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BEFORE READING
Prereading Strategies
OBJECTIVES
Target Skill Identify plot sequence to improve comprehension.
Target Skill Use the visualizing strategy to understand plot sequence.
GENRE STUDY
Animal Fantasy
Two Bad Ants is an animal fantasy. In this type of story, animals are personified, or represented as people. In an animal fantasy, the animals can talk, live in houses, have feelings, or lead lives similar to human lives.
PREVIEW AND PREDICT
Have students preview the selection title and illustrations and predict what the story will be about. Encourage students to use lesson vocabulary as they talk about what they expect to read.
Strategy Response Log
Predict Have students predict why the ants in the story are bad. Students will check their predictions in the Strategy Response Log activity on p. 367.
SET PURPOSE
Read the first page of the selection aloud to students. Have them consider their preview discussion and tell what they hope to find out as they read.
Remind students to read for elements of plot and theme of the story.
STRATEGY RECALL
Students have now used these before-reading strategies:
  • preview the selection to be aware of its genre, features, and possible content;
  • activate prior knowledge about that content and what to expect of that genre;
  • make predictions;
  • set a purpose for reading.
Remind students that, as they read, they should monitor their own comprehension. If they realize something does not make sense, they can regain their comprehension by using fix-up strategies they have learned, such as:
  • use phonics and word structure to decode new words;
  • use context clues or a dictionary to figure out meanings of new words;
  • adjust their reading rate—slow down for difficult text, speed up for easy or familiar text, or skim and scan just for specific information;
  • reread parts of the text;
  • read on (continue to read for clarification);
  • use text features such as headings, subheadings, charts, illustrations, and so on as visual aids to comprehension;
  • make a graphic organizer or a semantic organizer to aid comprehension;
  • use reference sources, such as an encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, or synonym finder;
  • use another person, such as a teacher, a peer, a librarian, or an outside expert, as a resource.
After reading, students will use these strategies:
  • summarize or retell the text;
  • answer questions they or others pose;
  • reflect to make new information become part of their prior knowledge.
Audio CD AudioText
Two Bad Ants

"Two Bad Ants"
by Chris Van Allsburg

Student Edition
Unit 6, pp. 358–375

An animal fantasy is a story with animal characters that behave like humans. What is unusual about these two ants?

The scout came back to the ant hole carrying a huge, white crystal. The queen ant tasted the sugar. It was sweet and delicious. The discovery of the crystal made her joyful. The scout said that to please her, he would take other ants with him to get more.
The ants prepared for the long journey, and the scout led them through a forest of grass. Then they came to a large mountain of bricks. The line of ants climbed up the wall to a large, rectangular opening and entered a strange place. They crossed a huge shiny land and came to the curved wall of a sugar bowl. Each ant climbed in, picked up a crystal, and headed back out. They would give their crystals to the queen. Their goal was to make her happy. When she was happy, the entire kingdom was happy. Two ants decided to stay behind. They liked the land of the crystals. They ate and ate the sweet-tasting stuff until they could eat no more.
They fell asleep and so were unaware that a huge scoop was digging into the bowl. They ended up on the scoop with some crystals and fell into an ocean of hot, brown water. The scoop stirred and stirred. Finally it stopped, and the ocean was lifted up. Some of the brown water poured into a huge mouth. They had to get out of the water! They climbed the walls of the cup and ran to hide in a slice of bread.
Oh, no! The bread was lifted and dropped into a slot. They saw a red glow, and the slot became very hot. Then they were popped up and into the air. They landed near a fast-running stream of water. They went over to get a drink and cool their feet. But they fell in, and the stream swirled them into a dark hole. Half-eaten food was everywhere. Then a grinding noise began, and the food began to spin and break up. The food bits disappeared as water washed the bits down into pipes below. Finally the spinning stopped.
Tired and sore, the two ants climbed the walls and once again saw light. They saw something else too. A long line of ants was heading toward the sugar bowl. The two ants went to the back of the line and pretended to have been there all along. Each grabbed a crystal and marched with the others back to the ant nest.
The two bad ants were happy to be safe at home again. They had had enough adventure!

(Updated) Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. Copyright © 1988 by Chris Van Allsburg. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Pearson Education.

 
   
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ELL
Access Content Lead students on a picture walk through the story to reinforce vocabulary, such as crystal (p. 360), goal (p. 365), scoop (p. 367), and introduce the story's setting and plot development.
Consider having students read the selection summary in English or in students' home languages. See the Multilingual Summaries in the ELL Teaching Guide, pp. 208–210.