Your job is to write down questions that your group can talk about.  Be sure to start your questions with words like,Who, What, When, Why, How, Tell, Where, and Describe.
 

•  Genre
•  Point of View
•  Setting
•  Compare/Contrast
•  Prediction

Genre
1. What is the genre of this book? How can you tell?
    (The genre of this book is historical fiction and I can tell because of the author's note and because the Logan family is a farming family from the 1930s.)

Point of View
2. From whose point of view is the book written?  What clues in the book let you know that this character is the narrator?
    (Cassie, words like I felt, me and Stacey)

Setting
3. Where and when does the story take place?
    (The story takes place in "rusty Mississippi"(p. 3 par. 2) in the year 1933 (p.7 par. 1) )

Compare/Contrast
4. Look at the characters Cassie and Stacey from this section.  Make a venn diagram of their character traits .
 

Prediction
5. What do you predict will happen when Mama "messes" up the public school books on page 31?
    (I predict that Mama will get in trouble with the local white people and they will take all the books away.)
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The Steps

1. Write down the word and include the page and paragraph number.
2. Copy the sentence from the book in which the word appears.
3. Look up the word in the dictionary.
4. Using your context clues and the dictionary definition, write down in your own words the definition of the word.
5. Write down the correct part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb).
6. Write down a question and the answer about the word that would help you to teach the word to your group.  Try to ask a question about the word that makes your group refer back to the text.  OR you could write a sentence using the word wizard word.
7. Make your word wizard card.  Be sure to include in big print your word and the page and paragraph number.  On the other side of your card should be a picture, the word, and the definition of the word.
 
 

Choose four words from the following:

emaciated (p. 8 par. 2)             meticulously (p. 3 par. 2)        exasperation (p.4 par.1)

morosely (p.11 par. 5)       disdainfully (p. 11 par. 9)       sparsely (p.12 par.6)
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1. emaciated (page 8, paragraph #2)

2.When the fields ended and the Granger forest fanned both sides of the road with long overhanging branches, a tall, emaciated-looking boy popped suddenly from a forest trail and swung a thin arm around Stacey.

3.----

4.Definition of emaciated:  When someone or something is emaciated that person is very skinny and malnourished.  You can see their bones very easily and their body is very sunken in.

5.adjective

6.Sentence with the word emaciated:  The victims of the Holocaust in the forties came out of concentration camps with sickly emaciated bodies; concentration camp victims barely looked human, more like skeletons.

7. (see word wizard card)

1. meticulously (page 3, paragraph #2)

2. Always meticulously neat, six year-old Little Man  never allowed dirt or tears or stains to mar anything he owned.

3.---

4.Definition of meticulously:  to do something meticulously means to take great care and be concerned with every detail of what you are doing.

5. adverb

6.Question:  What was Little Man meticulous about?

   Answer:  Little Man was meticulous about his clothing, he always wanted his clothes to be perfectly neat and tidy.

7. (see word wizard card)
 

 exasperation (page 4 paragraph #1)
 morosely (page 11, paragraph #5)
 disdainfully (page 11, paragraph #9)
 sparsely (page 12, paragraph #6)
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Your job is to pick passages from this section that you and your group can talk about.  Choose the passages that satisfy the following reasons:
 

• Informative
• Figurative Language
• Descriptive
• Dialect

1.---
2. p. 7 par. 1
3. "In 1930...laying track"
4. This passage is INFORMATIVE because the author lets you know how hard it was to find work during the 1930's and what role the father played in families during this time.
5. Q. How do you think Mama felt with Papa being gone for almost a year?
    A.  Mama probably felt scared because she had to run the farm, raise her children, and she never knew what the white people were going to do next.
6. Author's Purpose: TO INFORM

1.---
2. p. 5 par. 3
3. "I tugged again...red snow"
4. This passage is an example of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE because the author uses a metaphor that helps the reader to know the feeling of having dirt in your shoes.
5. Q. Identify the metaphor and tell what word helps you feel the "red snow"
    A. The metaphor is "...and shoes like gritty red snow" and the word that helps me feel is "gritty."
6. Author's Purpose:  TO DESCRIBE

1.---
2. p. 8 par. 2
3. "When the fields...around Stacey"
4. This passage is DESCRIPTIVE because it describes T.J. perfectly so that you can visually see him standing beside Stacey.
5. Q. What words describe T.J.. in this passage?
    A. tall, emaciated, thin arm
6. Author's Purpose:  TO DESCRIBE

1.---
2. p. 11 par. 8
3. "When Mama...did he get it."
4. This passage is an example of DIALECT because many of the words in the text are modified (shortened) to sound like a Southern accent.
5. Q. What does this passage let you know about T.J.'s character that is different from Stacey?
    A. T.J.. lied to his mother and then purposely let his innocent brother, Claude take the blame for his misbehavior.  Stacey always takes care of his younger siblings and would never lie to his mother.
6. Author's Purpose:  TO DESCRIBE

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Your job is to find an interesting character from the section you read today.  You will find three words that describe the character.  For each word, or character trait, you will give proof, or example (don't forget to include the page and paragraph number!).  The next thing you will do is tell one of your character's goals, or what the character wants to do in this section.
Then you will find one of the character's problems in the section and the solution or possible solution to the problem.
Finally you get to have fun and illustrate your character according to the describing words in the book!
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cassie
 

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Your job is to draw a picture that illustrates a scene, main idea, or feeling from the story that you liked best.
After you finish drawing your picture, write about your drawing.  Include in your response:

-who or what your picture is about
-where your picture takes place
-when it is happening
-why you drew it

As you share with your group:
- Don't tell the group what your drawing is.
-Let them guess how it goes with the story.
-Your group should discuss your picture before you talk about it.
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My drawing is about Little Man and the part in the story where he gets very angry at the school bus and throws mud at the bus.  My picture takes place on the road to the Great Faith Elementary school in Mississippi.  The children were on their way to school so it was early in the morning when the scene happened.  I drew this picture because I think it captures how mad and hurt Little Man felt when that horrible bus driver purposely splattered mud on him and the other children.  My picture shows one of the many ways white people were racist and cruel during the 1930s in the South.