Miltie Math-head: Football Hero?

About the Book

Text Type: Fiction/Humorous
Page Count: 24
Word Count: 2,286

Book Summary
Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? is a humorous story about a boy who is extremely good at math, but not so successful as a football player. He is small, and the other kids make fun of his attempts to fit in with the team. But once he realizes that football is all about math (angles, arcs, and distance), Miltie masterminds a few impressive plays that lead his team to a championship victory. Illustrations support the text.

About the Lesson

Targeted Reading Strategy

Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Objectives

Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to make meaning from text
Identify author's purpose
Identify colons and semicolons used in text
Recognize proper nouns

Materials

Book -- Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? (copy for each student)
Chalkboard or dry erase board
Predictions, author's purpose, proper nouns 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: angles, arc, competitors, dawdle, grid, intersect, line of scrimmage, odds, offensive line, parallel, perpendicular, physics, plays, quarterbacks, self-confidence

Before Reading

Build Background

Ask students to tell what they know about football. Ask whether anyone has ever played on a football team and, if so, to explain what they know about the sport. Ask whether anyone has ever watched a football game, either on television or at a live event.
Provide books or magazines with pictures of football players and discuss characteristics of the gear that is used and the field the sport is played on.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

Give students a copy of the book. Have them preview the front and back covers 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.
Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Point out the glossary at the end of the book and discuss its use.
Preview the table of contents on page 3. Ask students what information they can tell from looking at the chapter titles. (Accept any answers students can justify.)

Introduce the Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions

Explain that good readers often make predictions about what will happen in a book based on what the characters say, do, and think in the story. Readers may need to revise or confirm their predictions based on what they learn from reading. Before reading a book, readers can make predictions by reading the title and looking at the illustrations.
Model using the title and cover illustration to make a prediction as you preview the book.
Think-aloud: Let's look at the front cover. I see a picture of a boy who doesn't seem to be big enough to play football with the other players. Since the title of the book is Miltie Math-head: Football Hero?, I think this might be a story about a boy who is really good at math and wants to be a good football player, too. I'll have to read the book to find out.
Encourage students to make predictions about what they think they will read about in the book.
As students read, encourage them to 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

As students preview the book, ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text.
Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the word dawdle in the second paragraph on page 5. Explain that they can look at the letter the word begins with and then use what they know about syllables and vowels (one vowel sound per syllable) to sound out the rest of the word. Remind students to look for clues to the word's meaning in the sentence that contains the unfamiliar word, as well as in the sentences before and after. Point out that in this book, they may also look at the illustrations for clues about the word's meaning.
Remind students of the other strategies they can use to work out words they don't know.
For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

Have students read the book, making predictions about what will happen in the story based on what the characters say, do, and think. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions as they learn more about the events of the story.
Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Encourage students to fill out the first column, "What I predict will happen," before they begin reading.

During Reading

Student Reading

Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 10. Encourage students who finish before everyone else to go back and reread.
When they have finished reading, ask students to tell why the boy is called Miltie Math-head. (His brain is especially quick with math problems. He can multiply four-digit numbers in his head faster than a calculator.)
Model making, revising, and confirming a prediction.
Think-aloud: So far my prediction is right. I thought the story might be about a boy who is really good at math and wants to be a good football player, too. I know that his nickname is Miltie Math-head because his brain is so good with math problems. Since the title of the next chapter is Miltie's Math Pays Off, I predict that Miltie's math skills might help him in some way. From what I've read about his buddy Dan, he seems like a good friend. I think Dan will help convince the others to give Miltie a chance.
Direct students to page 9 in the book. Read these sentences aloud: Now, of course, it all makes sense. But at first, most of the players would have said the odds of Miltie leading our team to victory were one in a million. Ask students what this tells them about what will happen next. Explain that, in these two sentences, the author is using a technique called foreshadowing. The author is hinting at what will happen next in the story. Discuss how foreshadowing might help readers make, revise, and confirm predictions in a story.
Encourage students to continue to make, revise, and confirm their predictions as they read the remainder of the story. Tell them to fill out the middle section of their worksheet, Changes in my prediction. Remind them that if their first prediction has already been proven correct, they may use this section to make another prediction about what might happen next in the story.

Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word.

After Reading

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
Discuss how making predictions about what will happen in the story keeps readers actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they read.
Think-aloud: I predicted that Miltie's math skills might help him in some way, and I wanted to read the story to find out if my prediction was right. My prediction turned out to be correct--his math skills helped him lead his team to a victory. Also, Dan helped convince the others to give Miltie a chance.
Ask students to share their predictions about what might happen in the story.
Have students fill out the last column of their worksheet, What actually happened.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Identify author's purpose

Discussion: Discuss the author's purpose for writing Miltie Math-head: Football Hero?
Introduce the skill: Write the following terms on the board: to inform, to entertain, to persuade. Invite students to define the terms in their own words. Encourage them to give examples of times they might have said something to inform, entertain, or persuade. Point out that writers often have one of these three purposes for writing.
Check for understanding: Ask students to think of a book they've read recently that taught them something (science book, biography, and so on). Ask them to think of something they've read that was funny, scary, silly, or mysterious (comics, fiction books). Ask students for an example of something they've read that attempted to get them to believe or do something (an advertisement or poster). Write students' responses on the board under the appropriate category.
Now ask students what the author's purpose was for writing Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? (to entertain). Ask students how they think the author's humor made the book more entertaining and fun to read. Turn to page 4 and read the description of Miltie aloud: After eating lunch, he weighed 70 pounds-fully dressed, in hiking boots, with a roll of quarters in his pocket. Discuss how the author could have simply said that Miltie was small, but that this humorous description makes the story more entertaining.
If time allows, have students turn to page 5 and locate and discuss three other humorous passages from the text:

He was slower than ketchup dribbling out of a new bottle.

This is the 40-yard dash, not the 40-yard dawdle.

Everything about him was big and strong, even his breath.
Extend the discussion: Ask students if they were entertained by the humor in Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? Ask what they thought about all of the nicknames the boys had for each other and if anyone has a nickname they'd like to share with the class.
Independent practice: Have students complete the author's purpose worksheet. When they finish, discuss their answers aloud.

Build Skills

Grammar and Mechanics: Colons and semicolons

Review or explain that a colon is a punctuation mark (:) used before a long quotation, explanation, example, or series. It also is used after the salutation of a formal letter. Review or explain that a semicolon is a punctuation mark (;) indicating a separation of two clauses that can stand on their own as separate sentences.
Direct students to the title page. Write Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? on the board and ask students how the colon is used in this instance (before an explanation that further describes Miltie).
Ask a volunteer to read the sentence on page 11 that contains a colon (Football is all about math: angles, arcs, distance--). Ask students how the colon is used in this instance (before examples of how football is about math).

Direct students to page 14. Ask a volunteer to read the last paragraph on the page. Have the student identify the sentence that is divided by a semicolon, and write it on the board: The defense would be confused; I'd find the open man and throw the ball for a touchdown. Point out that the two clauses could stand on their own as separate sentences: The defense would be confused. I'd find the open man and throw the ball for a touchdown.

Check for understanding: Have students locate the semicolon used on page 20. Have them use the inside front cover of their book to write the two separate sentences that could stand on their own if the semicolon were replaced by a period. (That Miltie wasn't just a math genius. He had a head for football.)

Word Work: Proper nouns

Review or explain that a noun is a person, place, or thing. Ask students to turn to page 16 and give examples of nouns from the text.
Review or explain that a proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter. Write examples of proper nouns from page 16 on the board, writing the noun first and then changing it to a proper noun (common noun: team, proper noun: Mudflat Maulers; common noun: boy, proper nouns: Miltie, Maurice, Jimmy; common noun: nickname, proper nouns: Beefalo, The 618 Express; common noun: football play, proper noun: Angles to the End Zone.)
Check for understanding: Invite students to review the text and locate all of the nicknames used. Point out that the nicknames are all examples of proper nouns.
Independent practice: Have students complete the proper nouns worksheet. When students finish, discuss their answers aloud.

