Macomb Collaborative Grade 5, Unit #4 Appendix 1

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Macomb Collaborative Grade 5, Unit #4 Appendix 1. Prompt [Day 1] 2. Peer Editing [Day 2] 3. Review of Writing [Days 1 and 2] 4. Rubric [Days 1 and 2] 5a-b. Genre: Mystery and Student Bookmark [Day 3] 5c-d. Genre: Informational Text and Student Bookmark [Day 3] 6. Think Aloud [Day 3] 7. Model Retelling of The Mary Celeste [Day 4] 8. Retelling Procedure [Day 3] 9. Retelling Rubric [Day 3] 10a-b. Marginalia [Day 3] 11. Elements of Story [Day 4] 12a-d. Mystery Notebook [Day 4] 13. Forms of Journaling [Day 4] 14a. Focus Question #1 [Day 4] 14b. Focus Question Rubric [Days 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17] 15a-b. Reader’s Theater, Chapter 5 [Day 5] 16. Vocabulary in Context Strategy [Days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16] 17. Focus Question #2 [Day 5] 18a-d. Choral Reading, Chapter 7 [Day 6] 19. Focus Question #3 [Day 6] 20. Clue Page with Examples [Day 7] 21. Blank Clue Page [Day 7] 22. Focus Question #4 [Day 7] 23a-d. Reader’s Theater, Chapter 11 [Day 8] 24. Focus Question #5 [Day 8] 25. Focus Question #6 [Day 9] 26a-c. Reader’s Theater, Chapter 15 [Day 10] 27. Focus Question #7 [Day 10] 28a-b. Reader’s Theater, Chapter 18 [Day 11] 29. Focus Question #8 [Day 11] 30. Focus Question #9 [Day 12] 31a-b. Vocabulary/Grammar Category Chart [Day 13] 32a-d. Reader’s Theater, Chapter 21 [Day 13] 33. Focus Question #10 [Day 13] 34. Focus Question #11 [Day 14] 35a-c. Ghost Stories from Chapter 25 and Genre: Folktale [Day 15] 36. Focus Question #12 [Day 15] 37. Focus Question #13 [Day 16] 38. Focus Question #14 [Day 17] 39a-b. Genre News Article and Student Bookmark [Day 18] 39c-d. Genre News Feature Article and Student Bookmark [Day 18] 40. Focus Question #15 [Days 19 and 20] 41. Response to Reading Rubric [Days 19 and 20] 42a-b. Mystery Graphic Organizer [Days 19 and 20] MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Directions:

Facing a challenge is what we do when we face difficult problems in life or when we face things we’re afraid of. Challenges might include: overcoming fear of lightning storms, heights, etc., preparing to win a competition, making an important but difficult decision, or solving an important problem.

Write about the theme: taking on a challenge.

Do one of the following:

¾ Write about a time, when you successfully faced something you were afraid to do.

OR ¾ Tell about a time, when you successfully used your brains, determination, and/or physical ability to accomplish an important goal.

OR ¾ Describe how you or a person you admire has faced a challenge or solved an important problem.

OR ¾ Write about the theme in your own way.

You may use examples from real life, from what you read or watch, or from your imagination. Your writing will be read by interested adults.

Use the paper provided for notes, freewriting, outlining, clustering, or writing your rough draft, but only your “final copy” will be scored. If you need to make a correction, cross out the error and write the correction above or next to it.

You should give careful thought to revision (rethinking ideas) and proofreading (correcting spelling, capitalization, and punctuation). Use the rubric and the checklist provided to help improve your writing.

Appendix #1

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Peer Editing

• Is the central idea or point of the writing clear?

• Is the central idea or point supported by important and relevant details, examples, and/or anecdotes?

• Does the writing begin with an interesting and engaging lead, continue with a middle that supports and develops the point, and an end that summarizes the point?

• Is the writing interesting with engaging words and different sentence lengths and types?

• What do I, as the listener, think is good about the writing?

• Do I have questions and/or suggestions for the writer?

Appendix #2

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Review of Writing: Publishing Final Copy

DIRECTIONS:

Now you will be doing three things: revising your paper (which means to rethink your ideas); polishing your paper (which means to edit and proofread); and recopying your paper as neatly as possible.

Use the following checklist as you revise and edit the writing that you have done. When you are finished revising, you must make a final copy of your paper. Then, proofread your final copy to make sure that all of your revisions have been made.

CHECKLIST FOR REVISION:

1. Do I have a clear central idea that connects to the topic? 2. Do I stay focused on my central idea? 3. Do I support my central ideas with important and relevant details/examples? 4. Do I need to take out details/examples that DO NOT support my central idea? 5. Is my writing organized and complete, with a clear beginning, middle, and end? 6. Do I use a variety of interesting words, phrases, and/or sentences?

CHECKLIST FOR EDITING

7. Have I checked and corrected my spelling to help readers understand my writing? 8. Have I checked and corrected my punctuation and capitalization to help readers understand my writing?

CHECKLIST FOR PROOFREADING:

9. Is everything in my final copy just the way I want it?

Reread your writing. You should cross out or erase any errors you make. You will have as much time as your need.

Appendix #3 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Rubric Writing from Knowledge and Experience

Characteristics 6 5 4 3 2 1

Content and Ideas The writing is The writing is clear, The writing is The writing is The writing is only The writing is exceptionally clear, and and focused. Ideas generally clear and somewhat clear and occasionally clear generally unclear focused. Ideas and and content are well focused. Ideas and focused. Ideas and and focused. Ideas and unfocused. content are thoroughly developed with content are developed content are developed and content are Ideas and content developed with relevant relevant details and with relevant details with limited or partially underdeveloped. are not developed details and examples examples where and examples where successful use of or connected. where appropriate. appropriate. appropriate, although examples and details. there may be some unevenness. Organization The writer’s control over The writer’s control The response is There may be evidence There may be little There may be no organization and the over organization generally coherent, of an organizational evidence of noticeable connections between ideas and the connections and its organization is structure, but it may be organizational organizational move the reader smoothly between ideas functional. artificial or ineffective. structure. structure. and naturally through the effectively move the text. reader through the text. Style and Voice The writer shows a mature The writer shows a The writer’s command Vocabulary may be Vocabulary may be command of language command of of language, including basic. limited. including precise word language including word choice, supports choice that results in a precise word choice. meaning. compelling piece of writing. Conventions Tight control over The language is well Lapses in writing Incomplete mastery of Limited control Lack of control language use and mastery controlled, and conventions are not over writing over writing over writing of writing conventions occasional lapses in distracting. conventions and conventions may conventions may contribute to the effect of writing conventions language use may make the writing make the writing the response. are hardly noticeable. interfere with meaning difficult to difficult to some of the time. understand. understand. Not ratable if: a) off topic b) illegible c) written in language other than English d) blank/refused to respond

Appendix #4

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Genre: Mystery

Mysteries like other narratives have the same elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems or events, resolution and lessons or themes. Mystery is a form of realistic fiction, but with a vital change of emphasis: everything in a mystery revolves around a puzzle or an unusual problem to solve. It asks the question: Who did it? How did they do it? and Why? (adapted from Tara McCarthy. Teaching Genre, Scholastic, 1996)

Mystery Definition: • “A narrative in which the chief element is usually a crime around which the plot is built.” (from Harris, et al. The Literacy Dictionary, IRA, 1995) • “Popular fictional narratives with plots revolving around puzzling or frightening situations that create and even exploit a sense of uncertainty, suspense, or fear in the reader or audience.” (from Murfin, et al. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003)

Purpose: • To entertain • To involve the reader in the excitement and suspense of the problem/mystery

Form and Features: • Mood is dark, dreary, mysterious, and often scary. For example, most mysteries open on dark and stormy nights with lightning, thunder, wolves or dogs howling, and eerie music playing. • Suspense, the crucial component in a mystery is created through the use of the following: - Foreshadowing is the inclusion of clues throughout the story provide the reader with information that will lead to the solution of the mystery. - Red Herrings are clues that are placed in the mystery to throw the reader off track and lead the reader away from the mystery’s solution. - Cliffhanger chapter endings use great suspense to compel the reader to read further into the story. • The conflict in a mystery is a crime, a puzzle or a secret. • The plot of a mystery revolves around a crime or crimes that sleuths or detectives try to solve through gathering and analyzing clues. Clues can be fingerprints, letters, notes or secret codes. Clues can be discovered by listening carefully to other character’ dialogue or watching the other characters’ actions carefully. Appendix #5a

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Bookmark Mystery Bookmark Mystery Bookmark Revolves around a crime, a puzzle, or an unusual Revolves around a crime, a puzzle, or an unusual Revolves around a crime, a puzzle, or an unusual problem to solve problem to solve problem to solve Name: Name: Name:

Title: Title: Title:

List the page number and a brief reminder of the genre List the page number and a brief reminder of the genre List the page number and a brief reminder of the genre characteristics you find as you read. characteristics you find as you read. characteristics you find as you read.

Detectives try to solve crimes through gathering and Detectives try to solve crimes through gathering and Detectives try to solve crimes through gathering and analyzing clues. analyzing clues. analyzing clues. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

Mood is dark, mysterious and often, scary Mood is dark, mysterious and often, scary Mood is dark, mysterious and often, scary p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

Common features: Foreshadowing, Red Herrings and Common features: Foreshadowing, Red Herrings and Common features: Foreshadowing, Red Herrings and Cliffhanger chapter endings Cliffhanger chapter endings Cliffhanger chapter endings p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Appendix #5b Genre: Informational Text

Informational text gives factual information on a specific topic or event.

Definition: • Informational text is “..designed primarily to explain, argue or describe rather than to entertain.” (from Harris, et al. The Literacy Dictionary, IRA, 1995) • “The main function of expository text is to present the reader information about theories, predictions, persons, facts, dates, specifications, generalizations, limitations, and conclusions.” (Michael F. Graves and Wayne H. Slater. “Research on Expository Text: Implications for Teachers” in Children’s Comprehension of Text, K. Denise Muth, editor, IRA, 1989.)

