What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
I could
If I wanted
Tell Mama and Papa that I won’t go.
I won’t go, I’ll say,
To a new house
To the new place,
To a land I’ve never seen
I could
If I wanted
Tell them to take the babyHe won’t care.
He doesn’t know about the slough
Where the pipits feed.
Where the geese sky-talk in the spring
That baby hasn’t even seen winter
With snow drifting hard against fences,
And the horses breathing puffs like
clouds in the air,
Ice on their noses.
The cold so sharp it cuts you.
p.1
I could
If I wanted
Stay here
With the new people,
If they’ll have me.
I will live in the attic
With my books
And my paints
And paper so I can write letters
To Mama and Papa
If they miss me.
Or maybe
I’ll live in a tree.
The tall cottonwood that was small
When Papa was small
But grew faster than he did.
Now it has branches
And crooks where I can sit
To look over the rooftop,
Over the windmill,
Over the prairie
So big that I can’t see
Where the land begins
Or where it ends.
p.2
Or
I’ll live at Uncle Bly’s house by the river,
Listening to him sing
Cowboy songs
About buffalo
And cattle drives
Lightning storms
And love
We’ll eat pie for breakfast
Because Uncle Bly likes it.
And no one tells him he can’t
When Uncle Bly goes to Cheyenne
I’ll live with Mr. Boots, who shoes
the horses
And lives in the red barn.
We’ll sleep in the hay with our eyes
open
Until they drop shut.
Listening
to the rain on the tin roof
the wind rattling the windows
Waking when the rooster crows
In sunlight
P.3
p.4
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
My Mama is sad to leave, too.
She cried when we sold the farmThe baby, in her arms reached up to
touch her tears.
And Papa took a long walk
When they came to take the cows away
After he whispered good-bye to Bess
After she leaned against him
The way she always does
So
Why are we leaving if everyone’s sad?
And what is there to go to?
Mama says there’s an ocean
In the new place.
And Papa says there are trees.
I don’t need trees,
Only the one.
I don’t need an ocean
I’ve got an ocean of grass.
p.5
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What you know first stays with you,
my Papa says.
But just in case I forget
I will take a twig of the cottonwood
tree
I will take a little bag of prairie dirt
I cannot take the sky
And I’ll try hard to remember the
songs,
And the sound of the rooster at
dawn,
And how soft the cows’ ears are
When you touch them,
So the baby will know
What he knew first.
And so I can remember, too.
p.6
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
Cognitive Bridge
What does the text say?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is the problem in the story?
Explain what the narrator’s home is like?
Is the narrator a boy or a girl? How do you know?
On page 3 and 4, how does the narrator envision a solution to the problem?
Where is the narrator going?
How does the text work?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How does the author organize the story and its’ information?
What components of the author’s structure do you recognize?
What is a pipit? How do you know?
Explain sky-talk and why is this important to the narrator?
Where does the author use figurative language to enhance imagery?
What does the text mean?
1. Why did Patricia MacLachlan write What You Know First and how do you know?
2. On page 5 the narrator asks the question, “Why are we leaving if everyone’s
sad?” How does the narrator attempt to answer his/her own argument and is it
a real answer? Explain your thinking?
3. What do the items the narrator will take say about what is most important to
him/her?
Text-Dependent Analysis – 4th Grade
Throughout the story What You Know First, the narrator struggles with an internal
conflict. Write an essay analyzing how the title of the story ties in to the narrator’s
solution to his/her internal struggle. Use information from the text to support your
thinking.
Multi-Textual Text-Dependent Analysis – 5th Grade Only
In the two stories What You Know First and If you’re not from the prairie…, both
narrators walk the reader through life on the prairie. Write an essay analyzing the
similarities and differences between the two descriptions comparing and contrasting
the characteristics of prairie life that are most important to each narrator based on each
account. Use information from the text to support your thinking.
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
SETTING UP YOUR WRITING UTILIZING TWO TEXTS
Explicit Modeling: Reminding our writers of all they’ve learned
Step 1:
(BOXES AND BULLETS – STURCTURE)
What You Know First and
If you’re not from the prairie…
 Similarities
 Differences
 Most Important –Analysis (Interpretation)
Step 2:
Organize your thoughts on each story into a horizontal structure mimicking Boxes and
Bullets
What You Know First








Animals: birds
(pipits, rooster,
geese), horses,
cows,
Seasons: winter
Weather: wind,
Lightning Storms,
cold
Tall Cottonwood
(just one)
An ocean of grass
Sunshine in the
morning (light)
Food
Cowboy Songs
Both






