Family Times
Daily Questions
Prior Knowledge
Cause and Effect
Vocabulary
Multiple Meaning Words
Predictions
Guided Comprehension
Sequence
Paraphrase
Independent Readers
The Immigrant Experience
Additional Resources
Study Skills:
Genre: Expository Nonfiction
Vocabulary Strategy: Context Clues
Comprehension Skill: Cause and Effect
Comprehension Strategy: Summarize
Question of the Week:
What challenges do immigrants encounter?
Daily Questions:
In what ways is America different from Romania?
How are Marcus’s expectations of America different
from what he finds?
Despite the challenges they face, why do you thin
immigrants continue to come to America?
Activate Prior Knowledge
Brainstorm about immigration
• In two or three minutes write down words
and phrases you associate with immigration.
• Discuss responses. Think about the
challenges immigrants encounter when
arriving in a new country.
Cause and Effect
• The cause is what made something happen. The effect is
what happened as the result of a cause.
• Sometimes an author will use clue words such as so and
because to show a cause-effect relationship, but not always.
• An effect may have more than one cause, and a cause may
have more than one effect.
Effect
Cause
Effect
Cause
Cause
Effect
Summarize
In a summary, you state main ideas and leave
out unimportant details. Summarizing helps
you make sure you understand and remember
what you read. Summarizing is especially
helpful when you read about a cause with
several effects or an effect with several causes.
Write Activity:
1. Read “Coming to the United States.” Make a graphic
organizer to show the causes of immigration.
2. Use information from your graphic organizer to help you
write a brief summary about why many people have
immigrated to the United States.
Vocabulary List
Advice
Hustled
Peddler
Advised
Immigrants
Circumstances
Luxury
Elbow
Newcomer
INTRODUCE VOCABULARY
• Read lesson vocabulary.
• Locate each word in the glossary, noting the pronunciation and meaning.
• Answer the following questions:
• What might a peddler sell?
• If you elbow your way to the head of the crowd, what are you doing?
• What is a luxury in your home?
Use the vocabulary words in sentences. At the end of the week, review your sentences
and improve upon them using what they have learned.
Advice
An opinion about what should be done
Advised
Gave advice to; offered an opinion
Circumstances
Conditions that accompany an act or event
Elbow
To push with the elbow; make your way by
pushing.
Hustled
Hurried along
Immigrants
People who come into a country or region to
live.
Luxury
Something pleasant but not necessary
Newcomer
A person who has just come or who came not
long ago.
Peddler
A person who travels about selling thins carried
in a pack or in a truck, wagon, or cart.
More Words to Know
Crannies: Small, narrow openings; cracks; crevices
Greenhorn: A person without training or
experience
Pushcarts: Light carts pushed by hand
Practice Lesson Vocabulary
Does hustled mean pushed around?
Are the Segals immigrants?
Were the people in Marcus’s village used to luxury?
True/False
When you want to know someone’s opinion about something, you ask for his or
her advice.
A newcomer is someone who is always late.
Hustled means pushed away.
Vocabulary Strategy (p. 114)
Multiple Meaning Words (Context Clues)
Some words have more than one meaning. You can find clues in nearby words to
decide which meaning the author is using.
1. Think about different meanings the word can have.
2. Reread the sentence where the word appears. Which meaning gits in the
sentence?
3. If you can’t tell, then look for more clues in nearby sentences.
4. Put the clues together and decide which meaning works best.
As you read “ A New Job in America,” use the context and what you know about
the vocabulary words to decide their meanings. For example, does hustled
mean “hurried along” or “sold in a hurried way”?
Genre: Expository Nonfiction
Expository nonfiction explains a person, a
thing, or an idea. Notice how the author
explains what life was like for a young man
coming to the United States at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
Examples:
How does Marcus
manage to meet the
challenge of making
a place for himself
in a new country?
Preview and Predict
Preview the selection by discussing the
photographs and reading the captions. Think
about the title. When you hear “shutting out
the sky,” what are you reminded of and what
do you predict the title describes? Use
selection vocabulary to discuss your ideas.
