Learn how to use characters, settings, and plot to understand a story. Read, write, and learn the meanings of new words.

Transcription

1 Character, Setting, and Plot Learn how to use characters, settings, and plot to understand a story. Vocabulary Read, write, and learn the meanings of new words. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Learn the features of realistic fiction. Learn how to use story structure to better understand how characters, setting, and plot events are connected. Decoding Dog Speak by Ruth Musgrave Read an article about how dogs communicate. Connections Compare texts. Review vocabulary. Reread for fluency. Write a story. 540

2 Genre: Realistic Fiction Genre: Expository Nonfiction 541

3 Character, Setting, and Plot Every story includes one or more characters, a setting, and plot events. The characters and the setting affect the plot events. Each event in the plot is affected by the event that happened before it. Characters Setting Plot Events The characters and the setting can shape the plot events. 542

4 Read the paragraph below. Then look at the graphic organizer. It shows the characters, setting, and plot events. Molly was living at the animal shelter when the Webbers came to visit. They talked softly to her and petted her gently. Molly wanted them to keep playing with her, but they turned to another dog. Molly followed the Webbers, wagging her tail. At last, the Webbers turned back to her. They were going to take Molly home! Characters a dog named Molly the Webbers Setting the animal shelter Plot Events The Webbers visit the animal shelter. The Webbers play with Molly and another dog. Molly follows the Webbers and wags her tail. The Webbers decide to take Molly home. Look back at the paragraph. How does the setting affect the plot events? 543

5 prideful snatched select intends recalls consisted Greensville: Best Town Visitors passing through Greensville will have to excuse residents if they appear to be a bit prideful. This town of 50,000 people recently earned the title of Best Town in the state. Livingston, a town to the east, had held the title for three straight years, but then Greensville snatched away the honor. As a result, Greensville became one of the select few towns to be visited by the governor on his Small Town Improvement tour. Greensville s mayor, Betty Chen, is proud of her town. We invest a lot in our schools and parks, she said. Next year, the town intends to expand the computer center in the library. 544

6 Greensville has grown rapidly in recent years. Lee Parker recalls a time when it was barely a dot on the map. Back then, the town consisted of a general store, a schoolhouse, and a dozen homes. That was it! Some say that Greensville should not be called a small town anymore. However, Greensville is still small enough to win the Best Town award. Your challenge this week is to use the Vocabulary Words in conversations outside the classroom. Post a list where you will see the words often. Use as many of the words as you can when you talk with family members or friends. For example, you might tell a friend what your dinner consisted of. At the end of each day, write in your vocabulary journal the sentences you spoke that contained the words. 545

7 Genre Banner Text Realistic Fiction Genre Study Realistic fiction has characters and events that are like people and events in real life. As you read, look for a setting that could be a real place. realistic characters and events. Characters Graphic Organizer Plot Events Box space Setting Comprehension Strategy Use story structure to keep track of the characters, setting, and plot events. 546

8 by Kate DiCamillo Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni and her father are the newest residents of Naomi, Florida. When her father sends Opal out one summer day for groceries, she comes home instead with a big, ugly, happy dog. She names the dog Winn-Dixie, after the supermarket where they met. At first, Opal s father doesn t want to keep Winn- Dixie, but he soon recognizes that this very friendly dog is a stray in need of a good home. He lets Opal keep Winn-Dixie, and she gains a wonderful friend in her new home. 547

9 I spent a lot of time that summer at the Herman W. Block Memorial Library. The Herman W. Block Memorial Library sounds like it would be a big fancy place, but it s not. It s just a little old house full of books, and Miss Franny Block is in charge of them all. She is a very small, very old woman with short gray hair, and she was the first friend I made in Naomi. It all started with Winn-Dixie not liking it when I went into the library, because he couldn t go inside, too. But I showed him how he could stand up on his hind legs and look in the window and see me in there, selecting my books; and he was okay, as long as he could see me. But the thing was, the first time Miss Franny Block saw Winn-Dixie standing up on his hind legs like that, looking in the window, she didn t think he was a dog. She thought he was a bear. This is what happened: I was picking out my books and kind of humming to myself, and all of a sudden, there was this loud and scary scream. I went running up to the front of the library, and there was Miss Franny Block, sitting on the floor behind her desk. Miss Franny? I said. Are you all right? 548

10 A bear, she said. A bear? I asked. He has come back, she said. He has? I asked. Where is he? Out there, she said and raised a finger and pointed at Winn-Dixie standing up on his hind legs, looking in the window for me. Miss Franny Block, I said, that s not a bear. That s a dog. That s my dog. Winn-Dixie. Are you positive? she asked. Yes ma am, I told her. I m positive. He s my dog. I would know him anywhere. 549

