Scott Foresman Reading Street

Reader Response

Open for Discussion Personal Response

MODEL I think Grandfather would start by saying, "Coming to America was an incredible adventure."

Comprehension Check Critical Response

Possible responses: He wanted the characters to seem real. Author's Purpose
Grandfather travels to the U.S. He marries in Japan and settles in San Francisco. As his daughter grows, Grandfather thinks about his own childhood.
Sequence
Beginning: Grandfather moves to the U.S. Middle: Grandfather marries and has a child. End: Grandfather returns to Japan.
Graphic Organizers
List words: amazed, bewildered. Other words: astonished, excited, marveled.
Vocabulary

Look Back and Write For test practice, assign a 10–15 minute time limit. For assessment, see the rubric on TR23.

Summarize

Have students summarize the story using their completed time lines.

Retell

Have students retell Grandfather's Journey.

then… use the Scoring Rubric for Retelling below to help move them toward fluent retelling.

If… students have difficulty retelling the story,

Check Retelling

Summarize Suppose you were asked
to write a summary of Grandfather's Journey for a library catalog item. Summarize the story in a few sentences.

Check Retelling Have students use
the story's illustrations to guide their retellings. They can also use any graphic organizers they created showing the story's sequence. For more ideas on assessing students' retellings, see the ELL and Transition Handbook.

Students can search the Internet to find out more about the author. Have them use a student-friendly search engine and the keywords Allen Say.

Online Student Edition Snapshot Response with answer key (pdf)

Look Back and Write Write a list of ten things that astonished Grandfather when he came to North America as a young man. Underline the one he liked best.

Allen Say's paintings are like photographs, as if people had posed for them. Why do you think Mr. Say made his paintings so lifelike?

Summarize what happens in Grandfather's life from the time he arrives in America until he returns to Japan.

Create a sequence organizer for the story with boxes for the story's beginning, middle, and end. Briefly describe what happens in each part of the story.

Which verbs on the Words to Know list tell how Grandfather felt as he journeyed to and then across North America? Find other verbs in the story to add to the list.

Open for Discussion Suppose Grandfather could tell of his journey. What might he say? Look closely at each picture and tell what Grandfather might be saying.

Reader Response

Meet the Author and Illustrator Allen Say

Read more
books by
Allen Say.

     Grandfather's Journey is a true story
of the author's grandfather. Allen Say,
as the story says, was born in Japan and
spent his childhood there. When he was 16,
he moved to California with his father.
Remembering his grandfather's tales, he
was excited about the move. But when he
arrived, he was lonely and unhappy. He
spoke no English. He was the only Japanese
student in his school, and no one was very
friendly to him.
     Mr. Say returned to Japan after high school, planning to stay there. But things had
changed a lot in Japan following the end of
World War II. After a year, Mr. Say returned
to the United States, and he has lived here
ever since.
     Mr. Say is a talented artist and author
who has won a Caldecott Honor Award for
his illustrations. He often writes about
people who are part of two cultures.