Guiding Comprehension

If you are teaching the selection in two days, discuss the story so far, including any causes and effects students have found, and review the vocabulary.

Vocabulary
• Word Structure

What is the meaning of the word passing on p. 24?

Walking by.

then… use the vocabulary instruction on
p. 25.

If… students are unable to identify the meaning of the word,

Word Structure

Characterization • Inferential

On p. 23, the narrator goes looking for Ikarus because she feels bad for him, and on
p. 25, the narrator tells the other kids to leave Ikarus alone. What kind of person do you think the narrator is?

Possible response: Kind, caring.

Whole Group Discuss the Question of the Day.

Wings. See
pp. 12f–12g for the small
group lesson plan.

Reading

Group Time
Differentiated Instruction

Use pp. 35e–35h and
35k–35m.

Whole Group Discuss the Reader Response questions
on p. 28. Then use p. 35a.

Language Arts

Grouping Options

VOCABULARY STRATEGY

Word Structure

TEACH

Reread p. 24 and identify the word passing in paragraph 3. Model figuring out its meaning.

MODEL I see the word passing in paragraph 3. I know it's a verb because it follows the subject (policeman) and is an action word. If I cover up or take off the ending -ing, I get the word pass. I know that pass means "walk by something," like I pass the post office on my way to school every morning. So passing must mean "walking by." If I replace passing with walking by, does the sentence make sense? A policeman walking by blew his whistle. That makes sense!

For the word passing, there was no change in the base word, but remember that in some base words, a final e might be dropped, a y changed to i, or a final consonant doubled when -ing is added.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students identify other examples of inflected endings on pp. 24–25 and figure out their meanings. To assess, have them replace the existing words with what they think the word means to see if the sentence makes sense.

Illustrator's Craft

Point out that part of an illustrator's craft is to help us understand what is happening in the story. Look at the illustrations in Wings. How does the illustrator help us understand what is happening in the story and how Ikarus feels? (The illustrator made Ikarus look sad. Ikarus looks different because of his wings, so I believe that other kids make fun of him.)

"Wings"
by Christopher Myers

Student Edition
Unit 4, pp. 16–27

A fantasy is a story in which unbelievable things happen. What happens to make this Selection Snapshot a fantasy?

Ikarus Jackson is a new boy on my block. He has wings and can fly. I have seen him swooping down toward the ground and soaring up into the sky. I have watched him looping in big circles above the rooftops. Ikarus Jackson is wonderful.
Yet the kids at school didn't think so. They talked about him because he was different. They made fun of his wings, and they laughed at his hair and shoes. I felt bad for Ikarus because I knew how it felt to be singled out by the other kids.
They talk about me because I am quiet. This has made me feel lonely and sad, and I could tell that Ikarus felt the same way.
Even our teacher complained about Ikarus. He once sent Ikarus out of the room, saying the other students couldn't pay attention with him and his wings around.
In the schoolyard, kids pointed at Ikarus and made fun of him. I heard a snicker from one kid and a giggle from another. Soon everyone was laughing at Ikarus. They said his wings were useless.
At first, Ikarus struggled to keep from crying. Then he just looked up, flapped his feathers, jumped into the air, and began flying up higher and higher.
I thought people would be amazed, but their glaring looks told me differently. They said that Ikarus was nothing but a show-off.
Then Ikarus began drifting down toward the top of a building. His wings drooped, and his head was down. He sat on the roof with the pigeons until a police officer called for him to come down.
When kids saw the officer yelling at him, they laughed even louder. Ikarus dropped to the ground, hanging his head low.
I had to do something, so I yelled for everyone to be quiet. To my surprise, they stopped laughing. Ikarus came toward me, and I told him that I liked watching him fly.
For the first time, he smiled. Then he soared up again and swirled through the sky. I told everyone to look up and see my amazing new friend fly.



	Close
	Understand Idioms Point out the idiom to make fun of (p. 24). Explain that when we make fun of people, we tease them or make them feel bad about themselves. The narrator in the selection says that "pigeons don't make fun of people." Ask students who was making fun, and of whom. (The other kids were making fun of Ikarus.) History of Flight Attempts People have always been fascinated by flight. Humans didn't actually get off the ground until the late eighteenth century, however, when the first "flying machine," a simple glider called an ornithopter, was successfully launched by Karl Friedrich Meerwein in Germany. Around the same time, two brothers from France experimented with the hot air balloon, which had far greater success and was used throughout the following 120 years, until the Wright brothers succeeded in flying an airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.

"Wings" by Christopher Myers

"Wings"
by Christopher Myers