Build Background

• Give students a copy of the book. Explain to students that during World War II, the United States military used code talkers. Code Talkers read and wrote messages in a secret code. These messages were necessary to kept certain information and plans secret from enemies. Ask students if they've ever written or read something written in code. Encourage them to share their experiences.

Preview the Book

Introduce the Book

• Guide students to the front and back covers of the book and read the title. Have them discuss what they see on the covers. Encourage them to offer ideas as to what kind of book this is and what it might be about.
• Preview the title page. Talk about the information on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Ask students to turn to the table of contents. Remind them that the table of contents provides an overview of what the book is about. Ask students what they expect to read about based on what they see in the table of contents. (Accept all answers that students can justify.)

Introduce the Reading Strategy: Summarize

• Explain that one way to understand and remember information in a book is to summarize paragraphs, sections, or chapters mentally or on paper. Explain that a summary is a brief overview of the most important information in the text. The summary usually tells who, what, when, where, and why about a topic.
• Read page 4 aloud to students and model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: To summarize, I need to decide which information is important. Then, in my mind, I organize the information into a few words or sentences. For example, I might summarize the information on page 4 by explaining how Poloma found an arrow carved in a rock while she was playing with her ball.
• Have students read through page 7. Discuss the important information needed to summarize the first section of the story, focusing on the questions who, what, when, where, and why. Write the summary on the board. Ask volunteers to share information from the section that supports the summary generated.
• 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: Make inferences

• Explain that not all the information in a story is directly stated. Sometimes readers must make inferences by using details in the story to understand the indirect language used. Explain that an inference is a conclusion drawn by connecting clues in text to information already known. Making inferences allow readers to understand ideas in text on a deeper level. For example, if a fire truck races by with its lights flashing and sirens blaring, a person might infer that someone is in trouble and needs help. Even though the person may not have seen the individual in need of help, he or she knows that firemen help people in need.
• Ask students to turn to the table of contents and read the title of Chapter 1, "The First Arrow." Invite students to tell whether or not they think the character will find additional arrows throughout the story. Point out that even though the table of contents doesn't specifically list a chapter entitled "The Second Arrow", readers can infer that other arrows will be found. Discuss with students that when the word first is used, the inference to be made is other arrows will follow.
• Think-aloud: I know an author does not directly state all the ideas in a story and that I must make inferences to understand the story completely. I know that good readers do this, so I'm going to make inferences in this story as I read.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Write the following code on the board: 9 -- 3,1,14 -- 18, 5, 1, 4 -- 9, 14 -- 3, 15, 4, 5. Explain to students that these glyphs, or symbols, stand for letters in a word. Write the word glyph on the board. Each word is separated by dashes. Explain to students that they need to decipher the code by translating the glyphs into words. Write the words decipher, code and glyphs on the board.
• Have students work with a partner to break the code. Encourage students to share what the code says and the cipher for the code (I can read in code.; a=1, b=2, c=3, and so on). Explain that this is what Code Talkers did during World War II.
• Invite students to work with their partner to create a different message using the cipher. Encourage students to share their codes with the class to decipher.

    On the inside front cover of their book, have students write definitions for the words decipher, code, glyph, Code Talkers, and cipher in their own words.

• For tips on teaching word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out about the arrows and how the characters decipher the code. Remind them to stop after each chapter to summarize the information in the story in their mind and use this information to make inferences about events in the story.

Student Reading

• Guide the reading: Introduce and explain the summarize worksheet. Have students read to the end of page 11. Encourage students who finish early to go back and reread. Have students use the worksheet to summarize the important information in Chapter 2, "Questions".
• Model summarizing.
  Think-aloud: I made sure to stop at the end of the chapter to summarize what I'd read so far. First, I decided what information was important, answering the questions who, what, when, where and why. Then, I organized the important information into one sentence: Poloma and her grandfather used their knowledge of codes to follow the arrow across the stream.
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 11 and reread the page. Ask them to think about the important information they summarized from this chapter to explain the inference that can be made about why Poloma and her grandfather decided to cross the stream (they must have believed that something was on the other side). Have students share what story clues and prior knowledge they used to make that inference (they had a knowledge of codes, they followed the arrow's direction up to this point, the arrows always pointed to another clue).
• Have students read the remainder of the story. Remind them to think about the details of the story so they can summarize the information as they read.

    Have students make a small question mark in their book beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategy

• 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.
• Ask students to explain how the strategy of summarizing helped them understand the story.
  Think-aloud: I know that summarizing keeps me actively involved in what I'm reading and helps me understand and remember what I've read. I know that I will remember more about Code Talkers and deciphering codes because I summarized as I read the book.

    Independent practice: Write the words who, what, when, where, and why on the board. Have students answer these questions on the front inside cover of their book to organize the important information from one of the chapters that was not discussed. Have them use this information to write a summary. Invite students to read their summaries aloud when finished.

