The Battle of the Alamo

The Battle of the Alamo
Level V

About the Book

Text Type: Nonfiction/Informational
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 1,909

Book Summary
From sacred ground to bloody battlefield, the Alamo's history is described in this informative text. The Texas Revolution is highlighted through accounts of the battles and major players, the defeat of Santa Anna, the formation of the Republic of Texas, and Texas statehood in 1845. Photographs, illustrations, and maps support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Summarize

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of summarizing to understand text
Understand and identify cause-and-effect relationships
Identify and use complex sentences
Fluently read numbers within the text

Materials

Book -- The Battle of the Alamo (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Vocabulary, cause and effect, complex sentences worksheets

Indicates an opportunity for student to mark in the book. (All activities may be completed with paper and pencil if books are reusable.)

Vocabulary

Content words: barracks, bayonets, cavalry, compound, facade, hostility, militia, mission, siege, typhoid

Before Reading

Build Background

Cut out the front cover and pages 6 and 7 from an extra copy of The Battle of the Alamo. Provide multiple copies of these primary sources for groups of students to review.
Have students use the sources to discuss what they already know about the battle of the Alamo. Ask students if they know where the Alamo is located and the purpose of the battle there.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

Give students their copy of the book. Guide them to the front and back covers and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what type of book it is and what it might be about.
Show students the title page. Discuss the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
Ask students to turn to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Ask students what they expect to read about based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Summarize

Explain to students that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to write a summary, or brief overview, of the most important information in a chapter. Point out that a summary often answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.
Create a chart on the board with the headings Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Read page 4 aloud to students and model summarizing.
Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is the most important to remember in a section. To do this, I can consider who and what the chapter was about, what happened, and when and why it happened. Then I can organize that information into a few sentences. This chapter is mostly about the Alamo. The author explains that the Alamo is an honored place that was once a mission that was later turned into a military fort. I will write Alamo, a mission, and a military fort under the heading What. The description of the gunfire and cannons means that some sort of battle took place there. I will write a battle under the heading Why. The Alamo is located in the city of San Antonio, Texas. I will write San Antonio, Texas under the heading Where. When I organize all of this information, a summary of the introduction might be: The Alamo is an honored place in San Antonio, Texas. Once a mission, it was later turned into a military fort and became the site of a battle.
Write the summary on the board. Discuss how you used the information in the chart, along with your own words, to create the summary.
As students read, encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For tips on additional reading strategies, click here.

