Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your little brother walks into the kitchen with chocolate on his chin and an empty cookie box behind his back. He says, 'I didn't eat anything.' Write one thing you know for sure because you can see or hear it, and one thing you figure out. What clue helped you figure it out?"

   Take three or four answers and write them on the board in two columns: I can see or hear it (chocolate on his chin, an empty box, he says he ate nothing) and I figured it out (he ate the cookies, he is not telling the truth). Ask each student who figured something out to name the clue. Tell the class that good readers do the same thing with stories, and that today they will learn to point to their clues in the words of the text.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach five words before reading, and leave them on the board:

   • Textual evidence: words from the text that back up what you say about it.
   • Cite: to show where your evidence comes from. In this lesson, you cite by copying the exact words in quotation marks and adding the paragraph number, like this: (paragraph 5).
   • Explicit: stated directly in the words of the text. You can put your finger on it.
   • Inference: a conclusion the text supports but does not say outright. You make it by joining clues from the text with what you already know about people and the world.
   • Claim: a sentence that says what you think is true about the text. Evidence supports a claim.

   Introduce the text: Little Women (1868) by Louisa May Alcott begins with four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, talking by the fire a few days before Christmas. Read the opening aloud while students follow the numbered paragraphs.

   1“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

   2“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

   3“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

   4“We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner.

   5The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, “We haven’t got Father, and shall not have him for a long time.” She didn’t say “perhaps never,” but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

   6Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, “You know the reason Mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army. We can’t do much, but we can make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I don’t,” and Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.

   7“But I don’t think the little we should spend would do any good. We’ve each got a dollar, and the army wouldn’t be much helped by our giving that. I agree not to expect anything from Mother or you, but I do want to buy Undine and Sintran for myself. I’ve wanted it so long,” said Jo, who was a bookworm.

   8“I planned to spend mine in new music,” said Beth, with a little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle-holder.

   9“I shall get a nice box of Faber’s drawing pencils; I really need them,” said Amy decidedly.

   10“Mother didn’t say anything about our money, and she won’t wish us to give up everything. Let’s each buy what we want, and have a little fun; I’m sure we work hard enough to earn it,” cried Jo, examining the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner.

   • Explicit: the words are in the text

     How much money does each sister have to spend?

     Result: Jo says it directly: "We've each got a dollar" (paragraph 7). The answer is in the words of the text, so one exact quotation with its paragraph number is enough.

   • Explicit: a reason the text gives

     Why did Mother suggest having no presents this Christmas?

     Result: Meg explains the reason: "it is going to be a hard winter for everyone," and Mother thinks they should not spend money on fun "when our men are suffering so in the army" (paragraph 6). Because the text states the reason, students quote it instead of guessing.

   • Inference: join clues

     The story never says where Father is. What can a reader infer?

     Result: Father is away at a war. Clue 1: the sisters think of him "far away, where the fighting was" (paragraph 5). Clue 2: Meg mentions "our men" in "the army" (paragraph 6). Fighting plus an army means a war, and Father is part of it. (Readers of the whole novel learn it is the American Civil War.)

   • Strong or weak evidence?

     Claim: the March family does not have much money. Which quotation supports it better, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" (paragraph 1) or Meg's words in paragraph 2?

     Result: Paragraph 2 is stronger: Meg says "It’s so dreadful to be poor!" while "looking down at her old dress." Paragraph 1 is weak evidence: it shows there will be no presents this year, but paragraph 6 gives a different reason for that, the hard winter and the army.

   Claim, quote, explain. Model the three moves on the board with the third example: claim (Father is away at a war), quote (the exact words in quotation marks, with the paragraph number in parentheses), explain (one sentence on how those words prove the claim). Give two sentence frames: "The text states that ___ (paragraph __)." for explicit claims, and "The clues ___ and ___ suggest that ___ because ___." for inferences.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs use two highlighter colors: one for what the opening states, one for clues that lead to an inference. Work through these three sentences together. For each one, ask pairs what the sentence states, what a reader can infer, and which word or words are the clue, before you share the teacher note:

   1. "Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." (paragraph 1). Teacher note: stated, Jo is lying on the rug and says Christmas will not feel right without presents. Inferred, she is disappointed and in a bad mood. The clue is the verb "grumbled."
   2. "We’ve got Father and Mother, and each other,” said Beth contentedly from her corner." (paragraph 4). Teacher note: stated, Beth reminds her sisters of what they still have. Inferred, Beth is thankful for her family and tries to look on the bright side. The clue is "contentedly," which means in a satisfied, peaceful way.
   3. "I’ve wanted it so long,” said Jo, who was a bookworm." (paragraph 7). Teacher note: stated, Jo loves to read (a bookworm is a person who reads all the time). Inferred, she has not been able to buy the book for a long while. Ask students which earlier paragraph helps explain why (paragraph 2: the family is poor).

