Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue Teacher’S Guide

LEVELS 13–30 H–N Tall Tales and Legends Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue Teacher’s Guide Objectives Summary FLUENCY The image of the American frontier cowboy Students will: as a confident risk-taker able to survive the • Build fluency through echo-reading, hardships of westward expansion is influenced choral-reading, and repeated reading by tall tales such as the legend of Pecos Bill. • Read with appropriate pacing The tale began when Bill was a baby and fell • Read exclamation points out of a covered wagon as his family crossed the COMPREHENSION Pecos River in Texas. He was rescued and raised Students will: by coyotes. In this script, we meet Coyote, • Analyze character who named and raised Pecos Bill. Coyote and • Interpret figurative language • Make inferences a cowgirl, Dixie, tell the tale of how Pecos Bill • Summarize or paraphrase met and then married Sluefoot Sue, the only information person who could match Pecos Bill’s riding and • Use text features to locate roping abilities. information WRITING Students will: Characters Levels • Create a poster advertisement Pecos (PAY-kohs) Bill H/13–14 GENRE Students will: Cactus Pete J/18 • Identify and analyze features of tall Coyote M/28 tales Sluefoot (SLOO-fut) Sue M/28 VOCABULARY AND WORD STUDY Students will: Dixie N/30 • Build vocabulary: feats, prairie, stampede • Use vocabulary in context • Understand similes and comparisons CHARACTER EDUCATION Students will learn about: • Caring • Respect ™ Reader’s Theater for Fluency and Comprehension 71824_TG.indd 1 9/15/10 12:06:58 PM Day One Build Background Learning About Genre: • Ask students to share what they Tall Tales know about cowboys and the Western frontier. If available, show • Exaggerated characters and actions historical photographs of cowboys, • Use casual speech and dialect their equipment, and the American • Sometimes explain the reason for West. Create a concept map titled something in nature “Cowboys: Long Ago” and record • Usually humorous what students know on the map. • Usually feature a hero or heroine • Use a map of North America to locate • Often take place on the American the Pecos River, starting in New frontier Mexico and continuing into Texas to • Use figurative language the Rio Grande. • Illustrate how skilled or powerful the • Write the names Pecos Bill and Sluefoot hero or heroine is Sue on the board. Invite students to share what they know about the characters, reinforcing that the • Encourage students to make legendary characters were created predictions about the exaggerated long ago to tell how the “Wild West” antics of the cowboy and cowgirl was tamed. characters. Ask: What do you think Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue will be like? Introduce the Script What do you think they will do? • Give each student a copy of the script. See page 8 for English-Language Learner Read the title and the back cover and Striving Reader Support. blurb aloud. Explain that the students are going to read a tall tale about Introduce Vocabulary Pecos Bill and the cowgirl he loved, • Introduce the three glossary words Sluefoot Sue. Ask students to tell what and read the definitions with students. they know about tall tales and if they • Reread the first word, feats. Say: have read any other tall tales. Someone who can accomplish great feats • Use the Learning About Genre sidebar is able to accomplish great things. to help teach characteristics of tall tales. Copyright © 2007 Benchmark Education Company, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of the guide may be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-4108-7182-4 2 71824_TG.indd 2 9/15/10 12:06:58 PM • Ask students to locate the sentence Background Information that includes feats on page 3. Read the The Legend of Pecos Bill sentence together. Discuss the part of speech that feats represents and ask Pecos Bill is an American folklore hero who students to think of another noun personified the Western values of stamina that could be used in its place. and fearlessness. He was invented by • Introduce and teach the remaining journalists and other writers, and was said to two glossary words, prairie and have been born in Texas in 1832 and raised stampede. Repeat the activity above, by coyotes. He became the toughest cowboy asking students to suggest nouns that around. The legend of Pecos Bill details his could replace each word. remarkable skills, which included using a rattlesnake as a whip, roping an entire herd • Provide time after reading the script of cattle at once, and riding a tornado. to discuss the meanings of slang words and dialect from the script. The Story of Sluefoot Sue Create a chart to compare phrases from the