1-11 Reading Skills Author's Purpose
1-11 Reading Skills Author's Purpose
Authors Purpose
In learning new reading skills, you will use special academic
vocabulary. Knowing the right words will help you to
demonstrate your understanding.
Academic Vocabulary
Word
Meaning
Example Sentence
convince v.
Related words: convinced,
convincing
to cause someone to
agree
establish v.
Related words:
established, establishing
to create or prove
achieve v.
Related word: achiever
The authors purpose is the authors reason for writing. The most
common purposes are to inform, to entertain, to persuade, and to reect.
The chart below lists some of the tools authors use to communicate
their purpose in expository texts and literature. For example, in the
novel Animal Farm, George Orwell used the theme the danger of
the few having power over the many to persuade his readers of the
misuse of political power in a dictatorship.
Expository Texts
Literature
62
Lesson 1-11
facts/details
gurative language
technical language
word choice
sentence structure
imagery
characters
imagery
setting
word choice
theme
genre
Directions Read the following e-mail. Underline clues in the text that
tell you what the authors purpose is. Note whether the purpose is to
inform, entertain, persuade, or reect. Then answer the questions.
Cezars bday
Link
Real L t o
ife
Sasha,
All set for Cezars bday party tonight
Cake = great (IMHO)1
Decorations = took me four hours, but also great
BTW2 Still need help so feel free to come early
Directions: Route 134 West to Exit 4A
Take right off exit
Authors Purpose
63
MEMO
March 23
To: Todd Barker, Director of Facilities Management
64
Real L t o
ife
65
Literary Terms
The setting
g of a literary work is the time and place of the
action. The setting can also serve a more important function. For
example, if a character is struggling against a force of nature, the
setting is the source of the storys conict.
Mood is the overall feeling that a literary work conveys to the
reader. Details of setting help establish the mood. A story set in
an old, decaying castle on a dark, stormy night might convey a
gloomy, frightening mood.
Directions Read the following passage. Underline details of setting
that help convey the mood. Then, answer the questions that follow.
from The
66
Lesson 1-12
Analyze What does the setting tell you about when and where
the action in the passage takes place? Use details to support
your answer.
Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch
67
from
Cockroaches
while reading your anchor book
by Paul Zindel
Vocabulary Builder
Before you read, you will discuss the following words. In
the Vocabulary Builder box in the margin, use a vocabulary
building strategy to make the words your own.
kerchiefs
aghast
emblazoned
68
Lesson 1-12
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
Setting and Mood
As you read, underline key
words and phrases that describe
the setting and mood. In the
margin, make notes about how
the author is trying to help you
visualize the place and feeling of
the events that take place.
Vocabulary Builder
kerchiefs
(ku
urchifs) n.
Meaning
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
Vocabulary Builder
aghast
( gast) adj.
Meaning
signaling she was aghast. Travis was mainly a Polish town, and
was so special-looking that, years later, it was picked as a location
for lming the movie Splendor in the Grass, which starred Natalie
Wood (before she drowned), and Warren Beatty (before he dated
Madonna). Travis was selected because they needed a town that
looked like it was Kansas in 1920, which it still looks like.
The address of our new home was 123 Glen Street. We stopped
in front, and for a few moments the house looked normal: brown
shingles, pea-soup-green-painted sides, a tiny yellow porch,
untrimmed hedges, and a rickety wood gate and fence. Across
the street to the left was a slope with worn gravestones all over it.
The best-preserved ones were at the top, peeking out of patches of
poison oak.
The backyard of our house was an airport. I mean, the house
had two acres of land of its own, but beyond the rear fence was a
huge eld consisting of a single dirt runway, lots of old propellerdriven Piper Cub-type planes, and a cluster of rusted hangars.
This was the most underprivileged airport Id ever seen, bordered
on its west side by the Arthur Kill channel and on its south side
by a Con Edison electric power plant with big black mountains
of coal. The only great sight was a huge apple tree on the far
left corner of our property. Its trunk was at least three feet wide.
It had strong, thick branches rich with new, apping leaves. It
reached upward like a giants hand grabbing for the sky.