Have students turn to page 8 and highlight or underline examples of proper nouns. Remind them not to confuse a proper noun with the capital letter used at the beginning of a sentence. As students identify the proper nouns, write them on the board: (Coach J., Old Man McGruder, Mr. McGruder, Statue of Liberty).

Build Fluency

Independent Reading

Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other.

Home Connection

Give students their books to take home and read to a younger sibling or friend.

Extend the Reading

Writing Connection

Have students add to the story by telling what happens to Miltie's team the following season. Ask the writers to tell whether Miltie plays starting quarterback instead of Dan, how his teammates treat him, and if the team still uses Miltie's plays on a regular basis. Point out that the story is written in the past tense. Have students write their stories in the past tense as well.

Math Connection

Provide graph paper for students to draw out all of the plays Miltie described on pages 13 to 14 and 20 to 22. Have them chart the plays on the grid of the graph paper, paying special attention to Miltie's use of math vocabulary: angles, arc, grid, intersect, parallel, and perpendicular. If time permits, have students create their own football plays, charting them on the grid of the graph paper.

Assessment

Monitor students to determine if they can:

make logical predictions based on available pictures and text; revise and/or confirm predictions as they preview and read the book
thoughtfully analyze the author's purpose; recognize humor in writing
accurately recognize and understand the use of colons and semicolons
identify proper nouns in text

