Reading for Understanding

I have chosen Sarah, Plain and Tall because it is a short book with a simple structure that has a theme and focus interesting to readers who usually perform above the reading level required to get through the book. This sequence of activities is designed for students who find Sarah, Plain and Tall easy to read. In order to achieve the goals, the readers must move easily back and forth through the text, and students should finish reading the book before beginning the discussion and activities. Once the process has been completed, similar activities can be applied to more challenging texts. This sequence of activities provides a scaffolding to a similar study of meaning in Avi's Blue Heron.

Goals

The goals of discussion and activities are to develop and improve skills in each of these areas:

• observation in reading -- finding out what the book says
• interpretation -- connecting the book to the reader
• association -- connecting the book to time and place
• exposition -- sharing what you learn in writing
• oral expression -- sharing what you learn in discussion

Individual student response to the reading. Each student will be using skills in observation, interpretation, association, and exposition:

• On page 20, Sarah gives Anna and Caleb each a gift that comes from her and from the sea. Choose one of the topics below and write a short essay to turn in.
  
  
  • Organize your thoughts before you begin to write by looking over pages 19, 20, and 21 for a few minutes.
    
    
  • Think about which particular phrases in the reading selection are most important to your answer.
    
    
  • If you use these phrases in your essay, be sure to enclose them in quotation marks.
    
    
• Write your essay on one of these topics:
  
  
  • Tell what Caleb's gift was and explain the story that Sarah tells to Caleb about the gift she has given to him. At this point in the story, what causes you to notice the gift or to think that the gift will become important to Caleb? Do you remember anything in the book that helps you to decide whether the gift becomes important to Caleb? (There is a clue in the last three pages of the book!)
    
    
  • Tell what Anna's gift was and explain the story that Sarah tells to Anna about the gift she has given to her. At this point in the story, what causes you to notice the gift or to think that the gift will become important to Anna? Do you remember anything in the book that helps you to decide whether the gift becomes important to Anna? (There is a clue in the last paragraph on page 20!)

Assessment and Expectations

• The student essays should identify the gifts, give some of the story, recognize the clues that are pointed out, and respond with a personal opinion about the importance of the gift based on some element of the story.
  
  
• Some students would find an additional clue or associate some other item in the story as a similar important object or give extended attention to the story behind the object.
  
  
• The exceptional student may find additional clues to significance of the gifts and relate the stories behind the gifts to the larger story of the book.

Class Activity Two: Reading and Responding in Discussion and Presentation

• Are the gifts that Sarah brings to Caleb and Anna souvenirs?
  
  
• What do they mean to Caleb and Anna? What do they mean to Sarah?
  
  
• Why did Sarah bring them?
  
  

• Does either of the gifts Sarah brings become a symbol for Anna or Caleb?
  
  
• Read the paragraph at the end of Chapter 3, in which Anna holds her gift and thinks about the future:

  "I shook my head, turning the white stone over and over in my hand. I wished everything was as prefect as the stone. I wished that Papa and Caleb and I were perfect for Sarah. I wished we had a sea of our own." (21)

  • What does the stone symbolize in this paragraph?
    
    
  • Do you think it means the same thing for Sarah that it means for Anna?
    
    
  • How is the stone perfect?
    
    
  • How are Papa and Caleb and Anna perfect for Sarah?
    
    
  • How is Sarah perfect for Papa, Caleb, and Anna?
    
    

"I miss my brother William," said Sarah, "But he is married. The house is hers now. Not mine any longer. There are three old aunts who all squawk together like crows at dawn. I miss them, too." (40)

• In your reading group, choose one of the topics listed below. Work together to make useful lists of information so that you can present your conclusions to the class.
  
  
• Select one of these topics:
  
  
  • In your reading group, using what you know about the time of the story, make a list of things about Maine where Sarah is from and things about the prairie where Papa, Caleb, and Anna live that help you understand the story better. Use anything the book tells you and anything you already know about the New England coast and about the prairie. Assemble your information into a list of characteristics of New England and a list of characteristics of the prairie, and tell how each one relates to the story. Also, decide whether each item on your list comes from the book or from your group's prior knowledge.
    
    
  • In your reading group, using what you know about families and how families work together, decide whether you think Sarah, Papa, Anna, and Caleb will make a good family. Their home and their work is very different from the home and work of most modern families. What characteristics of our work and families are different from theirs? What characteristics are similar? Decide whether you think a similar story could occur in a contemporary setting.
    
    

Assessment and Expectations

• Each group should produce lists that should be at least 5 items long and have some expository content justifying inclusion of items on the list.
  
  
• Higher level performance will include more items and more careful justification.
  
  
• More information may be given orally than in written form, particularly in justification of items on the list.