Guiding Comprehension

Character • Literal

Which characters do you read about at the beginning of the story?

The story introduces a boy named Saruni, his mother, Yeyo, and his father, Murete.

Setting • Critical

Skim the text and look at the pictures. Identify the clues that
tell you that the story is set in
Africa.

Textual clues include: the
characters' names; the names
for food (chapati, sambusa).
Graphic clues include: the women's
heads wrapped in cloths; the
woman carrying a basket on her
head.

then… use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 123.

If… students are unable to identify the characters and the setting,

Character and Setting

Point of View • Inferential

From which point of view is the story told?

The story is told from the point
of view of the narrator, Saruni.

Students who have access to the
Internet may enjoy searching online reference sources for information
about the East African country of Tanzania.

SKILLS

STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Character and Setting

TEACH

Make sure students understand that characters are the people (or, in certain cases, animals) in stories. Characters can be real or make-believe. Setting is the time and place in which a story happens.
Tell students to pay attention to character traits that tell about the personality of each character. Some authors tell what a character is like. But sometimes the reader needs to find clues in the story to infer, or figure out, what the character is like. The setting also may be directly stated, but sometimes it is not. Instead, the reader must infer it.
Tell students that good readers may use what they infer about a character's motivation to predict the character's actions.
Model identifying the clues in the first paragraph on p. 122 that tell something about Yeyo's character.

MODEL Yeyo makes some money at the market. Then she gives some of the money to her son. This act tells me that Yeyo is caring and generous.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Direct students' attention to the final sentence on p. 122. The author states that Saruni is embarrassed. Have students discuss what this statement suggests about the boy's character. (Possible response: People who get embarrassed are often shy.)

"My Rows and Piles of Coins"
by Tololwa M. Mollel

Student Edition
Unit 1, pp. 120–134

Realistic fiction is about things that could really happen. Has anything like what happens to Saruni ever happened to you?

I help Yeyo, my mother, on market day. Today she gave me five coins and said, "Saruni, you have been a big help."
I fingered the coins and looked for something to buy. I saw many snacks and toys, and then I saw bicycles. I excitedly ran to them. One was red and blue. I could help Yeyo more if I had that bike. I could run errands if I had a bike. Then I heard a gruff voice shout, "What are you looking at, boy? Get away from my bikes!"
Just then I decided to save all my money until I could buy that bike. I twisted my coins in a cloth. At home, I unwrapped the coins and took out the rest of my money. I arranged all the coins in stacks and counted them. Every week I earned more coins, and every week I stacked and counted them.
At the same time my father, Murete, was teaching me to ride his bicycle. Every night he held it steady as I got on. At first, it wobbled and I could not ride straight. I was learning to ride, but I came dangerously close to crashing when I tried to ride with extra weight on the bike. To carry goods to market on the bike, I had to be able to ride with a load on the back.
Soon I had many coins. Before long I felt like a rich man who could afford a bike. I took my coins to the bike man and pointed to the red and blue bike. He laughed meanly, "You do not have enough coins to buy that bike." Then he laughed at me. I was deeply saddened.
Later Yeyo asked what troubled me. She was surprised that I wanted a bike so I could help her. She said that someday I would own a bike. The next day, Murete came home on an orange motorbike. Murete said that he did not need his bike and would sell it to me. I ran and got my coins. Murete gave me the bike and Yeyo the coins. Then Yeyo handed me the coins. "Am I to keep the coins and the bike?" I asked.
Yeyo and Murete nodded yes. "You are a great help to us!"
Now I put bundles of goods on the bike and walk it to the market. And I think about when I can buy a cart for my bike to pull.

From My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel. Text copyright © 1999 by Tololwa M. Mollel. Reprinted by permission of Clarion Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.



	Close
	Build Background Direct students' attention to the word chapati on p. 122. Tell them that chapati is the word for a type of round, flat bread that comes from Asia and that is also popular in Africa. Open-Air Markets Although open-air markets are found in many places in the United States, they are generally not as central to daily life as are the many markets found throughout Africa. The illustration on p. 123 shows what an open-air market often looks like in Tanzania. Typically, farmers from the countryside bring food to be sold in a central market that is usually located in a city or town. Many goods, ranging from bicycles to pots, are sold at markets too. Craftspeople make and sell a variety of goods, such as jewelry, cooking utensils, clothes, and even masks and musical instruments.

"My Rows and Piles of Coins" by Tololwa M. Mollel

"My Rows and Piles of Coins"
by Tololwa M. Mollel