Houghton Mifflin Harcourt StoryTown - 2008 Grade 3
Unit 3/Lesson 11
Title: Loved Best
Suggested Time: 3-4 days (45 minutes per day)
Common Core ELA Standards: RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3, RL.3.7; RF.3.4; W.3.2, W.3.4; SL.3.1; L.3.1, L.3.2, L.3.5
Teacher Instructions
Refer to the Introduction for further details.
Before Teaching
1. Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task.
Big Ideas and Key Understandings
Growing up includes learning to be honest about your feelings and trusting your family.
Synopsis
Carolyn believes her parents should love her best, because she is the oldest child. Carolyn is worried that her parents don’t love her best, but believes that her performance that evening will be so impressive, that her parents will love her best. However, Carolyn trips onstage and forgets her poem. People laugh, and Carolyn is humiliated. She runs outside and her Mama follows her. When Carolyn explains to her Mama about being loved best, her Mama is soothing and explains away Carolyn’s misconceptions. At the end of the story, Carolyn is happy with her family and agrees to return to the performance and recite the poem.
2. Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings.
3. Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary.
During Teaching
1. Students read the entire main selection text independently.
2. Teacher reads the main selection text aloud with students following along. (Depending on how complex the text is and the amount of support needed by students, the teacher may choose to reverse the order of steps 1 and 2.)
3. Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discuss the questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, group work, etc.)
Text Dependent Questions
Text-dependent Questions / Evidence-based AnswersWho is Carolyn and what is her problem at the beginning of the story? How does Carolyn plan to solve her problem? (Pg. 307) / Carolyn is the oldest child in a family. She thinks her parents should love her best, but is not sure that they do. Carolyn and her siblings are performing in a play, and Carolyn believes she will be better than her brother and sister. When her parents see “how wonderful she is” then they will love her best once again.
What members of Carolyn’s family are in the audience watching the performance? How are they feeling about the performance when it is Dana and Josh’s turn to perform? (Pg. 311) / Daddy, Mama, Grandmama, and Granddaddy are in the audience. They are happy. Mama is smiling. Daddy almost forgot to start the video because he was so involved in listening. Granddaddy was “enjoying himself, too” and “snapping pictures”. Grandmama took the video, so Daddy could listen.
How did Carolyn react to her sister’s and her brother’s performances? What did this have to do with Carolyn thinking she was going to “blow them all away”? How was this going to solve her problem? (Pg. 311) / Carolyn enjoyed both Dana’s and Josh’s performances. She thought Dana was “cute” and that Josh was “so good”. She applauded and yelled, “Yo, bro!” after Josh’s performance. Carolyn thought her performance would be better than both of sibling’s performances and then her parents would love her best.
Reread pages 312 to 315. Was Carolyn successful in solving her problem in the way she had planned? Did she “blow them all away”? What happened to Carolyn on stage?
[If more specific questions are needed: Explain what happened by answering the following questions. What happened when Carolyn stepped onstage? Why did it matter to Carolyn that this time wasn’t like practice? What does a “blank sheet of paper” have to do with Carolyn’s performance? How did Carolyn react when the audience began to applaud her performance?] / Carolyn was unsuccessful with her plan to “blow them all away” with a perfect performance. She tripped on the microphone cord stepping onstage, and people laughed. During practice, no one was really paying attention, but during the actual performance, Carolyn noticed there were a lot of people in the audience and they were paying close attention, including the family she wanted to impress. Carolyn was nervous and forgot the lines to her poem. Her memory went blank, like a “blank sheet of paper”. Carolyn was unhappy because she knew that they were applauding to try and make her feel better- that they would applaud when “little kids… messed up”.
How did Carolyn feel and what did she do at the end of her performance on page 315? What did Mama do to help Carolyn? What did the author mean by Mama’s voice being “soothing as a warm breeze”? / Carolyn felt humiliated, bounded offstage, and bolted out the side door into the parking lot. Carolyn’s Mama followed her outside and caught Carolyn just as she collapsed against the family car. Mama told Carolyn she would be fine. Her voice made Carolyn feel better and calm down, like a breeze can be calming.
How does Mama react when Carolyn tells her about the problem? Why does Mama compare Carolyn to “the boy who cried wolf” and why would Carolyn behave that way? (Pg. 317) / Mama doesn’t know where Carolyn “gets such ideas”. Mama compares Carolyn to the boy who cried wolf, because Carolyn pretended to be sick to get attention. Carolyn was jealous of the attention her sister was getting.
How does Mama help Carolyn solve the problem on page 318? / Mama explains to Carolyn that she does not favor any of her children and that “all three of you are loved the best I know how”.
How do we know that Carolyn’s problem is solved by the end of the story on page 320? Use the text and the illustration to support your answer. / Carolyn tells everyone that “you are all loved best”, winks at her Mom, and goes back in to recite the poem she couldn’t remember earlier. She seems very happy with her family in the illustration. Carolyn is smiling and is surrounded by her family.
