Guiding Comprehension

If you are teaching the story in two days, discuss the sequence of events so far and review the vocabulary.

Vocabulary
• Dictionary/Glossary

Have students use a dictionary to identify the meaning of raised as it is used on p. 78, paragraph 3.

Possible response: Raised means "looked after someone or something as it grew up."

then… use the vocabulary strategy instruction
on p. 79.

If… students are unable to use a dictionary to identify the meaning of raised,

Dictionary/Glossary

Simile • Critical

Explain the meaning of this sentence from p. 79: "Bombs fell from the sky and scattered our lives like leaves in a storm."

Possible response: Leaves in a storm blow and scatter in every direction. You can't predict where they will end up. The family's lives during the war are compared to leaves in a storm. Their lives have been drastically changed, and the future is unpredictable.

Fluency and Language Arts

Fluency

Model Tempo and Rate, 87a

Writing

Grammar

Subjects and Predicates, 87f

Prewrite and Draft, 87h

Connect to Writing, 87j

Spelling

VOCABULARY STRATEGY

Dictionary/ Glossary

TEACH

Remind students that some words have more than one meaning. Readers sometimes need to check a dictionary or glossary to find the meaning that makes sense for the sentence.
Model using a dictionary to identify the correct meaning of a multiple-meaning word.

MODEL On p. 78, paragraph 3, the author says, "He raised warblers and silvereyes." Warblers and silvereyes are birds, but I'm not sure what it means when it says he raised them. When I look up the word in the dictionary I see two definitions. The word raised can mean "to lift something up" or it can mean "to look after somebody until he or she is grown." Now I know the grandfather must have been looking after the birds until they were grown.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students use a dictionary to identify the meaning of trip as it is used in the last sentence on p. 78. (journey; voyage)

To assess, have them use this meaning in another sentence.

"Grandfather's Journey"
by Allen Say

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.



	Close
	Context Clues Remind students that when they come to words they don't understand, they can read on to see if the context makes the meaning clear. Students may be unfamiliar with the warblers and silvereyes the grandfather raised (p. 78, paragraph 3), but if they read on, they will discover that the grandfather "never kept another songbird" (p. 79, paragraph 3). Dictionary/Glossary If students need extra practice using a dictionary to understand the meaning of multiple-meaning words, work with them to find the correct definition for leaves (p. 79) and left (p. 72). They can use the glossary to look up the lesson vocabulary words longed (p. 80) and still (p. 81). Wartime Conditions Japanese Americans suffered hardship and injustice in the United States during World War II. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. Many Americans suspected all Japanese—even those who had grown up in the United States—of being traitors. In 1942, the U.S. government forced about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry to leave their homes. They were imprisoned in camps with barbed wire fences and armed guards. At the same time, more than 20,000 Japanese American soldiers were serving in U.S. military units fighting bravely for their country: the United States.

"Grandfather's Journey"by Allen Say

"Grandfather's Journey"
by Allen Say