   Then show Diagram 2 (Clue + What I Know = Inference) and have each pair fill in one blank row of the chart for a detail of its own choice from the opening. Two or three pairs read their row aloud; the class checks that the clue is quoted exactly and has its paragraph number.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read a second text on their own: the first part of Rudyard Kipling's "How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" (1902), from Just So Stories, a book of stories about how animals came to look the way they do. Paragraph numbers restart in each part. Words to know: uninhabited (no one lives there), splendour (British spelling of splendor, great shine or beauty), comestible (something to eat), Sloka (a short verse or saying), waterproof (a British word for a raincoat) and Parsee (Kipling's spelling of Parsi, a member of a religious community in India whose families came from Persia).

   1ONCE upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick. It was indeed a Superior Comestible (that’s magic), and he put it on stove because he was allowed to cook on the stove, and he baked it and he baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental. But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah’s Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners. He said, ‘How!’ and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate:--

   2Them that takes cakes
   Which the Parsee-man bakes
   Makes dreadful mistakes.

   3And there was a great deal more in that than you would think.

   1Because, five weeks later, there was a heat wave in the Red Sea, and everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his hat; but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake, because he had eaten it all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward. He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.

   2Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin, and he smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands. Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on.

   3And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against it. He rubbed so much and so hard that he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his temper, but it didn’t make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside.

   On the handout, students (1) write one detail about the island or the cake that the story states explicitly, with a quotation and a paragraph number; (2) write one inference about the Parsee, supported by two clues from different sentences; (3) decide in two or three sentences whether the Parsee's Sloka comes true, citing the part and paragraph that decide it. The story's last paragraph, in which the Parsee packs up his stove and leaves, is not printed here. The quiz uses both parts of the story and the Little Women opening.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain the difference between an explicit detail and an inference. (2) Write one inference about the Rhinoceros and the quotation that best supports it, with the part and paragraph number.

   Teacher note on language: Kipling wrote in 1902, when Britain ruled India. His "Parsee" is a cartoon figure, and the repeated phrase "more-than-oriental splendour" treats Asia as an exotic, fancy place, a common habit of British writers of his time. Keep the words as Kipling wrote them, explain that the Parsi community is real, and point out that Kipling's Parsee is a character in an animal tale, not a description of real people. The spellings "splendour" and "smelt" are British. In Little Women, Alcott spells her characters' speech as published in the 1860s. The homework scene reflects 1860s ideas about how girls should act ("unladylike," "a young lady," knitting while men go to war). Alcott shows Jo pushing against those rules, so treat them as the characters' world, not as the lesson's view, and let students discuss how expectations have changed.

   For homework: students read the next part of the first chapter of Little Women, printed below, which the homework uses. Words to know: affected (acting fancy to impress people), niminy-piminy (fussy and too dainty), chits (an old, rude word for young girls), China Aster (a garden flower), castanets (small clicking instruments) and Miss March (the formal name Jo would be called as a grown woman).

   1“Jo does use such slang words!” observed Amy, with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on the rug.

   2Jo immediately sat up, put her hands in her pockets, and began to whistle.

   3“Don’t, Jo. It’s so boyish!”

   4“That’s why I do it.”

   5“I detest rude, unladylike girls!”

   6“I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!”

   7“Birds in their little nests agree,” sang Beth, the peacemaker, with such a funny face that both sharp voices softened to a laugh, and the “pecking” ended for that time.

   8“Really, girls, you are both to be blamed,” said Meg, beginning to lecture in her elder-sisterly fashion. “You are old enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine. It didn’t matter so much when you were a little girl, but now you are so tall, and turn up your hair, you should remember that you are a young lady.”

   9“I’m not! And if turning up my hair makes me one, I’ll wear it in two tails till I’m twenty,” cried Jo, pulling off her net, and shaking down a chestnut mane. “I hate to think I’ve got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China Aster! It’s bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boy’s games and work and manners! I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy. And it’s worse than ever now, for I’m dying to go and fight with Papa. And I can only stay home and knit, like a poky old woman!”

   10And Jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.

   11“Poor Jo! It’s too bad, but it can’t be helped. So you must try to be contented with making your name boyish, and playing brother to us girls,” said Beth, stroking the rough head with a hand that all the dish washing and dusting in the world could not make ungentle in its touch.

   12“As for you, Amy,” continued Meg, “you are altogether too particular and prim. Your airs are funny now, but you’ll grow up an affected little goose, if you don’t take care. I like your nice manners and refined ways of speaking, when you don’t try to be elegant. But your absurd words are as bad as Jo’s slang.”

   13“If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what am I, please?” asked Beth, ready to share the lecture.