Introduce the Comprehension Skill: Cause and effect

Review or explain that a cause is an event that makes something happen, and the effect is what happens because of, or as a result of, the event. Create a two-column chart on the board with the headings Cause and Effect. Write the following sentence on the board under the heading Cause: I hit a baseball through a window.
Model identifying a series of cause-and-effect relationships.
Think-aloud: If I hit a baseball through a window, the window would break and I might have to pay for the window. If I had to pay for the window, I would have to take money out of my savings. If I had to take money out of my savings, I wouldn't have enough money to buy the item I was saving money for. Sometimes a cause and its effect cause other events to happen.
Retell the series of cause-and-effect relationships about the baseball. Ask students to identify the causes and effects. Write each cause and its effect in the chart on the board. When finished, point out how each cause-and-effect relationship leads to other cause-and-effect relationships.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Write the following words from the content vocabulary on the board in order: militia, siege, compound.
Give groups of students three pieces of blank paper. For each word, have them write or draw what they know about the word. Create a definition for each word using students' prior knowledge.
Review or explain that the glossary and a dictionary both contain vocabulary words and their definitions.
Model how students can use the glossary or a dictionary to find a word's meaning. Have students locate the glossary at the back of the book. Invite a volunteer read the definition for militia. Have students compare the definition with their prior knowledge of the word. Then have students follow along on page 12 as you read the sentence in which the word militia is found, to confirm the meaning of the word. Repeat the exercise with the remaining vocabulary words.
Invite students to review the illustration on page 6. Have them use the vocabulary words on the board to create a brief oral story about a militia that found itself under siege in a compound. Repeat the activity after reading the book to check for student understanding of the vocabulary.
Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the vocabulary worksheet. Review student answers aloud.
For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book to find out more about the battle of the Alamo. As they read, encourage them to underline information in each chapter that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Have students read from page 5 to the end of page 8. Encourage those who finish before others to reread the first three chapters.
Model summarizing important information in the second chapter, "From Mission to Fort."
Think-aloud: I made sure to stop reading after the second chapter to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I thought about the information that answered the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Then, in my mind, I organized the important information into a few sentences. In this chapter, I learned that the Alamo was built in the 1720s and the Spanish used it as a mission to teach Native Americans about Christianity. I underlined Alamo, 1720s, Spanish, Native Americans, and mission. I also learned that the Alamo consisted of a chapel and a number of smaller buildings that created a compound. I underlined chapel and compound in the book. I read that the Spanish missionaries left in 1793 and the Spanish began using the compound as a military post. The soldiers renamed the post the Alamo, which is Spanish for cottonwood. I will also underline the words 1793, military post, and renamed the Alamo in the book.
Write the underlined information in the chart on the board. Have students share any additional information they underlined that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Write this information on the chart. Create a summary with students based on the information in the chart. (The Spanish built a compound in the 1720s and used it as a mission to teach Native Americans about Christianity. It consisted of a chapel and a number of smaller buildings. When the missionaries left in 1793, Spain began using it as a military post. Its soldiers renamed the post the Alamo.)
Have students turn to page 7 in the book. Create a cause-and-effect chain on the board. Write Mexico invited Americans to settle in Texas in the first space in the cause-and-effect chain and Thousands of people settled there in the second space. Point out how one event caused the other to happen--Mexico's invitation to Americans for settlement in Texas caused thousands of people to settle there.
Introduce and explain the cause and effect worksheet. Ask students to write the information from the board on their worksheet. Have them identify what major event happened as a result of thousands of people settling in Texas (Mexico tried to stop further settlement). Have them write this event in the third box on their worksheet.
Check for understanding: Ask students to identify an event that happened as a result of Mexico's attempt to stop further settlement in Texas. (The Texians decided to fight for independence.) Have them write this event in the next box on their worksheet.
Have students read pages 9 through 15 in their book. Remind them to underline information that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why while reading. Divide students into groups. Assign each small group a chapter from page 9 through 15 and have them write a brief summary of the chapter on a separate piece of paper. Have them share and discuss their summaries.
Write Texians decide to fight for independence from Mexico on the cause-and-effect chain on the board under the heading Cause. Ask students to use the text to identify an effect of this cause (Santa Anna of Mexico led an army to Texas while the Texians built up defenses at the Alamo). Have them write these events on their cause and effect worksheet.
Have students read the remainder of the book. Have them underline information in each chapter that answers the questions who, what, when, where, and why.

Have students make a question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read each word and figure out its meaning.

After Reading

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their book. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding skills and context clues.
Divide students into pairs. Assign each pair one of the remaining chapters from the book ("The Battle," "The Defeat of Santa Anna," "The Republic of Texas," or "Remember the Alamo"). Have each group discuss the information they underlined in their chapter. Have them use the information to write a group summary of the chapter. When students have finished, share and discuss their summaries aloud.
Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about the Alamo and Texas because I summarized as I read the book.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

Discussion: Review with students the chain of events on their cause and effect worksheet. Point out how each event caused the next event to happen. Ask students to identify an event that happened as a result of Santa Anna leading an army to Texas and the Texians building up defenses at the Alamo (Santa Anna attacked the Alamo after the Texians refused to surrender). Have them write this event in the next space on their worksheet.
Have students read page 19 to identify the effect of Santa Anna's attack on the Alamo and write it on their worksheet (Mexico triumphed but lost 600 soldiers).
Independent practice: Have students complete the cause and effect worksheet. Instruct them to use the back of the worksheet to add more boxes to their chain if necessary. If time allows, discuss their responses.
Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned a lot about the history of the Texas Revolution. Now that you know this information, what does this tell you about the impact of Mexico's decision to allow Americans to settle in Texas?

