Guiding Comprehension

If you are teaching the selection in two days, discuss the characters you have met so far and review the vocabulary.

Cause and Effect • Literal

Why do Saruni and his family go to the market on Saturdays and Wednesdays after the rain ends in June?

They have a big harvest.

Character • Inferential

Why do you think Saruni feels that it is important to help his father? What does this tell you about Saruni's character?

Possible response: His father is getting old, and Saruni wants to help him carry goods to the market. Saruni is clearly caring and responsible.

then… use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 129.

If… students are unable to infer character traits,

Character

Whole Group Discuss the Question of the Day.

Group Time
Differentiated Instruction

My Rows and Piles of Coins. See pp. 116f–116g for the small group lesson plan.

Reading

Language Arts
Use pp. 141e–141h,
141k–141m.

Whole Group Discuss the Reader Response questions on p. 135. Then use p. 141a.

Grouping Options

SKILLS
STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Character/Setting Story Structure

TEACH

Read pp. 128–129. Have students describe the characters. (The characters are a young boy named Saruni and his father, Murete.) Then ask students to identify and describe the clue (the illustration) that tells about the setting. Model for students how a reader might use an understanding of the central character, Saruni, to help predict the story's structure.

MODEL At the very beginning of the story, I read that Saruni wants a bicycle. As I keep reading, it becomes clear that Saruni is more and more determined to get the bicycle. Now, on this page, I think I know why he wants the bicycle so badly—he wants to help his father carry food to the market. It seems that Saruni is so determined to get the bicycle that nothing will stop him. In fact, his determination to get a bicycle is what moves the story along and gives it its structure. I think I can use this information about his character and the structure of the text to help me predict that he will somehow get a bicycle by the end of the story.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students work in pairs to list clues on pp. 128–129 that reveal certain character traits of Murete. To assess, ask students to speculate how his character might contribute to the text's structure as the story progresses.

"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
	Understanding Idioms Direct students' attention to the word wearily on p. 129. Explain that this adverb is derived from the adjective weary. Make sure students understand that weary is not related to the word wear. Then show students how to use the suffix -ly to form other adverbs from adjectives that end in -y (happy-happily; gloomy-gloomily; funny-funnily). Geography/Cultures This story takes place in Tanzania, a country in East Africa. Although many Tanzanians speak English, the national language is Swahili. Swahili is spoken throughout much of East Africa, which includes most of the area occupied by the countries of Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, and Kenya, as well as Tanzania. Of the over 30 million people who live in the country, nearly half are under the age of 15.

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

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