Seasons: winter
Weather: wind,
Trees
Grass
Sun
Cold
If you’re not from the
prairie…
 Sun
 Seasons: Summer,
Winter,
 Weather: wind,
 Sky, storm clouds,
cold, blizzards
 Flat
 Grass (Hear)
whispers, rhythm
 Trees (few)
 Sun- Blazing
Step 3:
Form an introduction, clearly stating what you will be writing about in each paragraph
in your essay. (Boxes and Bullets)
Turn each bullet into a topic sentence and then develop each bullet using just the right
amount of evidence and just the right amount of thinking and explaining – The Layer
Cake.
Be clear. Don’t try to write about everything in the text, you’ll get in over your head.
For example, choose two of each and write clear about those two (see below).
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
In the two stories What You Know First and If you’re not from the prairie…, both
narrators walk the reader through life on the prairie in similar and different ways. Both
accounts describe what is most important to narrator.
To begin, there are many similarities of the two stories that describe the components of
weather including: the wind and the cold. In What You Know First, the narrator listens
to “the wind rattling the window.” This shows how powerful the wind is on the prairie.
In If You’re not from the prairie, the narrator describes “Hot summer wind devils can
blow down the door.” This too shows the strength of the wind showcasing it as strong
enough to blow down a door. Both narrators also describe the cold in the same way. In
What You Know First, the narrator says the cold is “So sharp it cuts you.” If you’re not
from the prairie…, describes the cold with the same intensity and actually uses the same
word “cut.” The narrator says, “Our cold winds of winter, cut right to the core,” and it
also describes the cold as “hard and bitter.”
There are differences in the two stories including the ways both narrators describe grass
and trees. In What You Know First, the narrator compares the grass on the prairie to an
“ocean.” This description proves how far, wide and flat the prairie is. This is different
than how the narrator describes the grass in If you’re not from the prairie…, it is
described using the senses. The narrator says you’ve never “heard” grass. He says, “It
whispers its secrets-they tell of this land.” This makes the reader think that the grass can
talk on the prairie and it spreads what it hears throughout the land. Both narrators also
describe the trees on the prairie in different ways. In What You Know First, the narrator
speaks of the “tall Cottonwood tree,” just one though. It goes on to explain that the
“new place” will have many trees, but the narrator is happy with just the one. In If
you’re not from the prairie…, the narrator describes the trees on the prairie slightly
different. He describes them as few, not one. He says, “We knew they were special-the
prairie has few.” The word “few” shows the difference from the “one” in What You
Know First. This shows that trees are special on the prairie, but one narrator has one,
and one is fortunate enough to have a few.
In both stories, the narrators share what is most important to them through the way
they express their feelings about each aspect of the prairie and the words they use to
speak about prairie life. In What You Know First, the narrator’s most important part of
prairie life is definitely the animals. I know this because the narrator talks about the
pipits, geese, rooster, horse and the cows. Those animals are described throughout the
story in a way that proves that the narrator will miss them when she leaves. For
example, she describes the “geese-talk” she hears, and the “horses breathing,” and the
“pipits feeding.” She also describes the cow’s good-bye to her dad. This proves that the
animals on the prairie are most important to the narrator. In If you’re not from the
prairie…, the narrator’s most important part of the prairie is the extreme weather. He
describes the “cold, strong winds,” the “danger” of blizzards and snow, the “hard bitter
cold,” and the “blazing sun.” In sharing so many different details about the weather on
the prairie, this proves that the weather is the most important part of the prairie to the
narrator.
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
In summary, in the two stories What You Know First and If you’re not from the prairie…,
both narrators walk the reader through life on the prairie in similar and different ways.
Both accounts describe what is most important to narrator.
Grade 4 TDA
SETTING UP YOUR WRITING UTILIZING ONE TEXT
Boxes and Bullets
Restate the Task: The Title of the story “What You
Know First,” ties in to the narrator’s solution to
her struggle.
 Taking real objects from the prairie
 Remembering what things feel and sound like
 Remembering for the baby
In the story What You Know First, the narrator struggles with an internal conflict of the
fear of forgetting prairie life when she moves. The title of the story ties in to the
narrator’s solution to her struggle by taking objects from the prairie that she knew first,
trying hard to remember what things felt like and sounded like on the prairie, and
remembering everything not just for her, but so her baby brother will remember “what
he knew first” too.
The first way the solution to the narrator’s struggle ties in to the title of the story is by
taking objects from the prairie with her to her new house. She took items such as “a
twig of the cottonwood tree” and “a little bag of prairie dirt” These items are what have
always been a part of prairie life for the narrator. By taking these items she will always
remember, “What She Knew First.” These items tie in to the title of the story, because
they represent “What You Know First” for her.
Another way, the solution to the narrator’s struggle ties in to the title of the story is by
the narrator pledging to try hard to remember “the songs,” and the “sound of the
rooster at dawn,” and “how soft the cows’ ears are when you touch them.” This shows
that the narrator will make an effort to remember the things she can’t pack in a suitcase
and take with her. These sensory items can only live in her memory and link back to the
title of the story showing that these senses are senses the narrator “knew first.”
The final way, the solution to the narrator’s struggle ties in to the title of the story is by
her packing and trying hard to remember the important things about prairie life, not just
for her, but “so the baby will know what he knew first” too. By doing this for her
younger brother, she feels like she’s the only one that can one day tell the baby, when
he’s grown up and he forgets, “what he knew first.” By packing and remembering not
only for herself, but for her brother too, this shows she is determined to keep the
promise of the title, “What You Know First.”
In summary, the title of the story ties in to the narrator’s solution to her struggle by
taking objects from the prairie that she knew first, trying hard to remember what things
felt like and sounded like on the prairie, and remembering everything not just for her,
but so her baby brother will remember “what he knew first” too.
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th
What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan
TDA #2 – 4th Grade
After reading, What You Know First, write an essay analyzing how the baby played an
important role in the narrator’s acceptance of her father’s teaching, “What you know
first stays with you.” Use evidence from the text to support your thinking.
The baby played an important role in the narrator’s acceptance of her father’s
teaching, “What you know first stays with you.” The narrator took on the
responsibility of teaching the baby about:



the winter he hasn’t seen, the snow drifting, the horses breathing
letting him feel the prairie dirt, and the cottonwood tree
reminding him about the sounds, songs and things he could feel on the prairie
Piccini TDA 4th and 5th