Look Inside - Read Side By Side

Teach:Today I am going to teach you……that good readers pay attention to the main character’s thoughts in order to infer charactertraits. Doing this helps us understand the main character better. Understanding the maincharacter is important when reading realistic fiction, because the main character will reveal theauthor’s message in the book.Watch me as I model how I look at the main character’s actions, words, and feelings for cluesabout what he is thinking.Notice how I consider how these actions, words, and feelings help me infer the kind of personStanley is.Today we will be using this stem for turn and talk:When the book said _____, I was thinking _____ because _____.Open up your reader’s notebooks to a clean page and title it Stanley at the beginning of Holes.Today we are going to create a list of words that describe Stanley at the beginning of the book.Begin reading chapter 7 of Holes, starting on page 26.Model:Stop after: “He wondered if he had a defective shovel. He glanced at Zero, about fifteenfeet away, who scooped out a shovelful of dirt and dumped it on a pile that was alreadyalmost a foot tall.” (p. 26)When the book said that “Stanley wondered if he had a defective shovel,” I was thinking Stanleyis not very strong because he is not able to dig his hole as fast as the other campers. I alsothink Stanley thinks he is unlucky.(Model adding “weak” and “unlucky” to the list.)Guided practice:Stop after: “It wasn’t defective. He was defective.” (p. 27)What do Stanley’s thoughts tell us about him?Turn and talk to your partners using this stem:When the book said _____, I was thinking _____ because _____.(Model adding character traits to the list.)Holes Unit of Study 89