Purpose: • To acquire information • To satisfy curiosity • To understand our world more fully • To understand new concepts and expand vocabulary • To make connections to our lives and learning • To write good nonfiction • To have fun (from Stephanie Harvey. Nonfiction Matters, Stenhouse, 1998)

Form and Features: Informational text uses a number of forms of organization including: • Sequence of events • Description by categories • Process description • Comparison/contrast • Problem and solution • Cause and effect

Informational text… • gives information, • gives necessary explanations to understand the information, • shows what is and is not important, and • often uses narrative(story) elements to make it interesting. (from Barbara Reed and Elaine Weber. Expository Text: What Is A Teacher To Do? ABC Publishing, 1990.)

Informational text may have some or all of the following features: • Table of contents and Index • Photographs and realistic, accurate illustrations • Captions to describe photographs, illustrations, etc. • Maps and diagrams • Glossary (words with definitions) • Footnotes and Bibliographies Appendix #5c MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Informational Text Bookmark Informational Text Bookmark Informational Text Bookmark Gives facts or information on a specific topic or event Gives facts or information on a specific topic or event Gives facts or information on a specific topic or event Name: Name: Name:

Title: Title: Title:

Gives information/facts. Gives information/facts. Gives information/facts. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

Organized by sequence, problem/solution, cause/effect, Organized by sequence, problem/solution, cause/effect, Organized by sequence, problem/solution, cause/effect, compare/contrast, position/support, etc. compare/contrast, position/support, etc. compare/contrast, position/support, etc. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

Features include: index/contents, photographs/captions, Features include: index/contents, photographs/captions, Features include: index/contents, photographs/captions, maps/diagrams, glossary, bibliography, etc. maps/diagrams, glossary, bibliography, etc. maps/diagrams, glossary, bibliography, etc. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p. p.

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Appendix #5d

Think Aloud Procedure Making Thinking Public

The Literacy Dictionary (Harris and Hodges, 1995, IRA) defines a think aloud as “1. oral verbalization, 2. in literacy instruction - a metacognitive technique or strategy in which the teacher verbalizes aloud while reading a selection orally, thus modeling the process of comprehension (Davey, 1983).”

Put another way, a think aloud is making thinking public. A teacher models what an expert would be thinking as s/he were reading, visualizing, listening; or preparing to write, speak or visually represent. The goal of thinking aloud is to graphically show students what they might do to understand what they are reading, viewing or listening to, as well as, plan for writing or speaking.

Following is an example of a think aloud for figuring out the meaning of an unfamiliar word in context:

“It’s important while we read to be able to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. When I come to a word I don’t know the meaning of, I read the words and sentences around that word to try to figure out what the word might mean.

The other day I was reading this great mystery, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. I read the following paragraph with lots of challenging words:

‘Sam Westing was not murdered, but one of his heirs was guilty – guilty of some offense against a relentless man. And that heir was in danger. From his grave Westing would stalk his enemy and through his heirs he would wreak his revenge.’

It was a paragraph about Sam Westing who had just died and left a challenge behind to find his killer(s). I knew most of the words. I knew ‘relentless’ meant that Sam Westing never gave up until he got what he wanted. I knew that ‘stalk his enemy’ meant that even after death, Sam Westing would somehow go after and find his enemy. But I wasn’t sure what ‘wreak his revenge’ meant. I knew that revenge meant Sam Westing would get even with his enemy, so I figured that “wreak” must be a stronger way to say, ‘get his revenge.’

I’ve heard the word ‘wreak’ before, and now I’ll keep it in my mind and may be able to use it in writing sometime. I will know it when I see it in print”.

Appendix #6

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Model Retelling of The Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste is an account of the mystery surrounding the discovery of an abandoned ship. The crew of one ship came upon another ship that was wallowing from side to side, and there wasn’t anyone on its deck. Three sailors investigated and found no one on board but no apparent reason for the other ship’s crew having left. A lifeboat was missing, but there was no sign of a struggle or of damage. There were a number of theories: pirates, a frightened or drunken crew, the weather, a sea monster, or a conspiracy between the captains, but nothing could be proved. It remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

Appendix #7 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Listening Retelling Procedures: Instruction Narrative and Expository

Please read instructions and follow the procedure carefully.

1. Teacher reads title of selection and says, “I wonder what this will be about?”

2. Teacher asks students, “What do you think this will be about?”

3. Teacher directs students to write/draw a prediction on the flap of the selection or on another sheet of paper – “What will the selection be about?”

3a. Teacher says, “Share your prediction with your partner.”

4. Teacher says, “Listen to understand the information. I will read the story/selection twice and then you will write a retelling to someone who has never heard the story/information before” and then teacher reads selection aloud.

5. Teacher reads aloud the selection saying, “Listen one more time so that you can retell the selection. You will be asked to retell the selection as if it is for someone who has not heard this information (story) before.”

5a. Teacher says, “Share your retelling with your partner. One of you do your retelling orally, then the other retells.” (One student retells, followed by the other.)

6. Teacher says, On your own, retell the selection in writing as if it is for someone who has not heard this story/information before.”

6a. Teacher says, “Share your written retelling with your partner and make changes (revise).”

6b. Teacher gives students selection and says, reread the selection and with your partners, make whatever changes or additions that are necessary to your written retellings.

7. Instead of teacher collecting papers, have students in partners score their own papers with the rubric or a modified rubric (after extensive modeling).

adapted by Barbara Nelson from Cambourne and Brown, Read and Retell

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MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

MLPP Retelling Rubric Grades 3 - 12 Narrative Text

Qualities of 4 3 2 1 Retelling Mature Capable Developing Beginning

Gist/Main Idea: Retelling includes a Retelling includes a Retelling indicates Retelling includes Lesson Learned clear generalization generalization that inaccurate or minimal or no Plot Main Idea that states or implies states or implies the incomplete reference to or the plot main idea and plot main idea and understanding of understanding of lesson learned. lesson learned from the plot main idea. plot main idea. story.

Story Elements Retelling contains a Retelling contains a Retelling contains a Retelling contains clear statement of all clear restatement of restatement of minimal story elements, (main most story elements some story restatement of characters, setting, (main characters, elements with story elements. problem, major setting, problem, major minimal events, and resolution) events, and resolution) connections to one and their connection and their connection to another. to one another. one another.

Organization Events are retold Events are retold Events are retold in Events lack following a logical mostly in appropriate a somewhat sequence. sequence with a order with beginning, disconnected beginning, middle, middle, and end. fashion. The and end. beginning or middle or the end may be deleted.

Linguistic Use of language, Use of language, Use of language, Retelling includes Spillover conventions, and/or conventions, and/or conventions, and/or little or no use of format from the format from the format from the language, selection reflects an selection indicates selection may conventions, elaborated and basic understanding of indicate superficial and/or format personalized the story. understanding. from the story. understanding of the story.

Gist/ Linguistic Level Date Text Mode Prediction Main Idea Elements Organization Spillover

Key: Mode O/O: Oral – Oral Level IN – independent Prediction R – reasonable O/W: Oral – Written IS – instructional U - unreasonable W/O: Written – Oral F – frustration N – no response W/W: Written – Written Appendix #9

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Marginalia

Definition: Marginalia are the product of an interaction between text and reader carried on in the presence of silent witnesses.

History: The marginalia that we see and write today are in direct line of descent from those of two thousand years ago. Indeed the custom may be as old as script itself, for readers have to interpret writing, and note follows text as thunder follows lightning. Over the centuries, recommendations about writing marginalia constitute a minor theme in educational theory. Advice for beginning use of marginalia was to observe while reading writers whether any striking word occurs, if diction is archaic or novel, if some argument shows brilliant invention or has been skillfully adapted from elsewhere, if there is any brilliance in style, if there is any adage, historical parallel, or maxim worth committing to memory. This was for students at the advanced note taking stage, when they have progressed far enough to begin culling from the authors they read materials that they may use in their own speech or writing.

Purpose: In the beginning of what is called the “print culture” readers wrote in books as part of the process of learning. These notes included textual collations and corrections, explanations of hard words and obscure passage references to sources, and illustrative examples. Expressions of opinions were rare: like editors, annotators seem to have been expected to suppress private views in the interest of cumulative scholarship. Modern readers in contrast to late medieval reading only add personal reactions to the reading of the text. They also mark up books for a way of learning and remember relevant information. Some readers engage in argument with the books they read, or expressed distaste for or disapproval of them.

Appendix #10a

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Marginalia (comprehension strategy) Questioning Connections What questions What do I do I have? What already know am I wondering about this? about? Am I confused?

Determining Importance What is this selection mostly about? Visualizing What are the TEXT What images major ideas? or pictures do I create in my mind?

Inferring What is the author telling Repairing between the Comprehension lines? Do I understand what I am reading?

Synthesizing How has my thinking changed? Do I have some new ideas?

Appendix #10b

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Elements of Story

The elements of a story include:

• Characters - Who is in the story?

• Setting - When and where does the story take place?

• Problem - What problem does the main character have or what does the main character want?

• Conflict - What is the struggle between two opposing forces in the plot?

• Events - What does the main character do to solve his/her problem or get what he/she wants?

• Resolution - How is the problem solved? OR How does the main character learn to deal with the problem?

• Theme(s)/Lesson(s) - So What? – What lesson or message is the author trying to get across?

Appendix #11 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Notebook Model

Pete Jenkins Dan Hinken

Kate Hinken Eddie Terkel

Appendix #12a MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Notebook Model

Mr. Dufina Jesse Muldoon

Ginny Lind Mr. Dennis

Appendix #12b

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Notebook Model

Leonard Colesmith Herman LeRoux

Sam Moilanen Buck Meeseley

Appendix #12c

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Notebook Model

Appendix #12d

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Forms of Journaling

• Observations – Writers see something of interest and record it. This will be important in a mystery, because being observant helps detectives find clues and solve mysteries.

