Guiding Comprehension

If you are teaching the selection in two days, discuss the story so far, including any conclusions students have drawn about what they have read, and review the vocabulary.

Draw Conclusions

• Inferential

What season do you think the tree's happy thoughts are about? Why?

Spring. Her thoughts are about chirping birds, budding leaves, and children playing.

then…
use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 345.

If… students don't conclude that the tree's happy thoughts are about spring,

Draw Conclusions

Predict • Critical

What do you think the tree's sad words will be about?

Winter, when she has no leaves on her branches or birds and children to keep her company.

SKILLS

STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Draw Conclusions

TEACH

Reread pp. 344–345 and look at the illustration of the tree. Have students ask questions and use what they already know to draw conclusions.
Model using the facts in the selection and what you already know to draw a conclusion about the sycamore tree.

MODEL Lily comes to an old tree, which tells her about the things that make her happy, such as birds, new leaves, and children playing. I wonder which season the tree likes best? I know that leaves are new in the spring, and in the picture, the leaves on the tree are small. There is also a nest with baby birds in it. When are baby birds born? I know that birds are born in the spring. It must be talking about spring.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students write a list of questions
they can research on the Internet about sycamore trees. After they have done some research, have them draw some more conclusions about the tree pictured on p. 345. To assess, check that students' conclusions make sense, based on what they learned about sycamore trees.

Whole Group Discuss the Question of the Day.

Group Time Differentiated Instruction

Reading

Night Letters. See
pp. 330f–330g for the small
group lesson plan.

Whole Group Discuss the
Reader Response questions
on p. 350. Then use p. 353a.

Use pp. 353e–353h and
353k–353m.

Language Arts

Grouping Options

"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.

"Night Letters" by Palmyra LoMonaco

"Night Letters"
by Palmyra LoMonaco