Text Type: Fiction/Science Fiction
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 2,416 

Book Summary
Fast Forward to the Future recounts another of Miguel's adventures as he dives into one of The Great Gallardo's books. He travels in time and finds himself at the mercy of the cannibalistic Morlocks—80,000 years into the future. In his haste to escape, he rushes further into the future and finds himself on a dying Earth. Illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

• Visualize

Objectives

• Use the reading strategy of visualizing to understand text
• Analyze the problem and solution in the story
• Identify and use compound adjectives
• Understand similes

Materials

• Book -- Fast Forward to the Future (copy for each student)
• Chalkboard or dry erase board
• Visualize, problem and solution, compound adjectives, similes 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: cannibals, comprehend, flourished, fluorescent, fourth dimension, inferno, laboratory, mesmerized, primitive, putrid, time machine, torqued, transformed

Build Background

• Ask students if they have read any of the other adventures with Miguel and his great-grandfather's old books: The Great Gallardo's Books (Level U), In Huck's Shoes (Level Y), Sister Sleuth and the Silver Blaze (Level V), or Yellow Brick Roadies (Level U). Discuss what they remember from the stories. Ask what happens to Miguel as he is transported into the adventure of each book.
• Review or explain to students that each Gallardo book is based on an actual piece of literature. Write the title The Time Machine on the board. Ask students to share what comes to mind as they read the title. Share a brief synopsis of the plot of this book (a time traveler goes into the future and sees the evolution of the human race. Human have divided into two groups--the Morlocks, who have nothing, and the Eloi, who have everything. The groups illustrate the differences in social structure.

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, author's name).
• Preview the table of contents on page 3. Remind students 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 any answers students can justify.)

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Visualize

• Explain to students that good readers often visualize, or create pictures in their mind, while reading. Visualizing is based on the words used in the text and what a person already knows about a topic.
• Read pages 4 and 5 aloud to students. Model how to visualize.
  Think-aloud: Whenever I read a book, I always pause after a few pages to create a picture in my mind of the information I've read. This helps me become part of the story and remember what I read. For example, on pages 4 and 5, the author describes how Miguel and his friend were busy playing video games while his sister tried to remind him to do his chores. I pictured Miguel and Trevon laughing and playing their game, ignoring Teresa's requests. I pictured Teresa getting more and more angry as they refused to help her clean. It must have been frustrating for Teresa--she promised her parents that the work would get done, but so far she had been doing all of the work herself.
• Reread pages 4 and 5 aloud to students, asking them to use the words in the story to visualize. Introduce and explain the visualize worksheet. Have students draw on the worksheet what they visualized from the text on pages 4 and 5. Invite students to share their drawings.
• 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: Problem and solution

