Prereading Strategies

	Identify sequence of events to improve comprehension.
	Summarize to tell about and remember important events.

GENRE STUDY

Fable

What About Me? is a fable. Explain
that a fable is a make-believe story
that teaches a lesson.

PREVIEW AND PREDICT

Have students preview the selection title and pictures and discuss the events, characters, and lesson(s) they think this selection will cover. Encourage students to use lesson vocabulary as they talk about what they expect to learn.

Graphic Organizer Distribute story sequence charts (Graphic Organizer 9). Tell students to fill in the graphic organizer as they read the selection.

SET PURPOSE

Read the first page of the selection aloud to students. Have them consider their preview discussion and tell what they hope to find out as they read.

Remind students to keep track of the sequence of events and to pause occasionally to summarize as they read.

STRATEGY RECALL

Students have now used these before-reading strategies:

preview the selection to be aware of its genre, features, and possible content;
activate prior knowledge about that content and what to expect of that genre;
make predictions;
set a purpose for reading.

Remind students that, as they read, they should monitor their own comprehension. If they realize something does not make sense, they can regain their comprehension by using fix-up strategies they have learned, such as:

use phonics and word structure to decode new words;
use context clues or a dictionary to figure out meanings of new words;
adjust their reading rate—slow down for difficult text, speed up for easy or familiar text, or skim and scan just for specific information;
reread parts of the text;
read on (continue to read for clarification);
use text features such as headings, subheadings, charts, illustrations, and so on as visual aids to comprehension;
make a graphic organizer or a semantic organizer to aid comprehension;
use reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, or synonym finder;
use another person, such as a teacher, a peer, a librarian, or an outside expert, as a resource.

After reading, students will use these strategies:

summarize or retell the text;
answer questions they or others pose;
reflect to make new information become part of their prior knowledge.

AudioText

"What About Me?"
by Ed Young

Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 46–59

A fable is a story that teaches a lesson, or moral. What moral does this Selection Snapshot teach?

A young boy wanted knowledge. He asked the Wise One for it. In return, the Wise One wanted a carpet. So the boy went off to get a carpet. He asked a carpetmaker for one, but the carpetmaker needed thread. He told the boy to get him thread, and he would make a carpet. The boy went to the spinner. He told her that he needed thread for the carpetmaker. To make thread, the spinner needed plenty of goat hair. She told the boy to get her some, and she would make thread.

The boy found a man who raised goats, but he had none at the time. He told the boy to get him goats, and he would give the boy goat hair. The boy found a seller of goats, but the goats kept wandering away. The seller needed a pen to keep them from straying. He told the boy to get him a pen, and he would give the boy some goats. The boy asked for help from a carpenter, but the carpenter wanted help too. He wanted to find a wife. Then he would build a pen. The boy went in search of a wife for the carpenter. He asked a matchmaker, but she wanted knowledge in return. He explained that he too wanted knowledge. But he couldn't get it without getting all the other things first. She sent him away.

Many months later the boy was in a busy marketplace. There he saw a merchant who looked very unhappy. The sad merchant said that he had a daughter who would not get married. The boy went to see the daughter. She would not marry anyone but the carpenter she loved. She secretly loved the very carpenter who had promised to build a pen. At last, the boy had found the carpenter a wife.

After the wedding, the carpenter built the pen. The seller gave the boy goats. The man who raised goats gave the boy goat hair. The spinner gave him thread for the carpetmaker, who made a carpet. Now the boy had a carpet for the Wise One. Now he would get knowledge.

To his surprise, the Wise One said that the boy already had knowledge. It came from his experiences. The boy also received help from others because he had helped them. These were the great lessons of the Wise One.

What About Me? by Ed Young. Copyright © by Ed Young, 2002. Published by arrangement with Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved.



	Close
	Access Content Have students preview the illustrations in What About Me? to help them begin to understand the main characters and setting. Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 12–14.

"What About Me?"by Ed Young

"What About Me?"
by Ed Young