Isnt everything beautiful? Mother beamed.
Yes, Mom, I said.
Betty gave me a pinch for lying.
Ill plant my own rose garden, Mother went on, fumbling for
the key. Lilies, tulips, violets!
Mom opened the front door and we went inside. We were so
excited, we ran through the echoing empty rooms, pulling up
old, soiled shades to let the sunlight crash in. We ran upstairs
and downstairs, all over the place like wild ponies. The only
unpleasant thing, from my point of view, was that we werent
the only ones running around. There were a lot of cockroaches
scurrying from our invading footfalls and the shafts of light.
Yes, the house has a few roaches, Mother confessed. Well
get rid of them in no time!
How? Betty asked raising an eyebrow.
I bought eight Gulf Insect Bombs!
Where are they? I asked.
Mother dashed out to the car and came back with one of the
suitcases. From it she spilled the bombs, which looked like big
silver hand grenades.
We just put one in each room and turn them on! Mother
explained.
69
Marking
n the
t Te
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Critical Viewing
Does this picture
capture the mo
of the story?
Why or w
Good to Know!
Cockroaches can
survive on very little
food. They will eat
the glue from the
back of postage
tamps when little
s available.
She took one of the bombs, set it in the middle of the upstairs
kitchen, and turned on its nozzle. A cloud of gas began to stream
from it, and we hurried into the other rooms to set off the other
bombs.
There! Mother said. Now we have to get out!
Get out? I coughed.
Yes. We must let the poison ll the house for four hours before
we can come back in! Lucky for us theres a Lassie double feature
playing at the Ritz!
70
Lesson 1-12
Marking
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Vocabulary Builder
emblazoned
(em blaz nd) v.
Meaning
71
Vocabulary Builder
72
After you read, review the words you decided to add to your
vocabulary. Write the meaning of words you have learned in
context. Look up the other words in a dictionary, glossary,
thesaurus, or electronic resource.
Paul Zindel
Although Paul Zindel studied chemistry at a college on Staten
Island, the borough where he grew up, Zindel had been writing
since he was a young boy. Because he, his mother, and his sister
moved around so much, Zindel had a lot to write about. By the
time I was ten, Zindel wrote, I had gone nowhere, but had
seen the world.
Zindel used many of his unusual real-life experiences as a
basis for his plays and young adult novels. He wrote his rst play
in high school, which earned him a literary award. During the
ten years he spent teaching high school chemistry and physics,
Zindel wrote the Pulitzer-Prize winning play The Effect of Gamma
Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. The play was performed on
Broadway, winning an Obie Award in 1970 for Best American
Play. In addition to writing plays, Paul Zindel wrote many novels
for teenagers, including The Pigman, Confessions of a Teenage
Baboon, and The Undertakers Gone Bananas.
Lesson 1-12
Marking
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5
6
73
1-13 Comparing
Theme
Literary Works
Literary Term
The theme of a literary work is different from the topic. A topic is the
focus, while a theme is its unifying idea. The message can be a lesson
about life or an observation about people. Often a works theme is
impliednot stated directly in the textso you will need to think
deeply about your reading to identify the theme.
Read the table below to see how a student marked the text to
identify theme.
Student Model: Marking the Text
Dove saves
Ants life.
Dove will
be trapped.
Ant saves
Doves life.
The Ant risked its life to save the Dove. The Dove saved the Ants life
rst. Theme: One good turn deserves another.
Here are some common themes in literature.
Lesson 1-13
Marking
n the
t Te
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Vocabulary Builder
Before you read, you will discuss the following words. In
the Vocabulary Builder box in the margin, use a vocabulary
building strategy to make the words your own.
tantalizing
kindled
preserves
Theme
As you read, underline
details that will help you to
determine the theme. Write
the theme at the end.
g
p
p
main character, Collin, had become an orphan and is now
living with two quirky old ladies with whom he forms an
unbreakable bond.
Vocabulary Builder
tantalizing
(tan t lizi[ng]) adj.