Guided Comprehension:
Reread the headnote on p. 118. Aside from becoming crowded, how do you think
the arrival of 23 million immigrants affected New York City?
Which details about the Segals’ apartment made Marcus feel they were rich?
Name the order three things that have happened to Marcus in the selection thus far.
Compare and contrast Marcus to the boarders at this point in the story.
The phrase “huddling like seals on a rock” is an example of a simile. Why do you
think the author used this feature?
Why do you think the author wrote, “Soon the rooms were filled with deep
breathing, dreadful snoring, and smells of all kinds”?
What is the meaning of fine in paragraph 2 on pg. 123? What other meaning could
this word have?
Why did Marcus take a job as a peddler?
Guided Comprehension Continued
How does Marcus feel about becoming a peddler?
Marcus paid for two boxes of chocolates. How will he make money selling them to
others?
How do the photographs help set the mood of the story?
How is the Marcus at the end of the story different from the Marcus we met at the
beginning of the story?
Think about a time you went through a new or difficult change in your life. What
happened? How do you feel?
Sequence (TM 121)
• Sequence refers to the order of events.
• Time order is a way of organizing text. Dates, times of day, and other
clue words can help determine time order.
• Look on pg. 120 and sequence the events of paragraph 1.
•Reread pg. 120, paragraphs 1 and 2. What order did these events take
place?
_______People slept wherever they could.
_______Chairs were lined up in rows to make beds.
_______People streamed into the apartment.
Paraphrase
To paraphrase something is to put it in your own words. A
paraphrase should keep the author’s ideas and overall meaning,
but it should be easier to read than the original.
• When you paraphrase, think about what the author is trying to
say.
• Do not add any opinions of your own.
• Use your own words.
Work with a small groups to paraphrase p. 119 from Shutting Out
the Sky.
Write your own paraphrase for pg. 124. Remember to use your
own choice of words to describe what the author was trying to say.
SUMMARY
This book explores how the United States
became such a diverse country, with many
different immigrant groups. The book also tells
the story of the different immigrant groups that
have helped shape this country
into what it is today.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
PAGE 4 What does the phrase “the melting
pot” refer to?
PAGE 5 What are some examples of what
causes immigrants to come to the United
States?
PAGE 11 Why is Jennifer Lopez included in this book?
PAGE 22 Can you summarize what happened to Jewish Americans during the 1900s?
PAGE 23 How have immigrants made the United States a more interesting and exciting
place to live?
SUMMARY
In the early 1900s, many families
traveled to the United States looking for a
better life. These families faced difficult times.
Immigrant children had a hard time learning or
having fun. Their parents worked hard to give
them safe places to play and learn.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
PAGE 6 What caused immigrants to move to
America?
PAGE 7 Look at the photo and read the
caption. What does this tell you about
immigrants’ living conditions?
PAGE 10 How did immigrant parents teach
their children about their heritage?
PAGE 18 What did Alice and Irene Lewisohn do
to improve the Lower East Side?
SUMMARY
Many people left their homes overseas
and came to the United States in the early
1900s. They had dreams of making good money
and having a better life. The road to a better life
was filled with hard times and disappointment.
For most, the journey was worth the effort.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
PAGE 4 Why did immigrants move to America?
PAGE 7 Name some countries immigrants
came from initially.
PAGE 12 What was life like for immigrants?
PAGE 18 Make a general statement about
education for immigrant children.
Genre: E-mail
• E-mail is short for “electronic mail”– messages
sent over the Internet from on computer user to
another.
• You can e-mail certain Web sites to gather
information for school projects.
Text features
• The address box gives vital information.
• The message looks like the body of a friendly
letter.
What information goes in the box labeled To: on pg. 131.
What are the purposes of the buttons above the address box?
Why did Rachel write her e-mail?
What steps did Rachel follow to get her information?
Additional Resources
Using Multiple Meanings
Multiple Meaning Words
Sequencing
Cause and Effect Book List