• Questions – Writers use journals to come up with and record questions: questions of fact, theoretical questions, and personal doubts. Asking questions is important in solving mysteries.

• Speculation – Writers use journals to wonder aloud, on paper, about the meanings of events, issues, facts, readings, patterns, interpretations, problems and solutions. Speculation is the “guessing” that detectives have to do to solve a crime.

• Synthesis – Writers put together ideas, finding relationships and connecting ideas. Synthesis is often one of the last steps in solving a mystery.

Appendix #13

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #1

What does the reader learn about the characters, setting and goal of Mystery at Round Island Light from the first two chapters?

Answer Plan: What to do? 1. Write a sentence restating the question. 2. Write several sentences with details about the introduction of characters, setting and goal. 3. Conclude with a sentence predicting what you think will happen next.

Possible Answer (1) In the first few chapters of Mystery at Round Island Light, the author, Robert Lytle introduces readers to the characters and the setting of the story and suggests that there may be some danger and mystery involved. (2) The characters, twins, Dan and Kate Hinken, Eddie Terkel, and Pete Jenkins are staying with Dan and Kate’s relatives in a “cottage” (a thirty-room mansion) on Mackinac Island overlooking the water. From the conversations and the visit to Mr. Dufina, it sounds like the four friends want to find out more about Round Island and the mysterious former lighthouse keeper, Jesse Muldoon. (3) The warning that Mr. Dufina gives them suggests that the four will go to Round Island, and there might be danger involved.

Appendix #14a MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Macomb ELA Genre Units: Focus Question Rubric

3 (complete) 2 (partial) 1 (minimal)

Traits: Answer is relevant with many Answer is relevant but has few Answers question with Content details and examples. details to support or explain the misinterpretation. Answers question answer. Little or no relevance to text or Uses relevant details from question. text to support answer Ideas and content are not developed Stays on topic or connected.

Organization Student restates the question in Student restates the question in the Students answer either “yes,” “no,” Restatement (Beginning) his/her own words. answer. or “I agree” without reference to the Details in support (Middle) Details support point. Events are retold in a somewhat question. Conclusion (End) Response is written in a logical disconnected structure. Writing lacks sequence. sequence that makes connections.

Style/Voice Word choice is precise. Vocabulary is basic. Vocabulary is limited. Uses quotes to support, Uses quotes effectively. May use quotations, but reference is Quotations are not used. Concludes with prediction Conclusion engages the reader. unclear. The conclusion is ineffective or characters feelings, Conclusion is partially successful. does not exist. opinions, etc…

Conventions/Presentation Presentation makes the writing Writing is readable. Writing may not be legible. Writing is neat. inviting. Errors in conventions do not distract Errors in conventions distract from Uses proper conventions Writing shows control over from meaning. meaning. conventions.

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Appendix #14b Reader’s Theater for Mystery at Round Island Light Warning, Chapter 5, (pp. 24-26) By Robert Lytle

Narrator: The four followed the rocky shoreline toward the lighthouse.

Kate: How do you feel, Pete? You looked a little pale back there.

Pete: Better now, that Indian cemetery gave me the heebie-jeebies—especially with you two talking about your weird dreams. Kate: Eddie is probably right, there’s really no reason to think that something bad is going to happen. Let’s get this picnic started. You three can pull some of those driftwood logs together to sit on and I’ll get the basket from the boat. Eddie: The wind is picking up a bit. The sooner we start back, the better. It was tricky enough coming across with no wind. Dan: Give me a hand with this plank, Pete. We’ll lay it across these boulders and make a table out of it. Narrator: From the shore came a shout.

Kate: (yelled) Come here, guys! Hurry!

Eddie: What’s the matter?

Kate: Something has gotten into our picnic basket!

Pete: You’re kidding! What could have done that?

Narrator: The three boys dropped their boards and ran to Kate. The wicker chest was turned over on the shore. Its top was thrown open and food was scattered all over the beach. Plates were smashed on the rocks and napkins were flapping in the light breeze. All four stared openmouthed at the litter that was once their lunch. Eddie: Raccoons?

Dan: I don’t think so.

Pete: Could’a been skunks or porcupines. They’re all over my end of Bug LaSalle. We toss our leftovers behind the cottage after dinner and they’re always gone by the time I hit the outhouse before crawling in the sack. Dan: No, not skunks or raccoons or porcupines. They couldn’t have knocked the basket out of the boat. Eddie: A bear maybe?

Dan: A bear would have eaten the food.

Narrator: Kate leaned into the boat and picked a sheet of paper from the bow. She stared at it for a moment. Kate: How about a person?

Appendix #15a

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Narrator: She handed the note to her brother. Dan read the message and shot glances in all directions—at the lighthouse, along the shoreline, into the woods. Pete: What’s it say?

Narrator: Dan looked back at the message written in smudgy, bold pencil strokes.

Dan: It says, Get off this island now! Don’t come back!

Eddie: I don’t suppose the guy bothered to sign it. Dan: (sarcastically) No and there’s no return address or RSVP either.

Kate: The man needs to brush up on his etiquette.

Eddie: Maybe so, but now is not the time to teach him.

Pete: Do you think it could be kids?

Dan: Not a chance, this isn’t a childish prank. Whoever wrote the note is dead serious. I’d like to know who it is and why he did it. Eddie: Whoa, Dan, you’re letting your imagination run away with you. Let’s think about this. Who could care that much about this worthless little island? Pete: How about the old lighthouse keeper?

Eddie: Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten him.

Pete: Well, whoever it is, I say we don’t stick around to find out.

Eddie: Right, and with this breeze, we’d better hurry.

Narrator: Dan stared again at the lighthouse. He concentrated on the boarded-up lower windows, the door and then the thick glass sections high in the tower. Dan: Okay, he said, let’s pack up and go.

Narrator: The four gathered what remained of their picnic supplies and boarded the tiny dinghy. Dan pulled the started cord and the boat chugged away from Round Island. ______

At the very peak of the lighthouse, high above the picnic site, two squinty eyes were fixed on a small boat carrying three boys and a girl across the narrow channel toward Mackinac Island.

Appendix #15b

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Vocabulary In Context Strategy

Learning vocabulary in context is much more powerful and effective. Students understand the words better, will remember them, and will more often recognize the word and its meaning when next encountered. This is a simple vocabulary strategy that only involves dictionary work as a last resort.

Procedures:

• Assign or let students choose partners. • Display the vocabulary words with page numbers. • Tell students in partners to:

1. find each listed word, 2. read the sentences (context) around the word, then try to figure out what the word means, 3. check their definitions with the dictionary (if necessary), 4. jot down their “working definition” in their own words, and 5. also write down why this word is important to the selection.

Encourage students to begin to keep a personal dictionary of new words that they might use in conversation and in writing.

Appendix #16

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #2

How does the author, Robert Lytle, build the mood of mystery, danger and suspense in Chapters 3, 4 and 5?

• Eddie’s wondering how they’ll get across the shipping channel. (p. 12) • Pete is wishing he hadn’t brought the island up. (p. 12) • The dory (boat) is too small. (p. 14) and may sink. • “It was a disaster waiting to happen.” (p. 15) • “ ‘I don’t like what the current is doing,’ Eddie said.” (p.16) • “Churning straight for their bow, the first Arnold Line Ferry of the day bore down on them.” (p. 17) • “We’ll never make it!” (Katie, p. 17) • “I hope it won’t take another miracle to get us back.” (Eddie, p. 18) • The twins have the same scary dream of those men sitting in the shadows.(pp. 21-22) • It is strange or weird that it was just like the dream. ( p. 23) • The note warned them to get of the island. (p. 25) • Someone was watching them from the lighthouse. (p. 26) • “…and Pete had a dreadful feeling it would come to no good.” (p. 28)

Appendix #17

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery at Round Island Light Choral Reading/Herman (pp. 32-33) By Robert Lytle

The first of the three, Herman LeRoux, was of French and Native American parentage. He was short and stocky like his French papa, Jacques LeRoux. He had coal black hair and dark, copper-colored skin like his Odawa mother, Wintemoyeh. His face and neck were pocked and inflamed by the constant contact of his long, oily hair. His teeth were crooked and rotting, with the exception of the two front ones, which were completely missing, knocked out by Buck Meesley shortly after they had grown in. His filthy clothes clung to him in rags. Herman’s passion, his one redeeming quality, was his ability to hunt. His stealth and cunning in the forest were unequaled by his friends or even the men of the village. When he went into the woods, he didn’t carry a rifle or a bow. He simply strapped to his legs a pair of knives—throwing daggers—which he could flick silently and with lethal accuracy. Moving quietly through the forest, he would spot a rabbit or a deer. Before the hapless animal was aware of his presence, and blade would be stuck deep in its heart, blood flowing freely from the mortal wound. A vicious self-satisfied sneer would curl on the lips of its snaggletoothed killer. Herman LeRoux managed to grow from infancy to adulthood practically unnoticed by anyone other than his two neighboring companions, Buck Meesley and Sam Moilanen.

