by Annette LeBox and Karen Reczuch
This fact-filled book tells the story of Sumi, a coho salmon, through her life cycle, her journey through varying environments, and the perils she faces.
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 1: Access background knowledge.
Reading Strategy 2: Predict what will be learned or what will happen.
Reading Strategy 3: Figure out unknown words.
Reading Strategy 4: Self-monitor and self-correct.
Reading Strategy 5: Make mental pictures.
Reading Strategy 7: Determine the most important ideas and events and the relationship between them.
Reading Strategy 9: Identify and interpret literary elements in different genres.
Reading Strategy 10: Summarize what has been read.
Reading Strategy 11: Make inferences and draw conclusions.
Reading Strategy 12: Reflect and respond.
Writing Skill 5: I carefully choose the most effective words to express my ideas.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: PRE-READING
(1) Explain to students that they will be accessing their background knowledge related to an important BC animal to sort words (and pictures, if using) related to the story. Their goal is to use their sorting to predict what happens in the story.
(2) Present students with the following words and have them do a Sort and Predict activity using the words egg case, blind, creek, downstream, black bear, yolk sac, eagles, school, silver fry, heron, raccoon, summer, fall, winter, spring, river, sea, estuary, salt water, smelt, scales, eggs, milt, salmon, upstream, spawners, nest and cycle. For primary students it may help to have images to accompany some of the words to help them understand what they refer to.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: DURING READING
(3) Separate the text according to major events.
(4) After each event section, discuss what’s happened to this point and how Sumi might be thinking and feeling.
(5) Record Sumi’s thoughts and what she might say per Bubble Thinking instructions.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: POST-READING
(6) Help the students recognize how the author used the same words at the beginning and at the end of the story. This shows the life cycle of the salmon. Have students represent the salmon life cycle in a Story Cycle.
(7) Select key images from the story that show significant parts of Sumi’s life. Suggested images: Sumi in her egg, Sumi as an alevin, Sumi as a fry escaping predators, Sumi in the kelp bed, Sumi leaping upstream, Sumi guarding her eggs, Sumi dying.
(8) Have students choose one image to inspire a poem. Follow Swatch Tower Poetry Image to help students develop a poem to represent this key event in the story.