Prereading Strategies

	Draw conclusions about the content.
	Ask questions to comprehend the selection and arrive at conclusions.

GENRE STUDY

Realistic Fiction

Night Letters is realistic fiction. Explain that in realistic fiction, the setting, the characters, and the events can seem real, but the stories are made up.

PREVIEW AND PREDICT

Look at pp. 334–335 with students. Have them preview the illustrations and discuss what they think night letters are. Encourage students to use lesson vocabulary as they talk about what they expect to learn.

Predict Have students write their predictions in their strategy response logs. Students will check their predictions in the Strategy Response Log activity on p. 343.

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 draw conclusions 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.

AudioText

"Night Letters"
by Palmyra LoMonaco

Student Edition
Unit 3, pp. 334–349

Realistic fiction has settings that can seem real, but the stories are made up. What details in this Snapshot make the setting realistic?

When evening comes, before the light fails and darkness falls, Lily runs outdoors. This is her time to look at nature before all the creatures settle in for the night. Lily takes her notepad so she can record everything she sees and hears. She imagines that all the creatures and things in nature write her letters, telling her about their day.
First there are the ants. A line of them marches back to their hill. What would their letter say? It would thank Lily for the bread crumbs that fell from her lunch today. She writes this onto her notepad.
Lily watches a hawkmoth flutter from flower to flower, drinking in each one's nectar. The moth would tell her that it visits only the fully opened blossoms, not the small budding ones. Lily writes this on her notepad.
She looks at the large, cracked rock in the tomato patch. She writes that today the rock touched drops of dew and a spider web. Tonight it will look for stars.
Soon Lily sees a blinking light, first on a blade of grass and then in the bushes. Then more and more lights blink on and off. The fireflies are inviting Lily to catch them. She writes their message on her notepad. "Catch us if you can!"
Lily sits under her favorite tree in the backyard. The big old sycamore has many stories to tell. It has told her about buds that burst into green leaves in the spring. It has told her about birds that sing as they build comfortable nests in its branches, and about how silent the tree is when the birds fly south. The old sycamore has told Lily of the winter, when evenings are too cold and dark for a nature walk. But this summer evening, as the sky fades, Lily writes what she hears the tree say to her now. "Dear Lily, Please climb me tomorrow."
She gets up from her seat against the tree's huge trunk. She stands and looks back at the sycamore. She is ready to go indoors now and think about the day and what she will write back to her backyard friends.
Lily is ready to write one more night letter about this day.



	Close
	Access Content Lead a picture walk to reinforce vocabulary. In addition to the regular lesson vocabulary, English language learners may need additional help with words like blush (p. 336), backyard (p. 338), zigzag and picnicked (p. 339), crisp (p. 340), and switch on (p. 342), among others. Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 89–91.

"Night Letters" by Palmyra LoMonaco

"Night Letters"
by Palmyra LoMonaco