Charlotte’s Web Name: _________________ 1. _____ Activate Schema Complete the Before Reading activity. 2. _____ Chapters 1 – 3 We learn a lot about people by watching the way they behave. Authors often describe characters’ behavior in order for help us understand something about the character. In the first two chapters of Charlotte’s Web, we learn a great deal about the characters because of what they do. Think about how the characters behave, and what you understand about them because of their behavior. Literature Response Journal: Record your inferences in your journal. Describe Fern’s personality. Make note of her likes and dislikes, her temperament, and her attitudes toward her family, animals and home. If she were a real person, explain whether you and she would be friends. Discussion: Discuss Fern. Complete a Character Map for her. (RL 4.2, RL 4.1) 3. _____ Chapters 4 – 5 In these chapters we meet Charlotte and see a new friendship form between her and Wilbur. From this point on, we begin to see complications within the story, as well as an internal struggle within Wilbur himself. As complications develop, readers wonder what will happen next. While you read, look for clues that the author has imbedded in the story. Use these clues to make predictions about what will happen. You’ll probably find that you will need to adjust your predictions as the story develops. Literature Response Journal: Complete a story map as you read, and make predictions about what will happen in this story. Discussion: Discuss the predictions you made, and the evidence from which you have made your predictions. (RL 4.3, RL 4.1) 4. _____ Chapters 6 – 8 As you read, it is often helpful to summarize what you have read. When you summarize, you recall the most important details and leave out those that are less important. This sill helps you, the reader, in two ways. First, going over events a second time helps you remember what you have read. Additionally, summarizing encourages you to figure out what is most important about what you have read. This contributes to your understanding of what the book is about. Literature Response Journal: Summarize the story up to this point. Discussion: Discuss how Fern is different from her family members. Describe examples from the text of what sets Leslie apart from the others. (RL 4.3, RL4.1, RL 4.2) 5. _____ Chapter 9 Events in stores are related to each other in some way. Very often, that relationship is one of cause and effect. This means that one event causes another to happen, usually complicating the character’s situation. To better understand why Wilbur worries about being killed, think about how the actions from the beginning of the text cause other events to occur. Literature Response Journal: Complete the cause and effect organizer. Discussion: Describe how Wilbur feels at the end of chapter 9. How has his friendship with Charlotte impacted his feelings? (cause-effect). Share predications about what might happen next. (RL4.3, RL4.1) 6. _____ Chapter 10 -- 12 When reading, you must demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English in order to understand the text. When an author wants to show that a character is speaking, also known as dialog, they must use commas and quotation marks correctly. A reader must understand the rules of commas and quotations marks so that they can understand when characters are talking to one another! Literature Response Journal: Located and record passages in your text that use commas and quotation marks. How were they used when people are talking (dialog). Do you notice a pattern? Record what you notice about commas and quotation marks. Charlotte’s Web Name: _________________ Discussion: Share with your group what you noticed about quotation marks and commas. Create a dialog between your group members about the topic of pets. Record your dialog using commas and quotation marks. (L 4.2b) 7. _____ Chapters 13 – 15 Authors describe details of setting, characters, and action in order to help you, the reader, visualize, or picture events in your minds. Visualizing is often an important step in understanding what is happening to a character. As you read, pause at points in the story that seem hard to understand, or are crucial to the plot. Try to visualize what is happening. If you do not immediately get a clear picture in your mind, try rereading that part of the story. Look for details that could make the picture clear. Literature Response Journal: Choose a scene from chapters 13 – 15 and draw it in your journal. Include details that contribute to the story. Annotate details as your read that help you visualize the scene. Discussion: Read aloud the first two paragraphs in chapter 15 that describes the setting as the summer comes to an end. Note the details that help you visualize the setting. Complete the visualization organizer. (RL4.3, RL 4.1) 8. _____ Chapter 16 – 17 These chapters most likely leave you with many questions. It is by far the most emotional point in the book. If you don’t understand everything that you read, or you want to know more about something in your reading, note questions in your journal. Then, present the questions to your group for discussion. Perhaps other group members will have a clearer understanding of the reading, or will have questions of their own. Literature Response Journal: Record questions you have as you read. Discussion: Discuss the questions you have. Complete the questions organizer. (RL 4.3) 9. _____ Chapter 18 – 20 An author will make specific decisions about the punctuation that is used throughout a story. In this story, we see that the author has chosen at times to use exclamation points, question marks, and other forms of punctuation to create an effect. As you read chapters 18 – 20, pay close attention to the punctuation that the author uses. Literature Response journal: What did you notice about the way punctuation marks were used? Were some used more often than others? Where there any situations where punctuation was used to give a certain effect to the story? (L4.3b) Discussion: Discuss what you noticed about punctuation. Complete the punctuation activity. 10. _____ Chapter 21 – 22 An author must chose the point of view from which they want their stories told. A reader must recognize the point of view of the story they are reading. First-Person point of view is told from a character that is present in the story. You will notice sentences that include the character in the events, such as “I was walking toward the door.” Or “My shoe was flopping while I ran.” These sentences provide evidence that the story is being told by someone who was in the story. Third-Person point of view is told from the perspective of someone who is not in the story. This is often times referred to as a narrator and might include sentences such as, “He ran toward the door not knowing what his mother would say.” Or “Her shoe nearly flopped off while she ran down the street.” (RL4.6, RL4.1) Literature Response Journal: As you read this final chapter, keep a log of the language you notice in the chapter that gives clues to the point of view of the story. Discussion: Identify the point of view of this book. Discuss the evidence that helps you to know the point of view. 11. _____ After Reading Did you notice a theme in this story? Remember that a THEME is the central idea from a text, or sometimes the author’s message. Discuss the theme of Charlotte’s Web– remember there may be more Charlotte’s Web Name: _________________ than one! Next, work together to determine 8-10 of the most important moments in Charlotte’s Web. Create a comic strip to illustrate a summary of these moments. (RL4.6, RL4.2) Charlotte’s Web Name: _________________ Charlotte’s Web Before Reading Have you ever felt strongly about something and had to plead your case to get your way? If you are like most people, you have probably had to argue in order to get something that you wanted. In this book, you will meet characters who create change in their world when they argue a case for a special friend. Write a paragraph describing a time when you experienced this. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Illustrate the outcome of this experience.