Appendix #18a

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery at Round Island Light Choral Reading/Sam (pp. 33-34) By Robert Lytle

Born the day after Herman, in the very next shanty, was Sam Moilanen, the first son of Bjorn and Olga. His Finnish-Swedish family had roots in the U.P. going back as far as anyone could remember. Sam Moilanen, even as a boy, was tall and gangly. His broad Scandinavian forehead belied his mediocre intelligence. From the time Sam first gazed across the vast Great Lakes horizon, he wanted to be on the water. He didn’t care whether it was to wade in the shallows of Little Perch Bay on hot July days or to fish with his father and uncles aboard the family fishing boat—a trawler they were destined to lose during the lean years of the fishing famine. Sam’s aunts and uncles, desolate and desperate, slowly drifted away from Little Perch Bay and northern Michigan, which they had once called “God’s Country.” They migrated south to the foundries and factories of Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago. Sam’s dad and mom, Bjorn and Olga, along with their children, stayed behind in Little Perch Bay. Bjorn was sure the fish would soon return and he could earn enough money to buy another boat. Bjorn worked for pennies—beers, actually—and was grateful for that. Finally, when Sam was eleven, his mother could take the shame no longer. She walked to Rosa’s Market in the center of Little Perch Bay and made a collect call to her brother in Detroit. She asked him to come and take them all away. Bjorn flew into a rage. He would not hear of it. If she wanted to go, fine. But when the fish returned and he got his new boat, she’d best not come crawling back to him. Immediately after, Bjorn began to fill Sam’s head with how it was going to be— how rich they would become. Two weeks later when Sam’s uncle came with his truck to take them south, Sam ran into the woods and hid until his mom and his uncle had left for the Lower Peninsula. Bjorn and Sam were on their own. From then on, Sam was often called upon to help his father home on nights when the seas were especially rough—as they can become when a man spends an entire afternoon and evening at Finney’s Bar. Bjorn’s job of mending other fishermen’s nets didn’t pay enough to include food for Sam. And, as the fish became fewer, the nets lasted longer. Bjorn began washing dishes at Finney’s to pay for his beer. He often slept in a booth after the bar closed. By the time Sam was fifteen he was staying at Buck’s shanty to avoid the beatings that Bjorn would give him after stumbling home drunk.

Appendix #18b

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery at Round Island Light Choral Reading/Buck (pp.35-37) By Robert Lytle

The third boy born that week in the next squalid shack was Seamus Meesley, known almost immediately as “Buck” for his fiery disposition. His father, Liam, was a brutish, broad-shouldered, rogue of a man. A thick curly mat of orangy-red hair covered Liam’s entire body, giving him the appearance of an unkempt Irish setter. Buck’s parents had emigrated from Kinsale, County Cork, when the market for mackerel along the south coast of Ireland fell into decline. In desperation, Liam sold his house and fishing trawler and bought two one-way, steerage-class tickets to America. He came to the rich fishing grounds of northern Michigan. With the remainder of his money he bought a boat, which he named the Irish Eyes and a small cabin on the edge of the village. Not long after that, the once profitable northern Michigan fishing industry began to fail. Buck had seven older siblings who, in such a harsh environment, slowly eroded his mother and father’s once strict parenting instincts. By the time Buck was five years old, he was pretty much on his own. Little was done to control his mean-spirited activities. He was free to come and go as he pleased. Buck, true to his name, loved to fight. He went to school it seemed, simply to bully classmates into a match. The brawls after the last bell always resulted in victory for Buck—bloody and bruised, but invariably less so than his opponents. He spared his neighbors, Sam and Herman, from daily punishments merely to have accomplices for his other hooligan activities. Besides, he knew they were no match for him. He could knock them down any time he wanted. It was no bother to Buck—so he seldom bothered. Buck did all the talking for his pals, too. By the time they started school, Sam and Herman had no say in any matter. But that was all right with them, because Buck protected them from the older boys. Of the three, Buck Meesley was the uncontested master. His two subordinates did what he said, where he said and when he said to do it. If Buck had a fancy to skip school, he had a pair of willing truants who would gladly tag along. When Buck wanted to knock out the town’s one streetlight, he had two able watchmen at hand while he pegged baseball-sized rocks at the glowing target until once again, Little Perch Bay was cast into darkness. Life was hard all year long in Little Perch Bay, but it was especially so in the winters. Temperatures dipped below zero for weeks on end while snow built up, bringing all activities, except school, to a halt. Walking and driving within the village was difficult, but travel between towns was impossible.

Appendix #18c

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

One brutally cold February day when Buck was twelve, his mother fell ill. She screamed in pain throughout the night. The following morning Buck walked with his dad five miles through two feet of new snow into De Tour Village to fetch the only doctor in that whole part of the eastern U.P. When they reached the office, ol’ Doc Grimson took one look outside and shook his head. He’d never make it through that kind of snow, he said. Instead he sent Buck’s dad home with some pills to stop the pain. That night, Buck’s mother got worse. Buck went to sleep with globs of soft candle wax in his ears to muffle her tortured cries. The next morning Buck woke up to find his father sitting on the other side of the one-room shack, his head slumped in his hands. Buck walked over to see what was wrong. He stared at his parents’ bed and into his mother’s lifeless grey eyes. She was dead. Seamus “Buck” Measley silently swore he would get back at the doctor who wouldn’t come. That very day he met with his two pals, Herman and Sam and made a plan. A week later, an hour after sundown, three twelve-year-olds set off through a blinding snowstorm to the neighboring town five miles away. A white frame house in De Tour Village burned to the ground that night. It sole inhabitant, Doctor Grimson, was trapped upstairs. He died in the blaze, burned to an unrecognizable crisp. The boys covered their trail out of town and trudged back through the driving snow. They were frozen to the bone and almost dead themselves by the time they sneaked back inside their wretched shanties. The secret of the tragic fire was never discovered. The unspoken vow as to the unspeakable deed would be locked like a rat in a trap in the minds of three twelve-year- old boys forever. Buck’s one ray of light was that he was a great help to his father on the fishing boat. When Buck was fourteen and nearing the end of eighth grade, he suddenly dropped out of school. His departure came as no surprise to anyone and was, in fact, silently cheered by classmates and teachers alike. He joined his father on the trawler, where he worked as a deck hand, tirelessly setting the nets and hauling them in. Two years later his dad caught pneumonia after a November storm. Liam Meesley died on Christmas Eve. Buck’s present that year was the inheritance of the Irish Eyes—and all the work and responsibility that went with it. He was sixteen years old and man enough to handle it.

Appendix #18d

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Questions #3

What does the author tell us through flashbacks about three more characters in the mystery?

Answer Plan – What to do: 1. Write a sentence restating the question. 2. Write sentences about each of the three new characters introduced giving the most important information about each. 3. Conclude with a sentence suggesting a connection between these three new characters and the four friends.

Possible Answer (1) The author, Robert Lytle, introduces three interesting, but seemingly dangerous, characters through a series of flashbacks. (2) When we meet Buck Meesley, Herman Le Roux, and Sam Moilanen, they seem down on their luck. Through a flashback that goes back to their youth, we learn more about the personalities of the three: they all grew up poor in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; Herman was French and Native American and loved to hunt, especially with knives. Sam wasn’t very smart, and he wanted to be a sailor. Buck had a bad temper, and he loved to fight. The last flashback lets us know that Buck, in a way, is stealing the boat he inherited from his father and making a career change to make “…a pile of money.” (3) It’s logical that they will be connected in some way to the four friends.

Appendix #19

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Clue Page with Examples

Page Number Clues/Important Information Connection to the mystery

p. 25 The friend’s picnic basket was upset, Why does someone want them to stay and an ominous note was left warning away from Round Island? them to get off the island and not return.

p. 26 “Two squinty eyes…” were watching Was it the person who left the note? the friends as they left the island.

p. 42 Ginny tells the friends about a man seen Could it be the same person who wrote walking on the shore of the island in the the note? What was he doing there? dead of night, “…like a ghost in the mist.”

Appendix #20 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Blank Clue Page

Page Number Clues/Important Information Connection to the mystery

Appendix #21

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Questions #4

What clues do the friends get from their discussions with Ginny and Mr. Dennis? How might these clues be connected?

Answer Plan: What to do: 1. Restate the question. 2. Give a few sentences about what the friends learn from Ginny. 3. Add a sentence or two about what they learned from Mr. Dennis. 4. Conclude with a sentence that suggests some connections.

Possible Answer (1) The four friends collect clues from their conversations with Kate’s friend, Ginny and Mr. Dennis, at the golf course. (2) When asked about Jesse Muldoon, Ginny reports that someone was recently seen moving “…like a ghost…” in the moonlight on Round Island. Ginny also revealed that there was a vagrant on the island who was suddenly flashing money around. This vagrant, Herman Le Roux, had been seen at 3:00 a.m. rowing toward Round Island. (3) Mr. Dennis at the golf course warned the four to stay away from a barn near the seventh hole because a short-tempered, nasty-looking hobo was reported to be living in the barn. (4) In all probability, Hermann Le Roux and the hobo may be the same person. The reader (not the four friends) knows that one of the three characters in the flashback was Herman Le Roux.

Appendix #22

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Reader’s Theater for Mystery of Round Island Light Thief’s Nest, Chapter 11, (pp. 53-57) By Robert Lytle

Narrator: The four golfers spread out along the out-of-bounds line where each thought the stray drives had gone into the woods. Pete went in through some low-lying cedar shrubs. He poked his head into the clearing and there, sixty feet away, a weather-beaten barn stood. Pete: Over here!

Kate: (screamed) Pete! Are you okay? Dan! Eddie! Come quick!

Narrator: In no time all three were huddled around Pete.

Pete: What’s wrong?

Dan: You’re not hurt?

Pete: No, why would I be?

Dan: We thought you were getting beaten up by that guy Mr. Dennis told us about. Pete: What guy? I just called you over to show you this barn. That’s what Kate wanted to see, right?—where Dan’s and Eddie’s drives landed? I bet there was a farm around here once. Imagine that—a farm right here on Mackinac Island! Kate: Don’t scare us like that. We thought you were getting killed or something. Pete: Well, if it was so dangerous, why didn’t you warn me?

Dan: We figured you knew. Didn’t you hear Mr. Dennis tell about the bum who has been bothering golfers lately? We were afraid it might be Herman What’s-His- Name that Ginny Lind told us about—the guy who broke up our picnic on Round Island. Pete: I must have missed that part.

Eddie: Well, he’s evidently not here or he’d be screaming at us by now. I say we forget the lost balls and get back on the course. Kate: Wait a minute, let’s search that barn. If it is the same guy that broke up our picnic this morning, then he’s still on Round Island. Remember? Ginny said he must be traveling by night or someone would have seen him rowing during the day. Dan: That’s right, maybe something in the barn will tell us what he’s doing over there. Pete: What if it’s not the same guy? What if the man Mr. Dennis was talking about is still in the barn sound asleep?

