Text Type:
Fact / Recount
Reading Level:
T
Word Count:
1,652
Pages:
26
Text Summary
Cathy Freeman is an Aboriginal Australian athlete. Early on, Cathy's stepfather recognized that she had a talent for athletics and ensured that she had the right opportunities to foster that talent. Cathy's hard work and training were rewarded when she won Australia's 100th gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. This account of Cathy's success is set against the difficulties the Aboriginal people have experienced since colonization.
Suggested Lesson Focus
Comprehension/Literary Element Strategies
Distinguish fact from opinion.
Word Skills
Add prefixes to words to alter their meaning.
Grammar Skills
Investigate sentence types.
Phonics Skills
Classify words with a double vowel e + another vowel.
Targeted Vocabulary Words
interior, Europeans, celebrity
Before Reading
Introducing the Book
Hand out the books and have children read the title, the table of contents, and scan the illustrations/photos to make an informed hypothesis about what they may learn from reading Cathy Freeman.
Ask: What do you expect to find out about Cathy Freeman from reading this book? What information did you get from the table of contents? What information did you get from the illustrations/photos?
Building Background
Discuss Australia.
Ask: What do you already know about Australia? What are the similarities between Australia and the United States? (They are approximately the same size, they were both settled by European settlers, they both have states, they both have English as the official language, they both have ethnic minorities, they both have indigenous people.)
Say and ask: When we talk about Europeans, what does that mean?
Discuss the Olympic games.
Say and ask: Let’s talk about the Olympic games. Share with the rest of the group what you know about the Olympics. Ensure that children understand that the athletes in the Olympics compete not only for themselves, but for their countries. Discuss the prestige and honor attached to winning a medal.
Ask: Who knows what celebrity means? Who can name a celebrity?
Book Walk
Ask children to turn to page 4.
Say: Cathy Freeman is an Aborigine. The Aboriginal people are the indigenous people of Australia. Now read the first sentence to find out which event Cathy Freeman won at the 2000 Olympics.
Ask children to turn to page 5.
Say: Pages 5–10 tell you a little about the history of Australia. You will read that the Aboriginal people lived in Australia before the Europeans came. You will also find out that there was fighting between the Aborigines and the European settlers and what happened to the Aboriginal people as a result of this fighting.
Have children scan page 5 to find the word "outback."
Say and ask: Read the sentence that has the word outback in it to find out what outback means. What does the word interior mean? Can you tell what it means from the sentence or do you need to look in a dictionary?
Have children turn to page 11 and ask the students to read the chapter head.
Ask: What sorts of things would you expect to read about the early life of someone who went on to win a gold medal? Do you think that Cathy will become involved in running when she is very young? Do you think you will learn something about Cathy’s family as you read this part of the book?
Have children turn to pages 17 and 18.
Say: This chapter returns to issues that the Aboriginal people have had to continue to deal from the 1960s.
Have children turn to page 19.
Say: The rest of the book relates to Cathy’s success culminating ton winning the gold medal in 2000.
Have children return to page 4.
During Reading
Model Reading
Say: As you read this book you will notice that the author gives both facts and opinions. When you have finished reading, we are going to discuss which are the facts and which are the author’s opinions.
Ask children to read page 4.
Say and ask: Now you have read page 4, let’s talk about which are facts on this page and which are the author’s opinion. Read the first sentence again and then share whether you thought it was fact or opinion. Be prepared to justify your answer.
Now ask children to do the same with the next two sentences and to discuss whether they are fact or opinion. Have the students read the last two sentences.
Ask: Are these sentences fact or opinion? Is there a word in the last sentence that makes you think it is the author’s opinion? Let’s talk about the words powerful symbol. Are these words fact or opinion?
Ask children to read to the end of page 6 and discuss if they think there are any sentences or words that may be opinions rather than facts. Ask children to read through page 10.
Say: Let’s talk about these pages before you read about Cathy.
When the students have read through page 10, discuss the sentence The fighting was often very cruel and large numbers of Aborigines were killed. (page 7)
Ask: What in this sentence is fact and what is opinion?
