by Shutta Crum
A young skunk goes home through the forest alone. Could there be danger in the forest? Can he continue even if he is afraid?
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 5: Make mental pictures.
Reading Strategy 6: Connect what you read with what you already know.
Writing Skill 5: I carefully choose the most effective words to express my ideas.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: PRE-READING
(1) Explain to students that in this lesson they will be working on an important pre-reading strategy: connecting what they know with what they are reading. Use the Graphing process.
(2) Ask students, “Which are you most afraid of: a masked face, gruff voices or spider webs?”
(3) Ask students to think of a time when they were brave.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: DURING READING
(4) Explain to students that in this lesson they will be working on an important reading strategy: making a picture in their heads. Use the Tableaux process.
(5) Choose students to represent each page of the story in the form of frozen statues.
TEACHING THE ACTIVITY: POST-READING
(6) Explain to students that in this lesson they will be working on an important writing strategy: choosing their words carefully. Use the Amazing Alternatives process.
(7) The author uses strong word choices, all in bold, throughout her book. Provide students with a copy of the story with the bold-faced words omitted. Have students choose Amazing Alternatives for these words.