• Explain to students that writers have reasons for what they write. Write the following words on the board: problem and solution. Review or explain that a problem is a conflict or challenge that needs to be solved. A solution is the process of solving the problem.
• Create a chart on the board with the headings Problem, Possible Solutions, and Consequences. Write the phrase broke mom's favorite vase on the board under the heading Problem. Model identifying the possible solutions and consequences for the problem.
  Think-aloud: I know that when I encounter a problem, I can react to it in different ways. If I broke my mom's favorite vase, I know that she will not be very happy about it. One possible solution might be to say that the dog knocked it over. That might prevent me from getting into trouble. However, I would not be telling the truth. I know that she would be disappointed that I lied. So, another possible solution to this problem is to tell my mom that I broke the vase.
• Model filling in the chart on the board with the information for this problem.
• Review with students Miguel's problem from pages 4 and 5 (he didn't want to do his chores). Write this on the board under the heading Problem. Ask students if they have ever experienced this same problem--not wanting to do work that they know needs to be done.
• Discuss possible actions Miguel might take to solve his problem and list them on the board under Possible Solutions.
• Have students consider a positive and a negative consequence for each of the possible solutions. Write these on the board under the heading Consequences. Circle the possible solution that the class thinks is best based on the consequences listed. Tell students to look for the solution Miguel eventually settles on as they read.
• Explain to students that good readers look for problems and solutions as they read.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the words cannibals, primitive, and fourth dimension on the board. Explain that thinking ahead about these vocabulary words will help students understand the problems Miguel faces in the story.
• Show students the illustration on page 9. Have students describe what they see in the picture. Point to the Morlock and note that it is a creature that Miguel encounters in his travels. Invite students to describe facial and body clues in the illustration; explain that these might help them guess how the Morlocks might treat Miguel.
• Ask students whether they know a word that describes an animal that eats other animals of the same species (cannibal). Have students turn to page 9. Read the sentence containing the vocabulary word: These things were called Morlocks, ape-like beasts that lived underground, and they were cannibals! Have students turn to the glossary and ask a volunteer to read the definition for cannibals. Ask students how facing a cannibal might be a problem for Miguel.
• Ask students to compare a cave person with human beings of today. Point out that a cave person is primitive, or a being that is in an earlier stage of development. Have students turn to page 10. Read the sentence containing the vocabulary word: Over time, their easy life had made them weaker and less intelligent than the Morlocks, who were the primitive worker-class who lived underground and built machinery. Have students turn to the glossary, and ask a volunteer to read the definition for primitive.
• Remind students that this story is taken from H.G. Wells's story The Time Machine. Discuss elements of science fiction (Advanced Technology, Scientific Ideas, Unusual Setting/Fantasy). Explain that time travel can be considered advanced technology. Ask students to share stories they know that contain time travel. Point to the phrase fourth dimension on the board. Explain that the fourth dimension in science is considered to be time itself. Ask students to imagine that 20 years from now they want to visit this classroom at this moment in time. In order to get from one time period to another, they would travel along the fourth dimension, or along time.
• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read to find out more about Miguel's adventure into the future. Remind them to stop after every few pages to visualize the most important information and draw on their worksheet what they visualized about it.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Have students read pages 6 through 10. Encourage those who finish early to go back and reread the first two chapters. Have students draw what they visualized during one or more events of the story on their visualize worksheet.
• Model visualizing.
  Think-aloud: On page 9, I read about Miguel discovering the Morlocks. I pictured flames from the inferno and Miguel discovering several white creatures with gorilla-like faces. I pictured them standing upright, as tall as Miguel, hungrily surrounding him. I pictured Miguel seeing a helpless little girl sleeping nearby and realizing that they were both in great danger.
• Invite students to share their drawings of what they visualized while reading. Have them explain their drawings aloud.
• Write the following problem on the board: Miguel encounters the Morlocks. Introduce and explain the problem and solution worksheet. Evaluate possible solutions aloud, discussing a positive and negative consequence of each possible solution. Write the information in the chart on the board under the headings Problem, Possible Solutions, and Consequences. Have students write the information on their worksheet. Ask them to circle the possible solution they think would be best for Miguel.
• Have students read page 11 in their book. Ask them to identify Miguel's solution to the problem of encountering the Morlocks (he fought back). Have them cite examples from the text that identify this solution (he lunged toward the Morlocks, he waved a bar in the air, he kicked his foot, and so on.) Point out the Evaluation column on their worksheet. Explain the process of evaluation (to carefully think about the options and decide if the one chosen was best). Encourage students to fill in the final column by writing whether or not they think Miguel made a good decision.
• Check for understanding: Have students read to the end of page 15. Have them visualize the information in the text as they read. Ask students to draw what they visualized on their visualize worksheet. Invite them to share what they visualized.
• Ask students to identify a new problem Miguel faces and write it on their worksheet (page 15: he doesn't know how to make the time machine work). Have them fill out the first three columns of their worksheet (Problem, Possible Solutions, and Consequences). Ask them to circle the possible solution they think would be best for Miguel. Have students support the solution aloud.
• Have students look for Miguel's solution to this problem as they read and then fill in the evaluation column on their worksheet.
• Have students read the remainder of the book. Encourage them to continue to visualize as they read the rest of the story. Remind them to continue thinking about the important problems and solutions in the story as they read.

