5 1 1 learning from ms liang TG

LESSON VOCABULARY acquainted assignment essential expanded guaranteed procedures reputation worshipped INTRODUCE THE BOOK INTRODUCE THE TITLE AND AUTHOR Discuss with students the tit

Learning from

Ms Liang

SUMMARY A new teacher arrives and the

fifth-grade class gets a lesson in what it feels like

to walk around in somebody else’s skin Some

of the class bigshots learn what it’s like to be

treated like a nobody, and one student who

has been looked down on by the class gets a

chance to feel like somebody

LESSON VOCABULARY

acquainted assignment

essential expanded

guaranteed procedures

reputation worshipped

INTRODUCE THE BOOK

INTRODUCE THE TITLE AND AUTHOR Discuss with

students the title and the author of Learning

from Ms Liang Ask students to say what

they think the book will be about, based on

the title Ask them to speculate about what

“learning” might mean

BUILD BACKGROUND Invite students to talk

about how they feel on a bad day Ask them

if they have ever felt like a nobody and how

it felt Invite them to talk about a time when

they understood how someone else was

feeling

PREVIEW/USE TEXT FEATURES Have students

preview the book by looking at the

illustrations Ask students to discuss how

these text features give an idea of what this

book will be about Ask what they think the

students in the story will learn

READ THE BOOK

SET PURPOSE Have students set a purpose for

reading Learning from Ms Liang Students’

interest in self-esteem and classroom relation-ships should guide this purpose

STRATEGY SUPPORT: PRIOR KNOWLEDGE Invite students to use a graphic organizer to jot down notes about places in the text that make them think of their own lives Suggest they create a three-column chart with the

headings: Prior Knowledge, Characters, Plot

Encourage them to include page references with their notes

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

PAGE 4 What was the first thing that the

new teacher did? (She wrote a poem on

the board.)

PAGE 7 According to Ms Liang, what have

scientists discovered? (The expressions that

people make affect their feelings.)

PAGE 11 What flashback does the narrator have in class when she’s trying to think of

something to write? (She remembers the

times A.J said mean things to her and when classmates laughed at her and made her feel like a nobody.)

PAGE 13 Why did Ms Liang tell students not to sign their names on their first writing

assignment? (to protect students’ feelings;

some students might have been embarrassed

if she knew what they had written.)

PAGE 16 What was the topic for Ms Liang’s

second writing assignment? (Write a

para-graph about trying to get inside the skin of someone you didn’t like.)

PAGE 18 What is the name of the poet who wrote the poem that Ms Liang put on the

board? (Emily Dickinson)

5.1.1

CHARACTER AND PLOT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

12 Learning from Ms Liang

Skill Work

REVISIT THE BOOK

READER RESPONSE

1 Answers will vary Students might respond

that the narrator changed by learning to

understand how Lisa felt

2 Possible responses: Did Know: She was a

poet Now Know: Emily Dickinson wrote the

poem “Nobody” and never left home after

age 18 Students might want to know what

her parents and other people thought about

her

3 acquaint, expand, guarantee, and worship;

Sentences will vary

4 Answers will vary Students might say that

they would have felt comfortable, knowing

that students like Lisa Linney also felt like

“nobodies.”

EXTEND UNDERSTANDING Have students

comment on the illustrations in the selection

Ask: Which ones do you like best? What

details about the characters are shown

in the illustrations? How would you have

portrayed the characters differently? Invite

students to look again at the photograph

of Emily Dickinson on page 24 Explain

that this picture was taken in the very early

days of photography Ask students what

character traits they think are revealed in this

photograph Have them point to details from

the photo to support their ideas

RESPONSE OPTIONS

WRITING Invite students to write a paragraph

about what people would understand about

them if people could walk around in their

skin Tell them not to sign their names to

the paragraph Have them write a second

paragraph about trying to get inside the skin

of someone they don’t like Tell them not

to use anyone’s real name and to sign their

names to this paragraph

SOCIAL STUDIES

CONNECTION

Students can learn

more about Emily

Dickinson by going to the library or

using the Internet Challenge them to read

more of her poems and to find a favorite one

Have them explain why they like this poem

TEACH/REVIEW VOCABULARY

Invite students to use each of the vocabu-lary words in a sentence Challenge them to write sentences related to the selection

TARGET SKILL AND STRATEGY

CHARACTER AND PLOT Remind students

that a character is a person who takes part

in the events of a story Readers can often determine character traits based on how

characters act toward each other The plot

is an organized sequence of events Authors sometimes use flashbacks, in which the action of the story is interrupted to talk about something that happened in the past, and foreshadowing, in which the writer hints

at events to come in the story Challenge students to note how characters treat one another for clues to their character traits and to find examples of flashbacks and foreshadowing

Help students brainstorm words that

describe characters, such as helpful, mean,

friendly, untrustworthy, lonely Invite students

to write a description of a character from the story using words from the list

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE Remind students that

prior knowledge is what a reader knows about

a given topic before reading about it Invite students to look for places in the text that make them think of their own lives and to use their prior knowledge to help them better understand the characters and the plot

ADDITIONAL SKILL INSTRUCTION

AUTHOR’S PURPOSE Remind students that

author’s purpose is the reason or reasons

an author has for writing One reason for identifying an author’s purpose is to adjust the way you read If an author’s purpose is

to explain something complicated, you may want to read slowly or reread to make sure you understand the information Challenge students to identify this author’s purpose and to support their ideas with examples from the book

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Learning from Ms Liang

Character and Plot

• A character is a person who takes part in the events of a story

• The plot is an organized sequence of events Authors often use flashbacks to tell about

something that has already happened and foreshadowing to hint at events to come

Directions Fill in the graphic organizer Under Plot, include flashback and foreshadowing.

Learning from Ms Liang

14

Title

Characters

Setting

Problem

Plot

Solution

15

Vocabulary

Directions Read each sentence Write the word from the box that has the same meaning as the

underlined word or phrase Some words may be used more than once

Check the Words You Know

acquainted essential guaranteed reputation

assignment expanded procedures worshipped

1 It wasn’t long before Lisa adored Ms Liang

2 Ms Liang told the class that it was extremely important for them to get inside

someone else’s skin

3 She also established certain rules and regulations for participating in class

4 Slowly, the class’s understanding of other people’s feelings grew

5 By the end, even A.J was ready to “get to know each other better.”

6 The narrator had trouble doing her writing homework

7 Ms Liang assured her students that she had once been a nobody herself

8 Are you familiar with the poetry of Emily Dickinson?

9 By the end of the story, Lisa’s standing in the class had grown

10 The narrator promised she would not make mean remarks about Lisa again

Directions Write a summary of Learning from Ms Liang, using as many vocabulary words as

possible

Learning from Ms Liang