Westward to Oregon - Rigby

Westward
to Oregon
Written by Patricia Pfitsch
Illustrated by John English
Overview: This story takes
place about 150 years ago.
Lizzie and her family are
moving west in a covered
wagon, but something awful
happens that could end their
journey.What will the family
do? Read to find out.
DETERMINING
THE PURPOSE
★ COMPREHENSION STRATEGY
• forming and supporting opinions
★ LITERACY SKILLS
• word level: inflected endings
• sentence level: figurative
language
• text level: type of genre
(historical fiction)
ESL•ELL
• auditory discrimination
★ WRITING CONNECTION
• revising drafts to include
description
50 Shared Reading
CENTER ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITIES FOR SMALL-GROUP OR INDEPENDENT WORK
Here are suggestions for center activities that complement the
themes and skills featured in the whole-group lessons for
Westward to Oregon. We suggest that you introduce these centers
to children on Day 1 and have them available for Small-Group and
Independent Work throughout the 11-day teaching sequence.
Book Nook
Place a small copy of
Westward to Oregon in the
library for children to
reread. Make
available other
historical fiction
selections for
children to read.
Read the Room
Encourage children to reread
the Big Book Westward to
Oregon with a classmate.
Suggest that as they read
they talk about their favorite
parts. Encourage children
to also note the words with
inflected endings. Children
may want to look for these
words
elsewhere in
the room.
Word Zone
Have children use magnetic
letters, letter cards, or other
manipulatives to make
words with the endings -ed
or -ing. Suggest that children
look in textbooks, books in
the Book Nook, or on
posters and other items in
the classroom to find
words to make. If
possible, children can
first make the root
word and then the
word with the
ending.
CENTERS
Artist’s Studio
Provide art materials such as
shoe boxes, straws,
cardboard, scraps of cloth,
string, craft sticks, bottle
caps, scissors, and glue.
Invite children to design and
build a covered wagon.
Encourage children to use
the wagon to help
them imagine what
life was like in the
pioneer days.
Listening Post
Children may listen to
Westward to Oregon on
audiotape while following
along in the small copies of
the book. You may want to
provide other recordings of
historical fiction stories,
including some from
The Little House
on the Prairie
series.
Writer’s Den
Invite children to write or
draw in their literature
response journals about
Lizzie’s journey westward to
Oregon in a wagon train.
Encourage children to
make a list of phrases that
use sensory details.

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
WARMING UP
Begin the lesson by rereading a familiar Big Book or poetry chart.You may wish to
ask a volunteer to pick a favorite.
SETTING THE SCENE
• Tap into children’s prior knowledge.
Have you ever moved or taken a long trip with your family? What was it like? How did
you feel? What do you think a long trip in a covered wagon would be like?
• Introduce the book and provide children with an overview.
• Make predictions about the book. Invite children to look at the cover.
Tell me about what you see on the cover. Have you ever seen wagons like these? When
did you see them? What might Lizzie’s family see on their journey?
READING THE TEXT
1. Read the title page. Prompt children to predict what will happen in this book.
Tell your neighbor what kind of trouble you think the people in a wagon train might
encounter on a long journey like this.
2. Use a pointer as you read the Big Book.You may also want to read the words of
the different characters in different voices. Allow children ample time to view the
illustrations without interrupting the flow of the story.
3. Before turning to page 12,ask:
What do you think Mama will do if Papa is not back by morning? How do you think
Lizzie feels? How can you tell how she feels? How would you feel?
Allow children opportunities to express their opinions and experience the
suspense of the story as you read the rest of the book.
RETURNING TO THE TEXT
1. Discuss the story. Use open-ended questions.
Why do you think Mama treated Lizzie differently than Papa did? Why do you think
Mama decided to stay behind when the wagon train left in the morning? Were you
surprised? What would you have done?
2. Reread sections of the book. Invite children to read some of the dialogues.
Remember,the reading should be focused on enjoyment.
SMALL-GROUP/INDEPENDENT WORK
Introduce children to various center activities that will accompany your class study of
this book. (You may wish to delay the introduction of the Word Zone until you have
introduced inflected endings on Day 4.) Each child may then choose his or her own
activity,or you may wish to assign activities to each group. Use this time to meet with
guided reading groups.
SHARING TIME
Set aside a brief amount of sharing time,five to ten minutes,at the end of the session.
Invite volunteers to share with the class what they learned while participating in
Small-Group/Independent Work. Invite children to tell their classmates something
they had difficulty with and what they did to problem solve. ✓
✓
Coaching Point
Display a map of North America
and invite volunteers to locate
Oregon and where you are. Then
explain that most wagon trains
traveling the Oregon Trail started
their journey in Missouri. Use the
map’s scale to point out the
distance between the two states.
Coaching Point
Children may have difficulty
understanding who is speaking,
because some of the quotations
do not have dialogue tags. Point
out that the author begins a
new paragraph each time a
different character speaks.
✓Assessment
These questions may be used on
any day during sharing time to
gather information about
children’s learning and interests
during center time.
• Describe the wagon you
made in the Artist’s Studio.
• Tell me about the books
you read in the Book
Nook. Were there any
books similar to Westward
to Oregon?
• Did you write in your
journal? If so, what
descriptive phrases with
sensory details did you
include?
• Which words with -ed did
you make in the Word
Zone? With -ing? What are
their root words?
Westward to Oregon 51

