Build Background

• Pair students and have them discuss what they know about slavery. Then have the pairs share their information as you record it on a fact web.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Strategy: Make connections to prior knowledge

• Give students a copy of the book and have them preview the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Have students discuss what they see on the covers and offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about. Help them make connections between the book and the Build Background discussion.
• Direct students to the table of contents. Remind students that the table of contents provides an overview of the book's contents. Each section heading provides an idea of what they will read in the book. After reviewing the table of contents, model using it to make connections to prior knowledge.
• Think aloud: As I preview the table of contents, I think about what I already know about slavery. I use this knowledge to picture what the home life of slave boy might be like. I predict that this book will give me more details about the life of a slave. I will add new information to what I already know.
• Have students preview the rest of the book, looking at photos, captions, and sidebar text.

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 correspondences to figure out a word. They can look for base words, prefixes, and suffixes. They can use the context to work out meanings of unfamiliar words.
• Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Point out the word woe on page 11. Model how students can use the context to figure out the meaning of the word. Have them read the last paragraph on page 11. Explain: The main idea of the paragraph is that the slave owners wanted to keep their valuable possessions safe, so they buried them in the woods and posted a slave as a guard. Slaves would give the soldiers anything else, but not the valuables. That makes me think that the word woe means something bad or some kind of trouble might happen to anybody who tries to take the master's valuables. Let's read the sentence with the words bad luck. Have students follow along as you read the sentence to confirm the meaning of the word.
• Remind students that they should check whether words make sense by rereading the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to add to their knowledge about slavery. Remind students to think about what they already knew about slavery.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students stop reading at the end of page 7 and refer to the fact web they made during the Before Reading discussion. Ask students if the book confirmed or disproved what they already knew about slavery. Ask if students added to their previous knowledge about slavery.

    Tell 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

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they could read these words using word-attack strategies and context clues.

Comprehension: Make inferences

• Explain that in order to make a book interesting, a writer does not always tell the reader every detail. Writers often provide enough information or clues for readers to make guesses, or inferences, about why something happened or how a character thinks or feels. It's then up to the reader to put the pieces together to understand the meaning of the book.
• Check for understanding: Have students reread the first section titled, "Home Life." Tell them they are to figure out why the slaves wore clothes made of rough flax.
• When they have finished reading, ask students to why the slaves had to wear clothes made of flax. Ask them what clues or information helped them make the guess.
• Model making an inference.

Think aloud: The first thing I did was to ask a question: Why did the slaves wear clothes made from flax? I read the last paragraph on page 6, and then I looked for clues that would help me answer the question. I circled the words worst thing in the first sentence; cheapest and roughest in the second sentence; and But I had no choice in the fifth sentence. When I put these clues together with what I already know about slavery, I can make the following inference: Slave owners wore clothes made from the best part of the cloth. Slaves were given the cheapest, roughest part of the cloth because they were considered to be inferior people.

• Ask the students to identify any other words or phrases that helped them make the inference.
• Reinforce that an inference is a guess based on evidence, or clues, in the story. It is not a wild guess. An inference can tell why something happened, or why a character thinks, feels, or acts the way he/she does.
• Independent practice: Give students the Inferences worksheet. Tell them that they should think about the information and clues the author provides in order to make inferences about the characters' thoughts and actions.
• Extend the discussion:

    Have students use the back cover to write a paragraph about what they think was the worst thing about being a slave.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Usage: Complex sentences

• Explain that one of the ways writers make their books interesting and easy to read is by using complex sentences. Choppy sentences cause the reader to have to stop and start. Complex sentences usually make the words flow more smoothly, which makes a paragraph or passage easier to read. Write the following sentences on the board: As a slave, I was cleaning yards. As a slave, I was carrying water. As a slave, I was going to the mill. Ask students to think of a way these three sentences could be combined into one that is less choppy and more interesting to read. Direct students to the bottom of page 8. Ask them to identify the sentence the author has written that contains the ideas of the three sentences you have written on the board.
• Reinforce by directing students to the third paragraph on page 11 and asking them to find the sentence that combines the ideas that the slaves could give the soldiers three things.
• Give students the Complex Sentences worksheet and instruct them to combine the short sentences into complex sentences.

    Have students underline sentences in the book that are examples of complex sentences. Discuss their responses.

Vocabulary: Content vocabulary

• Tell students that many of the words they read in Booker Washington's autobiography are words they will read again when they study American history and the Civil War. Direct students to page 5. Ask them to find a bold word that tells where the slaves lived (quarters).
• Direct students to page 13. Ask them to find another bold word. Explain that the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It freed the slaves in the south. (Note to teacher: You may want to explain to students that the 13th ammendment was ratified in Congress in 1865, which abolished slavery in the United States.)
• Give students the Content Vocabulary worksheet and tell them to complete the puzzle.

Independent Reading

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

Home Connection

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

Writing Connection

• Have students write their own autobiographies. Tell them to include important information, such as when and where they were born, the things they do on an average day, as well as any other interesting information about themselves.

Social Studies Connection

• Discuss slavery as it exists in the world today, what it means to the enslaved people, and how, even on a small scale, everyone can help. Provide resources for students to research cultures that still practice some forms of slavery, such as ones in which women are not allowed to move about freely, places where jobs are regulated, or places where food is rationed. Ask the students to report to the class what they have learned.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make inferences.
• identify and form complex sentences.
• use content vocabulary.