LESSON 13 TEACHER’S GUIDE
School Long Ago
by Ella Powell
Fountas-Pinnell Level M
Informational Text
Selection Summary
Schools of long ago in Athens were both similar to and different from
schools today. Athens was an important city that helped form our
culture. In Athens, girls could learn at home, but boys were taught at
school where they learned the alphabet, languages, writing, poetry,
music, law, and sports.
Number of Words: 430
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Informational Text
• Schools in ancient Greece are introduced via comparison/contrast with schools today.
• Basic information about Athens is presented.
• Text organized around categories of transportation, clothing, school subjects, and
teaching methods
• History and importance of Athens
• Description of school and student life in ancient Athens
• Ancient Greek and modern schools are alike and different.
• School is both work and fun.
• Long ago, girls could not go to school.
• Clear language
• Description but no figurative use of language
• Fairly short, mostly simple sentences, many with prepositional phrases. Examples: The
boys wrote on blocks of wax.
• A few complex sentences. Examples: First the boys listened to their teacher say the poem.
• Words related to culture, some possibly unfamiliar, such as Athens, Greece, community,
culture, language, subjects, transportation, history, Olympic
• Some challenging or less familiar words such as famous, carved, point, wax, metal
• Map with labels
• Cartoon-like illustrations support the text
• Twelve pages of text, illustrations on every page
• Variation in placement of text
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
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School Long Ago
by Ella Powell
Build Background
Help children think about life today and how it might be different from life long ago. Build
interest by asking questions such as the following: What do you think schools were like
a very, very long time ago? Read the title and author and talk about the cover illustration.
Tell children that this book is informational text, so it will give factual information about
schools in the past.
Introduce the Text
Guide children through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 3: Explain that this is a book that gives information about what school was
like for some children long ago. It tells about schools thousands of years ago, in a
city called Athens, in ancient Greece.
Suggested language: Turn to page 3. The first two sentences read: Today you
woke up and went to school. Children long ago went to school, too. What is
happening in the illustration? Is this a picture of today, or of long ago? How can
you tell?
Page 4: Explain that the illustration shows a map of ancient Greece. Ancient means
very, very old. Look at where the arrow is pointing. This is the city of Athens.
Athens was a community in ancient Greece. What is the name of your community?
Page 5: Read the last sentence on the page: Athens helped form our culture. Many
of our ideas, music, books, and even our alphabet have roots in Athens. History,
laws, and poetry are part of culture, too.
Page 8: Draw attention to the illustration. What do you think this is? Do any of the
letters look familiar? Which ones do you recognize?
Page 11: Direct children’s attention to the illustration. What are these students
doing? For a clue, look at what they are holding. Music was an important subject
in school. What are some of the important subjects in our school?
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to learn how schools in
ancient Athens were like or unlike our school.
Target Vocabulary
community – a group of people
who live in the same area, p. 4
lessons – things to be learned or
taught, p. 6
culture – a people’s ways of
living, p. 5
special – something different
from all others, p. 13
languages – the ways people
speak and write, p. 8
subjects – topics of study, such
as science and music, p. 11
Grade 2
2
transportation – a way of moving
something or someone from
one place to another, p. 7
wear – v. to have something on
your body, p. 7
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Read
Have children read School Long Ago silently while you listen to individual children read.
Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind children to use the Analyze/Evaluate Strategy
feel about the text, and why.
and tell how they
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite children to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: How do you think you would like school in Athens? Explain your
answer.
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help children understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Athens had schools long ago.
• Schools are important in all
places and times, and they have
not changed much.
• The author includes many details
about school and learning in
ancient times.
• Children need to go to school to
understand their culture.
• The illustrations help to show
what real children of long ago
did.
• The schools differed from ours:
boys only, different clothes,
everyone walked, wax tablets
instead of paper and pencils.
• The schools were like ours,
too: teachers, homework, and
subjects like language, music,
sports, poetry.
• Today we believe girls should
have the chance to go to school,
too.
