draw conclusions based on what you know so far. The text told you some things about the story, you drew conclusions that pulled together information you had read and what you know from your own life experiences. As you read, you constantly accumulate information, and you keep this information in mind by subsuming smaller facts into larger generalizations. You summarize, conclude, infer, and generalize, and then you read some more, incorporate the new information, and draw even bigger conclusions (pages 44-45)."

During reading — Use the Asay something@ technique as the children are reading with a partner.

After reading — Discuss what the story was about. Go through the book page by page and summarize the page.

Set purpose for reading — What does Moses mean when he says, "When you set your mind to it, you can become anything you want..."?

A mural is a large painting done on a wall or sometimes on a ceiling. Making a mural can be a big event. Sketches, or plans for the painting, have to be made before painting can begin.

In some cases, a team of people will work together to create a mural. Working on a big project like a mural can be more than fun. It can also be a way for people to show their pride, especially if the mural shows a scene that is important to the community where it is painted.

In the story you are about to read, a group of schoolchildren make a mural that shows just how they feel about their school.

Everyone read chapter one and two to find out what kinds of projects the class thinks about doing. Everyone read chapter one to figure out what project Mei Lee thinks is a great idea.

Everyone read chapter three to figure out what the principal said to Mei and her teacher.

Everyone read chapter four to find out what funny things happened while the children painted the mural.

Everyone read chapter five to figure out why the headline said, "Children Show School Pride".

After Reading — Discussion of the ERT question(s) after each chapter needs to take place.