11 Miss Franny sat there trembling and shaking. Come on, I said. Let me help you up. It s okay. I stuck out my hand and Miss Franny took hold of it, and I pulled her up off the floor. She didn t weigh hardly anything at all. Once she was standing on her feet, she started acting all embarrassed, saying how I must think she was a silly old lady, mistaking a dog for a bear, but that she had a bad experience with a bear coming into the Herman W. Block Memorial Library a long time ago and she had never quite gotten over it. When did that happen? I asked her. Well, said Miss Franny, it is a very long story. That s okay, I told her. I am like my mama in that I like to be told stories. But before you start telling it, can Winn-Dixie come in and listen, too? He gets lonely without me. 550

12 Well, I don t know, said Miss Franny. Dogs are not allowed in the Herman W. Block Memorial Library. He ll be good, I told her. He s a dog who goes to church. And before she could say yes or no, I went outside and got Winn-Dixie, and he came in and lay down with a huummmppff and a sigh, right at Miss Franny s feet. She looked down at him and said, He most certainly is a large dog. Yes ma am, I told her. He has a large heart, too. Well, Miss Franny said. She bent over and gave Winn-Dixie a pat on the head, and Winn-Dixie wagged his tail back and forth and snuffled his nose on her little old-lady feet. Let me get a chair and sit down so I can tell this story properly. 551

13 Back when Florida was wild, when it consisted of nothing but palmetto trees and mosquitoes so big they could fly away with you, Miss Franny Block started in, and I was just a little girl no bigger than you, my father, Herman W. Block, told me that I could have anything I wanted for my birthday. Anything at all. Miss Franny looked around the library. She leaned in close to me. I don t want to appear prideful, she said, but my daddy was a very rich man. A very rich man. She nodded and then leaned back and said, And I was a little girl who loved to read. So I told him, I said, Daddy, I would most certainly love to have a library for my birthday, a small little library would be wonderful. You asked for a whole library? A small one, Miss Franny nodded. I wanted a little house full of nothing but books and I wanted to share them, too. And I got my wish. My father built me this house, the very one we are sitting in now. And at a very young age, I became a librarian. Yes ma am. 552

14 What about the bear? I said. Did I mention that Florida was wild in those days? Miss Franny Block said. Uh-huh, you did. It was wild. There were wild men and wild women and wild animals. Like bears! Yes ma am. That s right. Now, I have to tell you, I was a littlemiss-know-it-all. I was a miss-smarty-pants with my library full of books. Oh, yes ma am, I thought I knew the answers to everything. Well, one hot Thursday, I was sitting in my library with all the doors and windows open and my nose stuck in a book, when a shadow crossed the desk. And without looking up, yes ma am, without even looking up, I said, Is there a book I can help you find? 553

15 Well, there was no answer. And I thought it might have been a wild man or a wild woman, scared of all those books and afraid to speak up. But then I became aware of a very peculiar smell, a very strong smell. I raised my eyes slowly. And standing right in front of me was a bear. Yes ma am. A very large bear. How big? I asked. Oh, well, said Miss Franny, perhaps three times the size of your dog. Then what happened? I asked her. Well, said Miss Franny, I looked at him and he looked at me. He put his big nose up in the air and sniffed and sniffed as if he was trying to decide if a little-miss-know-it-all librarian was what he was in the mood to eat. And I sat there. And then I thought, Well, if this bear intends to eat me, I am not going to let it happen without a fight. No ma am. So very slowly and very carefully, I raised up the book I was reading. 554

16 What book was that? I asked. Why, it was War and Peace, a very large book. I raised it up slowly and then I aimed it carefully and I threw it right at that bear and screamed, Be gone! And do you know what? No ma am, I said. He went. But this is what I will never forget. He took the book with him. Nuh-uh, I said. Yes ma am, said Miss Franny. He snatched it up and ran. Did he come back? I asked. No, I never saw him again. Well, the men in town used to tease me about it. They used to say, Miss Franny, we saw that bear of yours out in the woods today. He was reading that book and he said it sure was good and would it be all right if he kept it for just another week. Yes ma am. They did tease me about it. She sighed. I imagine I m the only one left from those days. I imagine I m the only one that even recalls that bear. All my friends, everyone I knew when I was young, they are all dead and gone. 555

17 She sighed again. She looked sad and old and wrinkled. It was the same way I felt sometimes, being friendless in a new town and not having a mama to comfort me. I sighed, too. Winn-Dixie raised his head off his paws and looked back and forth between me and Miss Franny. He sat up then and showed Miss Franny his teeth. Well now, look at that, she said. That dog is smiling at me. It s a talent of his, I told her. It is a fine talent, Miss Franny said. A very fine talent. And she smiled back at Winn-Dixie. We could be friends, I said to Miss Franny. I mean you and me and Winn-Dixie, we could all be friends. Miss Franny smiled even bigger. Why, that would be grand, she said, just grand. 556

18 And right at that minute, right when the three of us had decided to be friends, who should come marching into the Herman W. Block Memorial Library but old pinch-faced Amanda Wilkinson. She walked right up to Miss Franny s desk and said, I finished Johnny Tremain and I enjoyed it very much. I would like something even more difficult to read now, because I am an advanced reader. Yes dear, I know, said Miss Franny. She got up out of her chair. Amanda pretended like I wasn t there. She stared right past me. Are dogs allowed in the library? she asked Miss Franny as they walked away. Certain ones, said Miss Franny, a select few. And then she turned around and winked at me. I smiled back. I had just made my first friend in Naomi, and nobody was going to mess that up for me, not even old pinch-faced Amanda Wilkinson. 557