• The introduction and conclusion
focus on comparing schools
of the past and present, and
stress the idea that some things
were the same and some were
different.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite children to choose a passage from the text to read orally. Challenge
them to do their best to quickly and automatically solve most words in the text in
order to make their reading smooth and natural.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the children’s reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind children to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Remind children that –s or –es at the end of a word changes
it to mean “more than one.” The words subjects, songs, and holidays on page 11 are
examples. Have children search the text for singular nouns and change them to plural,
and for plural nouns and change them to singular.
Grade 2
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have children complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 13.8.
Responding
Have children complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the instruction below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Author’s Purpose
Remind children that looking at details in a text will help
them figure out the author’s purpose, or reason for writing. Model the skill, using a “Think
Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
The author says that students studied the Greek alphabet. She includes
details about how students learned poems about history, and learned to
play instruments like the flute and the harp. I think the author included
all these details because her purpose was to teach readers what students
did in schools of long ago.
Practice the Skill
Have children write one sentence telling why they think the author included the map with
labels on page 4.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have children write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use what they know and their own experience to think about
what happens in the text.
Assessment Prompts
• What sentence on page 4 helps the reader understand the meaning of the word
community?
• Complete this sentence in your own words: This selection is mostly about
________________________________________________________________.
Grade 2
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Give English learners a “preview” of the text by holding a brief
small-group discussion with them before reading the text with the entire group.
Cognates Point out the many English-Spanish cognates used in the text, such as
student/estudiante; study/estudiar; community/comunidad; culture/cultura; transportation/
transportación; alphabet/alfabeto; history/historia; poem/poema.
Oral Language Development
Check children’s comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches their English
proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the child.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: What does this book tell
about?
Speaker 1: Where were the schools in
this book?
Speaker 1: How were the schools
like schools of today?
Speaker 2: schools long ago
Speaker 2: The schools were in Athens
[ancient Greece].
Speaker 2: They had teachers and
students. Students learned to
write and read. They had music
and sports.
Speaker 1: Who went to the schools?
Speaker 2: boys
Speaker 1: How did the students write?
Speaker 2: They carved letters into wax.
They used a pointed tool made of metal
or bone.
Speaker 1: How were the schools
different from today?
Speaker 2: Girls could not go.
There were no papers, pencils,
or books.
Lesson 13
Name
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 13.8
Think About It
School Long Ago
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. How did boys and girls learn differently in Athens
long ago?
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2. Why do you think the author of the book includes a
section on sports?
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UPTIPXUIBUTQPSUTXFSFBTJNQPSUBOUBTMFBSOJOH
3. What do you think would have been the best part of
going to school in Athens long ago? Why?
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Making Connections This week you read Schools Around
the World and Schools Long Ago. Write some sentences that
compare what you learned in each selection.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Read directions to children.
Think About It
Grade 2, Unit 3: Tell Me About It
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Grade 2
5
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Name
Date
School Long Ago
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
On page 14, the author says: “Some things about schools long ago are
different. But some things are the same!” Do you think our school and the
schools in Athens are more different, or more alike? Use details from the
story to support your answer.
Grade 2
6
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Lesson 13
Name
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 13.8
Think About It
School Long Ago
Think About It
Read and answer the questions.
1. How did boys and girls learn differently in Athens
long ago?
2. Why do you think the author of the book includes a
section on sports?
3. What do you think would have been the best part of
going to school in Athens long ago? Why?
Making Connections This week you read Schools Around
the World and Schools Long Ago. Write some sentences that
compare what you learned in each selection.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 2
7
Lesson 13: School Long Ago
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Student
Lesson 13
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 13.12
School Long Ago • LEVEL M
page
3
School Long Ago
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Today, you woke up and went to school.
Children long ago went to school, too.
Their schools did not look like your school.
Students did not have paper or pencils. They
wore different clothes. But some things about
schools are the same.
4
Long, long ago in Athens, only boys went
to school. Athens is a community in Greece.
It is a very important city near the sea.
Today, people study about what Athens was like
long ago.
5
Important people lived in Athens. Many
famous writers lived there.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/87 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 2
Behavior
Error
0
0
1
8
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
Word told
T
cat
cat

Error
1413790
Behavior
1
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