Shades of Gray
Fifth Grade
Section 4, Pages:  91-115

Discussion Director:

Directions:  You are going to prepare five questions to ask your group.  Out of the five questions, you will include a question about: mood, sequence, character's, author's style, and a MCEOG question.

1.  Mood
Question:  What kind of mood does this section give you?
Answer:  It makes me mad because I don't like how Hank taunted Will about Charlie (page 109, par 9).

Passage Picker:

Directions:  Your job is to pick out four passages from this section.  The reasons for choosing these passages are:

1.  Page 97, par. 14.  "Leave me...quiet room."
Reason:  This passage shows how angry Will is because he forgot to get the butter.
Question:  Why do you think Will is so mad at Meg in this passage?
Answer:  He is in a bad mood because he forgot the butter.
Author's purpose:  to entertain

Word Wizard:

Directions:  Your job is to find the following four words in this section.  Write the sentence the word appears in and give a definition of the word.  Then, make up a sentence using the word in it.

1.  Sauntered
Page 93, par. 6.  "Stuffing the envelope back into his pocket, he motioned for Amos to follow him, and the two boys sauntered off."
Definition:  stroll
Part of speech:  verb
Word used in a sentence:  The boy sauntered off to the park to play with her friends.

Character Sketcher:

Directions:  Do a character sketcher of Will Page.  Draw a picture of him and give three traits that describe him.  For the three traits you choose, give proof as to why you think these words describe him.  Write what you think the character's goals, problems, and solutions (to the problems) are.

Character:  Will Page
Character Traits:
1.  Confused.  Page 95, par. 4.  Will gets a letter from Doc Martin in Winchester.  Part of him really wants to go back home, but he doesn't know what to do.
2.  Angry.  Page 110, par. 7.  Will is standing up for Meg and Hank trips him.  This makes Will very angry.
3.  Hurt.  Page 111, par. 10.  In this paragraph it shows how hurt Will is because Hank beat him up.
Character's Goals:
Will wants to find a way to tell his aunt, uncle, and Meg that he is going back to Winchester (page 95, par. 4).
He wants to show Meg and Hank that he is not a coward (page 110, par. 6).
Character's Problems:
Will gets a letter from Doc Martin and doesn't know what to do (page 94, par. 8).
Hank calls Meg a liar (page 109, par. 10).
Character's Solutions:
Will hides the letter he got from Doc Martin so no one will find it (page 99, par. 1).
Will fights Hank for calling Meg a liar (page 110, par. 6).

Investigator:

Directions:  Your job is to find some background information on the author of this book (Carolyn Reeder).
Provide a summary about her to share with your group (ideas might include:  where she lives, what other books she's written, what awards she's won for her books, the kind of genre she writes...and so on...
A website that will help you start out is:   http://www.reederbooks.com/info.htm
Carolyn Reeder grew up in Washington DC.  She worked on the newspaper all throughout her years in school and later became a teacher.  She started off writing books on her school vacations, and later quit teaching and began to write full-time.  She has written 6 historical fiction books for young readers and 3 nonfiction books for adults.  Carolyn Reeder has 2 children.  She loves to read, hike, swim, and visit friends.

Sources:  http://www.reederbooks.com/moreinfo.htm
               http://www.reederbooks.com/index.htm
               http://www.reederbooks.com/info.htm