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DURING READING
Guiding Comprehension
3 Target Skill Plot Structure • Inferential
What is the conflict or problem
in the story?
The eagle is treated like a chicken, but it is not a chicken.
Monitor Progress
then… use the skill and strategy instruction on
p. 121.
If… students have difficulty identifying the conflict,
Target Skill Plot Structure
4 Compare/Contrast • Critical
Look at the illustrations on
pp. 120–121 and think about
what you already know about chickens and eagles. Compare
and contrast the two birds.
Chickens are short and plump, and they can't fly. Eagles are large and tall, and they can fly.
Target Skill SKILLS
 STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT
Plot Structure
TEACH
  • Explain to students that the plot of a story is what the story is about. The plot is structured around the main events of the
    story and is often, but not always, sequential.
  • Look for the problem at the
    beginning of the story. As you
    read, pay attention to how the
    plot develops and how the
    problem is solved.
  • Learning plot structure helps us understand how a story is
    organized, which helps us
    summarize.
Think Aloud MODEL The first two pages set up the story. We read how the farmer found the eagle and that the farmer wants to train the eagle to be a chicken. I think this will be the problem in the story. I will continue reading to find out if and how the farmer achieves this and what happens with the eagle in the end.
PRACTICE AND ASSESS
Have students continue reading and identify the next step in the plot. To assess, check that students are identifying plot events that are central to the action and not sub-plots.
Fly, Eagle, Fly! An African Tale

"Fly, Eagle, Fly! An African Tale"
retold by Christopher Gregorowski

Student Edition
Unit 4, pp. 116–129

This is a folk tale, a story or legend from another land that is handed down from one generation to the next.

One day a farmer went to search for a lost calf. He looked and called by the river and in the reeds. He searched the hillside, the valley, and the forest. Finally he began to climb the mountain. His voice echoed. Nothing. He looked in a gully to see if the calf was hiding there. Instead, on a rocky ledge, he saw something very strange. It was the day-old chick of an eagle, the king of birds. The farmer gently picked up the frightened baby bird. He would take it home. "We shall train it to be a chicken," he said.
The baby bird got along with the chickens. It learned to scratch in the dirt for food. But it began to look different as it grew older. One day a friend came by. He saw the bird with the chickens and said that it was an eagle. The farmer smiled. It was a chicken, he insisted.
The friend asked to show he was right. He caught the bird. Holding it high above his head, he told the bird it was an eagle. "You belong not to the earth but to the sky. Fly, eagle, fly!" he said. The bird stretched out its wings. Then it looked down and saw the chickens scratching. It jumped to the ground. The farmer laughed.
The next day the friend came back to try again. He asked for a ladder and took the bird with him to the top of the tallest hut. Again the friend told the eagle, "Fly, eagle, fly!" Again the bird scrambled back to the chickens. The farmer laughed even harder.
Very early the next day, before it was light, the friend woke the farmer. This time, he begged, they would go to the mountain. They would let the eagle see the sunrise. The farmer finally agreed. The two friends walked until the path grew narrow. They began to climb. The friend found a ledge and carefully set down the bird. He talked to the bird about the sun. "When it rises, rise with it," he said. Sunlight began to fill the sky. "Fly, eagle, fly!" he called one last time.
The bird slowly stretched its neck. It straightened its wings. It leaned forward, and its claws clutched the rock. Then, as the wind rose, the eagle leaned forward even more and was carried up into the sky. It disappeared, never to live with the chickens again.

From Fly, Eagle, Fly! Text copyright © 2000 by Christopher Gregorowski. Reprinted with permission of Margaret K. McElderry Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Pearson Education.

 
   
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ELL
Activate Prior Knowlege Have students write all the characteristics they can think of for chickens. Then have them do the same for eagles. Discuss together how an eagle that was raised with chickens might act. Discuss the problem: Will the eagle fly, or will it in fact act like a chicken and not fly? Have them read on to see what happens.
Instinct
Certain behaviors help animals survive in the wild;
these behaviors are called instincts. Animals do not have
to learn these behaviors. Rather, they are born knowing how
to do them. If you live in the northeast United States or Canada, for example, you may have seen the geese flying overhead every fall and returning every spring. The geese have an instinct that they must fly to warmer areas in order to survive the winter. Human beings also have natural instincts. Newborn babies know to cry when they are hungry, or cold, or tired. That is how they communicate. They didn't have to learn to communicate that way—they know how to do it the second they are born!
TIME FOR Science