✓
✓Assessment
Observe children as they read
and form opinions on Day 2.
Think about and note, mentally
or in writing, the following:
• Are children able to give
examples from the book to
support their opinions?
• Can children identify the ways
in which characters are
different?
• Do children relate personal
experience to support their
opinions?
52 Shared Reading
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 2
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Forming and supporting opinions
1. Reread pages 2–7 of the Big Book
Westward to Oregon. Introduce the
comprehension strategy of forming and
supporting opinions. As you read,model
how the text and illustrations of the story
help you to form opinions about the
characters and events. For example,after
reading pages 4 and 5,you might say:
Model As I was reading this part of the story, I
thought about how Mama and Papa treated
Lizzie. The pictures on pages 2–7 and Papa’s
words, "You’re as good at driving the team as I
am," tell me that Papa lets Lizzie do things that
girls don’t usually get to do. I think if I were
Lizzie I would like that. I don’t think Mama feels
the same as Papa though. What words or
pictures in the book would support that opinion?
2. Continue to read pages 8–15 with
children. As you read,encourage children
to tell their opinions about what is
happening,as well as about how characters
feel. During the discussion,invite children
to relate relevant personal experiences to
support their opinions.
3. Following the reading,list on chart paper
children’s opinions and the part of the story
that they feel supports their opinion. ✓
Day 3
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Forming and supporting opinions
1. Read pages 16–24 of the Big Book
Westward to Oregon. As you read,invite
children to form opinions about the events
and characters and to add these to the chart
started on Day 2.
Often when we read, we form opinions about
the characters, and we decide whether we like
each character or not. We form an opinion
about each character by what the character
says or does. As we read more, we may change
our opinion. What additional information do
we learn about the characters in this part of
the book? How does this new information
change your opinion of the characters?
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.

WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 3
continued
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Forming and supporting opinions
2. Help children focus on the character of
Mama by prompting them with questions.
What did you think of Mama at the beginning
of the story? What words would you have
used to describe her? What happened in the
story that made you feel this way? How did
your opinion of Mama change as you read the
story? How did she show that she truly loved
her family? Do you think her choice to stay
behind showed she was brave or foolish?
Why?
3. Have children choose two characters from
the story and write a sentence or two
stating their opinion of each character and
why they feel this way.
Day 4
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Inflected endings
1. Use small self-stick notes to cover most of
the inflected endings on pages 4 and 5 in
the Big Book Westward to Oregon. Read
aloud these pages.When you come to a
word whose inflected ending is covered,say
the root part of the word and have children
say the ending. Stop periodically,and ask
children how they knew which ending to
use. Lead children to understand that the
ending -ed means the action happened in
the past and that the ending -ing means the
action continued for some time.
2. Organize children into small groups.
Distribute to each group four index cards,
two marked ed and two marked ing.
Children can take turns selecting a card and
saying a word with that ending. Children
can identify the root word and then use the
word with the ending in a sentence.
✓
• Rhyme Chart 10: Time in a Garden
• Teaching Card 10B: Action Word Endings
es, ing, s
• Rhyme Chart 11: Joan’s Boat
• Teaching Card 11B: Action Word
Ending ed
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Introduce
the Word
Zone
today.
Review
the other
center
activities.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
✓
ESL • ELL
Be aware that some children
may need extra practice
distinguishing the spoken root
words (for example, chuckle)
from the spoken words with the
-ed ending (chuckled).
✓Assessment
Observe children as they make
words with inflected endings.
Think about and note, mentally
or in writing, the following:
• Which children can correctly
add endings to root words?
• Which children can use words
with the endings -ed and -ing
in sentences?
Westward to Oregon 53