Meaning
Theme
75
Lesson 1-13
Marking
n the
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Vocabulary Builder
kindled
(kin d ld) adj.
Meaning
preserves
(pre zu
urvs) n.
Meaning
never would touch a vegetable, and the only meat she liked was
the chicken brain, a pea-sized thing gone before you tasted it.
What with a woodstove and an open replace, the kitchen was as
warm as a cows tongue. The nearest winter came was to frost the
windows with its zero blue breath. If some wizard would like to
give me a present, let him give me a bottle lled with the voices of
that kitchen, the ha ha ha and re whispering, a bottle brimming
with its buttery sugary bakery smellsthough Catherine smelled
like a sow in the spring.
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
Vocabulary Builder
After you read, review the words you decided to add to your
vocabulary. Write the meaning of words you have learned in
context. Look up the other words in a dictionary, glossary,
thesaurus, or electronic resource.
Critical Viewing
Theme
77
FROM
of the
by Laurence Yep
Background In the following story, a twelve-year-old AsianAmerican girl is forced to live with her grandmother in San
Francisco after her father, Barney, ends up in the hospital. The girl
quickly learns that San Francisco is a place very different from her
home, and nds herself feeling like a stranger in a strange land.
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
Vocabulary Builder
Before you read, you will discuss the following words. In
the Vocabulary Builder box in the margin, use a vocabulary
building strategy to make the words your own.
momentary
swanky
truce
It was like wed gone through an invisible wall into another world.
There was a different kind of air here, lighter and brighter. I mean,
on the north side there were a series of small broken down stores;
on the west, the mansions and hotels of Nob Hill; and on the
other two sides were the tall skyscrapers where insurance men or
lawyers spent the day. And they were pushing all the sunshine and
all the buildings of Chinatown together like someone had taken
several square miles of buildings and squeezed it until people and
homes were compressed into a tiny little half of a square mile.
I didnt know what to make of the buildings either. They were
mostly three- or four-story stone buildings but some had fancy
78
Lesson 1-13
Theme
As you read, underline details
that will help you to determine
the theme. Write the theme at
the end.
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
Vocabulary Builder
momentary
(mom n tere) n.
Meaning
79
my hands, and then I closed my eyes and felt their outline, noticing
the tiny fold of esh at the corners. Maybe it was because I thought
of myself as an American and all Americans were supposed to be
white like on TV or in books or in movies, but now I felt like some
mad scientist had switched bodies on me like in all those monster
movies, so that I had woken up in the wrong one.
Suddenly I felt like I was lost. Like I was going on this trip to
this place I had always heard about and I was on the only road
to that place but the signs kept telling me I was going to some
other place. When I looked in the glove compartment to check my
maps, I found Id brought the wrong set of maps. And the road
was too narrow to turn around in and there was too much trafc
anyway so I just had to keep on going . . . and getting more and
more lost. It gave me the creeps so I kept real quiet.
Phil headed up Sacramento Streeta steep, slanting street that
just zoomed on and on up to the top of Nob Hill, where the rich
people lived and where they had the swanky
y hotels. Phil turned
suddenly into a little dead-end alley wide enough for only one
car. On one side was a one-story Chinese school of brick so old
or so dirty that the bricks were practically a purple color. On the
other side as we drove by was a small parking lot with only six
spaces for cars. Phil stopped the car in the middle of the alley
and I could see the rest of it was lled with apartment houses.
Somewhere someone had a window open and the radio was
blaring out I Want to Hold Your Hand by that new group, the
Beatles. I couldnt nd the place where it was coming from but I
did see someones diapers and shirts hung in the windows and
on the re escape of one apartment.
Why do they hang their laundry in the windows? I asked Phil.
Thats what people from Hong Kong use for curtains, Phil
grumbled.
The sidewalk in front of Paw-Paws house was cracked like
someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and there were iron
grates over the lower windows. The steps up to the doorway were
old, worn concrete painted red. To the left were the mailboxes,
which had Chinese words for the names or had no labels at
all. To the right were the doorbells to all the nine apartments.
Phil picked out the last and rang. He jabbed his thumb down
rhythmically. Three short. Three long. Three short.
