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BEFORE READING
Prereading Strategies
OBJECTIVES
Target Skill Identify sequence of
events to improve
comprehension.
Target Skill Visualize during reading
to form pictures of
characters and events
and to keep track of the sequence of events.
GENRE STUDY
Realistic Fiction
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday is an example of realistic fiction. As students learned in Week 1, a realistic story is "made up," but is based on things that could actually happen.
PREVIEW AND PREDICT
Have students preview the selection title and pictures and discuss the characters and events they think this selection will cover. Encourage students to use lesson vocabulary as they talk about what they expect to learn.
Strategy Response Log
Graphic Organizer Distribute time lines (Graphic Organizer 22). Encourage students to keep track of the sequence of events by filling 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 visualize 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 to be aware of and flexibly use the during-reading strategies they have learned:
  • link prior knowledge to new information;
  • summarize text they have read so far;
  • ask clarifying questions;
  • answer questions they or others pose;
  • check their predictions and either refine them or make new predictions;
  • recognize the text structure the author is using, and use that knowledge to make predictions and increase comprehension;
  • visualize what the author is describing;
  • monitor their comprehension and use fix-up strategies.
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.
Audio CD AudioText
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday

"Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday"
by Judith Viorst

Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 68–81

Realistic fiction is a made-up story that could really happen. Do you know anyone like Alexander?

I'm Alexander and for some reason, I just can't hold on to money. The only things in my pockets are a few bus tokens. My brothers, Anthony and Nick, are the opposite. They always seem to have more money than they need. It is totally unfair that they can hold on to their money as my money disappears without a trace.

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit. They gave each of us a dollar. Well, I was rich, not rich enough to pay for college, of course. But I did have one whole dollar, and I had a plan. I planned on saving it because I wanted to buy a walkie-talkie.

As you know, plans do not always work out. Dad and I went downtown and I bought some bubble gum. That cost me fifteen cents, or three nickels. The clerk gave me three quarters and a dime in change.

Later I bet my brothers that I could do some amazing tricks like jumping from the top of the stairs without falling. Wrong! I even bet my Mom that she couldn't guess which hand held a marble. She guessed right, and now I was out another fifteen cents. I was down to 70 cents. That's just seven dimes.

Well, my brothers thought this was a good time to tease me. I had a few choice words to say to them, but I should not have said them. Dad fined me for those words, and I was out another ten cents. That was just my first fine of the day.

All day long, money slipped through my fingers. It cost me more than ten cents to borrow a snake from my friend Eddie. Then I went to a garage sale. Who could resist a one-eyed stuffed animal or a deck of cards with only two cards missing?

That's when I knew I had to put the rest of that dollar away or I would have nothing left to save. Oops! It was too late. My dollar had vanished. I looked everywhere for more money but found none. I guess it is just how my life is supposed to be. I will be spending it with nothing but bus tokens in my pockets though once I was rich.

From Alexander, Who Use to Be Rich Last Sunday. Text copyright © 1978 by Judith Viorst. Reprinted with permission of Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Pearson Education.

 
   
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ELL
Build Background Have students preview the pictures of coins and tokens in Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday. Have volunteers discuss how they use coins and tokens in their daily lives.
Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 19–21.