Related Trade Book Titles
The following trade books are
excellent examples of historical
fiction.
When Jessie Came Across the
Sea, Amy Hest, Candlewick
Press, 1997.
This Time Tempe Wick, Patricia
Lee Gauch, Coward, McCann &
Geoghegan, Inc., 1974.
Coaching Point
You may want to provide other
types of fiction, including
traditional tales or science
fiction so that children can
compare and contrast the
different genres.
54 Shared Reading
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 5
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Type of genre: historical fiction
1. Tell children that Westward to Oregon is
about made-up events,but it tells about a
specific time period in history. In addition,
the story details and the problems the
characters face are ones that really occurred
at that time in our country’s history.This
kind of book is called historical fiction.
2. Write on the board the column headings
Characters,Plot,Setting,and Time. Have
children provide information for each of
these categories.You may want to page
through the Big Book Westward to Oregon
to spark ideas.
3. Read each column aloud.
Which of these things tell you that the story
happened during a specific time period?
Explain your answer.
Day 6
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Type of genre: historical fiction
1. Encourage children to discuss how a story
like this teaches us about life in the past.
Share with them some background
information about the Oregon Trail.You
might explain that the Oregon Trail was
about 2,000 miles long and took about 6
months to travel.There were no roads.The
pioneers had to cross prairies,deserts,and
mountains to get to Oregon.They had to
cross rivers without bridges.They needed to
travel close to rivers in order to have water.
They usually did not have a doctor
traveling with them to care for the people
who got sick or hurt.
2. As you discuss what life was like for the
people traveling the Oregon Trail,invite
children to compare life back then with life
today. Draw a simple chart on the board or
chart paper comparing such topics as travel,
food,communication,and emergency care.
Invite children to list their ideas about each
topic for then and now.The completed chart
might look something like the following:
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.

WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 6
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Type of genre: historical fiction
What Life Is Like Then Now
Travel covered wagon, cars, trains, airplanes,
horseback, no roads, highways, can travel
took 6 months to travel same distance in a day
from Missouri to Oregon on an airplane or a
week in a car
Food no stores, had to bring hundreds of stores and
food for journey or restaurants, can stop
hunt for food, had to anywhere to buy food
travel close to rivers for and water
water
Communication no phones, no mail people often travel
with cell phones and
can call for help
Emergency care no doctors or hospitals, doctors and emergency
people had to treat services available in
themselves when sick nearly every town
or injured
3. After you have completed the comparison
chart,encourage children to share their
opinions about whether they would have
liked to live back then. Have them support
their opinions with details from the story
and the discussion.
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Figurative language
Day 7
1. Reread the second paragraph on page 3 of
the Big Book Westward to Oregon and
discuss how the author uses figurative
language.
Authors often use words that help us paint a
picture in our mind. Sometimes authors also
make interesting comparisons to help us
visualize something. Close your eyes and I’ll
read the sentence about the wagon train again.
Tell me how it looks and sounds in your mind.
What noises does the author compare to music?
2. On chart paper write the sentence, The
wagon was noisy. Ask children how this
sentence is different from the author’s.
What words or phrases could we use to help
readers create a picture in their mind?
Record several versions of the sentence and
compare them. Save the chart for use on
Days 9 and 10.
continued
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
Coaching Point
Encourage children to think of
all their senses as they
participate in these language
and writing activities. Use
additional trade books to
provide children with other
examples of figurative language
and sensory details.
Related Trade Book Titles
The following trade books
provide examples of figurative
language.
Nine for California, Sonia
Levitin, Orchard Books, 1996.
Dear Rebecca, Winter Is Here,
Jean Craighead George,
HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
The Island of the Skog, Steven
Kellogg, Dial Books for Young
Readers, 1973.
Westward to Oregon 55

