Text Type: Nonfiction/Biography
Page Count: 20
Word Count: 1,745

Book Summary
Alberto Salazar: An American Runner is a biographical text that focuses on the inspiration and motivation of a very accomplished distance runner. The book informs readers of how Alberto discovered his amazing talent and highlights important events that shaped his life. Photographs, and maps support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Retell

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of retelling to understand and remember a timeline of events
• Identify elements of a biography
• Understand the use of a dash as punctuation
• Recognize and form compound words

Materials

• Book -- Alberto Salazar: An American Runner (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Retell, dash, compound words worksheets
• Discussion cards

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

Vocabulary

• Content words: abuse, arduous, athletes, debut, dehydrated, depressed, fatigue, immune system, intimidated, miraculously, phenomenon, prestigious, qualifying, realization, surrendered, theories

Build Background

• Ask students whether they know how many minutes it might take them to run a mile. Give them a reference point to help describe the distance of a mile by telling them to think of running from (point A) to (point B) in their community.
• Ask students to share their feelings about the sport of running. Explain that some athletes are born with a talent that makes them naturally gifted in a specific sport. Invite students to talk about their personal strengths by asking what they think they are naturally good at (sports or otherwise).

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students their 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 kind of book this is (genre, text type, fiction or nonfiction, and so on) and what it might be about.
• Preview the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author'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 in the book, based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell

• Explain to students that one way to understand and remember what they are reading is to stop now and then during reading to retell in their mind what is happening in the story.
• Explain to students that when someone retells something, he or she explains the details of what happened in order. Point out that people retell stories as part of their daily lives, such as explaining what happened in school to a student who was absent. Ask students to share other examples of when people might give a retelling.
• Model retelling a familiar story in detail, such as The Three Little Pigs.
  Think-aloud: In The Three Little Pigs, three pigs each decide to build a house. The first pig decides to make his house out of straw. He gathers all of the materials and builds his house. The second pig decides to build his house out of sticks. He gathers all of the materials and builds his house. The third pig gathers the materials to build his house out of bricks. One day a big, bad wolf comes to the house of the first little pig. He wants the little pig to let him inside and says I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down.
• Continue retelling in detail to the end of the story. Invite students to suggest information for the retelling of this story.
• Explain that in this book, the author shares nonfiction details about the life events of Alberto Salazar. Have students place sticky notes on pages 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 18. Explain that as they read, they should stop on these pages to think about the information about Alberto's life. Encourage students to retell in their mind the events in the book as they read.
• 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: Elements of a biography

• Ask students to explain the difference between a biography and an autobiography (biography: the story of a person's life written by someone else; autobiography: the story of a person's life written by that person). Explain that this book is a biography. A biography includes information about the person's personality, accomplishments, and influence on the world.
• Write the words Personality, Accomplishments, and Influence in a three-column chart on the board. Ask students to explain the meaning of each of these words (personality: the qualities that makes each person unique; accomplishments: success achieved through practice or training; influence: an effect on someone or something).
• Have students turn to page 4. Read the page aloud while students follow along silently. Ask students to identify which element of a biography this information best reflects (accomplishments). Invite them to identify the information that tells about Alberto Salazar's accomplishments (he could easily run 26 five-minute miles in a row; he won the New York City Marathon in 1981; and so on).
• Think-aloud: I read that Alberto Salazar was a runner who completed one-mile runs in incredible times--five minutes or less. He could easily run 26 five-minute miles in a row and won the New York City Marathon in 1981. These are examples of some of his accomplishments as a runner.
• Based on the information about Alberto Salazar's accomplishments, ask students to describe what his personality might be like (dedicated, hard-working, and so on).

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Show students pictures of familiar individuals from history who had a positive influence on the world (for example: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and George Washington). Have students explain what they know about these individuals. Write the information next to each person on the board.
• Write the word ambitious on the board and say the word aloud to students. Explain that the word ambitious means giving great effort and having a strong desire to succeed. Have students use the word ambitious in sentences to describe the individuals listed on the board.
• Have students explain the characteristics that the individuals on the board likely possessed to accomplish such goals (self-assured, strong-willed, and so on). Write the word confident on the board and say the word aloud to students. Explain that the word confident describes these characteristics. Have students use the word confident in sentences to describe the individuals on the board.
• Have students explain how the individuals listed on the board had an impact on other people. Write the word victorious on the board. Explain that the word victorious means to be triumphant, or to have won a struggle.
• Point to the words ambitious, confident, and victorious. Explain that each of the words can also be used to describe Alberto Salazar.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out about Alberto Salazar. Remind them to stop reading at the end of each page with a sticky note to quickly retell in their mind the details of the events so far in Alberto's life.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read from page 5 to the end of page 7. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread.
• Cut out the pages from an extra copy of the book. Place pages 4 through 7 in a pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge.
• Model retelling the events of Salazar's life, using the photographs and maps as a guide.
  Think-aloud: I stopped after a few pages to retell in my mind what I had read so far. First, Alberto was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1958. Then I read that he moved with his family to Florida, moved to Connecticut soon after, and nine years later moved to Massachusetts. I read that as a kid he was allowed to train in an elite distance-running group because he was such a fast runner. He finished high school and was recruited by the top cross-country team in the country: the University of Oregon. He helped his team win the national cross-country title as a sophomore and won the individual title as a junior.
• Remind students that a retelling includes detail and description about the events of a story, using a sequence of the most important events that someone would need to know to recount that person's history correctly.
• Ask students to explain elements of Alberto's personality, accomplishments, and influence using the information in the section (personality: confident, hard-working, determined; accomplishments: at 17 was the youngest on an elite distance-running track club, ran two miles in under 9 minutes, won team and individual national cross-country titles; influence: led his teams to success).
• Discuss how Alberto's personality might have influenced his accomplishments. Facilitate the discussion with questions such as: How would you describe Alberto's personality? What characteristics of his personality might have influenced him to be such a successful athlete?
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 10. Place pages 8 through 10 next to the pages from the beginning of the story in the pocket chart or along the chalkboard ledge. Ask students to use the images as a guide to retell to a partner the details of the events after Alberto finished college. Listen to students' retellings for correct order and description of the story events. Discuss the retelling of these pages as a class.
• Have students discuss with a partner information from the section that reflects Alberto's personality and accomplishments. Have them write this information on a separate piece of paper. Invite students to share this information aloud.
• Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to continue stopping on pages with sticky notes to retell in their mind the details of the story.