Appendix #23a

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Kate: I doubt, with two direct hits on his bedroom wall he’d be resting too comfortably. From inside, those balls must have sounded like cannon shots. Whoever it is, by now, he’d be out here, giving us an earful. Dan: We’re wasting time, my bet is that the guy who’s staying here is Herman and he’s on Round Island right now. I’m with Kate. Let’s see what’s in there. Narrator: He turned toward the open door. Kate was right with him. Pete glanced at Eddie, who shrugged and followed Dan and Kate into the barn. Although there were no windows, plenty of light filtered through the cracks and missing boards of the musty building. It was not a large barn, about the size of a two-car- garage—more like a storage shed. Pete: Well, I don’t see anything. Let’s go.

Kate: Wait, there a ladder going up the loft.

Eddie: The rungs don’t look very sturdy, I wouldn’t trust it.

Kate: Looks strong enough for me.

Narrator: Without hesitation, she scaled the ladder to the upper floor.

Kate: (yelled) Guys! Come here! Hurry!

Narrator: Dan was on his way. Eddie tested the first step with all his weight—then the second—then joined the others in the stifling heat of the poorly ventilated loft. Pete waited for Eddie to clear the top rung and then slowly followed. What they found would have made a mother cringe. A bale of straw had been used as a makeshift bed. A pair of grimy overalls and a few tattered shirts were tossed in a corner. Bread wrappers and tin cans littered the area. Apparently, the man had no one around to tell him to clean his room. Eddie: Okay, so? The guy’s a slob. It doesn’t make him a criminal.

Kate: This might…

Narrator: Uncovering a faded green metal container about the size of Pete’s tackle box. Dan: (whispered) What do you suppose is in it?

Kate: It’s kind of rusty. I can’t open it.

Dan: Let me try.

Narrator: He took the box and moved over by the wall where a missing board let in a beam of dusty sunlight. Pete: Hurry, the guy could come in here any second.

Appendix #23b MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Dan: There, I’ve got it.

Narrator: The hinged top creaked and Dan peered inside. He glanced first at a hand- drawn map of Mackinac Island with X’s and O’s along the East and East and West Bluffs. He put that back and took out a thin packet. Kate: (urged) Open it.

Narrator: Dan carefully loosened the tape, revealing a wad of money. He fanned the bills for the others to see. Dan: Looks like about a thousand dollars.

Narrator: He resealed the envelope and reached deeper into the box, where he found a thick booklet. Dan: It’s this year’s Great Lakes shipping schedule.

Narrator: He began turning the pages until he came to a section heavily smudged with use. This part lists every boat that comes through northern Lake Huron, with the scheduled date and time of its passing various lighthouses. Eddie: You’re kidding, what would a bum want with that?

Dan: I don’t know, but two names are underlined: here on this page, the V.A. Frazier and over here on this page, the Quince. Look here. Today, August 20th at 3:30, the V.A. Frazier passed through between Mackinac and Round Island. Eddie: 03:30, that’s military talk for 3:30A.M! Do you think that’s what Herman’s been doing in the middle of the night?—going out and meeting freighter? Kate: No freighters stop at Round Island. There’s no dock. And I’ve never seen a freighter dead in the water anywhere around here except waiting to be locked through at the Sault. Dan: I don’t get it, either, but the next underlined entry is for the Quince on August 23rd. It doesn’t say what time it comes through, but those are the only two ships that are underlined in the whole book. Kate: That looks like an official government publication. How would a shiftless bum have gotten such a thing? Eddie: Maybe he stole it from the Coast Guard station in town.

Pete: Or maybe it was given to him by a certain lighthouse keeper. Like Jesse Muldoon--Holy cow! Maybe it’s Mr. Muldoon who’s staying here. Eddie: Nah, Jesse Muldoon must be in his eighties. Besides, Mr. Dennis told us it was a young guy staying here. Kate: (murmured) There’s something very strange about all of this.

Pete: Let’s get out of here, whoever’s staying in this barn probably doesn’t like it when golf balls bounce off his bedroom wall, but I bet he really hates it when people mess with his stash box. Eddie: I’m with Pete, let’s turn in our clubs.

Appendix #23c

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Kate: (in We’re not going to finish the match? amazement) Eddie: Let’s just call it a tie.

Kate: Tie’ nothing, you’re going to admit defeat or we’ll play it out.

Dan: Okay, you win. I’ve had enough golf for one day. Where did you find this, Kate? Kate: In the corner under some straw. Here I’ll put it back.

Narrator: The three boys watched as Kate returned the box to its hiding place, then slid down the ladder, gathered their golf bags and hurried back to the seventh fairway.

Appendix #23d

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #5

What connections do the four friends make from the clues they find in the barn?

Answer Plan: What to do: 1. Write a sentence restating the question. 2. Write a sentence or two telling what clues they find in the barn. 3. Write a sentence about what they do because of these clues. 4. Conclude with a sentence telling what roles they think they should now play.

Possible Answer (1) After hitting stray golf balls against an old barn (on purpose), the four friends search the barn for clues. (2) Kate finds a green metal tackle box that contains a hand-drawn map of Mackinac Island with x’s and o’s along the East and West Bluffs, a wad of money, and a Great Lakes shipping schedule with two ship names underlined. (3) Because of these clues, the friends go to the Coast Grand Station to check out the ships. They find out that one is a freighter and the other is a charter boat, the Quince, owned by Buck Meesley. (4) Because the only policeman is in jail, the four friends decide to appoint themselves detectives and “Keepers of Justice” because there is a mystery to be solved.

Appendix #24

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #6

What is Pete trying to get across when he sarcastically says, “Haven’t you three heard enough?” Pete asked. “The guy we’re scared of seeing face to face  a man who plays with knives, fire and for some bizarre reason known only to himself, chicken blood  turns out to be under the thumb of an even scarier guy who might be working for someone else  maybe aboard the V. A. Frazier. Whatever their game is, I doubt if it’s nearly as much fun as, say, tiddlywinks.”?

Possible Answer: Here are previous instances in which Pete has tried to warn the others of the danger they are in: • nervous about the dinghy, p. 14 • comments about the twins’ dreams, p. 22 • at Indian burial ground, p. 23; • the note in the dinghy, p. 26 • chance to play golf instead of looking for Herman, p. 46 • at the barn, p. 55 and p. 57 • wild west vigilantes, p. 58.

Appendix #25 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Reader’s Theater for Mystery at Round Island Light The Plan Chapter 15, (pp. 73-76) By Robert Lytle

Narrator: Dinner that evening with Mr. and Mrs. Anderson was another feast. Chef Zachary had prepared a lamb and rice dish in orange gravy that was beyond words. For Pete, that was terrific, but even better was that the conversation never got around to Herman, Buck and the two boats. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because his friends had forgotten—they just didn’t want to bring it up in front of the Andersons, who would surely put an end to the enterprise if they had even a clue what the kids were up to. So, after dessert, the four stood, excused themselves and went to the Straits Room. Kate quickly spread some books and maps on the large, round table. Pete: All you’re doing here is guessing. Herman might just simply be a down-on-his- luck bum. We have no proof that he’s working with the Quince or the V.A. Frazier. Eddie: You’re right, but when you put a puzzle together, even if some of the pieces are missing, what you see is probably what the picture will be. Dan: (agreed) And we’ve got a lot of the pieces. It sure looks like something funny is going on. Pete: It all seems too far-fetched.

Kate: (agreed) If we hadn’t found that shipping schedule in Herman’s box with the Quince and the V.A. Frazier underlined. Pete: (argued) What would keep Herman from just taking the money he gets and leaving Mackinac—never to he seen again? Dan: I don’t know. But according to Mr. Colesmith, Buck Meesley’s got Herman’s number. Pete: If this is so clear, why don’t you tell your aunt and uncle?

Kate: We still don’t have any real proof. We’re not sure what they’re doing, who they’re doing it with. Pete: (argued) But we’ve seen enough to know that they’re dangerous.

Kate: Nothing’s going to happen. (reassuringly) Dan: It’s dark now. I’ll bet Herman is getting ready to row back here from Round Island I wonder where he keeps his boat. Eddie: Here or there?

Dan: Both, we walked the whole shore of Round Island this morning and didn’t see it. Eddie: We weren’t looking for a boat.

Appendix #26a MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Kate: That’s right and it could be kept anywhere here on Mackinac, under the boardwalk, by the coal dock, over at Mission Point—anywhere. Pete: (yawning) I’ve had enough for one day. I’m going to bed. Dan: Me too, we’ll want an early start tomorrow.

Narrator: At seven A.M. a tap came at Pete’s door.

Dan: Come on, Pete. Everyone’s dressed and downstairs.

Narrator: Pete opened his eyes. The crisp morning air made him want to slide back under the covers. The bright, sunny sky and the full night’s sleep, on the other hand made him want to bound out of bed. The slide-back-under-the-covers won out momentarily, but as he was drawing the quilt around him, he remembered Kate. He wished sometimes that he wasn’t so taken with her. But he was. Any chance he could be with her he could plunge into headfirst. Right now, she was waiting for him at breakfast—doing something else he could never resist: eating warm pastries and fresh fruit. He was out of bed and into his clothes before he could change his mind. It wasn’t until he sat down at the Straits Room table and saw the sun rising above the Round Island Lighthouse that he remembered the whole Herman-and-Buck deal. Kate: Good Morning, did you sleep okay?

Pete: Like a bunny in a burrow. How about you?—none of your weird dreams, I hope. Kate: No, nothing like that, I wish you were more excited about our adventure. Pete: It just seems that we might be getting ourselves in a real pickle.

Kate: (taunted) Sometimes I think you’d be afraid of your own shadow.

Pete: My shadow hardly ever throws knives or plays with chicken blood.

Narrator: Looking over toward Dan and Eddie.

Pete: So, what’s our plan?

