Objectives:
Reading
Unit: 2 Lesson:1
Module: B
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in
the text. RL.4.4
• Identify key ideas and details in a story. RL.4.2
Today we will be doing a
Close Reading
Chapters 1-2
Essential Questions:
• How do readers compare and contrast topics?
• How does a writer use evidence to support ideas of compare and contrast in
an essay?
First Read
Let’s explore the text!
Look at the illustrations and discuss what you
think the book will be about?
Read Aloud Routine
Focus: What is the “gist” of the text?
I will begin reading The Birchbark House while you follow along in
your book. Then, you will continue reading to the end of chapter 2,
silently on your own. Focus on what the story is mainly about.
Be prepared to discuss the following questions when you are
done with the reading:
• What details in the text describe why Old Tallow
was considered to have a strange personality?
• What evidence in the text helps explain why the
mother bear decided that Omakayas was not a threat?
• What questions do you have?
Second Read
When you reread The Birchbark House, focus on key
details about the main character and events.
Be prepared to discuss the following questions when you are done
with the reading:
1. Why do the men go to the island? Why do they leave the young girl alone on
the island? This story’s genre is historical fiction and takes place in the Midwest
sometime in the 1800s, a time when Native Americans traded furs with white
settlers. How do you think the setting will impact what happens to the
characters?
2. Why does the author use Native American words in the dialogue?
3. What is a birchbark tree? How does the author show that the birchbark tree is
important to Omakayas’s family?
4. How would you describe the way Omakayas feels about Pinch?
5. What do context clues such as “killed” and “diseases” suggest about the
meaning of smallpox?
Focused Reading
Text-Based Vocabulary
• courage, p. 2
• shrewdly, p. 9
• enigmatic, p. 10
• fury, p. 16
• abrupt, p. 22
Vocabulary Routine:
1. Read the sentence containing the word.
2. Identify context clues about its meaning within the passage.
3. Look up the word in a dictionary and read the definition.
4. Use the word in other ways.
*After we review these words, write your sentences on p. 124 in your Reader’s and Writer’s Journal.*
Focused Reading
Text-Based Conversation
The author describes the smells and sounds that the
family experienced in the evening and as they slept. I can
use these descriptions to figure out how Omakayas feels
about her summer home.
Discuss the details on p. 12 and explain how
they show Omakayas’s feelings about her
home on the lake.
Focused Reading
Team Talk Routine
Do you think that Omakayas wished she were back in her
winter cabin when the storm passed through?
Use details from the text to support your answer.
Reading Analysis
Describe Characters
An author describes a character by using many
different types of information. This can include
actual descriptions of the character’s appearance
or feelings and thoughts, as well as the things a
character says and does. It can also include the
way that other characters act towards and
react to the character.
Reading Analysis
Cite Text Evidence
Use a Web Diagram to record your ideas about
Omakayas’s character. Use each bubble to describe the
way a different character affects Omakayas.
Focus on pp. 9–11.
• Describe how Omakayas feels about the
other family members.
• What does this family member do or say to
Omakayas?
• What does the interaction with this family
member teach you about Omakayas?
Independent Reading
Reading Analysis
Work independently to complete a Web that shows details
about Omakayas’s interaction with the bears on pp. 26–32.
Writing in Response to Reading
Turn to page 125 in your Reader’s and Writer’s Journal and
read the prompt: Do you think Omakayas was brave or foolish
to talk to the mother bear the way that she did?
Small Groups
It’s time to get into our groups!
Please see me if you don’t know what
group you belong in.
Writing
Opinion Writing
Objectives:
• Form and state an opinion
based on analyzing text.
• Capitalize titles correctly.
Writing
Opinion Writing
Forming and stating opinions based on your reading of texts will
help you develop critical thinking skills. In addition, you will be
asked to write opinion pieces throughout your academic careers to
demonstrate that you can read a text and express your thoughts
and ideas using reasoning and text evidence.
People may have multiple viewpoints on a topic, and you must
examine evidence in the text to determine which view is the most
reasonable to you. Before you form and state an opinion about
topics or texts, you should first make sure you understand the
writing activity and then reread, reflect on, and analyze the text. As
you reread and research (when called upon to do research), you
should take careful and concise notes from sources and the text.
Writing
Opinion Writing
After the evidence has been gathered and examined closely, you
should then determine your opinion, or view, on the topic. You
should state your opinion clearly in a topic sentence and then
follow it with reasons for why you think as you do. Each reason
must be supported with details from the text.
Reread the first paragraph on p. 15.
Do you think Omakayas was right to try to escape
scraping the moose hide?
State your opinion and give one reason.
Use details from the text to support your reason.
Writing
Analyze the Text
Use the following example of how a writer might form an
opinion and support it with evidence.
Writing
Conventions Focus: Capitalize Titles Correctly
Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are
always capitalized. Articles, conjunctions, and
prepositions are usually not capitalized unless they are
the first word in the title, as with The Birchbark House.
Writing
Independent Writing
Use your Reader’s and Writer’s Journal, p. 129,
to write a paragraph in which you explain why you
think Old Tallow “made her deliveries at night.”
Be sure to:
• reread and reflect on pp. 19–20.
• take notes about Old Tallow’s
personality and interactions with her
community.
• use details from the text to support
your opinion.