Guiding Comprehension

Generalize • Inferential

Reread p. 66, paragraph 1.
From this paragraph, what
generalization can you
make about people?

People like to collect things.

then… use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 67.

If… students
are unable to
make the generalization,

Generalize

Genre • Literal

What relationship does the
author have to the subject
of this biography?

She is the subject's daughter.

Use the keywords rocks, minerals, or
rock collecting to research information
about the subject on the Internet.

SKILLS

STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT

Generalize

TEACH

Explain that when we make
generalizations, we are making
a general statement about
someone or something.
We make generalizations after
thinking about a number of
examples or facts and what
they have in common.
Often, but not always, we can
find clue words that point to a
generalization. Examples of
clue words are always, never,
all, none, some, most,
everyone, and no one.

MODEL The first sentence
I read in the first paragraph of
the selection says, "Some people collect stamps." The second sentence says, "Some people collect coins or dolls or bottle caps." I know that the word some signals a generalization. I think the author is making a general statement that people like to collect things.

PRACTICE AND ASSESS

Have students reread p. 67, paragraph
four, and identify the generalization.
(Rich people owned cars.) To assess,
check that students' generalizations
can be supported by examples from
the text or prior knowledge.

Word Play

Idioms are frequent sources of word play in a text. An idiom is a figure of speech containing more than one word that has a meaning and a use totally its own. Think about the idiom to look a gift horse in the mouth, for example. The meanings of each word part tell you nothing about the meaning of the idiom. The author of this selection has used an idiom and makes a play on words. Have students identify the idiom and discuss its meaning and how it relates to the selection. (rocks in his head; the father thinks about rocks all the time)

"Rocks in His Head"
by Carol Otis Hurst

Student Edition
Unit 4, pp. 64–74

A biography is the story of a real person's life, written by another person. Why might the author have decided to write a biography of this person?

Mr. Hurst, my father, was a collector. He didn't collect stamps or buttons. He collected rocks—all kinds of rocks. His interest in rocks began when he was a boy. By the time he was an adult, he had rocks of many colors and sizes. He knew the name of every rock and where each came from.
He used to tell people he had rocks in his head. Of course, this made them laugh. When people say that you have rocks in your head, they usually mean that you are not very smart. Mr. Hurst meant that he liked rocks a lot and knew a lot about them.
Rocks were just Mr. Hurst's hobby. For work he ran a gas station. He filled up gas tanks and repaired cars, using spare parts he kept in the station. He kept his rock collection at the station too. Every now and then, a customer would ask Mr. Hurst about the collection.
Business was good until the Great Depression. That was a time when many people lost their jobs. They did not have money to buy gas or fix cars. Mr. Hurst had to close his gas station.
He carefully packed his rocks and moved them to his home, where he put them in his attic. He went up there to look at them every day. Like others, Mr. Hurst had trouble finding work. There were very few jobs and very many people looking for work.
Sometimes he would spend the whole day at the science museum. He really liked the rock room. He met Mrs. Johnson, the head of the museum, there. When they talked, she found out that Mr. Hurst knew more about rocks than anyone else around. She asked the museum's board to hire him.
The board said that Mr. Hurst could not be hired as a rock scientist, or mineralogist, because he had not gone to college. And so Mrs. Johnson hired him as a night janitor. His chores included sweeping, cleaning, and dusting the rocks.
Then one day, Mrs. Johnson came into the museum and saw Mr. Hurst relabeling a rock. He told her it had been labeled incorrectly. Mrs. Johnson went to the board once again. This time she got them to agree to hire Mr. Hurst as the head of rock science.
She said that he was the best person for the job because he had rocks in his head.



	Close
	Access Content Explain that quarries (p. 66) are sites where rocks are mined, or taken from the ground. Earth Science Rocks are usually shaped by wind, water, or ice in a process called erosion. The Grand Canyon, the Badlands of South Dakota, and the forms in Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon, Utah, are all examples of the powerful force of erosion on Earth's surface. Coastal erosion occurs when waves crash into the shore and move the shoreline. The force of moving water in rivers erodes the river bottom. The Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon into the earth in this way. Wind is also an erosional force, and its effects are visible in dry areas, such as the desert, where the wind moves particles of sand, which erode rocks.

"Rocks in His Head" by Carol Otis Hurst

"Rocks in His Head"
by Carol Otis Hurst