Dan: If we’re right, and Herman waited until the middle of the night to row across from Round Island, then he’s probably sleeping in the morning. Eddie: We want to get into his barn when he’s not there, so we figure he’ll get up around noon and then, with some of the money we saw in his stash box, he’ll go into town and get something to eat. Dan: If we tee off from Wawashkamo at eleven, that would get us to the seventh hole at about 12:30. Eddie’s drive should put us at Herman’s doorstep a few minutes later. If he’s not yelling at us, we can assume he’s not there. Then we check the stick that Kate put at his barn door to see if it’s been moved. If it has, it means he’s been there and gone. If so, we go in to see what’s in the box.

Appendix #26b

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Pete: Sounds like a lot of ifs to me. What if one of your guesses is wrong? What if we stumble inside and find ourselves facing a madman with a handful of razor- sharp daggers? Kate: Yes, that would be bad, all right, well, let’s go.

Narrator: Pete choked on his orange juice.

Pete: Let’s go? What do you mean “Let’s go?” What about the knives?

Kate: Relax, Pete, nothing’s going to happen. You’ll see.

Appendix #26c

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #7

How does Pete feel about Kate? What effect does this have on what Pete does?

Answer Plan 1. Restate the question and begin to answer it. 2. Give details to prove your point. 3. Predict his behavior from now on. Will he change or continue to try to impress Kate?

Possible Answer (1) Pete has been interested in Kate since the beginning, and it has made him do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do. (2) In the beginning of the novel he knew they shouldn’t try crossing the shipping channel in a little dinghy, but he went because he wanted to be near her. In Chapter 15 he wakes up thinking of her fondly and only later remembers his reluctance to get anymore involved with the “…Herman-and-Buck deal.” (3) He’ll probably continue to go along to be near her.

Appendix #27

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Reader’s Theater for Mystery at Round Island Light Cat Burglar Chapter 18, (pp.87-89 By Robert Lytle

Narrator: Kate led the others into the Town Crier office. Ginny Lind glanced up from the article she was writing for her Kids’ Kolumn of the weekly paper. Ginny: What’s knew?

Kate: Plenty. And we need your help. That Herman LeRoux-guy you told us about?—We think he’s part of some smuggling ring. We don’t know what he’s dealing in or how he’s doing it, but he’s got about four thousand dollars more than he did yesterday. Dan: Have you heard about anything going on that he might be mixed up in? Ginny: Now that you mention it, this morning an East Bluff cottager came into the office and told my dad that his wife has been missing some jewelry for over a week. Now that in itself would hardly be enough to get excited about, but she’s not the only one. It happened to someone from the West Bluff only two days ago. Olivia Hurst is in a real lather over an emerald bracelet that she was sure she had left on her vanity table. Dan: (gasped) Did you say Olivia Hurst?

Ginny: (surprised) Yes, why?

Dan: Because Olivia Hurst is Denton Hurst’s wife. That explains the note I found in Herman’s box. There was whole list of initials—some of them crossed off. D.H. was the last one with a line through it. Kate: What was the next one?

Narrator: Dan was lost in thought.

Dan: Please?

Kate: If D.H. was the last one with a line through it, what were the next initials that hadn’t been checked off? Dan: Oh, uh, I don’t know. D.H. only caught my eye because it’s my own initials. I was trying to figure out what the letters had to do with the boats on the shipping schedule. None made any sense. But now, it’s obvious! Denton Hurst’s cottage is part of Herman’s list of burglary targets. Eddie: This changes everything.

Kate: It sure does. First of all, it means that Herman isn’t simply a go-between for Buck and the guy aboard the V.A. Frazier. Herman is the thief. He may even be the brains behind the whole scheme.

Appendix #28a MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Eddie: Let’s not get carried away. One look at Herman LeRoux and brainy’ is hardly a word you’d use to describe him. Ginny: (urged) Think hard, what were some of the other initials?

Narrator: Dan closed his eyes. He finally shook his head.

Dan: No good. I can’t remember any of them.

Kate: Well, I guess that leaves just one thing for us to do.

Pete: (hopefully) Drop the whole thing?

Kate: No, we’ve got to go back to Herman’s barn and find that list. It will tell us who he has robbed—that will prove our case—and it will also tell us where he plans on breaking into next. Pete: You must be joking! He’d kill us!

Dan: We’ll just have to be more careful. But Kate’s right. We have to get those names. Kate: So, if Herman is doing the stealing, who wrote the list?

Dan: Good question. The handwriting wasn’t anything like the warning message to us on Round Island. Eddie: The initials in Herman’s stash box were done in blue ink, but they were crossed off with thick, black pencil marks—the same kind of lead that was used in the note on the dinghy. Kate: Who else has had things stolen?

Ginny: Mostly East Bluff people. Denton Hurst’s cottage was the only one so far on the West Bluff. Pete: (asked Dan) Isn’t the West Bluff where your aunt and uncle live?

Dan: (nodded) The Hursts are only three doors away.

Eddie: Do you think Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have heard about the robberies? Kate: I don’t know. It’s not as if they meet at the well every night and chat like Pete’s family and neighbors do in the Snows. Dan: It’s almost noon, we’ll ask Aunt and Uncle over lunch.

Kate: Will you be here at the newspaper office this afternoon, Ginny?

Ginny: Most of the time, but if you hear anything, let me know. Don’t even think about leaving me out of this. A jewelry bust would be the biggest story of the summer and I want the scoop.

Appendix #28b MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #8

What theory have the four friends come up with to explain Herman’s growing stack of money?

Answer Plan 1. Restate the question and begin to answer it. 2. Give details telling what the friends have found out and what Ginny adds. 3. Predict where the friends are in solving the mystery.

Possible Answer (1) When the friends visit Ginny at the Town Crier office, Kate reveals that they think Herman Le Roux is involved in a smuggling ring. (2) They don’t know what he’s smuggling, but he all of a sudden has four thousand more dollars. Ginny adds to the smuggling theory by telling them about a number of jewelry thefts that have been reported. Finally, the five of them (Ginny included) connect the initials on Herman’s list to one of the thefts and then connect the thick pencil lead with which the note on Round Island was written to the pencil marks crossing out the initials of the theft victim. (3) They seem to be close to solving the mystery.

Appendix #29

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Focus Question #9

What did Herman mean when he said “All your planning, all the jobs I pulled, all Sam’s dealin’ with the guy in Chicago  all lost because of them golf-playin’ rich kids?” (p. 99)

Possible Answer:

“All your planning,“ probably refers to Buck’s masterminding the jewelry stealing/smuggling scheme.

“…all the jobs I pulled,” probably refers to Herman’s stealing the jewelry from Mackinac Island homes

“..all Sam’s dealin’ may refer to fencing the stolen jewelry. with the guy in Chicago”

“…all lost on account of probably refers to the five friends snooping of them golf-playin’ rich where they didn’t belong and finding out about kids.” the scheme.

Appendix #30

MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Vocabulary/Grammar Categories

Boating Terms Mystery/Crime Strong or Vivid Descriptive Words Verbs Adjectives

Appendix #31a MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Vocabulary/Grammar Categories

Boating Terms Mystery/Crime Strong or Vivid Descriptive Words Verbs Adjectives dinghy p. 14 stealth and cunning ambled p. 13 deranged p. 12 p. 33 gunwales p. 15 quivered p. 14 agile p. 14 lethal p. 33 breakwater p. 16 wobbled p. 14 hazardous p. 15 accomplices p. 35 headway p. 16 glowered p. 49 vicious p. 33 vigilantes p. 58 swamp p. 17 chortled p. 50 squalid p. 3 smuggling p. 87 putt-putted p. 18 smirk pp. 50 and shiftless p. 57 go-between p. 88 115 trawler p. 29 dimly-lit p. 63 bust p. 89 fidgeted p. 61 tender p. 29 daunting p. 63 nabbed p. 109 grimaced p. 65 comber p. 30 gaunt p. 64 alibi p. 109 plummeted p. 85 red nun p. 40 aghast p. 85 heist p. 114 cringed p. 95 schooner p.92 gruff p. 94 gunnysacks p. 117 skulked p. 117 gangplank p. 92 ritzy p. 114 loot p. 135 dashed p. 135 marina p. 99 persnickety p. 117 witnesses p. 147 thundered p. 137 chartered p.99 wily p. 118 seared p. 139 astern p. 144 smoldering p. 135 dousing p.140 stowaways p. 145 sprinting p. 137

parched p. 139

Reader’s Theater for Mystery at Round Island Light The List Chapter 21, (pp. 101-106) By Robert Lytle

Narrator: The five bikers sped away from Wawashkamo down the hill.

Dan: Ginny, is your father at the Town Crier now? Ginny: Probably, Why?

Dan: We’ll need some help with these guys, we won’t be able to stop Buck and Herman if they decide to board the Quince and cast off. Kate: If they know what’s good for them, they won’t even try. The Coast Guard would head them off before they got out of the harbor. Pete: Maybe Buck and Herman don’t realize we know about the Quince.

Dan: They must think by now that we were following Herman. Herman’s seen us three times already. If he hasn’t figured it out, Buck surely will. Pete: They might wait and take the Quince out tonight.

Eddie: There aren’t very many nineteenth-century schooners around the Lakes. The Quince would stick out like a donkey at the Derby. They’d get caught sooner or later. Eddie: How come you didn’t try to catch up with us after you sneezed, Pete?

Pete: I kept falling down and by the time I could get up, I heard Buck and Herman coming down the ladder. I’d have run right into them as they came out the door. Kate: So, what did you do while they were chasing us?

Pete: I knew how much you wanted that list, so when I saw them following you out on the golf course, I decided I’d have time to go inside the barn and find it. Narrator: Kate nearly veered off the road as she stared at Pete in amazement.

Kate: You what?

Pete: (calmly) I thought if I could find that sheet and memorize a few of the initials, we might warn the people so they wouldn’t get robbed Ginny: It’s a wonder you didn’t get caught up there.

Pete: Yeah, I guess it was pretty stupid.

Appendix #32a

Kate: Stupid’ nothing, that’s the most daring thing I’ve ever heard.

Pete: Sometimes daring and stupid are the same thing.