Reflect on the Comprehension Skill

• Discussion: Tell students that pictures sometimes help readers to make inferences about a story. Ask them to look at the picture on page 5. Ask them why Poloma looked so fidgety (because she was excited to tell her grandfather about the arrow). Ask students to contrast that with a description of her grandfather (he looked very calm). Point out that the author does not say everything directly in the text, but that the illustrator helps the readers infer more about the story.
• Independent practice: Ask students to reread page 13 and point to a sentence that describes an instance where Poloma made an inference. Ask a volunteer to read the sentence that tells the readers that an inference was made ("Maybe they're a code. Do you think they could be a code, Papa?") Have students use a separate piece of paper to explain how the letters on the boulder helped Poloma make her inference (they were spaced together, as if in a group of words in a phrase; the letters didn't make sense as they were; the message was hidden on the bottom of the boulder; and so on). Encourage students to share their answers.
• Extend the discussion: Discuss with students that people make inferences about how others think and feel based on facial expressions and body language. Using pictures from the text, have students express the feelings of the character by showing body language and facial expressions. Point out that talking is not necessary for people to infer a person's mood.

Grammar and Mechanics: Pronouns

• Explain or review that a pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Write examples of pronouns on the board: I, she, he, it, her, they, and we. Write the following sentence on the board: The ball landed next to a huge boulder. Model how to replace the words the ball with a pronoun. (It landed next to a huge boulder.)
• Ask students to turn to page 5. Write the following sentence from the book on the board: Her grandfather was resting on the porch swing. Ask students to identify the pronoun (Her), and underline it on the board. Ask which proper noun Her replaces (Poloma). Have a volunteer repeat the sentence using Poloma in place of the pronoun Her. (Poloma's grandfather was resting on the porch swing.) Write that sentence under the first example.
• Ask students to turn to page 6. Write the following sentence on the board: "Maybe they carved that arrow," Poloma guessed. Underline the word they. Invite a volunteer to rewrite the sentence, replacing the underlined word with the appropriate pronoun (they). Repeat this activity, as time allows, using other sentences from the book.
• Discuss the reasons authors use pronouns in the place of nouns (to make the writing flow better, to avoid repeating the same words, and so on).

    Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 12 and read the following sentence: At first they couldn't find an arrow or any other carving, and they were about to give up when Poloma screeched. Have them underline the word they and write the words it stands for above the word they. Have students underline the words an arrow and Poloma. Have them replace these words with a pronoun from the board and write the pronoun above the original word. When students have finished, encourage them to share their answers.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the pronouns worksheet. When they have finished, review answers aloud.

Word Work: Synonyms

• Write the word discovered on the board. Have students locate and read the word in the second paragraph on page 5. Ask students to suggest other words that mean almost the same thing (found, located, uncovered). Review or explain that a word that means the same or almost the same thing as another word in called a synonym. One reason writers replace words with synonyms is to make a piece of writing more interesting.
• Have students read the third paragraph on page 5. Ask students to identify a synonym for discovered (found). Explain that writers may also use synonyms to explain new vocabulary in text. Have students read the third paragraph on page 11. Point to the word perplexing. Ask students to locate a word in or around the sentence that might mean almost the same thing as perplexing (confusing). Have students identify other synonyms for the word perplexing (baffling, surprising).
• Show students a thesaurus. Explain that a thesaurus is a book that contains synonyms of words. Look up perplex and model how a thesaurus is used. Point out that perplexing is not listed as an entry word.
• Give students a thesaurus. Ask them to find the word perplex and confirm the synonyms suggested.
• Check for understanding: Have students turn to page 17 and read the first two paragraphs. Point out the word recall. Ask students to locate a word in or around the sentence that might mean almost the same thing as recall (remember). Have students use the thesaurus to confirm their synonym for the word.

    Have students read the first sentence on page 5. Ask them to circle the words grabbed and raced. Have students use the thesaurus to replace these words with synonyms to make the sentence more interesting. Remind them to choose words that do not change the meaning of the sentence. Have them write the sentence using the new words at the bottom of the page. Encourage students to share   their sentences.

• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have students complete the synonyms worksheet. When they have finished, review answers aloud.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Encourage repeated timed readings of a specific section of the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends. Have students discuss with someone at home an inference that was made while reading with someone at home.

Writing and Art Connection
Give students time to work independently or with a partner to crack the code given in the Caesar Cipher on page 16 (Answer: This is an example of Caesar Cipher). Then have students create their own code and write an original cipher. Have them supply a hint, just as the example did. Allow them the opportunity to exchange ciphers and work to crack each others' codes.

Social Studies Connection
Have students use the library to research one of the historical points mentioned in the book: Julius Caesar's invention of the cipher, the Underground Railroad and the Drinking Gourd, or Native American Code Talkers. Have them identify such information as when the event took place, who was involved, why the event was important to history, and so on.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• accurately summarize information in a chapter to comprehend text during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand indirect language by making inferences during reading
• understand and use pronouns during discussion and on a worksheet
• understand the uses of synonyms and correctly use them on a worksheet

Comprehension Checks

• Book Quiz
• Retelling Rubric