Each selection in this third theme deals with the challenges, learning, and gifts involved in growing up. Through selections from the books Where the Red Fern Grows, Last Summer With Maizon, The Challenge, and The View from Saturday, students work with making generalizations, making inferences, story structure, problem solving and decision making and the strategy of questioning. Students continue to work on higher level thinking skills and an understanding of how reading is interpreted for each of us through our own specific lens based on experiences and understandings.
Students are responsible for knowing the following vocabulary at the end of this theme:
Key Vocabulary
urgency: firm intention to do something quickly
determination: strong desire to reach a goal
adoration: deep feelings of love
desolate: having a few or no inhabitants
illegible: not able to be read
beckon: signal to come
somberly: in a serious way
awkward: uncomfortable
vaguely: lacks clarity
briskly: actively moving
hover: to remain close by
commute: to go back and forth regularly
generalization: a broad statement about a group of people or things
valid generalization: generalization based on facts and that can be verified
invalid generalization: a broad statement NOT supported by facts and influenced by personal opinion
inference: a conclusion drawn from evidence and background knowledge
exact noun: describes a person or thing more precisely than other nouns
connotation: feelings and associations a word has in addition to its dictionary meaning