Reading
Unit: 2 Lesson: 10
Module: B
Objectives:
• 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
of chapter 14.
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!
Read the title. To come full circle is “to return to the
original source, position, or situation.”
As you begin to think about the journey of each
character from the beginning of the novel to the end,
remember the Essential Questions:
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?
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 14,
silently on your own. Focus on the similarities and differences
between each character at the beginning of the novel and each
character at the end of the novel.
Be prepared to discuss the following questions when you are
done with the reading:
• Based on details from the text, what role did birds
play in Omakayas’s life?
• Based on evidence in the text, why did Omakayas
start to feel more positively about her brother Pinch?
• What questions do you have?
Second Read
When you reread The Birchbark House, focus on focus on comparing
and contrasting Omakayas at the beginning and the end of the story.
Be prepared to discuss the following questions when you are done
with the reading:
1. Chapter 13 ends as Omakayas begins to claim her identity as a unique individual.
Yet, Chapter 14 begins with a problem: “Omakayas often experienced the
haunting sense of things missing.” Which missing things is Omakayas able to
identify?
2. How is Omakayas able to fill the missing space left in her heart by the loss of
Neewo?
3. Which missing things is Omakayas unaware of?
4. How does Old Tallow fill in the missing space of Omakayas’s origins? What is the
effect of this story on Omakayas?
5. How is Omakayas similar to the girl she was at the beginning of the story, and how
is she different?
6. Albert LePautre takes his dreams very seriously. Given this, what do you think
portentous (page 222) means?
Focused Reading
Text-Based Vocabulary
• provisions, p. 221
• virtue, p. 223
• admonished, p. 223
• coincidence, p. 225
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. 134 in your Reader’s and Writer’s Journal.*
Focused Reading
Text-Based Conversation
In Chapter 1, the family builds the birchbark house, and Omakayas
behaves like a typical child. She tries to sneak away to avoid the task
of scraping a moose hide. In Chapter 14, the family builds the
birchbark house, and Omakayas, who is preoccupied with sadness,
fulfills her responsibilities without complaining,
much as an adult would do.
Discuss similarities and differences between the
first building of the birchbark house and the
second building.
Focused Reading
Team Talk Routine
Did Old Tallow choose the right time to reveal to
Omakayas the story of her origin?
Use story details to explain your thinking.
Reading Analysis
Describe an Event
The plot of a story is made up of a sequence of
events. Generally, these events take place during a
particular time frame, which is part of the setting. In
some cases, an author may jump back in time to
reveal an earlier event. This is called a flashback. Plot
events, including those that occur in the past,
contribute to character development because
characters grow and change as they respond to the
events of the plot.
Reading Analysis
Describe an Event
Use Story Sequence Chart B to record your responses to
the questions on the next slide.
I will model how to fill out the first row of the graphic
organizer using the beginning of the story of Omakayas’s
rescue from Spirit Island: the island population is stricken
by small pox, and two year-old Omakayas is the lone
survivor.
Reading Analysis
Cite Text Evidence
Focus on Omakayas’s rescue from Spirit Island.
•Who first finds Omakayas on Spirit
Island?
•What is his reaction?
•How does Old Tallow learn about
Omakayas, and what is her reaction?
Independent Reading
Reading Analysis
Work independently to continue and complete the Event
Description charts describing Omakayas’s rescue from
Spirit Island.
Writing in Response to Reading
Turn to page 135 in your Reader’s and Writer’s Journal and read the
prompt: After learning the story of Omakayas’s rescue from Spirit Island,
how have your thoughts about Old Tallow changed? How would you
have described Old Tallow before learning this story? How would you
describe her now? Use story details to explain your ideas.
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:
• Include effective summaries
in opinions.
• Produce compound
sentences.
Writing
Opinion Writing
You will be writing a book review of The Birchbark
House. A book review gives the writer’s opinion of a
book. Usually, a book reviewer provides a brief
summary of the book, a positive or negative opinion
of the book, and reasons and evidence to support the
opinion. Effective book reviews also help readers
decide if they themselves want to read the book.
Writing
Opinion Writing
When writers summarize, they give only the most
important information about the book. They describe the
characters and events that are crucial for the reader to
know about. Details that are not as important to an
understanding of the book should be left out. A summary
in a book review should not give away the entire plot.
•Book reviews give a writer’s opinion of a book, whether
positive or negative.
•A brief summary of the book is usually included.
•The book reviewer’s opinion of the book is supported with
reasons and with text evidence, such as story details or
quotations.
Writing
Analyze the Text
Let’s try to understand how to choose story details to summarize.
By grouping related information, the writer helps readers to focus on one
aspect of a topic and to see connections between details.
Writing
Conventions Focus: Producing Compound Sentences
A simple sentence has one complete thought. An
independent clause is a group of words with a subject or
a verb that can stand alone as a complete sentence. A
compound sentence has two or more independent
clauses. They can be joined by a comma and a
coordinating conjunction such as and, but, for, or so. An
example of a compound sentence is the following:
“Omakayas was eager to find berries, but she had to
work on the moose hide.” The clauses could stand as
sentences, but here they are joined into one sentence by
a comma and the coordinating conjunction but.
Writing
Independent Writing
Write three paragraphs reviewing The Birchbark
House for a class blog. Include a brief summary and
state your opinion of the novel. Include strong
reasons and text evidence to support your opinions.