Comprehension Checks

Go to Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? main page


Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? Level Y About the Book Text Type: Fiction/Humorous Page Count: 24 Word Count: 2,286 Book Summary Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? is a humorous story about a boy who is extremely good at math, but not so successful as a football player. He is small, and the other kids make fun of his attempts to fit in with the team. But once he realizes that football is all about math (angles, arcs, and distance), Miltie masterminds a few impressive plays that lead his team to a championship victory. Illustrations support the text. About the Lesson Targeted Reading Strategy Make, revise, and confirm predictions Objectives Use the reading strategy of making, revising, and confirming predictions to make meaning from text Identify author's purpose Identify colons and semicolons used in text Recognize proper nouns Materials Book -- Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? (copy for each student) Chalkboard or dry erase board Predictions, author's purpose, proper nouns 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: angles, arc, competitors, dawdle, grid, intersect, line of scrimmage, odds, offensive line, parallel, perpendicular, physics, plays, quarterbacks, self-confidence Before Reading Build Background Ask students to tell what they know about football. Ask whether anyone has ever played on a football team and, if so, to explain what they know about the sport. Ask whether anyone has ever watched a football game, either on television or at a live event. Provide books or magazines with pictures of football players and discuss characteristics of the gear that is used and the field the sport is played on. Preview the Book Introduce the Book Give students a copy of the book. Have them preview the front and back covers 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. Show students the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name). Point out the glossary at the end of the book and discuss its use. Preview the table of contents on page 3. Ask students what information they can tell from looking at the chapter titles. (Accept any answers students can justify.) Introduce the Strategy: Make, revise, and confirm predictions Explain that good readers often make predictions about what will happen in a book based on what the characters say, do, and think in the story. Readers may need to revise or confirm their predictions based on what they learn from reading. Before reading a book, readers can make predictions by reading the title and looking at the illustrations. Model using the title and cover illustration to make a prediction as you preview the book. Think-aloud: Let's look at the front cover. I see a picture of a boy who doesn't seem to be big enough to play football with the other players. Since the title of the book is Miltie Math-head: Football Hero?, I think this might be a story about a boy who is really good at math and wants to be a good football player, too. I'll have to read the book to find out. Encourage students to make predictions about what they think they will read about in the book. As students read, encourage them to 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 As students preview the book, ask them to talk about what they see in the illustrations. Reinforce the vocabulary words they will encounter in the text. Model how to apply word-attack strategies. Have students find the word dawdle in the second paragraph on page 5. Explain that they can look at the letter the word begins with and then use what they know about syllables and vowels (one vowel sound per syllable) to sound out the rest of the word. Remind students to look for clues to the word's meaning in the sentence that contains the unfamiliar word, as well as in the sentences before and after. Point out that in this book, they may also look at the illustrations for clues about the word's meaning. Remind students of the other strategies they can use to work out words they don't know. For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here. Set the Purpose Have students read the book, making predictions about what will happen in the story based on what the characters say, do, and think. Remind them to revise or confirm their predictions as they learn more about the events of the story. Introduce and explain the prediction worksheet. Encourage students to fill out the first column, "What I predict will happen," before they begin reading. During Reading Student Reading Guide the reading: Have students read to the end of page 10. Encourage students who finish before everyone else to go back and reread. When they have finished reading, ask students to tell why the boy is called Miltie Math-head. (His brain is especially quick with math problems. He can multiply four-digit numbers in his head faster than a calculator.) Model making, revising, and confirming a prediction. Think-aloud: So far my prediction is right. I thought the story might be about a boy who is really good at math and wants to be a good football player, too. I know that his nickname is Miltie Math-head because his brain is so good with math problems. Since the title of the next chapter is Miltie's Math Pays Off, I predict that Miltie's math skills might help him in some way. From what I've read about his buddy Dan, he seems like a good friend. I think Dan will help convince the others to give Miltie a chance. Direct students to page 9 in the book. Read these sentences aloud: Now, of course, it all makes sense. But at first, most of the players would have said the odds of Miltie leading our team to victory were one in a million. Ask students what this tells them about what will happen next. Explain that, in these two sentences, the author is using a technique called foreshadowing. The author is hinting at what will happen next in the story. Discuss how foreshadowing might help readers make, revise, and confirm predictions in a story. Encourage students to continue to make, revise, and confirm their predictions as they read the remainder of the story. Tell them to fill out the middle section of their worksheet, Changes in my prediction. Remind them that if their first prediction has already been proven correct, they may use this section to make another prediction about what might happen next in the story. Have students make a question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. Encourage them to use the strategies they have learned to read and understand the word. After Reading Reflect on the Reading Strategies Ask students what words, if any, they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues. Discuss how making predictions about what will happen in the story keeps readers actively involved in the reading process and helps them understand and remember what they read. Think-aloud: I predicted that Miltie's