The Boy Who Didn’t Believe
in Spring
By: Lucille Clifton
Illustrated by: Brinton Turkle
An example of city wildlife:
Objectives:
 You will:
 recognize antonyms and synonyms,
 Recognize compound words
 Recognize base words and the suffix –y and the
prefix un Practice using the spelling patterns ar and air
 Recognize the long u sound spelled u, u_e, _ue,
_ew.
Word Knowledge
hollered whispered grinned frowned
vacant empty bare
streetlight playground tiptoe
spiky cottony smelly silvery
unbelievable undecorated untied
uneaten unoccupied
started apartments dark car air
Word Knowledge
 Tony stopped and made believe his sneaker
was untied to see what King was going to
do.
 “Well, come on, man,” King whispered, and
they started down the street.
 Just after the friends passed some
apartments, they came to a vacant lot.
 An indigo car is a dark blue color.
What do these words have in
common?
 hollered whispered grinned
frowned
 The words are antonyms. What’s an antonym?
 An antonym means opposite. With your
partner, identify the antonyms
 Hollered/whispered, grinned/frowned
 Use each word in a sentence and come up
with other examples of antonyms.
 Hot/cold, hard/soft, up/down, left/right,
day/night, all/none.
What is the same with these
words?
vacant
empty
bare
 These words are synonyms. Raise your hand if you can tell
me what a synonym is.
 Synonyms are words that mean the same thing.
 What is the synonym to these words?
 Happy
 tired…
 large…
 end…
 grow…
 mature, develop
 sleepy
 joyful
 finish, complete
What is the spelling pattern in the next
set of words?
streetlight
playground
tiptoe
 The words are compound words.
 What words make up each compound
word?
 street + light
 play + ground
 tip + toe
 Do the two words help us understand the
meaning of the word?
What’s the secret pattern between these
words?
spiky cottony smelly silvery
 The suffix –y is added to base words.
 Give a definition for each word and use the word
in a sentence.
 Identify the part of speech the word becomes in a
sentence.
 By adding the suffix –y , the word becomes an
adjective (a describing word).
What do these words have in
common?
unbelievable undecorated untied uneaten
unoccupied
 The prefix un- is added to words.
 What does the prefix un- mean?
 Un- means not.
 Give the base word and explain how the
word changes when you add un-.
 Example: the base word for unbelievable is
believe.
 When you add un- the word means not true.
What do these words have in
common?
started
apartments
dark
car
air
 These words are spelling words
found in “The Boy Who Didn’t
Believe in Spring”.
 Let’s review the spelling patterns for
ar and air.
Please read the sentences and find the
antonyms:
 Tony stopped and made believe his sneaker was
untied to see what King was going to do.
 “Well, come on, man,” King whispered, and they
started down the street.
 Just after the friends passed some apartments, they
came to a vacant lot.
 stopped/started, untied/tied,
whispered/shouted, down/up,
after/before, friends/enemies,
vacant/occupied
Now, let’s identify any synonyms or
prefixes
 Tony stopped and made believe his
sneaker was untied to see what King was
going to do.
 “Well, come on, man,” King whispered,
and they started down the street.
 Just after the friends passed some
apartments, they came to a vacant lot.
 Synonyms: stopped/discontinued,
untied/undone, started/began,
some/several, vacant/bare/empty
 Prefixes: untied-not tied.
Now, let’s read the following
sentence together:
 An indigo car is a dark blue color.
 Identify the words that have the
/ar/ sound spelled ar
Car, dark
Prior Knowledge
 What do you remember from the
Read Aloud?
 Raise you hand if you can share with
me what you notice about the first
signs of spring.
Background Information
 “The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in
Spring” is realistic fiction.
 Realistic fiction may include
descriptions of actual places and
things, and also situations that are
made up but could happen.
 The author invents the characters,
then involves them in solving a
problem.
Background Information
 The author, Lucille Clifton, uses
idiomatic spellings and phrases.
 Some of the spelling in the story was
used to show natural speech and may
differ from the dictionary spelling.
 bout for about
 comin for coming
Preview and Prepare
(Reading 2.6

