S.O.R. Losers

1. S.O.R. Losers From the book by Avi Illustrated by Kate Flanagan

2. Genre: Realistic Fiction

3. Word Knowledge • loser believe caught through • treason leave defeat scream • championship cheer chant chair • support hundred hunger supposed • I believe that I caught you going through the fence. • We will defeat your team before you leave the school.

4. At the championship, the students cheered and chanted so loudly that it was difficult to hear anything else. • Cheerleaders are supposed to show support for their team by leading cheers.

5. Selection Vocabulary • Interviewed - asked questions to find out about a person or what a person thinks • Record - a written account of the number of games the team won and lost during the season. • Prediction - what someone thinks will happen in the future. • Attitude - how someone acts or behaves to show his or her feelings or thoughts. • Ashamed - embarrassed, not proud. • Defeatist - having no confidence to win.

6. Comprehension Skills • Compare and Contrast • To compare means to tell how two or more things are similar. • Some words that signal comparison are both, like, as, also, too, and neither…nor. • To contrast means to tell how two or more things are different. • Some words that signal contrasts are different, instead of, but, rather than, and unlike.

7. SOR Losers: Compare and Contrast • Attitude of SOR Losers • Attitude of Others • Similarities (overlap)

8. Literary Elements • Plot/Story Structure • Plot is the sequence of events in a story. • The plot introduces a problem and follows the characters as they deal with it. • Elements of a Plot: • A plot usually has a beginning, middle,and end. • A problem that one or more main characters have is usually introduced at the beginning of a story. • In the middle of a story, the characters go through one or more conflicts as they try to solve the problem. Excitement occurs when the conflicts take place. This excitement contributes to the story’s rising action, or build as suspense.

9. The highest point of interest in the story takes place when the character begins to solve the problem. This is called the climax. • After the climax, the resolution occurs. The resolution tells how the problem was resolved and ties up any loose ends in the story. The events that take place after the story’s climax are part of the story’s falling action, or decline from suspense to a sense of calm.

10. SOR Losers plot: • Tell something about the problem Ed and his friends had. • How did they struggle with the problem. • How did they solve it. • How did the story end. • Add your responses to the appropriate spot on the plot line.