Comprehension Genre Historical Fiction is set in a real time and place in the past. It may include real MAIN SELECTION people and events that • Mighty Jackie: The Strike-out actually happened, along Queen with fictional characters • Skill: Author’s Purpose and events. PAIRED SELECTION • “Baseball Greats” Make Inferences • Text Feature: Table and Analyze Author’s Purpose As you SMALL GROUP OPTIONS read, fill in your Author’s Purpose Map. • Differentiated Instruction, pp. 175M–175V 1ZcS 1ZcS 1ZcS /cbV]`¸a>c`^]aS Read to Find Out What actually made Jackie Comprehension so mighty? GENRE: HISTORICAL FICTION Have a student read the definition of Historical Fiction on Student Book page 152. Students should look for people and details from history in the story. 152 STRATEGY MAKE INFERENCES AND ANALYZE Remind students that making an inference is coming to an informed conclusion based on what they D]QOPcZO`g have read combined with their own Vocabulary Words Review the tested vocabulary words: experiences. legendary, insult, muttered, gaped, flinched, snickering, and fluke. SKILL AUTHOR’S PURPOSE Story Words Students may be unfamiliar with these words. An author’s purpose for writing falls Pronounce the words and give meanings as necessary. into one of three main categories: to exhibition (p. 153): an event for people to watch just for fun entertain, to inform, or to persuade. Identifying the author’s purpose helps pitcher (p. 154): the member of the baseball team who throws the ball to the batter students better understand what they are reading. major-league (p. 154): the highest level in professional baseball 152 Main Selection MIGHTY Main Selection Student page 153 JACKIE Preview and Predict The Strike-out Queen Ask students to read the title, preview by Marissa Moss • Illustrated by C.F. Payne the illustrations, and note questions and predictions about the selection. What sport are the characters in this It was April 2, 1931, and something amazing story playing? was about to happen. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, two teams were about to play an exhibition game of baseball. Set Purposes One was the New York Yankees, a legendary team with famous players—Babe Ruth, Lou FOCUS QUESTION Discuss the “Read Gehrig, and Tony Lazzeri. to Find Out” question on Student Book page 152. Remind students to look for the answer as they read. Students may also set their own purpose for reading. Point out the Author’s Purpose Map in the Student Book and on Practice Book page 40. Explain that students will fill it in as they read. Read Mighty Jackie: The Strike-out Queen Use the questions and Think Alouds to support instruction about the comprehension strategy and skill. 153 On Level Practice Book 0, page 40 As you read Mighty Jackie, fill in the Author’s Purpose Map. Clue Clue Clue If your students need support If your students can read the to read the Main Selection, Main Selection independently, use the prompts to guide have them read and complete comprehension and model the graphic organizer. Remind how to complete the graphic them to adjust their reading organizer. Encourage students rate based on their purpose for to read aloud. reading. Author’s Purpose If your students need alternate selections, choose the Leveled Readers that match their instructional levels. 27=1 C 2 / How does the information you wrote in the Author’s Purpose Map help BSQV\]Z]Ug you to analyze and make inferences about Mighty Jackie? Story available on Listening Library Audio CD Approaching Practice Book A, page 40 Beyond Practice Book B, page 40 Mighty Jackie 153 Main Selection Student page 154 Develop Comprehension 1 The other was the Chattanooga Lookouts, a small team, a nothing team, except for the pitcher, 1 WRITER’S CRAFT: A GOOD TOPIC Jackie Mitchell. Jackie was young, only seventeen years old, The author states that the Chattanooga but that’s not what made people sit up and take notice. Lookouts were “a small team, a nothing Jackie was a girl, and everyone knew that girls didn’t play team, except for the pitcher, Jackie 2 major-league baseball. Mitchell.” Marissa Moss has narrowed The New York Daily News sneered that she would swing “a mean lipstick” instead of a bat. A reporter the topic of this story to focus on wrote that you might as well have “a trained seal behind a real-life heroine. What facts on the plate” as have a woman standing there. But Jackie page 154 show you that the author was no trained seal. She was a pitcher, a mighty good one. has chosen an interesting topic? The question was, was she good enough to play against 3 the New York Yankees? (Suggested answer: She says that Jackie was a girl and “everyone knew that girls didn’t play major-league baseball.” She quotes newspaper coverage that “sneered” at Jackie. She tells us that Jackie was a mighty good pitcher, and she asks whether Jackie was good enough to play against the New York Yankees. This certainly sounds like a good topic for a story.) 