Westward to Oregon - Rigby

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.