Guiding Comprehension

Vocabulary • Context Clues

Look at the first sentence on
p. 106. How do context clues help you understand the meaning of the word expensive?

Students should explain
that—given the context of the sentence—if the plans are expensive, that must mean they cost a lot of money. Therefore, expensive means "something that costs a lot of money."

then… use the vocabulary strategy instruction on
p. 107.

If… students have difficulty using context clues to determine the meaning of expensive,

Context Clues

Visualize • Inferential

How does the author help you visualize a million dollars?

Possible response: The author tells how much space a million dollars would take up and how much it would weigh by using the images of a school bus and a whale, which are familiar things.

VOCABULARY STRATEGY

Context Clues

TEACH

Direct students' attention to the word pounds in the last sentence on p. 107. Model how you would choose the correct meaning of the word by using context clues.

MODEL I know that the word pounds has two meanings. One meaning is "to hit something hard." Pounds can also be a measure of weight. I need to choose between these two meanings. I will look at the words around pounds and see which definition makes the most sense. The first definition—"to hit something hard"—does not make sense in the context of the sentence. The second meaning, however, does make sense. So, I think pounds as it is used in this sentence refers to weight.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students review the entire selection to identify at least three words that can have multiple meanings. Have students provide alternate definitions for each word they identify. Then ask students to choose the correct definition for each word, depending on its context.

"If You Made a Million"
by David M. Schwartz

Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 90–109

Nonfiction text explains something about real life. What do you think you may learn about from this Selection Snapshot?

Have you ever earned a penny, a nickel, or a dime? What are these coins worth? A penny is worth one cent. Five pennies is equal to a nickel. A dime has the same value as two nickels or ten pennies.
Suppose someone gave you 25 cents. They might give you a quarter, which is equal to five nickels, or two dimes and one nickel, or three nickels and one dime, or even 25 pennies.
If you earned a dollar, you would have an amount equal to four quarters, or 10 dimes, or 20 nickels, or 100 pennies. You could buy bubbles with your dollar, or you could put it in the bank. The bank will pay you interest for letting it use your money. The longer your money stays in the bank, the more interest it earns. After twenty years, your dollar plus interest would equal about $2.70.
You could take five one-dollar bills and trade them in for one five-dollar bill. Money works that way. Every large bill is equal to bills of a smaller amount. The biggest bill is a hundred-dollar bill. Suppose you wanted to buy something that cost a lot, like a big, expensive elephant. That elephant might cost a thousand dollars. You could pay for it with ten hundred-dollar bills or 100,000 pennies.
But do you want to carry so much money around? Instead you could write a check for $1,000. The seller puts the check in his bank. His bank gets $1,000 of your money from your bank and adds it to the seller's money. That's how checks work.
Now think about how you could buy something bigger than an elephant, like a house. Do you have enough money for a house? If not, you could ask a bank to lend you some. You could pay back a little every month. You would also pay interest to the bank for letting you use its money.
You'll need a job to pay back your loan. Try to find something you like to do. Maybe you would like to train ogres. You could make a lot of money doing that. You might even make a million dollars. Now that's big money. A million dollars in one-dollar bills would weigh over a ton. (That's 2,000 pounds.) Maybe you want to take a check. As you can see, dealing with money means making choices.

If You Made a Million by David M. Schwartz, 1989. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.



	Close
	Fluency Some students may have difficulty with alliterative phrases such as "taming obstreperous ogres" on p. 106. Read each sentence on p. 106. Pause after you read each sentence to make sure students comprehend the text.

"If You Made a Million" by David M. Schwartz

"If You Made a Million"
by David M. Schwartz