Let ‘s read aloud: the title, the author and
illustrator.
 Now let’s browse the first page or two of the story.
 Who are the main characters?
 Look at the illustrations in the selections.
 Make sure you make predictions about the text to
help monitor your comprehension.
 Look for: clues, problems, such as unfamiliar words
 Now let’s look at the focus questions.
 What is city wildlife?
 What types of wildlife would you expect to find in a
city?
Student Observation
Clues
Problems
Can a person
“believe” in Spring?
Weissman’s
Wonderings
How can you
find Spring?
The Boy Who Didn’t
Believe in Spring
mound
crops
patch
vacant
decorated
Crops
 One day after the teacher
had been talking about birds
that were blue and his Mama
had started talking about
crops coming up, King
Shabazz decided he had just
had enough.
 Now that spring has
arrived, the farmer is
busy planting his crops.
Crops
 Dictionary crops
 Page 177
 Definition: Plants grown for
food or to sell to make
money
 Sentence: pg.145
 Antonym: seeds
 Synonym: harvest, produce
 Part of Speech: Noun
decorated
 They passed the Church of the Solid
Rock with high windows all decorated
and pretty.
 The wedding reception hall looked
lovely, decorated with twinkling lights
and pretty flowers.
Decorated Dictionary
 Page 193
 Definition: Made
beautiful by adding fancy
things and frills
 Sentence: pg. 149
 Antonym: common, plain
 Synonym: detailed,
garnish
 Part of Speech:
Adjective
vacant
 Just after they passed some
apartments King Shabazz and Tony
Polito came to a vacant lot.
 The warehouse looked as though it
had been vacant for years.
vacant Dictionary





Page 832
Empty, abandoned
Verb
Antonym: crowded
Synonym: empty,
abandoned
mound
 The wheels were gone
and so were the doors,
but it was dark red
and sitting high on a
dirt mound in the
middle of the lot.
 The catcher walked
toward the pitcher’s
mound, a slightly
raised area of ground
on a baseball field. He
wanted to talk to the
pitcher about the next
batter.
Mound Dictionary
 Page 482
 Definition: Small hill
or pile of dirt,rocks, or
other material
 Sentence: pg.150
 Antonym: flat,
mountain
 Synonym: knoll, drift
 Part of Speech: Noun
patch
 He looked down
and saw a patch of
little yellow pointy
flowers, growing in
the middle of short
spiky green leaves.
 A large empty
patch stood out
from the full green
lawn.
Patch Dictionary





Page 543
An area different from what is around it
Noun
Antonym: whole
Synonym: part, spotty
Investigating Concepts Beyond the Text
 What do you know already about city
wildlife? During the next six weeks,
we read stories about city wildlife.
 Does anyone have any further questions
or points to share up to this point?
Word Analysis
 Spelling – This week, we will spell
words wit the /ar/ sound.
started apartments dark car air
 Let’s take our spelling pretest.
 Vocabulary Skill Words
(antonyms)
whispered
vacant
shouted
slowly
mound
English Language Conventions
“Quote Marks” Eng. Lang. Conv. 1.0, 1.4)
 Quotation marks let the reader know that
something is being said.
 A comma sets of the speaker’s words from
the rest of the sentence.
 If the sentence ends with the quotation, the
punctuation goes inside the closing
quotation mark.
 “I’m hungry!” Shelly said.
 “Are you tired?” Michael asked.
 Brian said, “It’s time to go to school.”
 The name of a short story, poem, song or
book chapter should be in quotes.
Writing Process Strategies
Getting Ideas: Responding to Fiction
(writing 1.1, 1.4)
 I like the character King Shabazz in the story “The
Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring”.
 I could write a response to fiction explaining why.
 What plots, settings, and ideas could you use to write
responses to fiction?
 Let’s make a list on the board.
Tip for Responding to fiction
Prewriting
 Make a plan
 Character: qualities they have in the story.
Make a web. Look for information in the
story to support each idea in the web.
 Example: Aunt Flossie’s Hats
 Aunt Flossie
 1.Kind: feeds tea and cookies, lets try on
hats, tells stories
 2. Old: horses pulled, fire engines
 3. Patient: doesn’t yell
Drafting
 Get your thoughts on paper
 Use each quality in a separate paragraph.
 Example:

I wish I had an aunt like Flossie. She seems very
kind. She gives her nieces cookies and tea when they
come to visit. She lets them try on her hats. She
tells them stories about each hat.

Aunt Flossie must be kind of old. She is a greatgreat aunt. She remembers when horses pulled fire
engines.