math skills might help him in some way, and I wanted to read the story to find out if my prediction was right. My prediction turned out to be correct--his math skills helped him lead his team to a victory. Also, Dan helped convince the others to give Miltie a chance. Ask students to share their predictions about what might happen in the story. Have students fill out the last column of their worksheet, What actually happened. Teach the Comprehension Skill: Identify author's purpose Discussion: Discuss the author's purpose for writing Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? Introduce the skill: Write the following terms on the board: to inform, to entertain, to persuade. Invite students to define the terms in their own words. Encourage them to give examples of times they might have said something to inform, entertain, or persuade. Point out that writers often have one of these three purposes for writing. Check for understanding: Ask students to think of a book they've read recently that taught them something (science book, biography, and so on). Ask them to think of something they've read that was funny, scary, silly, or mysterious (comics, fiction books). Ask students for an example of something they've read that attempted to get them to believe or do something (an advertisement or poster). Write students' responses on the board under the appropriate category. Now ask students what the author's purpose was for writing Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? (to entertain). Ask students how they think the author's humor made the book more entertaining and fun to read. Turn to page 4 and read the description of Miltie aloud: After eating lunch, he weighed 70 pounds-fully dressed, in hiking boots, with a roll of quarters in his pocket. Discuss how the author could have simply said that Miltie was small, but that this humorous description makes the story more entertaining. If time allows, have students turn to page 5 and locate and discuss three other humorous passages from the text: He was slower than ketchup dribbling out of a new bottle. This is the 40-yard dash, not the 40-yard dawdle. Everything about him was big and strong, even his breath. Extend the discussion: Ask students if they were entertained by the humor in Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? Ask what they thought about all of the nicknames the boys had for each other and if anyone has a nickname they'd like to share with the class. Independent practice: Have students complete the author's purpose worksheet. When they finish, discuss their answers aloud. Build Skills Grammar and Mechanics: Colons and semicolons Review or explain that a colon is a punctuation mark (:) used before a long quotation, explanation, example, or series. It also is used after the salutation of a formal letter. Review or explain that a semicolon is a punctuation mark (;) indicating a separation of two clauses that can stand on their own as separate sentences. Direct students to the title page. Write Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? on the board and ask students how the colon is used in this instance (before an explanation that further describes Miltie). Ask a volunteer to read the sentence on page 11 that contains a colon (Football is all about math: angles, arcs, distance--). Ask students how the colon is used in this instance (before examples of how football is about math). Direct students to page 14. Ask a volunteer to read the last paragraph on the page. Have the student identify the sentence that is divided by a semicolon, and write it on the board: The defense would be confused; I'd find the open man and throw the ball for a touchdown. Point out that the two clauses could stand on their own as separate sentences: The defense would be confused. I'd find the open man and throw the ball for a touchdown. Check for understanding: Have students locate the semicolon used on page 20. Have them use the inside front cover of their book to write the two separate sentences that could stand on their own if the semicolon were replaced by a period. (That Miltie wasn't just a math genius. He had a head for football.) Word Work: Proper nouns Review or explain that a noun is a person, place, or thing. Ask students to turn to page 16 and give examples of nouns from the text. Review or explain that a proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter. Write examples of proper nouns from page 16 on the board, writing the noun first and then changing it to a proper noun (common noun: team, proper noun: Mudflat Maulers; common noun: boy, proper nouns: Miltie, Maurice, Jimmy; common noun: nickname, proper nouns: Beefalo, The 618 Express; common noun: football play, proper noun: Angles to the End Zone.) Check for understanding: Invite students to review the text and locate all of the nicknames used. Point out that the nicknames are all examples of proper nouns. Independent practice: Have students complete the proper nouns worksheet. When students finish, discuss their answers aloud. Have students turn to page 8 and highlight or underline examples of proper nouns. Remind them not to confuse a proper noun with the capital letter used at the beginning of a sentence. As students identify the proper nouns, write them on the board: (Coach J., Old Man McGruder, Mr. McGruder, Statue of Liberty). Build Fluency Independent Reading Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book. Additionally, partners can take turns reading parts of the book to each other. Home Connection Give students their books to take home and read to a younger sibling or friend. Extend the Reading Writing Connection Have students add to the story by telling what happens to Miltie's team the following season. Ask the writers to tell whether Miltie plays starting quarterback instead of Dan, how his teammates treat him, and if the team still uses Miltie's plays on a regular basis. Point out that the story is written in the past tense. Have students write their stories in the past tense as well. Math Connection Provide graph paper for students to draw out all of the plays Miltie described on pages 13 to 14 and 20 to 22. Have them chart the plays on the grid of the graph paper, paying special attention to Miltie's use of math vocabulary: angles, arc, grid, intersect, parallel, and perpendicular. If time permits, have students create their own football plays, charting them on the grid of the graph paper. Assessment Monitor students to determine if they can: make logical predictions based on available pictures and text; revise and/or confirm predictions as they preview and read the book thoughtfully analyze the author's purpose; recognize humor in writing accurately recognize and understand the use of colons and semicolons identify proper nouns in text Comprehension Checks Book Quiz Retelling Rubric Go to Miltie Math-head: Football Hero? main page
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