Build Background

• Have students tell what they know about people who immigrated by ship to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. List their responses on the board. Direct them to talk about Irish immigrants and the Potato Famine if it is not mentioned.
• Have students identify the items on the list that might pose problems, such as crowded ships, unsanitary conditions, and diseases. Ask them how they might have solved the problems.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Give students a copy of the book and have them look at the front and back covers and read the title. Have them offer ideas about what a book called Atlantic Crossing might be about based on what they see. Direct them to the table of contents and ask them to tell what the chapter headings might tell them about the story.

Introduce the Strategy: Make Predictions

• Model how to make a prediction as you preview the book.
• Think aloud: Well, when I looked at the pictures on the cover and read the title I thought the book would be about being on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Then when I read the chapter titles in the table of contents that made me think a family or a person wants to begin a new life in America. So I’m going to revise my prediction and say the story will be about a person or family’s trip across the Atlantic Ocean to begin a new life. I'll have to read the book to find out if my prediction is correct.
• Encourage students to make predictions about what they think they will read about in the book after taking a quick look through the illustrations in the rest of the book.
• As students read, they should use other reading strategies in addition to the targeted strategy presented in this section. For a review of additional reading strategies, click here .

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Remind students of the strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For example, they can use what they know about letter and sound correspondence to figure out the word. They can look for base words and prefixes and suffixes, or other word endings. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Direct students to page 4. Have them find the bold word famine. Tell students that they can look at the letters the words begin with to help them sound out how to say the words. Tell them that they can then use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. Read the paragraph with the students. Explain that the sentence before the one that contains the unfamiliar word tells them that many Irish people are starving. In the sentence with the unfamiliar word, they read that the potato crop has failed due to disease. Explain that by putting this information together, they can infer that the unfamiliar word means that there is a shortage of food. Tell students that sometimes a context clue will be in the same sentence, but other times they have to use the clues in the rest of the paragraph to make a reasonable guess about the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Tell them if their guess doesn't make sense in the sentence, they can look up the words in the glossary, a dictionary, or a thesaurus.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Tell students as they read the book to make predictions about what will happen based on the clues in the story. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions as they learn more information about the characters and plot.

Student Reading

•     Guide the Reading: Have students read pages 4-8. Tell them to underline the words or phrases in the book that tell the names of the characters, where it took place, and any major events. If they finish before everyone else, they should go back and reread.
• When they have finished reading, have students identify the characters. Ask where and when the story takes place.
• Have students tell how Patrick feels about leaving Dublin. Ask them who he is angry with.
• Model how to continue making predictions.
  Think-aloud: I think the man is going to attack Patrick and take his money. I'll have to keep reading to see what happens.
• Ask students what they think might happen next. Remind them as they read to pause and think about a prediction they've made that is confirmed by something they've read in the story. Tell them to revise their predictions is they learn something that makes them think differently than they did when they began reading.
•     Tell the students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Discuss how making predictions about what will happen in the story keeps them actively involved in the reading process and helps them remember what they've read.
• Think-aloud: I never would have guessed at the beginning of the story that Patrick would save the ship as it crossed the ocean. As I read about the storm, I thought Patrick might try to help out and would have gotten in the crew’s way. Then I learned by reading that he did help out, but that he didn’t get in the way. Patrick was really brave.
• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Problem and Solution

• Discussion: Ask students what they thought of the story. Ask what they thought of Patrick’s bravery to save the ship.
• Introduce and model: Review or explain that one way to understand a story is to think about the problems a character has and how he or she plans to solve them.
• Write the following on the board and tell students that there are usually four parts in problem solving:

1. Identify the problem
2. Ask what caused the problem
3. Ask what will happen if the problem isn't solved
4. Think of solutions to the problem

• Explain that first, they must identify the problem. Next, they need to think about why there is a problem. Third, they need to think about what will happen if the problem isn't solved, and fourth, they need to think of how the problem can be solved.
• Check for understanding: Draw a Problem/Solution Chart on the board (see the Problem/Solution worksheet for the format). Ask students to identify the first problem introduced in the story (There is a famine in Ireland.). Have them tell why Ireland has the problem (The potato crop has failed.). Ask them to explain what will happen if the problem isn't solved (People will starve.). Have them tell how Ireland plans to solve the problem (There is no solution to the problem.).
• Independent practice: Give students the problem/solution worksheet to complete. Discuss their responses.
•    Extend the discussion: Ask students to retell the story in their own words. Point out that when retelling, they will often use words such as, first, second, then, and after, which are used to tell a sequence of events. Have students tell the story to each other while writing down the words each other uses that show the order of events in the story.

Grammar and Mechanics: Singular and plural possessives

• Explain that in order for books to make sense to readers, writers choose their words carefully. Tell students that in order to show who or what owns something, writers add -'s to the end of a regular noun.
• Have students find the last sentence on page 4. Ask them to tell who or what the potato famine belongs to (Ireland). Point out that an -'s has been added because the potato famine belongs to only one thing.
• Tell students that when writers want to show that ownership belongs to more than one person or thing, they add either an -'s if the word does not end in -s and only an apostrophe if it does. Write the words farmers and children on the board. Tell students that an apostrophe is added to the plural noun farmers because the word ends in ‘s and that -'s is added to the plural noun children because it does not end in –-s. Use each word in a sentence, such as The farmers’ potato crops failed, and The children’s parents could not feed them.
• Write the following words on the board: American’s, masts’, women’s, dock’s, sailors’, captain’s.
• Model using the first word as follows:

Singular possessive noun -- The American's ship was sleek.
Plural possessive noun -- The Americans' ships were fast.

•    Have students use the words on the board in sentences on the inside back cover of the book. Tell them they may refer to the book to get ideas for the sentences. Have students share their sentences with the group.

Word Work: Content words

• Provide opportunities for students to talk about vocabulary words such as hatch, stern, yardarm, and mast. If appropriate, introduce other nautical terms such as fore, aft, and bow. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, and use the words in sentences.
• Give students the vocabulary word search worksheet.

Independent Reading

• Allow the students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book. Have students reread if time allows.

Home Connection

• Give the students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing Connection

• Have students write a journal entry that tells how Patrick feels after he frees the sail and saves the ship. Have students share their entries with the group.

Science Connection

• Provide resources for students to research shipwrecks. Have them prepare charts that tell the name of the ship, its purpose for sailing, what caused the ship to sink, and how many lives were lost and saved. Tell them to include other interesting information, such as the type of cargo, if appropriate.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• use the strategy of making, confirming or revising predictions to understand and remember historical fiction
• identify problems and solutions in historical fiction text
• understand and use singular and plural possessive nouns in sentences
• understand and use content vocabulary to complete a word search