Narrator: Kate considered that for a moment.

Kate: I suppose, anyway, did you find the note?

Pete: Yep.

Kate: (persisted) You’re kidding! Do you remember the initials?

Pete: I think so, I put them in sort of a rhyme. Three of the ones with lines through them were H.V., A.G. and C.B. Narrator: Ginny Lind knew all the Mackinac residents, year-round and seasonal. She quickly filled in the names. Ginny: Henry Vanderbilt, Abner Getty and Cyrus Briggs. All wealthy East Bluff cottagers—and all reported missing jewelry. Pete: Three that weren’t crossed off were B.K., W.A. and R.J.

Ginny: Bernard Kroger, Walter Appleby and Ramsey Jackson. All on the West Bluff and none with any thefts reported.

Pete: One other was circled.

Dan: (anxiously) Really? What was it?

Pete: G.A.

Dan: (whispered) George Anderson. Uncle George.

Kate: I’ll bet they were planning on Aunt and Uncle’s place for their final job. Dan: Could be, but they must know better than trying anything like that now. Narrator: As he rode along, Pete felt something uncomfortable in his left hip pocket. He reached back and pulled out a skeleton key. Remembering where it had come from, he showed it to Kate. Pete: I found this in the box, too.

Kate: What could that old thing go to?

Ginny: Around here? As old as the buildings are, it might work on any of them.

Dan: I saw it in the box this morning, but it wasn’t there yesterday. Herman must have had it with him on Round Island.

Appendix #32b

Kate: Do you think it’s the key to the lighthouse? I remember looking at the keyhole when we were there. It wasn’t a modern lock, I know that much. Narrator: The five bikers picked up speed as they approached Grand Hill. Soon they were flying past carriages, tourists and street sweepers. After making the left turn at Market Street, Kate and Ginny stopped at the Town Crier office. Kate: You guys go ahead, Ginny and I will talk to Mr. Lind and then meet you at the yacht dock. Dan: We’ll be aboard the M.I.S.T. It’s close enough to the Quince that we can watch for Herman and Buck if they try to get away. I’m sure they couldn’t have beat us down here. We had a pretty good head start. Pete: And I know for a fact that silver and blue Schwinn is out of commission. Eddie: That’s true, but they might have found your bike, Pete. They could be riding double like we did. They might even have beaten us. We did stop at the clubhouse. Kate: We’ll hurry.

Narrator: The three boys continued to the yacht dock and boarded the M.I.S.T. There was no sign of Buck or Herman at the Quince so they sat in the shadows and watched for the thieves. Twenty minutes passed. Kate and Ginny came slowly down the hill beside Doud’s Market. Ginny was watching the Quince while Kate had her eyes on the M.I.S.T. They got off their bikes and joined the boys aboard the yacht. Kate: Any action?

Dan: No, nothing. Not even the family that chartered her.

Pete: (whispered) Don’t you think it’s time we turned in our badges?

Eddie: Please?

Pete: You know, quit playing cops-and-robbers. How about we let all those state police and county sheriffs earn their keep? Kate: Oh, Pete, there’s no danger. We’re just…

Pete: (softly) Kate, I was inches from taking one of Herman’s knives in the back--and not just once, twice. We are in danger. These guys are desperate. The best thing we can do is stay out of their way. If they want to board the Quince and sail off into the sunset—fine. I just don’t think we need to be the ones to stop them. Ginny: My dad called the mayor; the mainland police will be coming on the next boat from Mackinaw City. Narrator: Thirty minutes later two uniformed men walked quickly along the marina dock toward the M.I.S.T. The five teens hopped off the Anderson yacht and met them. Ginny: It was my father who called you.

Appendix #32c

Sergeant Glenn: All right, what’s going on here?

Narrator: Dan stepped forward and explained all that had happened, from the warning message on Round Island to Pete’s narrow escape from Herman’s knives. He finished with a quick description of the two thieves. Sergeant Glenn: Did you get a look at those two men?—the ones that ran off the Arnold boat in Mackinaw City?

The Officer: Not real close. It could have been them. They sure were in a rush.

Sergeant Glenn: Unfortunately nothing you’ve told us can be proven. Those initials, for (sigh) example. They could refer to anyone—or anything. Those knives—who saw the man throw them? Pete: (almost I did! One nicked my shoe and the other stuck in a tree next to my head. shouted) Couldn’t have missed me by a foot. The Officer: Anyone else see it?

Narrator: Everyone shook their heads.

Sergeant Glenn: There, see? Their word against just one boy’s. There’s nothing I can arrest a man for. But, to be on the safe side, I’ll keep Officer Beckman posted here at the sailboat. He’ll talk to Mr. Meesley when he gets back. I’ll spend a few days checking with those people whose initials you think were on that note. Now I’d like to see the barn where this Herman LeRoux is staying. Dan: Sure. It’s up by Wawashkamo Golf Course. Follow us on our bikes. Narrator: Sergeant Glenn borrowed a dockmaster’s two wheeler and followed Pete and his friends up to the top of the island. They found all of Herman’s trash, but the box was gone. For the next two days Officer Beckman guarded the yacht dock and Sergeant Glenn checked the other leads, but neither Buck nor Herman were anywhere to be found on Mackinac Island.

Focus Question #10

It seems like the mystery surrounding Buck and Herman has been solved. Explain what has happened?

Possible Answer:

Using the list that Pete memorized from Herman’s box, the five friends connected the crossed off initials to cottagers who had reported missing jewelry. The initials not crossed off were neighbors of the twin’s uncle and aunt, and the circled initials were those of the twin’s uncle. Even with this evidence, the police could not charge Buck and Herman. Then Ginny revealed that two men had been arrested in Illinois, and no more robberies had taken place. That seemed to have closed the case, and the five friends decided to camp out on Round Island.

Appendix #33

Focus Question #11

Give the details of the plan that is revealed in the flashback in Chapter 23.

Answer Plan 1. Write a sentence to tell how the author reveals Buck’s plan. 2. Write two or three sentences giving details of the plan. Try to include a quote or two. 3. Make a prediction about the success or failure of the plan.

Possible Answer (1) The author again uses a flashback to the night of the storm to reveal Buck’s jewelry heist plan. (2) Buck would trade his boat for a boat they could fit out and charter. Sam would be a deck hand on a freighter so he can fence stolen goods in Chicago. Herman would “…sneak into those ritzy cottages on Mackinac, swipe a few knicknacks from each one and get out without no on the wiser for it.” After they “…lighten the loads of rich folks,” they would go south and live like kings. (3) With the friends off on a camping trip, the plan may succeed.

Appendix #34

Mystery at Round Island Light “Ghost” Story (pp. 124) By Robert Lytle

Ginny began with a tale about a sailing ship in 1832 that wasn’t allowed to land at Mackinac Harbor. Some of its passengers were sick and fear of a cholera plague steeled the hearts of the Islanders against the seafaring strangers.

The captain had to anchor here off Round Island. He brought the passengers ashore in a dory. They had to stay in quarantine for two weeks. As the days passed, one by one, each of the travelers, devoured by fever and racked in pain, screamed to a horrible death. The brave captain suffered the worst and was the last to die. Two weeks later soldiers came from the fort and found the captain’s decayed body sprawled here on this very part of the beach. His bony arms were stretched toward Mackinac and his mouth was wide-open, frozen for all eternity in his last pitiful scream of death. “Sometimes, when I’m at home in bed, I’ll be startled by bloodcurdling wails coming from across the water. I’ll sit up, scared out of my wits and listen. At first, I’ll think it’s a dream, but then, as I’m sitting silently, barely breathing, my eyes wide open, I hear it again. The first time it happened I was three, maybe four years old. I pulled off my covers and ran to my parents’ room. I asked my father what the horrible sound was. I’ll never forget his answer. ‘Ginny,’ he said, ‘some people think it’s sea gulls fighting over the carcass of a fish—a trout or a pike, risen from the deep in death. The cry is, indeed, a fair likeness. But those who know of that ancient cholera ship—they’ll tell you what it really is. For in truth, it is the captain’s ghost, pacing Round Island’s shore throughout eternity, mournfully calling for the merciful rescue of his passengers—a plea that will never be answered.’

Mystery at Round Island Light “Ghost” Story (pp. 126) By Robert Lytle

Next, Ginny told another story about an English commander at Ford Mackinac:

Way back in 1795, when Captain Daniel Robertson was in charge of Fort Mackinac, he went hunting with a bunch of his officers on a nearby island. It happened to be the same island where a tribe of Ojibwas were camping. There, by chance, he met a beautiful Indian princess. They fell in love at first sight, but unknown to Captain Robertson, the princess was already spoken for. She was supposed to marry a chief from a distant tribe who was many years older than she and who already had four wives. She was sickened by his ugliness and despised him, but her father, who was the chief of her tribe, insisted that she marry him.

She begged Captain Robertson to take her to Mackinac Island and marry her and so he did. On their wedding night, they had a huge reception at his new home on the edge of the bluff. With the party in full swing, the ugly chief came to take her away. He grabbed her and in the scuffle, they both fell over the cliff, landing two hundred feet below on the rocky shore. They were both dead.

Genre: Folktale

Folktales are stories that have been told and passed along by word of mouth then sometimes written down.

Definition: • A narrative form, as an epic, legend, myth, fable, etc., that is or has been retold within a culture for generations and is well known through repeated storytelling (from Harris, et al. The Literacy Dictionary, IRA, 1995) • Folktales include “the body of ancient stories and poems that grew out of the human quest to understand the natural and spiritual worlds” (Tomlinson and Lynch-Brown (1996) from Kathleen Buss and Lee Karnowski. Reading and Writing Literary Genres, IRA, 2000) • Forms of narrative that have been handed down, usually orally, including epic, fairy tale, ballad, myth, legend, fable, tall tale, ghost story, etc. (from Margaret Mooney, Text Forms and Features, Richard C. Owen, 2001)

Purpose: • To tell an interesting story • To reveal human nature (how people are and act) • To teach values, practices and cultural beliefs • To encourage readers’/listeners’ imaginations • To show how humans are alike in important ways (universal human qualities) • To scare listeners through building of eerie mood and suspense (ghost stories)

Form: • Folktales have story elements: characters in settings with problems, attempts to solve problems (events), resolution and lesson(s) (themes).