19 1 How does Miss Franny Block feel after she realizes that the animal outside the window is a dog? CHARACTER S EMOTIONS 2 Opal tells Miss Franny that Winn-Dixie gets lonely without her. Do you think that dogs feel emotions as people do? Explain. MAKE JUDGMENTS 3 Look back at the author s description of Amanda Wilkinson. How does Opal feel about her? How do you know? DRAW CONCLUSIONS 4 Explain how the author s choice of setting affects the story events. CHARACTER, SETTING, AND PLOT 5 WRITE Think about the story that Miss Franny tells Opal. How does sharing this story help them to become friends? SHORT RESPONSE 558

20 For many years, Kate DiCamillo dreamed of becoming a writer. However, she did not start writing until she began working in the children s section of a book warehouse. She read many Children s books there, and she fell in love with them. She began writing two pages every morning before she went to work. Kate DiCamillo says she never feels like sitting down to write, but afterward, she is always glad that she did. Even now that she is a successful author, she still writes two pages every day. It takes her about a year to write a book. Kate DiCamillo s advice for others who are interested in writing is to pay careful attention to the world around you and write a little bit every day

21 Science Expository Nonfiction by Ruth Musgrave ould you like to understand your dog s dialogue? How about your cat s chitchat? It s easy. Just use your eyes. Dogs and cats use their ears, tail, head, and body posture to communicate. If you keep listening, the body language becomes clear. Sue May, of Yachats, Oregon, found out how important it can be to understand your dog. Every day, she and her golden retriever, Zoe, walked the same neighborhood route to reach a mountain trail. One day, Zoe started their walk with her tail high, sniffing everything. But at the trail, the dog stopped, refusing to budge. May begged. Zoe blocked her path. May ordered. Zoe dropped her tail, slinked a few steps, and stopped. Finally May decided to go on, leaving Zoe at home. On the trail alone, May wondered what Zoe s problem was. Within seconds she discovered the answer. Blocking the path was a 250-pound black bear. May backed away unnoticed, quickly reaching home and her smart, alert dog. 560

22 What Is Your Dog Trying To Tell You? I M SOOO HAPPY AND EXCITED! This dog s happy face tells you everything he s looking right at you and his ears are relaxed. His mouth is open with his lips pulled back and up in a goofy grin. His body is relaxed, his head is up, and his chest is out. WHAT S THAT? I M CURIOUS. This puppy shows her curiosity by the tilt of her head, ears perked forward, lips pulled back and up in what looks like a smirk, and a relaxed body. I LOVE YOU. With a relaxed body and ears slightly back, this dog shows her love and respect. A puppy gets adults to feed her by licking their mouths. As she grows up, this behavior is repeated toward people to let them know she respects them and is not a threat. BACK OFF. This dog is in warning mode. His ears are sticking out. There is a little curl to his lip, his head drops slightly, and he s staring directly at what s bugging him. His body is rigid and there s a rumble deep in his throat. I M SCARED. From head to tail, this dog is telling you she is scared. Her ears are flattened back against her lowered head. Her shoulders and tail are drooped. Eyes looking down, she slinks away trying to make herself as small as possible. PLAY WITH ME! By lowering his chest and leaving his rump in the air, this little pup bows, inviting you to play. Ears perked forward, looking directly into the eyes of a potential playmate, the dog s swishing tail fans the air with excitement while he awaits your reply. 561

23 Comparing Texts 1. What can you learn from Opal in Because of Winn- Dixie about making new friends? 2. Compare the author s purpose for writing Because of Winn-Dixie with the author s purpose for writing Decoding Dog Speak. 3. The Herman W. Block Memorial Library normally does not allow dogs inside. Should libraries admit dogs? Include reasons for and against allowing dogs in libraries. Word Webs Work with a partner. Create a word web for each Vocabulary Word. In the outer circles, write words and phrases that are related to the Vocabulary Word. Tell how each word or phrase in your web is related to the Vocabulary Word. taken away stolen snatched grabbed lost consisted intends prideful recalls select snatched 562

24 Tape-Assisted Reading Listen to the beginning of Because of Winn-Dixie on Audiotext 5. Stop the recording after the sentence I would know him anywhere on page 549. As you listen, read along silently and track the text with your finger. Pay attention to the reader s intonation. Then listen to the recording a second time, as you read aloud softly, matching your intonation to the reader s voice. Write a Story Think about a dog you have met or would like to meet. Imagine that the dog has helped you in some way. Write a story telling when, where, and how the dog helped you. Word Choice I used a story map to help plan my writing. I described the characters and setting. Characters Plot Events Setting I used words that are specific, accurate, and easy to picture. 563