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DURING READING
Guiding Comprehension
9 Target Skill Summarize • Inferential
What happened in the story Miss Franny told about the bear? Summarize the story.
Possible response: Once, when Miss Franny was a young librarian, a bear walked into her library. She threw a book at it and the bear left with the book.
10 Compare and Contrast
• Inferential
How are Opal and Miss Franny alike? Give details to support your answer.
Possible response: They are both lonely (Opal because she's new in town, and Miss Franny because all her old friends are dead). They both sigh. Opal says she felt "the same way" as Miss Franny.
11 Draw Conclusions • Critical
Text to Self Opal and Miss Franny are different from each other, but they become friends. Think about your own friends. Based on your experience, why do you think certain people become friends?
Possible response: People become friends when they enjoy spending time together and have things in common.
Target Skill STRATEGY SELF-CHECK
Summarize
Have students identify the main events in the story and put them in order. Students can use these events they listed to write a summary of the story. Use Practice Book p. 7 for more practice.
SELF-CHECK
Students can ask themselves these questions to assess their understanding of the story.
  • Did I list the main events of the story in the correct order?
  • Does my summary include the most important events from the story?
Monitor Progress
then… use the Reteach lesson on
p. 39b.
If… students are having difficulty listing events in order and writing a summary,
Target Skill Sequence
Practice Book
Practice Book p. 7
with | without Answers
Because of Winn-Dixie

"Because of Winn-Dixie"
by Kate DiCamillo

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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Target Skill Summarize For the Strategy Self-Check, have students work with
partners or groups to finish recording the main events in sequence on a
time line. They can use the time line to help them complete their summaries.
Have students complete Practice Book p. 7.
Creative Thinking Discuss with students what might happen next in this story. Have students work in pairs to generate ideas for a new chapter about the story's characters.
Understanding Idioms Explain the expression "old pinch-faced Amanda Wilkinson" on p. 33 does not refer to the girl's age. The word old can refer to something we don't like. Have students find the meaning of pinch-faced by studying Amanda's picture. Encourage them to record English idioms and their meanings in journals, lists, or computer files.
ELL
Advanced
Strategic Intervention
PRACTICE LESSON VOCABULARY
As a class, complete the following sentences orally. Possible responses are given.
  1. A dog who is acting peculiar might (run around in circles).
  2. When we observe Memorial Day, we are (remembering or honoring others).
  3. A friend who is prideful is likely to (brag about herself).
  4. A grand time with a friend is (great, wonderful).
BUILD CONCEPT VOCABULARY
Review previous concept words with students. Ask if students have come across any words today in their reading that they would like to add to the Diversity Concept Web, such as select few and little-miss-know-it-all.
Develop Vocabulary