Reading Ahmad’s Journey begins with students silently read the first four pages of Chapter 1 to begin thinking about what is revealed through what characters say, do, and think and how characters interact with others, revealing the relationships between characters. After noticing the asterisks on page 7, which indicate a change in point-of-view in the story, students read the rest of chapter 1 silently and [...]
Students discuss Chapters 2-4, continuing to think about what is revealed through what characters say, do, and think and how they interact with others (the relationships between characters). They also begin to evaluate the motivations of the characters as revealed through character actions and decisions. After noticing the multiple points-of-view in the text, students work to understand how the different parts of texts align and [...]
The lesson offers students an opportunity to revisit, summarize, and extend their thinking about the key concepts of the two paired texts. Students return to themes from earlier discussions, considering decisions people make which affect the lives of orangutans in the rainforests.
The word work lesson supports students to search for and use chunks in words to decode multisyllabic words. The lesson begins with students discussing strategies they use to figure out words. Students then examine several words from the text to look for parts of words they recognize to help decode multi-syllabic words. All the words used were known to students.