Skills Unit 2 Teacher Guide - EngageNY

Main Idea and Key Details: The main idea of the story is that a
pancake comes to life while being prepared to feed children. The
pancake runs away from everyone who is chasing it. The pancake’s
success at elusion makes him boastful and overly confident. Key
details of the text include the personification details of the pancake,
the ever increasing number of people chasing the pancake and the
pancake’s building certainty of escape and survival.
Teacher Overview
Synopsis: The story “The Pancake, Parts I and II” is a retelling of
“The Gingerbread Man”.
Text from Student Reader
• The text of the Student
Reader is reproduced
here for your convenience.
However, student referral
to the text in front of them
is a critical element of
Close Reading.
Page 54
“Did you enjoy the tale of the
hedgehog and the hare?” asked
Mike’s dad. “Yes, I liked it,” said
Mike. “The hedgehog came up
with a good trick.” “The tale I’d
like to tell you next has a trick
in it, too.”
“Cool!” said Mike. “Is there a
hedgehog in it?”
“Nope,” said his dad. “But there
is a pancake in it!”
“A pancake?”
“Yep.”
“Neat! Tell it!”
“But the sun has not set yet!
The street lamp is not on yet!”
“Please! I would like to hear it!
Will you tell the pancake tale!”
Page 56
Once upon a time there was
a mom who had six kids. One
morning the mom was grilling a
pancake for the kids. The kids
looked at the pancake. They got
out their forks and started licking
their lips. The pancake looked
back at the kids. He was scared.
He feared the kids would eat him.
When the mom was not looking,
the pancake jumped out of the
pan and ran off.
Vocabulary Instruction
• As the text is read aloud,
stop after each sentence
containing targeted
vocabulary to explain
meanings or to check
student understanding.
Feared (Page 56) – to be afraid
of something or someone
Grilling (Page 56) – to cook
over a flame
Lesson
Text Dependent Questions
• After any targeted
vocabulary has been
defined and/or discussed,
ask the text-based
questions.
• Begin with a “winnable”
question that will help
orient students to the text.
• The sequence of questions
should build a gradual
understanding of the key
details of the text.
• Questions should focus on
a word, phrase, sentence,
or paragraph.
How do you know this story will
be the same genre as “How the
Hedgehog Tricked the Hare”?
What time of day is dad telling
this story?
In the second paragraph of
page 56, read the parts of the
story that let us know this is
fiction.
Responses
• Answers should reference
the text.
• Multiple responses may be
provided using different
pieces of evidence.
• Inferences must be
grounded logically in the
text.
Mike’s dad says, “The tale I’d
like to tell you next has a trick in
it, too.” When we see the word
too at the end of a sentence it
means the same as also or in
addition.
It must be sometime during the
day and it is not at bedtime.
Dad says, “But the sun has not
set yet! The street lamp is not
on yet!”
“The pancake looked back at
the kids. He was scared. He
feared the kids would eat him.
The pancake jumped out of
the pan and ran off.” We know
this is personification because
real pancakes don’t do these
things. Personification, which
means describing non-humans
using human characteristics or
qualities, is only used in fantasy
stories.
114 Unit 2 | Lesson 12
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