Word count:
2,989 

Text Summary
Maggie and her best friend, Caroline, have been picked to join the team that will represent their school at the annual Kid Quiz Bowl. As they research the topic of oceans, Tad, the school know-it-all, acts as though he doesn't even need to study. But when the pressure is on at the quiz bowl, Tad sings a very different tune. 

Lesson Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze character.
• Understand the impact of strong action verbs.
• Understand the punctuation structure of broken dialogue. 

Vocabulary
abyssal, bathyscape, cakewalk, intimidating, ironic, plumes, podium, seamounts, sediment, sloughed, submerges, sullenly, theoretically, transparent, trenches

Materials

• Book - Ocean Quiz (one copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or chart paper
• Worksheets 1 and 2 

Before Reading

Build Background

• Ask students if they have ever been in a competitive event. Talk about what they did to prepare for the event. Discuss what feelings they had leading up to and during the event. Talk about whether they won or lost and how they felt when the event was over.
• Ask students if they have ever been part of a team or group project. How did they get along with the other members of their team? How did the team members' performances on the project or task affect how students felt about them? 

Preview the Book

• Give students their copies of the book and have them look at the cover and read the title. Talk about the cover illustration and what it tells them about the book. Ask what they think the "ocean quiz" might be.
• Have students preview the illustrations. Ask them if they have a clearer idea of what the ocean quiz might be. Ask them to predict how the team will perform in the quiz. 

Word Attack Strategies
Remind students to use any or all of the following strategies if they encounter unfamiliar words:

• Reread the sentence, paragraph, or page.
• Look for familiar prefixes, suffixes, and root words.
• Use context clues to help clarify word meanings.
• Continue to read, and try to think of a word that would make sense. 

During Reading 

Set the Purpose
Hand out worksheet 1 and have students look over the instructions. Tell them that as they read, they should pick one of the four teammates to pay special attention to. As they read, they should note what that character says, how he or she behaves, and how he or she performs while the team is studying for and competing in the quiz bowl. They will fill out the character analysis worksheet when they finish reading.

Student Reading
Have students read the book silently. You may suggest they read through the book once, and then read it again with special attention to the character they have chosen to follow. Allow them to stop and jot down notes about that character. 

After Reading 

Comprehension
Analyze Character
Before turning to the worksheet, ask students to summarize the main plot points of the story. Ask if students expected the story to end as it did. Have them explain their initial predictions about the outcome of the quiz. Discuss how the characters' personalities played a role in the story's twist ending.

Model
Discuss with students how they can infer character personalities from dialogue and action. Guide students to realize that often, the characters' personalities help drive the action of the story. Character actions can even interact with the plot in cause-and-effect relationships. Ask the following questions:

• The first time the four team members are together is in the library. Where is each character standing or sitting? When does each come in? What does it tell you about Tad that he's already in the library? What does it tell you about Bert that he is late?
• How does each team member go about doing research? What do their study habits tell you about their characters? Caroline gives up on the Internet, while Maggie is more determined. What does this tell you?
• Look at Tad's dialogue on page 8. How does he talk differently from the other characters?
• How does Bert's personality affect the outcome of the quiz? How does Tad's personality affect the outcome?

Independent Practice
Have students select three events from the story. Using their chosen character, have them write on the worksheet what each event reveals about that character's personality. It may help them to write what they imagine their chosen character was thinking or feeling at the time of the event. 

Building Skills

Understand the Impact of Strong Action Verbs
Have students turn to page 4 and identify all the verbs. Remind students to include verbs with the -ing ending. Students will find sat, rang, sprang, answer, dashing, leaving, clattering, shouted, heard, gasped, saying, are, see, hopped. Guide students to understand the impact of strong action verbs.

• Action verbs are verbs we can see. Strong verbs help create a clear picture in the reader's mind.
• Specific, unusual verbs, such as sprang, make the writing more lively and concise than a verb-adverb combination such as got up quickly.
• Action verbs standing on their own create greater impact than helping verb-action verb combinations such as she was gasping. 

Understand the Punctuation Structure of Broken Dialogue

• Write the sentences "No trades," Maggie insisted. "We don't have time." on the board. Explain that this is an example of direct speech that has been broken up by a dialogue tag. A dialogue tag is the "he said/she said" label that tells who is speaking.
• Review the punctuation of dialogue with students. Circle the comma and explain that a comma is placed between the spoken sentence and the dialogue tag. The comma always goes inside the quotation marks.
• Circle the period after insisted. Tell students that even in broken dialogue, they will need to place a period at the end of the sentence. The next sentence of dialogue has a capital letter and punctuation at the end, just like a regular sentence. The only difference is the addition of the quotation marks.
• Write the sentence "Did we make it?" she gasped. "You're kidding!" on the board. Circle the question mark. Explain that when a spoken sentence has a question mark or an exclamation point, that punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. However, the dialogue tag is not capitalized, even though there is already punctuation in the sentence. The question mark or exclamation point works the same way as the comma. The reason the question mark goes inside the quotation mark and not at the end of the sentence is because the sentence she gasped is not an interrogative sentence; it is a declarative sentence, and so requires a period.
• Hand out worksheet 2 and explain that students are to punctuate the sentences containing broken dialogue. They should make sure to read the sentence carefully to see if the dialogue requires a question mark or an exclamation point. They will also need to capitalize the first words of any new sentences. You may wish to model an example or two to get students started. 

Fluency

• Have students reread the book independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading from the book.
• Have students take copies of the book home. They can read it with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Expand the Reading

Writing
Have students write a commentary of a competitive event. First, allow students a few moments to close their eyes and visually imagine the event. As they begin writing, encourage students to use action verbs that describe the visual images they imagined when they closed their eyes. 

Science Connection
Have your own quiz bowl on a science topic. Divide students into teams and allow them time to research the topic in the library or on the Internet. If you like, you can also have teams submit questions they would like to see asked during the quiz bowl. 

Assessment

• Monitor student responses during the character analysis discussion. Note those students who can infer character motivations and personality. Ask students to support their inferences with references to character actions in the text.
• Monitor student discussion of action verbs. Review their competition commentaries to see if they use strong action verbs.
• Review completed worksheets to assess how well students can punctuate broken dialogue.