Why are you doing that? I asked.
Signaling your Paw-Paw, he grumbled. She never answers
just one buzz like any normal person, or even just three bursts.
Its got to be nine buzzes in that way or she doesnt open the door.
She says her friends know what she means.
So did I. It was Morse code for SOS. The buzzer on the door
sounded like an angry bee. Phil the Pill opened the door, putting
Lesson 1-13
Marking
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Vocabulary Builder
swanky
(swa[ng] ke) adj.
Meaning
Critical Viewing
Why does the
sound of music
make the narrator
think she is at the
wrong door?
Marking
n the
t Te
T xt
his back against it and ghting against the heavy spring that
tried to swing it shut. Go on. Up three ights. Number nine.
I walked into an old, dim hallway and climbed up the wooden
steps. As I turned an angle on the stairs, I saw light burning erce
and bright from a window. When I came to it, I looked out at the
roof of the Chinese school next door. Someone had thrown some
old 45s and a pair of sneakers down there. If I were some kind of
kid that felt sorry for herself, I would almost have said that was
the way I felt: like some piece of old, ugly junk that was being
kicked around on the discard pile while Barney was getting better.
I didnt stay by the window long, though, because Phil was
coming up the stairs and I didnt want to act like his kids stories
about Paw-Paw had scared me. Anybody could be better than
Phil the Pill and his family I hoped. I stopped by the numbernine room, afraid to knock. It could not be the right place because
I could hear I Want to Hold Your Hand coming through the
doorway. I scratched my head and checked the numbers on the
other doors on the landing. Phil the Pill was still a ight down,
hufng and pufng up the steps with my duffel bagit wasnt
that heavy; Phil was just that much out of shape. Go on. Go on.
Knock, you little idiot, he called up the stairwell.
I shrugged. It wasnt any of my business. I knocked at the
door. I heard about six bolts and locks being turned. Finally the
door swung open and I saw a tiny, pleasant, round-faced woman
smiling at me. Her cheeks were a bright red. Her gray hair was
all curly and frizzy around her head
eyeglasses perched on her nose. She
wearing a sweater even on a hot da
black slacks, and a pair of open-hee
Paw-Paw? I asked.
Hello. Hello. She opened up her
arms and gave me a big hug, almost
crushing me. It was funny, but even
though it was like I saidBarney
and me never went in much for that
sentimental stuff like hugging and
kissingI suddenly found myself
holding on to her. Underneath all
81
the soft layers of clothing I could feel how hard and tough she was.
She patted me on the back three times and then left me for a moment
to turn down her radio. It really was her old, white, beat-up radio
playing rock music.
Hey, how about a hand? Phil puffed as he nally got to the
landing.
Paw-Paw shufed out to the landing in her slippered feet and
made shooing motions. You can go home now. We can do all
right by ourselves.
Phil heaved his shoulders up and down in a great sigh and set
the bag down. Now, Momma
Go on home. she said rmly. We need time by ourselves.
I saw that Phil must have had some ne speech all prepared,
probably warning Paw-Paw about me and warning me about
ingratitude. He was not about to give up such an opportunity to
make a speech.
Now. Momma
Go on. Youre still not too old for a swat across the backside.
Phil ran his hand back and forth along the railing. Really,
Momma. You oughtnt
Go on, Paw-Paw raised her hand.
Phil gulped. The thought of having a former district president
of the lawyers spanked by his own mother must have been too
much for him. He turned around and started down the steps. He
still had to get in the last word though. You mind your Paw-Paw,
young lady. You hear me? he shouted over his shoulder.
I waited till I heard the door slam. Do you know what those
buzzes stand for?
Do you? Her eyes crinkled up.
It stands for SOS. But where did you learn it?
When I worked for the American lady, her boy had a toy . . .
what do you call it? She made a tapping motion with her nger.
Telegraph?
Yes. Its a good joke on such a learned man, no? Her round red
face split into a wide grin and then she began to giggle and when
she put her hand over her mouth, the giggle turned into a laugh.