script to their meanings in When Pecos Bill first saw Sluefoot Sue, standard English. For example, refer riding a catfish down the Rio Grande, she to Dixie’s line on page 3, “Coyote was shooting at the clouds and making did a right-fine job raising Bill,” and pretty patterns in them. She had the the following phrases, among others: strength of ten men. For Pecos Bill, it was “little fellow” (page 2), “I ever did see” love at first sight. (page 4), “spitfire of a horse” (page 6), While most tales of Pecos Bill and Sluefoot “lickety-split” (page 10), and “get Sue incorporate the story of her being hitched” (page 11). bucked from Pecos Bill’s wild horse, Widow-maker (also known as Lightning), See page 8 for English-Language Learner some say that Sluefoot Sue’s life ended and Striving Reader Support. when she was bucked off and the bustle Model Fluent Reading she was wearing made her bounce so high that she hit her head on the moon and Ask students to listen and follow along died. According to legend, Pecos Bill was so with you as you read the script aloud to saddened by the loss of his true love that he model fluency and expression. howled at the moon. Later, when Pecos Bill died, the coyotes howled at the moon. 3 71824_TG.indd 3 9/15/10 12:06:58 PM Day Two Build Fluency: Echo-Read Build Comprehension • Read the script aloud, and ask students Ensure students understand the ideas in to echo-read, or repeat, the lines after the story, as well as character development, you. Stop where necessary to explain by involving them in discussion. unfamiliar words or expressions—for • Which genre is the script Pecos Bill example: slue in Sluefoot Sue’s name, and Sluefoot Sue? (use text features to which means to turn or twist to the side, locate information) and “mutt,” which usually refers to a • What features of the genre does this script mixed-breed dog (page 2), “slingshot” include? (analyze features of tall tales) (page 8), and “polecat,” which probably • What are examples of Pecos Bill’s refers to a skunk (page 11). Encourage amazing feats? (summarize or students to ask about any words they paraphrase information) are unsure of and then look up the words in the dictionary together. • What type of character is Pecos Bill? Sluefoot Sue? (analyze character) • Point out the stage direction in parentheses on page 11 of the script. • How are Pecos Bill and Sluefoot Sue Explain that the stage direction similar? Different? (compare and contrast) “(angrily)” tells the reader that Sluefoot Sue should speak to Pecos Bill as if she • Why does Sluefoot Sue call Pecos Bill a is annoyed with him. “polecat” when he lassoes her back to the • Point out the exclamation points in ground? (make inferences) Coyote’s and Dixie’s lines on page 2. • What does the author mean when Explain that exclamation points in she writes, “The horse took off like a these lines create emphasis or show firecracker in a frying pan” (page 8)? strong emotion. For example, the (interpret figurative language) expression “Hey!” shows Coyote’s • Would the script have been different if surprise when Dixie refers to him as none of the characters used slang or spoke “a dirty, skinny mutt that eats trash.” in dialect? How? (make judgments) Read the lines without any emphasis and then read them a second time, See page 8 for English-Language Learner and Striving Reader Support. modeling each character’s emphasis or strong emotion. Ask students which version was more interesting. Ask students to echo-read the lines. • Point out the dashes on pages 2 and 3. Explain that these dashes represent a break or a pause. Model how to read each line, pausing where the dash is. 4 71824_TG.indd 4 9/15/10 12:06:59 PM Build Vocabulary Assign Roles Make sure students fully understand • Use the reading levels provided on the the glossary terms. The Vocabulary in front of this guide to help you assign Action suggestions on the inside back roles that support or challenge each cover of the script provide further ideas student appropriately. for building students’ understanding. • This script contains five parts. If you have more students than roles, Fluency Assessment Rubric you may assign stage roles, such as • The Reader’s Theater Overview managers for props or sound. contains an assessment rubric you can • Encourage students to read the use to quickly assess each student. roles of Dixie and Sluefoot Sue with Use the rubric at different times energy and expression. Invite students during the lesson to assess different reading the roles of Pecos Bill and skills. For example, you may want Sluefoot Sue to practice saying to select students to assess their “Hoo-whee!” and “Yee-haw!” understanding of characterization during the comprehension discussion.

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