I think Aunt Flossie is patient. When the girls try
on her very best Sunday hat, she starts to tell the
story. The girls keep interrupting Aunt Flossie doesn’t
yell at them. She lets them help her tell the story.
Revising, Editing/Proofreading,
publishing
 Revising: Be sure it makes sense
 Organization: do your supporting sentences stay on
topic?
 Sentence Fluency: Did you use some long and some
short sentences?
 Editing/Proofreading: Look closely at the details.
 1. Indent each paragraph.
 2. Make sure you have used capital letters correctly.
 3. check your response for spelling mistakes.
 Publishing: Get ready to share your response to
fiction. Make a clean copy. Does it look like
something you would want to read? Design a
cover for your story. Write your response on the
front inside page. Write a title.
The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring
reading-orally pgs. 114-123)
Listen/Speak 1.1,1.2
 When I read this story I will:
 Predict what the story might be
about
 What Questions come to mind?
 What images pop into my
mind? (Visualize)
 Summarize story in own words
(first
Discussing Strategy Use
TG 122
 How did you clarify confusing passages?
 What questions did you ask yourself as you
read the story?
 Did you make predictions as you read the
story? What were they?
 What did you visualize as you read the
story?
Discussing the Selection
 Let’s use handing off to answer
these questions:
 Why didn’t King believe in spring?
 What did King and Tony do to find
spring?
 What signs of spring did they find?
 What types of wildlife are common
in cities?
 Write your answers in your response
journal
Concept/Question Board
TE p. 125B
 Let’s use the Concept/Question board
to:
 Post questions we have about the story
that have not been answered yet.
 Post articles about city wildlife.
 Answer our story focus question.
Word Analysis
ELC 1.8, Reading 1.4
 Spelling
 Here is Sound/Spelling card 27 /ar/.
 Repeat after me: armadillo. Sort your spelling
words by ar, are, air, or ear spellings.
 Vocabulary: Antonyms
whispered
 Antonyms are two words with opposite meanings.
 The antonym for whispered is:
 Shouted, screamed, yelled, hollered
100
0
1s
2
t
n
3
d
rd
4th
Qtr
Qtr
Qtr
Qtr
Antonyms
 Antonyms are words that have
opposite meanings.
 Hot and cold are antonyms.
 Happy and sad are antonyms.
 Push and pull are antonyms.
English Language Conventions
E.L.C., 1.5

Review: Quotation Marks.

When are quotation marks used?

Quotation marks are used when someone speaks, for
short story, poem and song titles and chapters in a
book.

Name two or more animals that live in the city.



Imagine what animals would say to each other about
how humans treat them.
What would they say? Let’s write their conversation on
the board.
Find one declarative (.), one interrogative (?), and
one exclamatory (!) quotation in “The Boy Who Didn’t
Believe in Spring.”
Phonics and Fluency
Review the long u sound spelled u,
u_e, _ue, _ew
 Here is the Sound/Spelling Card 36, the long u sound.
unit used menu Utah
cue human humid January
puny fuel pupil unicorn
mew few unify universe
 Can you identify the letters that make the long u
sound?
 My favorite month is January.
 I ate a few cookies after dinner.
 He used to sit with his friend Tony Polito on the
bottom step when the days started getting longer
and warmer and talk about it
“The Boy Who Didn’t Believe in Spring”
Second Read
 Comprehension Skills – Classify and
Categorize
 What does classifying and categorizing
mean?
 It is sometimes useful to put story
information into sections or categorizes.
 Putting things that are alike together in a
group will help you understand and learn
information.
 As you read the story, try to classify and
categorize different things.
Classify and Categorize
Signs of Spring
People in the
Story
Things in King
and Tony’s
Neighborhood
Things King
Does
Things King and
Tony Smell
Checking Comprehension
(reading 2.3)
 What does this story have to do with city
wildlife?
 Tony and King find plants beginning to grow
and a bird’s blue eggs in the car in a vacant
lot.
 What do Tony and King realize when they
find the flowers and the bird’s eggs?
 They realize that spring has really arrived.
 How do you think they feel about their
discovery?
 They feel happy and amazed at finding
signs of spring in the city.
Interviewing
In an interview, you ask another person questions
to get information about a subject or to find out
what she or he thinks or feels about something.
 In an interview, a person is the source.
 Here are the rules of doing an interview:
1. Always ask permission to interview a person.
2. Ask Who? What? Where? Why? And How?
Questions.
3. Write down your questions in the order you want to
ask them.
4. Speak clearly and politely during an interview.
5. Take notes as the person answers the questions.
6. Thank the person after the interview.