I dont think that I had laughed in all that time since Barneys
accident a month ago. It was like all the laughter I hadnt been able
to use came bubbling up out of some hidden wellburst out of the
locks and just came up. Both of us found ourselves slumping on
the landing, leaning our heads against the banister, and laughing.
Finally Paw-Paw tilted up her glasses and wiped her eyes.
Philip always did have too much dignity for one person. Ah.
She leaned back against the railing on the landing before the
stairwell, twisting her head to look at me. Youll go far. she
nodded. Yes, you will. Your eyebrows are beautifully curved like
silkworms. That means youll be clever. And your ears are small
Lesson 1-13
Marking
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Marking
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and close to your head and shaped a certain way. That means
youre adventurous and win much honor.
Really?
She nodded solemnly. Didnt you know? The face is the map
of the soul. Then she leaned forward and raised her glasses and
pointed to the corners of her eyes where there were two small
hollows, just shadows, really. You see those marks under my eyes?
Yes. I added after a moment, Paw-Paw.
Those marks, they mean I have a temper.
Oh. I wondered what was to happen next.
She set her glasses back on her nose. But I will make a deal
with you. I can keep my temper under control if you can do
the same with your love of adventure and intelligence. You
see, people, including me, dont always understand a love of
adventure and intelligence. Sometimes we mistake them for
troublemaking.
Ill try. I grinned.
I went and got my bag then and brought it inside Paw-Paws
place and looked around, trying to gure out where Id put it.
Her place wasnt more than ten by fteen feet and it was crowded
with her stuff. Her bed was pushed lengthwise against the wall
next to the doorway leading out to the landing. To the right of
the door was another doorway, leading to the small little cubicle
of a kitchen, and next to that door was her bureau. The wall
opposite the bed had her one window leading out to the re
escape and giving a view of the alley, which was so narrow that
it looked like we could have shaken hands with the people in the
apartment house across from us. Beneath the window was a stack
of newspapers for wrapping up the garbage. Next to the window
was a table with a bright red-and-orange-ower tablecloth. PawPaw pulled aside her chair and her three-legged stool and told
me to put my bag under the table. A metal cabinet and stacks of
boxes covered the rest of the wall and the next one had hooks from
which coats and other stuff in plastic bags hung.
In the right corner of the old bureau were some statues and
an old teacup with some dirt in it and a half-burnt incense stick
stuck into it. The rest of the top, though, was covered with old
photos in little cardboard covers. They lled the bureau top and
the mirror too, being stuck into corners of the mirror or actually
taped onto the surface.
Next to the photos were the statues. One was about eight
inches high in white porcelain of a pretty lady holding a ower
and with the most patient, peaceful expression on her face. To her
left was a statue of a man with a giant-sized, bald head. And then
there were eight little statues, each only about two inches high.
Who are they? I asked.
Statues of some holy people, Paw-Paw said reluctantly.
Theme
83
There was something familiar about the last statue on PawPaws bureau. It was of a fat, balding god with large ears, who
had little children crawling over his lap and climbing up his
shoulders. Hey, I said. Is that the happy god?
Paw-Paw looked puzzled. Hes not the god of happiness.
But they call him the happy god. See? I pulled Barneys little
plastic charm out of my pocket and pointed to the letters on the back.
Paw-Paw didnt even try to read the lettering. Maybe Barney
had already shown it to her long ago. Hes not the god of
happiness. He just looks happy. Hes the Buddhathe Buddha
who will come in the future. Hes smiling because everyone will
be saved by that time and he can take a vacation. The children are
holy people who become like children again.
What about the others, Paw-Paw?
I dont have the words to explain, Paw-Paw said curtly, like
the whole thing was embarrassing her.
I sat down by the table on the stool, which was painted white with
red owers. Sure you do. I think your English is better than mine.
You dont want to know any of that stuff. With her index
nger Paw-Paw rubbed hard against some spot on the tableclo
That stuffs only for old people. If I tell you any more, youll
laugh at it like all other young people do. There was bitter hu
and anger in her voice.