   14“You’re a dear, and nothing else,” answered Meg warmly, and no one contradicted her, for the ‘Mouse’ was the pet of the family.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which of these is textual evidence?

   AYour own opinion about whether the story is exciting or boring BA line you remember from a movie of the story CWords copied exactly from the story, with a paragraph number DA guess about what happens after the story ends

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the first part of the Kipling story, how big is the cake the Parsee makes?

   AOne foot across and two feet thick BTwo feet across and three feet thick CThree feet across and two feet thick DTwo feet across and two feet thick

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the first part, what does the Parsee do when the Rhinoceros arrives and says "How!"?

   AHe throws his knife at the Rhinoceros. BHe hides the cake under his large hat. CHe runs into the Red Sea to escape. DHe climbs to the top of a palm tree.

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The narrator says the Rhinoceros "had no manners then, and he has no manners now" (first part, paragraph 1). Which inference does the rest of that paragraph support best?

   AHe takes what he wants without asking or thanking anyone. BHe is shy around people and hides from them on the island. CHe is so hungry because the island has no other food at all. DHe is clumsy and knocks things over only by accident.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The Parsee recites a Sloka: "Them that takes cakes / Which the Parsee-man bakes / Makes dreadful mistakes." Then the narrator adds, "And there was a great deal more in that than you would think" (first part, paragraph 3). What can a reader infer?

   AThe Parsee has already forgiven the Rhinoceros for the cake. BSomething bad will happen to the Rhinoceros because of the cake. CThe Parsee will bake a second cake and share it with the Rhinoceros. DThe Sloka is a song the Parsee sings every time he bakes a cake.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the second part, why does the Rhinoceros take off his skin?

   AThe cake crumbs inside it were tickling him. BThe Parsee tricked him into taking it off. CThere was a heat wave, and he went to bathe. DIt had grown too tight after he ate the cake.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to the second part, how did the Rhinoceros's skin fasten in those days?

   AIt buttoned underneath with three buttons. BIt tied around the neck with a string. CIt buttoned down the back with two buttons. DIt hooked together over the shoulders.

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   When the Parsee finds the skin, "he smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times round the skin and rubbed his hands" (second part, paragraph 2). What do these actions suggest?

   AHe is glad to find a warm coat to wear. BHe is nervous the Rhinoceros will see him. CHe is dancing to music he hears nearby. DHe is delighted because he has a plan.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which quotation from the second part is the strongest evidence that the Parsee wanted the crumbs to bother the Rhinoceros?

   A"The Parsee took off his hat" B"Then he went to his camp and filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, and never swept out his camp" C"he rubbed that skin just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs ... as ever it could possibly hold" D"He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose"

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to the narrator, how did the Rhinoceros get the folds in his skin?

    AThe Parsee sewed folds into it while the Rhinoceros bathed. BHe rubbed so hard against the palm tree that it folded. CThe skin shrank in the warm water of the Red Sea. DThe three buttons pulled the skin into folds.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How does the Rhinoceros feel as he goes home at the end of the second part?

    ASorry and ashamed about the cake BTired but happy after his swim CProud of his smooth new skin DVery angry and horribly scratchy

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In the Little Women opening, what did Beth plan to spend her dollar on?

    ANew music BA book she wanted CDrawing pencils DA pretty dress

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Beth speaks "with a little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle-holder" (paragraph 8). What does this detail suggest about Beth?

    AShe is angry and wants everyone in the room to hear her. BShe is quiet, and her wishes often go unnoticed by others. CShe is busy cleaning the fireplace while the others talk. DShe is tired and would like to go to bed early this evening.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which inference about Meg does paragraph 6 support best?

    AShe thinks Mother's plan is foolish and says so to her sisters. BShe has already spent her dollar on herself and regrets doing so now. CShe agrees with Mother's reason but still wishes for pretty things. DShe wants to send her whole dollar to the soldiers in the army.

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Find one detail in the first part of the Kipling story that states explicitly what the Rhinoceros's skin was like at the start. Quote it, and explain why that detail matters by the end of the second part.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    The narrator says the Rhinoceros "said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake" (second part, paragraph 1). What can you infer about how the Rhinoceros thinks about taking the cake? Support your inference with one more detail from either part.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Quote the words in the second part that tell what happened to the Rhinoceros's buttons, and give the paragraph number.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Amy says it is not fair "for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all" (paragraph 3). What can you infer about how Amy feels about her family's situation? Support your inference with one more detail about Amy from the opening.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    A classmate writes: "The Rhinoceros is careless with his things. This shows he is careless." Explain what is missing from this answer, and rewrite it with one quotation from the second part.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Kipling writes that the cake "was indeed a Superior Comestible (that’s magic)" (first part, paragraph 1). What can you infer about how the narrator wants readers to take this story? Support your inference with one more detail from the first part.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RL.6.1: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.