2 STRATEGY MAKE INFERENCES AND ANALYZE 154 Teacher Think Aloud I can tell that this will be no ordinary story about baseball. The author makes it clear that the main character in the story is unusual. Not only is Jackie just seventeen years old, but most people had never seen a female Sports Reporting pitcher play before. As I read, I Explain News media have always responded to the desire of sports will be looking for clues about the fans for information about their favorite sports teams and players. author’s purpose in writing about Discuss Have students discuss media they use for news about this special young woman. I will sports, including newspaper and Internet articles or programs on analyze the way she puts the story TV and radio. Ask students how local news media report on local together to see if her main purpose teams. Is their coverage always fair to the opposing team and its is to entertain, inform, or persuade. players? Students should listen to and critique sports coverage on television and radio. Is newspaper coverage more or less fair? Apply In pairs, have students use convincing dialogue to role-play one sports reporter from Chattanooga and one from New York. Each should present a short description for their hometown fans of how Jackie pitched against the Yankee stars. 154 Main Selection Student page 153155 Develop Comprehension 3 AUTHOR’S PURPOSE Does the author agree with what the reporter had to say about a woman playing baseball? Explain your answer. (No, the author does not agree. She says that Jackie was no trained seal and that she was a mighty good pitcher. By asking whether Jackie will be good enough to pitch against the Yankees, she suggests what the rest of the story will be about.) Add this information to your Author’s Purpose Map. Clue Clue Clue The author does not agree with what the press thought about Jackie. 155 Author’s Purpose &-- STRATEGIES FOR EXTRA SUPPORT Question 3 AUTHOR’S PURPOSE Have students discuss any mental images they may have of Jackie when they read that the newspaper says Jackie would “swing a mean lipstick” and when the reporter compares Jackie to a “trained seal.” Ask, How do the newspaper and the reporter feel about Jackie? What are the author’s responses to these remarks? How does the author feel about Jackie? Mighty Jackie 155 Main Selection Student page 154156 Develop Comprehension 4 MAKE INFERENCES How do you think Jackie felt when she heard boys insult each other by saying, “You throw like a girl”? (Answers will vary; possible answer: Although she may have felt hurt or angry at first, she probably realized the boys were silly and ignorant. Hearing such insults may have encouraged her to work harder at becoming a good pitcher.) 5 MAINTAIN SETTING How common do you think it was in the 1920s that a father would support his daughter’s interest in sports? Explain your answer. (Suggested answer: It was probably very unusual. Jackie’s father seems to have been more interested in helping Jackie do her best than in the fact that she was 156 doing something that few other girls, if any, did.) Literary Device: Flashback Explain Authors sometimes interrupt the regular time order of events in a story to take the reader back to a past event. Such an episode, called a flashback, shows how the past event affected a current situation. Discuss How does the author signal that the events described on page 157 happened in the past? (She begins with the phrase “As long as she could remember. .”) Apply Have students use clues in the text to estimate the number of years covered in the flashback. (10 to 12 years) What year was it when Dazzy Vance started to coach Jackie? How do you know? (1922; she was 17 years old in 1931, so 17 years old – 8 years old = 9 years, and 1931 – 9 years = 1922.) 156 Main Selection Student page 157153 Develop Comprehension As long as she could remember, Jackie had played 6 STRATEGY ball with her father. She knew girls weren’t supposed to. All CONTEXT CLUES the kids at school, all the boys in her neighborhood told her that. When one boy yelled at another one, “You throw What context clues help you find the like a girl!” it was an insult—everyone knew girls couldn’t 4 meaning of the phrase blurred over? throw. Or that’s what they thought. (In the same sentence, the author says Day after day, in the neighborhood sandlot, Jackie’s that Jackie couldn’t see where she was father told her differently.