I should have left her alone, I guess; but we had been getting
close to one another and suddenly Id found this door between
usa door that wouldnt open. I wasnt so much curious now as
I was desperate: I didnt want Paw-Paw shutting me out like that.
I wont laugh, Paw-Paw. Honest.
That stuffs only for old people who are too stupid to learn
American ways, she insisted stubbornly.
Well, maybe Im stupid too.
No. Paw-Paw pressed her lips together tightly; and I saw that no
matter how much I pestered her, I wasnt going to get her to tell me
any more about the statues on her bureau. Wed been getting along so
great before that I was sorry Id ever started asking questions.
We both sat, each in our own thoughts, until almost
apologetically Paw-Paw picked up a deck of cards from the table.
Do you play cards?
Some, I said. Draw poker. Five-card stud. Things like that.
Paw-Paw shufed the cards expertly. Poker is for old men
who like to sit and think too much. Now I know a game thats for
the young and quick.
Whats that?
Slapjack. She explained that each of us took half of a deck and
stacked it in front without looking at it. Then we would take turns
taking the top card off and putting it down in the middle. Whenever
a jack appeared, the rst one to put her hand over the pile of cards
Lesson 1-13
Marking
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Marking
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got it. She then mixed the new cards with all the cards she still had in
front of her. The rst one to get all the cards won the game. It would
sound like the advantage was with the person who was putting out
the card at that time, but she was supposed to turn up the card away
from her so she couldnt see it before the other player.
Paw-Paw had played a lot of card games, since she lived by
herself, so she seemed to know when the jacks were going to come
up. For a while all you could hear was the slap-slap-slapping of
cards and sometimes our hands smacking one another trying to get
the pile. And sometimes Id have more cards and sometimes PawPaw would. Eventually, though, she beat me. She shufed the deck
again. Youre a pretty good player, she grudged.
Not as good as you, though.
Paw-Paw shufed the cards, tapping them against the table so
the cards in the pack were all even. We used to play all the time.
Your mother, Phil, everyone. Wed hold big contests and make
plenty of noise. Only when Phil got older, he only wanted to play
the games fancy Americans played likewhats that word for a
road that goes over water?
A bridge? Phil wanted to play bridge.
Yes. Paw-Paw put the deck on the table. I wandered over to
the bed.
The radio was in a little cabinet built into the headboard of the
bed. I lay down on the bed and looked at the radio dial. Do you
like rock music, Paw-Paw?
Its fun to listen to, Paw-Paw said, and besides, Chinese Hour
is on that station every night.
Chinese Hour?
An hour of news and songs all in Chinese. Paw-Paw slipped
the cards back carefully into their box. They used to have some
better shows on that station like mystery shows.
I bet I could nd some. I started to reach for the dial.
Dont lose that station. Paw-Paw seemed afraid suddenly.
Dont worry, Paw-Paw. Ill be able to get your station back for
you. It was playing Monster Mash right then. I twisted the dial
to the right and the voices and snatches of song slid past and then
I turned the dial back to her station, where Monster Mash was
still playing. See?
As long as you could get it back, Paw-Paw said reluctantly.
I ddled with the dial some more until I got hold of Gunsmoke.
Itd gone off the air three years ago but some station was playing
reruns. Paw-Paw liked that, especially the deep voice of the
marshal. It was good to sit there in the darkening little room,
listening to Marshal Dillon inside your head and picturing him
as big and tall and striding down the dusty streets of Dodge City.
And I got us some other programs too, shows that Paw-Paw had
never been able to listen to before.
Theme
85
Good to Know!
Marking
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Dont get the idea that Paw-Paw was stupid. She just didnt
understand American machines that well. She lived with them
in a kind of truce where she never asked much of them if they
wouldnt ask much of her.
Its getting near eight, Paw-Paw said anxiously. It was only
when I got the station back for her that she began to relax. I was
always so worried that I would not be able to get back the station,
I never tried to listen to others. Look what I missed.
But you have me now, Paw-Paw, I said.
Yes, Paw-Paw smiled briey, straightening in her chair. I
guess I do.
