Lesson 1

Page 1 ("A family of cheetahs rises with the morning sun.") to page 9 ("The mother cheetah shows her cubs. . .")

Discussion Director

Your job as the Discussion Director is to come up with 5 thinking questions. You really want to make your group to think about what you all have just read. You are trying to make sure everyone in your group understands or comprehends the reading. It is very important that you ask your group fat, juicy, thinking questions and not easy, right there, in the book questions.

Instructions

1.  Write a question for each of the following question types:

• 1 Problem/Solution
• 1 Figurative Language
• 1 Sequence
• 1 Setting
• 1 Italics/parentheses/quotations

2. Include page and paragraph to prove each question.

Character Sketcher

Your job as Character Sketcher is to identify a character's goal (which is what the character wants to do or accomplish), identify the problem and solution in the reading, and complete a sketch or illustration of the character. You need to be aware that the character traits you will choose will be implied character traits. In other words, they are not directly stated in the section of the book that you are reading. In this case, you will need to come up with a possible solution for your character's problem. 

Instructions

Complete a Character Sketch of Duma:

1. Write 3 traits about her.

2. Write her goal in the story.

3. Write her problemin the story.

4. Write a possible solution.

5. Draw a picture of Duma.

Passage Picker

Pick out the passage you would like to share with your group. The passage you pick should be meaningful and can relate to you in some way. The passage should stand out to you and contribute something to the story as a whole.

Instructions

Complete the following tasks:

1. Find 1 of each kind of the following passages:

• step by step 
• descriptive 
• cause/effect 

4. Explain why the passage is that type.

5. Create a good thinking question about the passage.

Word Wizard

Your job as the Word Wizard is to identify words in the story that are complex or words that you are not too sure of the meaning. These words should be words that stand out to you either by not understanding the meaning or by how they contribute to the story itself. 

Instructions

1. Find the word frantically in the story.

2. Write down the word and page number that the word is on.

3. Copy the sentence in which the word appears.

4. Decide what part of speech the word is.

5. Look up the word in the dictionary, and, in your own words, write the definition.

6. Decide what this word means to the story. Why is it important?

7. Make a Word Wizard Card with the page # and paragraph # on one side and an illustration of the word and the definition on the other.

Investigator

Your job is to read the last page of the book. By reading this page, you will learn a lot about cheetahs and why and where they are endangered. Give all the information you can and share it with the group.