Coaching Point
You may want to extend the
activity by having children
rewrite the following sentences
to include describing words or
comparisons:
The dog caught the Frisbee.
The girl walked home.
He drove the bus.
The noise was loud.
She kicked the ball.
Teaching s TIP
Skip lines when you write so that
you will have room to revise the
work later. You may also want to
display examples of figurative
writing from Days 7 and 8.
56 Shared Reading
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Figurative language
1. Discuss the comparisons (similes) in these
sentences from the Big Book Westward to
Oregon: You’re going to grow up as wild as a
coyote (page 5); Lizzie ate, but each bite felt like
a bee buzzing in her stomach (page 9); and She
felt like she had swallowed a stone (page 17).
2. Have children name objects,people,or events
from the story and record them on a sheet of
chart paper—for example,a covered wagon,
the wagon train,a whip,baby Jeremiah.
Now let’s think of a comparison for one of
these story details. A wagon train, for
instance, is long and thin like a rope or like a
snake. Here are some comparisons we could
make: The wagon train stretched across the
land like a giant snake and The wagon train
went on and on like a very long rope.
3. Encourage children to think of
comparisons for some or all of the story
details on the list. Record the comparisons
and save them for use on Days 9 and 10. (It
is not necessary to think of a comparison
for each item on the list.)
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Revising drafts to include description
1. Reread pages 18–24 of the Big Book
Westward to Oregon.
2. Have children brainstorm one or two
possible continuations of the story.
What do you think happened next? How do you
think Lizzie handled the horses? Do you think
the family caught up with the wagon train?
3. Tell children that together you will write a
continuation for the story. Encourage
children to brainstorm a list of ideas. Explain
that first you will decide which events to
write about.Then,with children’s help,put
the events in an order that makes sense.
Finally,with children’s assistance write a first
draft. Save the work for use on Day 10.
Day 8
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 9
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.

WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
Day 11
WARMING
UP
Refer to
Day 1.
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Revising drafts to include description
1. Reread with children what you wrote on
Day 9.
2. Encourage children to think of suggestions
that might make the writing more
descriptive. Refer to the lists of figurative
language children made on Days 7 and 8
for ideas. Add children’s suggestions. Suggest
that children also look for correct
capitalization,spelling,and punctuation.
3. Read through the draft again,making sure
that the changes are incorporated correctly
and that they make sense. Explain that it is
the writer’s decision which changes to
include in the final draft.Then,with
children’s help,write a final draft of the
story’s continuation.
• Mini-lesson 43: Adding details
• Mini-lesson 45: Adding interesting words
• Strategy Card: Writers learn from other
writers.
WHOLE-GROUP INSTRUCTION
Celebration
Reread the Big Book Westward
to Oregon, the story
continuation,and any other
products generated during the
previous 10 sessions. Invite
children to share their
thoughts and questions about
the various activities they were
involved in. Allow time for
completion of activities. ✓
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Refer to
Day 1.
SMALL-GROUP/
INDEPENDENT
WORK
Day 10
SHARING
TIME
Refer to
Day 1.
Review the various center activities
that children may be involved in
today. On this final day,you may
want to allow children to revisit a
favorite center,to complete work at
one of the centers,or to visit a center
not yet visited while you meet with
guided reading groups.
✓
✓Assessment
• How independent and selfmotivated
were children with
their individual work?
• To what extent were children
able to correlate group lessons
with their individual work?
• Did children support their
opinions with evidence found
in text, illustrations, and
personal experience?
• How did children apply their
knowledge and understanding
of figurative language to their
own writing?
• Were children able to
compare and contrast various
types of genre and articulate
the characteristics of historical
fiction?
• What further instruction do I
need to plan for the
comprehension and literacy
skills covered in this book?
Westward to Oregon 57