Jackson's Day: A Golden Retriever Adventure

1. Week Five ELITE

2. How to Read • Break the paragraph down into individual sentences and do not feel discouraged • Read the words slowly to yourself • Read out loud to each other to get used to speaking the words and to get used to the sounds • Listen to each other carefully • Write a one sentence summary for each paragraph to show your comprehension

3. Extended Paragraphs Jackson’s Day • Jackson is a golden retriever who likes to play and go on walks but hates getting a bath. Whenever he hears the water running in the tub, he hides behind the couch and growls at his owner, Jennifer. One day, he even ran out the front door when it was bath time. • Jackson ran and ran until he found a huge mud puddle, and he jumped right into the murky water. He was completely covered in mud. His golden fur was brown and slimy from head to toe. He continued his journey away from home hoping to find other dogs in the neighborhood that wanted to play. He did not find any dogs at the local park or near the elementary school where Jennifer always walked him at night. He hoped he would at least find a cat to chase, but there were no dogs or cats in Jackson's path. • After an hour of playing, Jackson started to get hungry and decided to walk back to the house. Meanwhile at home, Jennifer was worried and scared that Jackson might not ever come back. She looked all over the neighborhood and had no luck finding him. She even checked with her neighbors to ask whether or not they had seen Jackson. A while later, after Jennifer got home, she heard a bark coming from the front door. That bark was familiar. It was Jackson! Jennifer was amazed at how filthy Jackson had gotten in the time he was gone. Before Jackson could eat his dinner, he had to face the bath he had run away from. This time, he listened and took his bath without any trouble. Soon Jackson was clean, but he needed a nap!

4. How to Infer • Recognize key words, circle them, and write down why they are important • Jackson is a golden retriever who likes to play and go on walks but hates getting a bath. Whenever he hears the water running in the tub, he hides behind the couch and growls at his owner, Jennifer. One day, he even ran out the front door when it was bath time.

5. Inferring (Cont.) • Recognize key words, circle them, and write down why they are important • Jackson ran and ran until he found a huge mud puddle, and he jumped right into the murky water. He was completely covered in mud. His golden fur was brown and slimy from head to toe. He continued his journey away from home hoping to find other dogs in the neighborhood that wanted to play. He did not find any dogs at the local park or near the elementary school where Jennifer always walked him at night. He hoped he would at least find a cat to chase, but there were no dogs or cats in Jackson's path.

6. Inferring (Cont.) • Recognize key words, circle them, and write down why they are important • After an hour of playing, Jackson started to get hungry and decided to walk back to the house. Meanwhile at home, Jennifer was worried and scared that Jackson might not ever come back. She looked all over the neighborhood and had no luck finding him. She even checked with her neighbors to ask whether or not they had seen Jackson. A while later, after Jennifer got home, she heard a bark coming from the front door. That bark was familiar. It was Jackson! Jennifer was amazed at how filthy Jackson had gotten in the time he was gone. Before Jackson could eat his dinner, he had to face the bath he had run away from. This time, he listened and took his bath without any trouble. Soon Jackson was clean, but he needed a nap!

7. Practice with Complicated Sentences • Try to come up with the general meaning for the following sentences • He was a quiet man, and he liked to sit on his couch to read a good book. He enjoyed the morning and the singing birds. • Underneath the burning sun jogged the woman. She needed water, and she was hurrying to find it. • There were a lot of animals in the zoo, but Sharon’s favorite was the snake. The snake was strong, quiet, and dangerous. • The hospital was really nice, and the doctors were helpful. Jake thought he would get better soon and be able to swim again.

8. More Complicated Sentences • John sat, sad and tired, in the corner of the gym. He had tried his best, but it seemed he would keep losing. • The cat jumped onto the wall and walked slowly toward the bird. The bird stared the other way, not knowing the danger right behind him. • Mary was a good teacher and could understand her students well. All her students like her and respect her. • Inside Elizabeth, there was a storm. She was angry with her brother when she saw what he had done to her bedroom. • Peter likes his new phone. There is so much he can do and there is so much he can look at. • The internet is a place of discovery. People always find new things online.

9. Write One’s Own • Write down five or your own paragraphs • Circle the key words in your own paragraphs • Read each others’ paragraphs

10. Example Paragraph • The weather was really bad. There was a lot of rain, and the wind was really strong. Still, Bob had to walk through this weather to go to his job. He worked at a place that is far away from his home, but he liked his job. He helped to plan the roads and streets in his city. The office was always really busy, and he always had a project to work on. • Key Words • Weather was really bad • Far away • Liked his job • Really busy • One Sentence Summary • Bob has to walk in bad weather to go to work, but he likes his job.

11. Sentences • Each sentence represents an idea, and the more meaning you can place into a sentence, the more interesting your writing will be

12. Stories for Children • Websites • http://www.magickeys.com/books/ • http://www.popularchildrenstories.com/picturestories.htm • http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/library.htm • Choose interesting and engaging stories that you can pull the children into. • As your English gets stronger, you can make up your own stories to tell your students. • Use different tones and hand gestures to make the story active. • Have the children read through the stories by themselves

13. Complicated Parts • Teach the children to look for key words in a sentence • Lead the children through breaking up paragraphs and studying individual sentences and then combining the sentences back to look at the larger picture

14. Example Lesson • Provide a paragraph to all the children • Lead the children through each sentence and ask the children to draw a picture for each sentence • Have the children combine the pictures into a sequenced comic • Have the children write down a one sentence summary for the whole paragraph and have the children say their summaries out loud clearly and smoothly to each other • Repeat as many times as you want with new paragraphs

15. Example Lesson • Have the children read through a paragraph and draw one picture to represent the meaning of the whole paragraph • Then have the children draw as many circles as there are sentences right below the first picture • Draw one picture for each sentence in its corresponding circle • Have the children write down one key word for each circle, for example “run” if the sentence describes a dog running • Have the children share their artwork with each other

16. Reading Activity • Give each child an interesting short story • Ask each child to draw one picture that represents the main idea of his or her story • Have each child write one single sentence summary for his or her story • Have the children make a costume out of paper and other craft materials (the costume represents the main character in the story) • Have the children come up to the front of the class and present their pictures and summaries, and have each child say his or her favorite part of the story he or she read

17. Activities to Engage Children in Reading • Create a sticker system in which a child receives a sticker next to his name if he completes a short story (have the child draw a picture and write a one sentence summary to show that he read the story) • Have the children read a story together as a class in which each child reads one sentence and draws a picture to represent his sentence, and then place all the pictures together to create a giant mosaic

18. The Paragraph • A paragraph allows for the readers to better understand the individual sentences • There is a main idea, and then the readers can see what role each sentence plays for expressing that idea