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Author's Purpose • Critical
Author's Purpose
Draw Conclusions • Critical
STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT
MODEL As I read this part of the story, I notice lots of descriptive words. The bear had a strong, peculiar smell. He was three times the size of Opal's dog. I can imagine the bear's size and smell. I think the author's purpose is to help us picture the bear so we understand how Miss Franny felt.
Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 22–33
This Snapshot is realistic fiction. It is about characters and events that are like people and events in real life.
Opal Buloni and her father, a preacher, have recently moved to a small town in Florida. Opal's mother has died, and Opal misses her. Soon after they arrive, Opal rescues a big, scruffy dog. She names him Winn-Dixie, after the grocery store where she found him. She convinces her father to let her keep him. She is lonesome.
Winn-Dixie goes everywhere with Opal. He even goes to the Herman W. Block Memorial Library. Opal spends many hours inside reading. She teaches Winn-Dixie to stand on his hind legs and watch her through the window. She gets to know Miss Franny Block, the tiny, old librarian.
One day, while Opal is selecting a book, Miss Franny screams. Opal finds her sitting on the floor behind her desk. She has just seen a bear at the window! Opal tells her that she is positive that it was Winn-Dixie, her dog. Miss Franny breaks a rule and lets him come inside.
Then she begins to tell a story. She recalls Florida when it was wild and woolly. She says she doesn't want to appear prideful, but her daddy was a very rich man. When she was about Opal's age, he gave her her own library. One day she was reading when she saw a shadow. She didn't look up until she noticed a strong, peculiar smell. Then she saw a huge bear right in front of her. She was scared but decided to fight. She threw a big book at the bear, and it went away. But it took the book, she says. And for years she was teased that a bear was somewhere reading a book. Miss Franny stops and says that this was long ago. Most of her friends are gone now.
Miss Franny looks at Winn-Dixie. He sits up and shows her his teeth. She thinks he is smiling at her. Opal says that's one of his talents. She says that maybe she and Miss Franny and Winn-Dixie can all be friends. Miss Franny says that would be grand.
Just then Amanda Wilkinson walks in. She asks for a difficult book to read. She brags that she is an advanced reader. Then she asks why a dog is in the library. Miss Franny looks at Opal and winks. Opal knows that she has made a friend.
Because of Winn-Dixie. Copyright © 2000 by Kate DeCamillo. Reprinted by permission of Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.
Copyright © Pearson Education.
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Fluency Help students rephrase long, complex sentences into more
manageable chunks. For example, the second sentence on p. 30, paragraph 5, could be rephrased this way: "He put his big nose up in the air and sniffed and sniffed. He was trying
to decide if he wanted to eat a little-miss-know-it-all librarian." Author's Purpose Remind students that an author's purpose may be to persuade, to explain, to entertain, or to express. Have students reread page 30, paragraph 7, aloud with a partner. Have them draw a picture of the young librarian throwing the big book at the bear. Discuss their reactions to this image. |
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