    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: On page 18, I read about what Miguel found when he went further into the future. I pictured a dark, endless plateau scattered with black bushes. I pictured a land with no mountains, hills, rivers, or oceans. I also envisioned a dull, orange sun hanging lifelessly in the gray sky.
• Ask students to share any new visualizations and to explain how the strategy of visualizing helped them understand and enjoy the story. Lead a discussion about how many strange sights Miguel experienced when he went into the future. Have students study the illustrations on pages 9, 18, and 21. Ask them what they visualize our world might be like thousands of years from now.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Invite students to identify and discuss other problems that Miguel encountered as the story continued and the solutions to each problem (page 19: Miguel needed to find a way to get home; page 20: the crabs were coming closer and Miguel's foot was stuck).
• Ask students to write Miguel's next problem on their worksheet (Miguel needed to find a way to get home). Have them evaluate and write possible solutions and a positive and negative consequence for each possible solution on their worksheet. Ask them to circle the possible solution they think would be best for Miguel and to evaluate Miguel's actual solution.
• Independent practice: Have students complete their problem and solution worksheet using Miguel's final problem (the crabs were coming closer and Miguel's foot was stuck). Discuss their responses aloud once students have finished.
• Enduring understanding: In this book, you read about a fictitious evolution of humanity and Earth. Now that you know this information, how can attending to situations in the present help to ensure a brighter future?

Grammar and Mechanics: Compound adjectives

• Review or explain that adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. An adjective tells which one, how many, or what kind.
• Write the following sentence from page 19 on the board: The sky was an inky black, missing its moon, and highlighted by only a few pale stars. Have individual students come to the board and circle the adjectives in the sentence (inky, black, few, pale). Then have them underline the noun that each adjective describes (sky, stars).
• Tell students that some adjectives are hyphenated and that they are called compound adjectives. Write the following sentence from page 20 on the board: It was a crab-like creature as big as a table! Have a volunteer come to the board and circle the compound adjective (crab-like). Have another volunteer underline the noun that the compound adjective describes (creature).

    Check for understanding: Write the following sentence from page 21 on the board: With one last heave, Miguel sent a basketball-sized rock sailing right into the crab's mouth. Have a volunteer come to the board and circle the compound adjective (basketball-sized). Have another volunteer underline the noun that the compound adjective describes (rock). Discuss the importance of the hyphen in the adjective phrase.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the compound adjectives worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.

Word Work: Similes

• Write the following phrase on the board: Crumbs cascaded down his chin like a waterfall. Have students explain what is being compared in this sentence (the cascading crumbs to a waterfall). Have them identify the signal word (like).
• Review or explain that a simile makes a comparison by using the word like or as. Write the words like and as on the board. Tell students that these words are often signals that they are reading a simile.
• Have students turn to page 8. Read the second paragraph aloud while students follow along silently. Ask students to identify the simile. Write the following phrase on the board: like a pack of lions. Have students tell what is being compared in this sentence (the traveling flames to a pack of lions). Have them identify the signal word (like).
• Check for understanding: Have students work in pairs to create and write their own similes. Invite them to share their similes aloud.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the similes worksheet. If time allows, discuss their responses.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally, allow partners to 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 students practice visualizing the story with someone at home and then comparing the pictures they created in their mind.

Science Fiction Writing Connection
Have students create their own time-travel story. Encourage them to first brainstorm about where their character will travel, whether the story takes place in the past or the future, what the place looks like, and what types of creatures live there. Remind students to include elements of science fiction in their story. Have them illustrate their story after they complete the final draft.

Science Connection
Have students use the Internet to research the Sun. Have them find out more about how long it is expected to give light and heat to Earth and what is expected to happen to our planet once the Sun dies. Have students analyze what Miguel witnessed and talk about whether that could be an accurate description of life on Earth once the Sun is gone.