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Characters • Critical
Main Idea • Inferential
Main Idea
Draw Conclusions • Inferential
STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT
MODEL The first sentence says that the grandfather liked California best. The next sentence says that he liked the sunlight, the Sierra Mountains, and the lonely seacoast. These details tell what the grandfather liked about California. So the main idea must be the idea in the first sentence: Grandfather liked California best.
Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 70–81
In historical fiction, which is set in the past, some details are factual while others are made up or are loosely based on history.
Grandfather left Japan when he was a young man. He took a steamship and did not see land for three weeks, until they docked in the New World. On his own, he traveled through the United States. He saw many beautiful sights. He was amazed by rocks in the desert that looked like enormous sculptures. He was bewildered and excited by huge cities with factories and towering buildings. He met many new people of all types.
He liked California best. He loved the sunlight, the mountains, and the seacoast. He returned to his homeland and married his childhood sweetheart. Together they moved near San Francisco Bay and had a baby girl. But, as she grew older, Grandfather began to think of his own childhood in Japan. He longed for the mountains and rivers of his childhood. Finally, when the daughter was nearly grown, the family moved back to Japan. They moved to a city near his childhood village.
The daughter fell in love, married, and had a son. When the boy was young, he loved to go to his Grandfather's house to hear his stories about California. Grandfather wanted to go back to visit the mountains and rivers he remembered.
But World War II came. The grandparents' city was bombed, and they returned to the village of their childhood. Grandfather died before he could go to see California.
When the grandson was a young man, he left Japan to see California for himself. He grew to love his new country and stayed until he had a daughter of his own. But then he began to miss the mountains and rivers of his own childhood. He went back to Japan, but now he lives in the United States. Sometimes, though, he cannot still his homesickness for Japan. When he returns there, he grows homesick for the United States. Now he feels that he understands his grandfather, and he misses him.
From Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say. Copyright © 1993 by Allen Say. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Pearson Education.
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Access Content Students may be familiar with the terms black men and white men (p. 74, paragraph 2), but not yellow men and red men. Explain these were terms sometimes used to refer to Asians and Native
Americans. Discuss the cultural connotations of these historic terms and
the terms ethnic groups use to name themselves today.
Main Idea Direct students back to p. 73 and have them identify
the details on that page. Guide them to formulate a main idea statement
such as: Grandfather was amazed by the things he saw in America.
San Francisco
San Francisco is one of the largest cities on
the west coast of the United States. Built on and around more than forty hills, this unique city is a popular tourist attraction. Two well-known bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, connect the city to other parts of the Bay Area. San Francisco has one of the largest Asian populations in the continental United States. Of the more than 750,000 people that called San Francisco home in 2000, about 240,000 of them are people of Asian ancestry. |
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