Features: • Usually short • Almost always end happily • The “underdog” usually triumphs or good overcomes evil. • Wishes come true as the result of a struggle or test. • The setting emphasizes a culture or a country. • Characters (people, animals, or nature) are flat or not developed (not needing a lot of explanation). The main character will change by the end of the story. • There are sometimes one or more of five common motifs: magical powers, transformations, magical objects, wishes, and trickery. • The plot is not developed but linear, revolving around the character’s actions to solve the problem.

Focus Question #12 How does the author, Robert Lytle, build suspense in Chapters 25 and 26?

Answer Plan 1. Introduce the answer. 2. Write a number of sentences telling what the author did to build suspense. 3. Conclude by predicting how the growing suspense might affect the reader.

Possible Answer: (1) Toward the end of Mystery at Round Island Light in Chapter 25 and 26, the author builds even more suspense. (2) He has the five friends, who are camping on a mysterious island, scaring each other with ghost stories. Then in Chapter 26, the author switches back and forth between the camp-out and Buck and Herman. Buck and Herman have to hurry to be sure to make the rendezvous with Sam. A terrible rainstorm interrupts the camp-out on the beach. Buck and Herman make it to Round Island and break into the lighthouse. The five friends hear the door slamming; Pete goes to investigate and is almost discovered by Buck and Herman. Buck and Herman go up to light the signal for Sam, discover the campers and decide to set a fire. As the author goes back and forth, the suspense builds. (3) The growing suspense makes readers want to find out what happens.

Appendix #36

Focus Question #13

As you have read this novel, you have been encouraged to use comprehension strategies to help you understand and figure out the story. One strategy that has just been mentioned is visualization or making pictures in your mind. Visualizing will help you understand the scene in the lighthouse when Pete is trying to put out the fire. What do you see as you visualize this scene?

Possible Answer:

• Pete ran into the lake to get his clothes wet, wrapped his wet T-shirt around his head and mouth, returned to the door, and leapt through the wall of flames. • He tried to put out the fire around the wooden beam. • He searched for a pail to put out the flames, but he was overcome and fell to the floor. • He saw someone he thought was Jesse Muldoon and asked for his help. • “Jesse” told Pete to fill the pails and follow him. They returned again and again with pails of water to douse the flames. • Finally, clouds of smoke replaced the flames, and the fire was out. • Pete tried to thank “Jesse,” but “Jesse” was gone. • Pete raced up the stairs and freed his friends.

Focus Question #14

What evidence points to Jesse Muldoon’s not really being there helping Pete put out the fire?

Answer Plan 1. Restate the question. 2. Cite the evidence that proves that Jesse was not there. 3. Conclude by giving your explanation for what actually happened.

Possible Answer (1) There is quite a bit of evidence that Jesse Muldoon was not there at least in body to help Pete put out the fire. (2) The door to the boat launch room had been boarded-up for six years. There were only two pails, not four. The signal from the lighthouse that Mr. Dufina told the friends about, was probably Jesse Muldoon’s “…life flickering out.” (3) What probably actually happened is that Pete felt the spirit of Jesse Muldoon helping him. Pete had heard so many stories about how much Jesse had cared about the lighthouse that he imagined “Jesse” there.

Appendix #38

Genre: Newspaper News Article

A news article gives factual information about a current topic.

Newspaper Article

Definition: • An article in a newspaper that gives facts on a current topic: who, what, where, when, and sometimes how – not why

Purpose • To give factual information • To tell what happened and/or what was said • To report events factually and objectively

Form and Features • News articles are usually written by journalists or reporters. • A key or topic sentence telling who, what, where, when, and sometimes, how, comes first. • Details are added in order of importance. (Space limitations in the newspaper may dictate cutting part of an article – the end – to put in another piece of breaking news.) • Must be well-researched • Follow standard rules of grammar, punctuation, and format

Adapted from Margaret Mooney, Text, Forms and Features, 2001, Richard C. Owen.

Newspaper News Article Bookmark Newspaper News Article Bookmark Newspaper News Article Bookmark A news article gives factual information about a current A news article gives factual information about a current A news article gives factual information about a current topic. topic. topic. Name: Name: Name:

Title: Title: Title:

Answer questions and write a brief reminder of the Answer questions and write a brief reminder of the Answer questions and write a brief reminder of the genre characteristics you find as you read. genre characteristics you find as you read. genre characteristics you find as you read.

Summarize factual information: Summarize factual information: Summarize factual information:

Tells who, what, where, when, and sometimes, how: Tells who, what, where, when, and sometimes, how: Tells who, what, where, when, and sometimes, how:

Who: Who: Who: What: What: What:

Where: Where: Where: When: When: When: How: How: How:

Genre: Newspaper Feature Article

A feature article gives factual information but emphasizes the human interest side of the story.

Newspaper Feature Article

Definition: • An article in a newspaper or magazine that places emphasis on people or social issues rather than facts or news

Purpose • To give information of human interest • To evoke an emotional response • To provide another view or more information on topical issues and events • To highlight an achievement

Form and Features • Does not necessarily follow structure of news article – may be based on importance, flashbacks, sequence, or be a descriptive character sketch • Must be well-researched • Title and/or introductory sentence designed to capture the reader’s curiosity • Concluding section should tie loose ends together and provide finality without summarizing text • Writing should have originality and crispness.

Adapted from Margaret Mooney, Text, Forms and Features, 2001, Richard C. Owen.

Appendix #39c

Newspaper Feature Article Bookmark Newspaper Feature Article Bookmark Newspaper Feature Article Bookmark A feature article gives factual information, but A feature article gives factual information, but A feature article gives factual information, but emphasizes the human interest of the story. emphasizes the human interest of the story. emphasizes the human interest of the story. Name: Name: Name:

Title: Title: Title:

Information of human interest: Information of human interest: Information of human interest:

Title and/or introductory sentence designed to capture Title and/or introductory sentence designed to capture Title and/or introductory sentence designed to capture the reader’s curiosity: the reader’s curiosity: the reader’s curiosity:

Conclusion ties loose ends together and provides Conclusion ties loose ends together and provides Conclusion ties loose ends together and provides finality without summarizing text: finality without summarizing text: finality without summarizing text:

Appendix #39d

Focus Question #15

Some people would say that the authors of The Mary Celeste and the main characters, Kate and Dan Hinken, Pete Jenkins, Eddie Terkel, and Ginny Lind in the novel, Mystery at Round Island Light take on and meet the challenge of solving a mystery. Do you agree? Yes or No?

Explain your answer using specific details and examples from the selections to support your position. Show how the two selections are alike or connected. Use the checklist (below) as you write and review your response.

CHECKLIST FOR REVISION:

______Do I take a position and clearly answer the question I was asked?

______Do I support my answer with example and detail from BOTH reading selections?

______Do I show how the two reading selections are connected?

______Is my writing organized and complete?

Appendix #40

MEAP Integrated English Language Arts Assessment MS – HS Rubric Writing in Response to Reading (DRAFT 5/30/02)

6 The student effectively synthesizes and applies key ideas, generalizations, and principles from within each reading selection to support a position in response to the scenario question and makes a clear connection between the reading selections. The position and connection are thoroughly developed through the use of appropriate examples and details. There are no misconceptions about the reading selections. There are strong relationships among ideas. Mastery of language use and writing conventions contributes to the effect of the response.

5 The student makes meaningful use of key ideas from within each reading selection to support a position in response to the scenario question and makes a clear connection between the reading selections. The position and connection are well developed through the use of appropriate examples and details. Minor misconceptions may be present. Relationships among ideas are clear to the reader. The language is controlled, and occasional lapses in writing conventions are hardly noticeable.

4 The student makes adequate use of ideas from within each reading selection to support a position in response to the scenario question and makes a connection between the reading selections. This position and connections are supported by examples and details. Minor misconceptions may be present. Language use is correct. Lapses in writing conventions are not distracting.

3 The student make adequate use of ideas from one reading selection OR makes partially successful use of ideas from both reading selections to support a position in response to the scenario question. The position is developed with limited use of examples and details. Misconceptions may indicate only a partial understanding of the reading selections. Language use is correct but limited. Incomplete mastery over writing conventions may interfere with meaning some of the time.

2 The student makes partially successful use of ideas from one reading selection OR minimal use of ideas from both reading selections to support a position in response to the scenario question. The position is underdeveloped. Major misconceptions may indicate minimal understanding of the reading selections. Limited mastery over writing conventions may make the writing difficult to understand.

1 The student does not take a position on the scenario question but makes at least minimal use of ideas from one or both of the reading selections to respond to the scenario question or theme OR minimally uses ideas from only one of the reading selections to support a position in response to the scenario question. Ideas are not developed and may be unclear. Major misconceptions may indicate a lack of understanding of the reading selections. Lack of mastery over writing conventions may make the writing difficult to understand. Not ratable if: a retells/references the reading selections with no connection to the scenario question or theme b off topic c illegible/written in a language other than English d blank/refused to respond e responds to the scenario question with no reference to either of the reading selections Appendix #41 MC5 #4 Appendix © Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Mystery Graphic Organizer

1. The crime... • What is the crime?

• Who did it?

2. The characters… • the victims

• the detectives

• the villain

• another suspect (red-herring)

3. The motive... • The motive or reason behind the crime is

4. The solution…

• How will the mystery end?

• How will the reader discover the solution?

5. The plot…

• Beginning – characters in a setting with a problem

• Middle – o Events of the crime

o Clues (Most important are revealed last.)

o Character’s reactions to events

• End – how the clues lead to the villain’s identification, the motive and the solution

Adapted from Buss and Karnowski. Reading and Writing Literary Genres, IRA, 2000. Appendix #42b