After reading "Eaglet's World," use the following questions to assess listening
comprehension.

Start a web to build concepts and vocabulary related to this week's lesson and
the unit theme.

   Where Eaglet was . . . was becoming crowded. Once, the nest had seemed
huge. Now, he felt scrunched between his parents. Sometimes sharp twigs
jabbed him. When his mother and father left him alone, he wondered . . . What
was it like beyond the rough rim of the nest? Stretching his neck, he saw
blue-blueblue everywhere, and his parents flying closer. Food! Food for him! He
didn't need blueness. He'd stay in this nest forever, forever, even though where
he was . . . was becoming crowded.

   Where Eaglet was . . . was frightening! His parents had coaxed him to the
edge of the nest. He didn't like it there. He clutched twigs with his talons as
the wind rocked him back and forth, back and forth. It was cool and stroking. It
ruffled his feathers. What was it? he wondered. He didn't want to know. He
wanted the deep safe, crowded nest.

   But his mother kept prodding him gently. Spreading his wings, his father
moved outward into blueness, then back again. Surely they didn't expect him
to follow!

   He didn't want to! He wouldn't! He wouldn't leave the nest. Never. Never.

   They showed him again. How easy it looked—for them! Couldn't they see that
his wings weren't as wide as theirs? He felt himself wobbling. He'd fall! He just
knew it! He didn't want to fly. He wanted things to be as they had been. Forever.
Forever.

   His mother nudged him, and suddenly he could no longer feel the nest. He
screamed, for where he was . . . was terribly frightening.

   He scrambled in nothingness, but his mother and father were there. Their
wings would keep him from falling. He felt cool air beneath his own wings,
catching them. Lifting them. And, surprisingly . . . where Eaglet was . . .
was wonderful!

   He saw a wider, deeper blue than he might ever have imagined from within his
safe, warm nest. He felt such brightness as he could never have guessed in the
dark, damp coziness of the egg. Below him stretched mountains, glistening with
white, shadowed with blue and purple . . . and between the mountains spread
greenness . . . and a river glinting as it would among rocks and through deep
valleys. Clouds drifted. Breezes whispered. Wind whistled as it carried Eaglet,
his wingtips tilted in soaring. The world was huge! And it was all his!

   He would soar there above it, surprised by its bigness, its color and
brightness, forever! Forever! Where Eaglet was . . .was wonderful!

by Evelyn Minshull