Word Analysis
 Spelling
 bare bear
 Listen to the /air/ sounds in bare and bear
 Now, complete Spelling and Vocabulary Skills
 Vocabulary
mound
 hole, indentation, and valley are antonyms to
mound

Knowing the meaning of the antonyms, what is the meaning of
the word mound.
 hill, bump, pile
 Work with your partner to think of some more
antonyms for the word mound.
 Flat land, valley, dip
English Language Conventions
Where does the quotation marks go
for the following sentences?
Fragrant flowers are flourishing
in the field, Fred said gratefully.
Rachel Carson said We need
to protect the natural world.
English Language Conventions TG.
p. 125H
Where does the quotation marks go for the
following sentences?
When will the cardinal eggs hatch?
asked Ellen.
That cardinal is bright red! Gasped
Miguel.
Note: The end punctuation goes inside the
closing quotation mark.
Assignment: Write a brief dialogue among
animals about life in the city.
Writing Process Strategies
Drafting : Responding to Fiction
 Although responding to fiction
means giving opinions, these
opinions need to be supported with
examples from the writing.
 Time order words are words that
show the transition of events.
 Before, after, first, next, later, last,
until, then, finally
 Time order words are used to help
readers follow actions.
Sequence is
the order in
which events
happen.
Certain words
can be
sequence
clues.
Time-Order Words
first
next
then
finally
Time-Order Expression
in the morning
after that
later that day
two weeks later
Other Time Words
yesterday
Saturday
April
winter
Now be a sequence
detective. See if you
can spot the clue words
in the following story.
Last Tuesday I met my new
friend Mickey. We were both
in a ball game at recess. I told
him he had made a good
catch during the game. Later
that day we played in a
softball game. We were on the
same team and we won!
Last Tuesday I met my new
friend Mickey. We were both
in a ball game at recess. I told
him he had made a good
catch during the game. Later
that day we played in a
softball game. We were on the
same team and we won!
After the game, we traded
some baseball cards, and then
he said he wanted to ask me
something. After he finished
talking, we walked to the bus
stop.
After the game, we traded
some baseball cards, and then
he said he wanted to ask me
something. After he finished
talking, we walked to the bus
stop.
The next morning, I was able to
answer his question. My
parents said that I would go to
his family’s apartment to have
dinner with him on his birthday,
December 6.
The next morning, I was able to
answer his question. My
parents said that I would go to
his family’s apartment to have
dinner with him on his birthday,
December 6.
Developing Oral Language
unit used menu Utah
cue human humid January
puny fuel pupil unicorn
mew few unify universe
 A
is a mammal.
 Human

is a cold month.
 January
 I need
 fuel
to run my gold car.
Developing Oral Language
unit used menu Utah
cue human humid January
puny fuel pupil unicorn
mew few unify universe
 The state of
 Utah
 Our Open Court
 unit
 The word
 puny
is very pretty.
is called City Wildlife.
means small.
Dictation
line 1: ________
________
________
line 2: ________
________
________
Challenge Word: ___________________
Sentence:_________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Literary Elements:
Characterization
Characterization is the way that a writer shows what the
characters in his or her story are like.
Writers do this by telling what the characters do, say, think, and
feel.
Let’s complete the table:
Character
King Shabazz
Tony Polito
What I Know About Him
Evidence
Word Analysis
 Spelling
 Dark
 Knowing the spelling of dark can help us know that
the rhyming word park is spelled the same way.
 Vocabulary
Vacant
Empty, clear, and blank are synonyms of vacant.
What are the antonyms for vacant?
full, loaded, crowded
What is the definition of vacant , now that we
know its’ antonyms and synonyms?
empty space, clear area
English Language Conventions
listen/Speak 1.1
Remembering what we hear
Being able to recall a story is an important listening skill.
If we listen well the first time, we won’t have to get the
information again.
Another good listening skill is repeating and paraphrasing
what we hear in our own words. This helps us share
information with others. We can give the same message
using our own words.
In small groups, paraphrase the important points and details
of the story.
Students will decide on a group leader.
The group leader will record the important points.
As a class, we will call on the group leader to share their
information with the class.
Writing Process Strategies:
Revising (Writing 1.1, 1.4)
•
 When the supporting sentences stray from the
topic of the paragraph, readers lose interest.
 When statements about a character, setting,
idea, or plot are not supported with details
from the story, it makes the statements hard
to believe.
 Misspelling names of people and places can be
distracting and it makes it seem like you did
not read the story carefully.
Revise your drafts using time order words.
English Language Conventions
Review
 Remember…
 Quotation marks are used to let the
reader know that something is being
said.
 A comma sets off the speaker’s words
from the rest of the sentence.
 The ending punctuation goes inside the
closing quotation mark.
 “I’m hungry!” Shelly said.
 “Are you tired?” Michael asked.
 Brian said, “It’s time to go to school.”
 The name of a short story, poem, song,
or book chapter should also be in
quotation marks.
Test