      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.

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 strategies and context clues.
• Think-aloud: After Alberto won the New York City Marathon for the second straight year, he ran in the Boston Marathon. In 1982 he beat Dick Beardsley by a narrow margin in "The Duel in the Sun." The race took a toll on his body and marked the beginning of his decline. After that, he managed to win the New York City Marathon for the third straight time, but he was never the same. He only finished 15th at the 1984 Summer Olympics, although he was favored for a medal. He began to train too hard, which caused him to become very ill and experience a series of injuries.
• Retell in detail with students the events of the story from pages 11 through the end of the book, using the photographs and maps as a guide.
• Check for understanding: Have students retell the events of the entire book to a partner. Listen for whether students include the correct events and details of Alberto's life in the order in which they happened.
• Ask students how retelling the events of the story in their mind as they read helped them understand the story.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the retell worksheet, referring to the photographs and maps in the book to accurately tell the events of Alberto Salazar's life. 

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Invite students to share information they learned about Alberto Salazar's accomplishments (won national cross-country titles with his team and individually in college; won the New York City Marathon three times, the Boston Marathon, and the Comrades Marathon; trains young athletes for Nike).
• Ask students to explain how these accomplishments have influenced others (they model the importance of challenging oneself and being persistent with one's goals; they model the importance of changing one's approach to achieve success once again; and so on).

      Independent practice: Have students use the inside front cover of their book to create a three-column chart with the headings Personality, Accomplishments, and Influence. Have them reread pages 17 and 18, and write information that describes each of the elements of a biography on the chart in their book. When students have finished working, discuss their answers.

• Enduring understanding: In this book, you learned about a very successful man and his ambitious, tenacious nature. Now that you know this information, what qualities do you think can help you achieve your own goals throughout your lifetime?

Grammar and Mechanics: Dash

• Review or explain that a dash (--) is a punctuation mark used to indicate a break or omission. It is also used to clarify information within a sentence.
• Direct students to page 6 in the book. Write the following sentence on the board: By the time he graduated high school, Alberto could run two miles in under 9 minutes--less than 4 minutes and 30 seconds a mile. Ask students how the dash is used in this instance (to clarify how fast he ran one mile).
• Direct students to page 15. Write the following sentence on the board: For the next several years, Alberto struggled--physically, mentally, and emotionally. Ask students how the dash is used in this instance (to add a thought to the end of the sentence).
• Review or explain that hyphens are used in compound adjectives, such as cross-country on page 5 in the book. Point out that hyphens are shorter in length and are used to connect two words. Remind students not to confuse a dash with a hyphen.
• Direct students to page 17 in the book. Write the following sentence on the board: He chose to train for a new distance--the ultra-marathon. Ask a volunteer to come to the board and circle the dash (after the word distance). Ask students how the dash is used in this instance (to clarify what the new distance was). Point out the hyphen in the compound adjective ultra-marathon.

      Check for understanding: Have students find and circle the dashes on page 14. Have them write how the dash is used in each instance on the page.

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

Word Work: Compound words

• Write the word teammate on the board. Ask students which two words were joined together in the word teammate (team and mate). Explain that this word is called a compound word. A compound word contains two words that together create one word meaning.
• Have students share other compound words they know. Write these words on the board. Have volunteers circle each word within the compound words. Use the definitions of each individual word to define the entire word with students.
• Check for understanding: Write the following sentence on the board: The marathon honors the endurance of a Greek soldier who ran from a battlefield near Marathon, Greece, to Athens, bringing news of victory. Have students read the sentence and identify the compound word (battlefield). Ask them which two words are joined together in the word battlefield (battle and field). Explain that the definitions of the two separate words can help students figure out the meaning of the bigger word (a field where a battle took place).
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound words worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

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 retell the events of their day with someone at home.

Biography Writing Connection
Have students use the Internet to further research one of the following people from Alberto Salazar's life: Bill Dellinger, Steve Prefontaine, or Dick Beardsley. Have them write a research paper identifying the major contributions of that individual during Salazar's life and evaluate his impact on history. Allow time for students to present their papers orally.

Math Connection
Have students turn to page 5 and read the Math Minute sidebar. Have student pairs work together to solve the problem by drawing pictures and showing their calculations on a separate piece of paper.

Skill Review
Discussion cards covering comprehension skills and strategies not explicitly taught with the book are provided as an extension activity. The following is a list of some ways these cards can be used with students:

• Use as discussion starters for literature circles.
• Have students choose one or more card and write a response, either as an essay or a journal entry.
• Distribute before reading the book and have students use one of the questions as a purpose for reading.
• Cut apart and use the cards as game cards with a board game.
• Conduct a class discussion as a review before the book quiz.