Scott Foresman Reading Street

	Build vocabulary by finding words related to the lesson concept.
	Listen for a sequence of events.

attention care and thoughtfulness; consideration

kindness treatment that does good rather than harm; gentleness

understanding comprehension; knowledge

then… review the lesson concept. Place the words on the web and provide additional words for practice, such as love and care.

If… students are unable to place words on the web,

Check Vocabulary

Homework Send home this week's Family Times newsletter.

Model Tone of Voice, 39a

Writing

Grammar

Fluency

Declarative and Interrogative Sentences, 39e

Short Vowels VCCV; Pretest, 39i

Reading-Writing Connection, 39g

Spelling

Fluency and Language Arts

Activate Prior Knowledge

Before students listen to the Read
Aloud, ask them to remember a time
when they were about five years old.
Talk about what it would have been
like to try to learn a task, like tying
their shoes, without being able to
hear, see, or speak.

Set Purpose

Read aloud the title and have students predict what the selection will be about.

Have students listen for the sequence of events that bring a little girl and an older neighbor together as friends.

Creative Response

Have students work in pairs. Have each partner think of an object visible in the classroom and take turns trying to communicate what the object is without using words. Drama

Access Content Before reading, share this summary: This story tells about a little girl who has an illness that leaves her unable to see, hear, or speak. A kindly neighbor believes in the little girl and tries to teach her.


Day 1	What experiences bring diverse people together?
Day 2	Can an elderly librarian and a little girl really be friends?
Day 3	What do Miss Franny and Opal have in common?
Day 4	Why might it cause problems when people move into black bears' home territory?
Day 5	Revisit the Day 1 question to wrap up the lesson.

Build Concepts

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

After reading "Child of the Silent Night," use the following questions to assess
listening comprehension.

When did Laura's parents realize Laura had lost her sight and
hearing? (They gradually realized it several months after Laura had
gotten sick.) Sequence
What were the steps in Laura's recovery? Describe them in order.
(At first she could only drink liquids and could not sit up. For a whole year,
she couldn't walk. By the time she was five, she was nearly as strong as
other children her age.) Sequence

BUILD CONCEPT VOCABULARY

Start a web to build concepts and vocabulary related to this week's lesson
and the unit theme.

Draw the Diversity Concept Web.
Read the sentence with the words kindness and attention again. Ask
students to pronounce kindness and attention and discuss their
meanings.
Place kindness and attention in ovals attached to the oval What all people
need. Explain that the words are connected to the concept. Then read the
sentence in which understanding appears. Have students pronounce the
word, place it on the Web, and provide reasons.
Brainstorm additional words and categories for the Web. Keep the Web on
display and add words throughout the week.

FLUENCY

MODEL TONE OF VOICE As you read "Child of the Silent Night" aloud, pay

particular attention to intonation, using the rise and fall of your voice to
provide rhythm for long sentences, signal questions and full stops, and
emphasize important and emotionally-charged words.

that the sickness had made her blind and deaf. For weeks she could only
drink liquids and could not even sit up. It was a whole year before she could
walk by herself again and it was not until she was about five years old that
she was nearly as strong as most children her age.

Perhaps she would never have become very healthy if it had not been for
her friend Mr. Asa Tenney. The Bridgman family called him Uncle Asa, but he
was not a real uncle to them. Most people thought that Asa Tenney was a
little odd. Although he seemed very old, he wasn't, really. But his clothes
were. He didn't care about things like clothes. All he cared about were
out-of-door things—like birds and flowers and brooks, and the little dumb
animals that he found on his walks.

And now he had come to care about Laura Bridgman, too. In a way she
seemed almost like one of the little helpless creatures of the woods. Like
them, she could not tell people what she was thinking and what she wanted.
But he knew that she wanted kindness and attention and love.

Mr. Tenney had no family of his own. When he discovered this little girl at
neighbor Bridgman's house he felt that at last he had found someone who
needed him.

Daniel and Harmony Bridgman, Laura's father and mother, were kindly
people and wanted to do what they could for this poor child of theirs. But they
had little time to give her. Mr. Bridgman was a busy farmer and a selectman
of the town of Hanover. Mrs. Bridgman had two little boys younger than Laura
to care for. In addition, she had to do all the things that any farm wife did in
those days.

No, Mrs. Bridgman did not have much time to teach her little deaf, blind,
mute daughter. Even if there had been time, how could she have taught Laura
anything? Can a person who cannot see or hear or talk learn anything?

Asa Tenney was sure Laura could learn. He believed that she was learning
every minute and that she wanted to learn a great deal more. He knew that he
had plenty of time in which to teach her too.

He explained it to himself this way: "It is as though Laura is living in a room
without windows or doors. I must make windows and doors into that room.
Somehow, I must get behind the cloth band that she wears over her eyes and
bring the light of understanding to her."

by Edith Fisher Hunter

or several months after the fever Laura had lain in a large old cradle in
a darkened room. Gradually her father and mother discovered