Build Skills

Grammar and Mechanics: Complex sentences

Write the following sentence on the board: Travis defended the Alamo __________ Santa Anna attacked.
Have students read the sentence and suggest words that belong in the blank to complete the sentence (because, when).
Review or explain that a conjunction is a word that joins together two parts of a sentence. Point to the words students suggested to complete the sentence on the board. Explain that these conjunctions join parts of sentences together to form a complex sentence.
List the following examples of conjunctions on the board (after, although, as, because, before, if, once, since, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, while).
Reread the sentence on the board, including a conjunction in the sentence. (Travis defended the Alamo when Santa Anna attacked.) Underline Travis defended the Alamo. Explain that this part of the sentence is called the independent clause because it is a complete thought. Circle when Santa Anna attacked. Explain that the part of the sentence including and following the conjunction is called the dependent clause. Point out that even though both sentence parts contain a subject and verb, the dependent clause does not express a complete thought and is not a sentence that can stand alone.
Have students read the sentence with the dependent clause at the beginning. (When Santa Anna attacked, Travis defended the Alamo.) Point out that either sentence is correct. However when the dependent clause is at the beginning of the sentence, a comma often separates the clauses.
Write the following sentence on the board: If the Federalists had prevailed, there might not have been a Texas Revolution.
Have students identify the conjunction (If), the dependent clause (If the Federalists had prevailed), and the independent clause (there might not have been a Texas Revolution). Point out that in this example, the dependent clause is at the beginning of the sentence.

Check for understanding: Have students highlight the following sentence from page 10 in their book: As Santa Anna advanced toward San Antonio, Governor Smith ordered Neill to hold the Alamo at all costs. Have students underline the dependent clause (As Santa Anna advanced toward San Antonio) and circle the independent clause (Governor Smith ordered Neill to hold the Alamo at all costs). Ask students to identify the conjunction (As).

Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the complex sentences worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Word Work: Numbers within text

Direct students to page 13. Point out that when reading aloud, readers will sometimes encounter different symbols, numbers, and abbreviations within the text. Good readers read these parts of the text fluently, just as they read the words.
Ask students to locate three numbers within the text on page 13 (49, 1835, and 12). Write the numbers on the board. Review or explain that when reading the sentences aloud, the numbers are read in the same manner as the words. Explain that sometimes they will find numbers spelled out, such as twelve. At other times, they will find numbers written as numerals instead of letters, such as 12.
Point out that one of the numbers on page 13 is a date (1835), which is read differently from the four-digit number (read eighteen thirty-five, not one thousand eight hundred thirty-five). Explain that good readers look for context clues to know if a four-digit number is read as a date. Write the corresponding words on the board, under each number (forty-nine, eighteen thirty-five, twelve).
Have students turn to page 16. Have them locate the three numbers within the text (13th, 6th, 1,800). Point out that the th letter combination follows each of the two numbers. Explain counting order, and review the correct letters that follow each number to ten. Write them on the board and practice reading the numbers aloud (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th). Next to the numbers, write the word equivalents (first, second, third, and so on).
Check for understanding: Have students turn to pages 14 and 15, and practice reading the numbers within text aloud fluently to a partner. When everyone has read the pages aloud, ask volunteers to write the number and words for each number on the board (23rd: twenty-third; 189: one hundred eighty-nine; 250: two hundred fifty).

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

Give students their book to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have them discuss with someone at home how to summarize as they read each chapter.

Extend the Reading

Expository Writing Connection
Have students choose one of the following men included in the text: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Lieutenant Colonel James C. Neill, William Barret Travis, James Bowie, David Crockett, or Sam Houston. Have them research their chosen subject, identifying such information as his place in history. Ask students to write a report based on the information from their research.

Social Studies Connection
Have students review the text, highlighting the date of each event discussed in the book. Have them create an appropriately spaced timeline that displays each of the events and its corresponding date. If time allows, invite students to illustrate their timelines. Hang them in the hallway for others to learn more about the Texas Revolution and the Alamo.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

accurately use details from the text to create chapter summaries during discussion and on a separate piece of paper
understand and identify cause-and-effect relationships in the text during discussion and on a worksheet
correctly identify the parts of complex sentences; write complex sentences during discussion and on a worksheet
fluently read numbers within the text; write the words that correlate with numbers during discussion

Comprehension Checks

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