Vocabulary Builder
After you read, review the words you decided to add to your
vocabulary. Write the meaning of words you have learned in
context. Look up the other words in a dictionary, glossary,
thesaurus, or electronic resource.
86
Lesson 1-13
Vocabulary Builder
truce
(tr
oos) n.
Meaning
Compare The Grass Harp and Child of the Owl have similar
themes, yet the ways in which their themes are revealed differ
in each selection. What is the theme of these selections? What
details from each selection are used to express the same theme?
5
6
87
Learn More
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: exp-8105
my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs
Case
When to Use
Examples
Nominative
They
y make memory chips for computers.
Objective
Possessive
to show ownership
88
Lesson 1-14
Authors Craft
See who can nd
the most personal
pronouns in the
excerpt from The Day
It Rained Cockroaches.
Label the pronouns as
nominative, objective,
orr possessive.
Reexive Pronouns
A reflexive pronoun reects the action of the verb back to the subject.
A reexive pronoun always ends with selff or -selves.
Most domestic catss will groom themselves.
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Because the TV does not turn itself off, we limit our viewing to
one hour per night.
Authors Craft
Rewrite two sentences
from the selection The
Day It Rained Cockroaches on page 68
so that they contain
reexive pronoun errors. Then trade your
sentences with a partner and correct your
partners sentences.
Reexive Pronouns
89
Pronoun Agreement
A pronoun usually stands for a noun or pronoun, which is called the
antecedent. Pronouns should agree with their antecedents in person,
gender, and number. Person tells whether the pronoun refers to the
one speaking (rst person), the one spoken to (second person), or the
one spoken about (third person).
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both,
few,
many
90
The ladies in the card club have postponed its next meeting.
Several of the homes had their roofs torn off during the storm.
Lesson 1-14
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Spelling
91
PrewritingPlan It Out
To choose a good topic to narrate, use any of the following strategies.
Free write. List ideas about special times in your life. Focus
on getting ideas down do not worry about grammar and
punctuation. Instead, let one idea lead to another and jot dow
details to help you remember each specic time. Review your
and choose a topic.
Make a chart. In a chart like the one at right, list words and
phrases that apply to each heading. You may use
some of these words and phrases when you write.
Peop
le: M
e, Ma
Time
tt, Pa
: 5p.m
t
.
Place
: base
b
Even
ts: W all eld
e play
Pat g ed the Bul
ot hu
ldogs
r
,
Feeli Matt had t,
ngs:
Nervo to take ov
e
us, ex
cited r.
Knowing why you want to tell your story and why it might in
your audience can help you decide what to write.
If your purpose is to entertain your audience, focus on the funny,
exciting, or moving parts of your story.
If your purpose is also to share a lesson you learned, focus on
details that illustrate the message. Be prepared to explain what
you learned from your experience.
92
Lesson 1-15
DraftingGet It on Paper
Before writing your draft, look over some of the techniques the
authors in this unit and in your Anchor Book have used.
Shape your writing. Make sure you address the important elements
in your narrative. Complete the graphic organizer below.
Narrative Elements
Your Narrative
Setting
Conict
Climax
Resolution
Student Model: Shape Your Writing
I remember the day my dad placed a glove in one of my hands and a
bat in the other and told me the combination was an eight-letter word
called baseball. Ever since then, most of my memories have been related
to the sport. When I was eleven, I played in a game Ill remember forever.
Vivid: Matt made an awkward catch, then an even more clumsy lob toward rst.
Create a vivid detail for your narrative:
Describe your feelings. Tell your readers how you felt by using
a consistent rst-person point of view. As you draft, omit any
information that is not appropriate or relevant to your topic.
93
Lesson 1-15
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RevisingMake It Better
Check that you have elaborated on your ideas with sufcient
supporting details. Check for sentence variety. Look over your
paragraphs to see the patterns of sentences you have used. When
writing in the rst person, you may nd that many of the sentences
begin with I. Use the rubric below to help you revise your narrative,
and consider reviewing your essay with a classmate or your teacher.
CRITERIA
IDEAS Is your paper lled with rich details?
RATING SCALE
NOT VERY
VERY
95