Vocabulary
KEY WORDS ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTANDING / WORDS WORTH KNOWINGGeneral teaching suggestions are provided in the Introduction
TEACHER PROVIDES DEFINITION
not enough contextual clues provided in the text / Page 316-shrugged / Page 311-bow
Page 312-intermission
Page 316-trailed (off)
STUDENTS FIGURE OUT THE MEANING
sufficient context clues are provided in the text / Page 309-“break a leg”; audience; nervously
Page 310-scene; performed
Page 311-“blow them…away”
Page 315-“soothing as a warm breeze”; bolted; humiliated; collapsed; “like a blank sheet of paper”; sobbed; voice
Page 316-concerned
Page 317-“cried wolf”; pretend
Page 320-encouraging, winking / Page 309- “off key”; chirping
Page 311-served; lean; snapping (pictures); especially; involved; video (camera); concentrate
Page 312-brief; announced
Page 314-searched; bounding
Page 317-chuckling
Page 318-“fair share”; hesitate
Culminating Task
· Re-Read, Think, Discuss, Write
· Write about how Carolyn’s attitude about herself and her family changed from the beginning of the story to the end of the story. Be sure to introduce your topic clearly, include details from the story to support your answer, and provide a concluding statement.
Answer: Carolyn is the oldest child in a family with three children. At the beginning of the story, she believes that her parents should love her best, because Carolyn is the oldest, and is very worried that they don’t love her best. There is a performance, and Carolyn plans to do much better with her part than her brother and sister in order to get her parents to love Carolyn best. However, at the performance Carolyn tripped onstage and became embarrassed when people in the audience laughed. Her mind went “blank” and Carolyn forgot the lines to the poem. Then, she ran outside and cried, believing her parents would not love her. Carolyn’s Mama followed her and hugged her, and they talked about how Carolyn was feeling. Mama explained to Carolyn that this was not true, and said “all three of you are loved the best I know how”. Carolyn’s family then also went outside and encouraged Carolyn to go back and recite her poem. Carolyn is happy by the end of the story and has come to understand that she does not need to be loved best. She is not worried anymore about how her parents love her. Carolyn tells her family, “You are all loved best” and returns to the performance. Carolyn has learned to be honest and to trust her family.
Additional Tasks
· Fluency practice: have students reread at least one page of the story aloud with a partner, taking turns to each read the page with appropriate rate and expression.
· Have students read “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and discuss the lesson from that story. How was Carolyn like the boy who cried wolf?
Answer: The boy who cried wolf teaches about the importance of being honest; If you do not tell the truth or lie a lot people will not believe you when you are telling the truth; Carolyn was like the boy who cried wolf because they both did not tell the truth to get attention. Carolyn pretended to be sick and the boy who cried wolf pretended that wolf was coming to attack the flock of sheep.
· Have students work in pairs or small groups and identify the figurative language from “Loved Best”. Tell students that their group will choose one figurative phrase or expression from the story and report out to the class what that means in the story. Also, consider having the students add drawings or other visual displays (like a blank sheet of paper) to provide additional detail.
Possible Answers: page 309 “like a bright spring day”, “break a leg”; page 310 “a carpet of green grass”; page 311 “blow them away”; page 315 “like a blank sheet of paper”, “the earth to open up and swallow (her) whole”, “as soothing as a warm breeze”, page 320 “scarves flowing like a river”.
Note to Teacher
This story has figurative language that some students may need teacher assistance to understand, especially ESL students (i.e., “like a blanket”, “blank sheet of paper”, “voice as soothing as a warm breeze”, “earth opened up and swallowed (her)”, “flowing like a river, “a carpet of green grass”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt StoryTown - 2008 Grade 3
Name ______Date ______
“Loved Best”
1. Who is Carolyn and what is her problem at the beginning of the story? How does Carolyn plan to solve her problem? (Pg. 307)
2. What members of Carolyn’s family are in the audience watching the performance? How are they feeling about the performance when it is Dana and Josh’s turn to perform? (Pg. 311)
3. How did Carolyn react to her sister’s and her brother’s performances? What did this have to do with Carolyn thinking she was going to “blow them all away”? How was this going to solve her problem? (Pg. 311)
4. Reread pages 312 to 315. Was Carolyn successful in solving her problem in the way she had planned? Did she “blow them all away”? What happened to Carolyn on stage?
5. How did Carolyn feel and what did she do at the end of her performance on page 315? What did Mama do to help Carolyn? What did the author mean by Mama’s voice being “soothing as a warm breeze”?
6. How does Mama react when Carolyn tells her about the problem? Why does Mama compare Carolyn to “the boy who cried wolf” and why would Carolyn behave that way? (Pg. 317)
7. How does Mama help Carolyn solve the problem on page 318?
8. How do we know that Carolyn’s problem is solved by the end of the story on page 320? Use the text and the illustration to support your answer.