Ask children to discuss any other sentences or words that they thought were opinions. Have children read the rest of the book independently. Have them mark with a sticky note any word or phrase they did not understand or could not pronounce. You can clarify these later. During this time you may choose to work with another group. Alternatively, you may wish to work individually with some children to monitor their oral reading and comprehension of parts of the text.
Say: I want you to finish reading the book at your own pace. As you read, I want you to stop at the end at the end of each page and think about what facts you have read and what you have read that you think is the author’s opinion.
Using the Worksheet
Introduce and explain the worksheet. Have children start work on the worksheet as they finish reading the text.
After Reading
Comprehending the Text
Draw the group together again and ask children to discuss what they have learned about Cathy Freeman.
Ask: Where was Cathy Freeman born? What happened when Cathy was five years old? How old was Cathy when she ran her first race? What special thing did Cathy do when she was eleven? What important events occurred for Cathy in 1990? Which medals has Cathy won since 1994? What did Cathy do at the 2000 Olympic Games?
Discuss with children some of the things that they think might be especially important to Cathy, given that she is an Aborinine.
Say and ask: Let’s talk about Cathy as a person who belongs to an ethnic minority group. Share with the group whether or not you think this made a difference to her when she was growing up. Do you think it was harder for Cathy to achieve her goals? What things other than winning races do you think might be important to Cathy.
Discuss facts and opinion with children.
Ask: As you read the book, were you able to find instances of the author giving his opinion? Did you agree with his opinion? Share with the group why you agreed or disagreed.
Building Skills
Word Skills
Write the word write on the board.
Say and ask: We are going to make this word into another word by adding a prefix on to the front of it. A prefix is a small, meaningful group of letters. When you add a prefix to a word it adds to the meaning. Now I’m going to add the prefix re- to the word write. The new word I have is rewrite. In this case the re means again. So to rewrite means to write again, such as I may ask you to rewrite part of a story.
Give children some other examples using the prefix re- (redo, reheat). Write the word appear on the board and ask the students to tell you what it means. Then ask them to add a prefix to make another word. They may say reappear or disappear. Discuss the meaning of these words showing how the prefix alters the meaning.
Say and ask: Let’s talk about birthdays as one type of celebration.
Have children complete the Worksheet.
Phonics
Have children return to the text and locate words that have a double vowel, the first of which is e.
Say: I want you to look back through the text and find all the words that have two vowels next to each other in them. The first vowel must be an e. The two vowels may be in the first or second syllable of a multisyllabic word.
Have children list these words and then read them to a friend.
Say: Read the words to a friend. Put a check mark beside all the words that follow the saying When two vowels go out walking the first one does the talking.
Grammar
Discuss sentences with children.
Say: Today we are going to talk about three types of sentence. The first one is a sentence that tells someone something. The second one is a sentence that asks a question, and the third one orders or advises someone to do something.
Write the following sentences on the board.
Cathy won a gold medal.
Do you think all the Australians were cheering for Cathy?
"Go out and win!" said Cathy’s dad.
Invite children to discuss which sentence is a telling sentence, which is a question, and which is an order.
Have children work with a partner to make up some more similar sentences.
Expand the Reading
Writing Connection
Recording events as journal entries.
Say: I want you to work with a partner. Go back through the text and pick out the important events. Write these events as though you were Cathy writing in her personal journal. Remember to add her feelings as well as the event.
Social Studies Connection
Have children work in small groups to research the Inuit. Then draw the groups together to discuss the similarities and differences between the Inuit and the Aborigine.
Reading Independently
Invite children to reread the book, Cathy Freeman, independently or with a partner. They could then look for and read other magazine, newspaper, or Internet articles about Cathy Freeman. Children should also read each other’s journal writing.
Go to "Cathy Freeman" main page
About Us | Samples | Tell A Friend | Help | Contact
Testimonials | Research | Usage Policy | Site Map | Members | My Account
Home | All Books | Guided Reading | Phonics | Vocabulary | Fluency
Poetry | Alphabet | Assessment | More Resources | Subscribe