Reading Level:
Z

Word Count:
2,678

Pages:
24

Text Summary
Success Stories is a collection of biographies of three famous immigrants to the United States: Albert Einstein, Gloria Estefan, and Dikembe Mutombo. They came to the United States under very different circumstances. All three have made enormous contributions in their particular areas of expertise: science, music, and sports. 

Vocabulary
advocate
anti-Semitism
debut
determination
dictator
disarmament
exiles
fluently
ghetto
humanitarian
immunization
legacies
pacifist
physics
potential
refuge
religious oppression
repertoire
relativity
speculation
stature
tyranny
Zionism 

Reproducibles
Worksheets
Worksheet 1-Attributes Chart
Worksheet 2-Adverbial Phrases  

Visual Literacy

Read and interpret a scientific illustration. 

Objectives

Comprehension
You will likely address a number of comprehension skills as students work to understand the text, for example, identifying character traits and evaluating character actions. The targeted comprehension strategy for this lesson is: comparing and contrasting personal characteristics of characters 

Word Work
Adverbial Phrases
Identify phrases and tell whether they explain where, when, how, or why something happened. 

Homophones
Identify homophone pairs. 

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Introduce the book by showing students the front cover.
Ask: What do you see on the cover? What do you think this book will be about?
Turn the book over to the back cover.
Ask: What other information does this give us about the book? What ideas do you have about the book now? Have you read any biographies before? What do you expect to find in a book that is a biography?  

Elicit Prior Knowledge and Build Background
Ask students what they know about Gloria Estefan, Albert Einstein, and Dikembe Mutombo. Have them predict what things these three might have in common. Distribute the worksheet, and help students complete the Before Reading part of the worksheet.

Say: The Before Reading part of the worksheet asks you to make predictions about these three people. The first attribute is "exiled from homeland." Put a yes next to each person whom you think this statement applies to. Put a no next to each person you don't think this applies to.

Ask: Do you think this applies to all of the people, or just one or two? Tell me why you think so.

Say: Now I want you to read the rest of the statements and put a yes or no next to each of the three people. 

Discuss students' predictions about the three people, and have them tell you why they answered as they did. Introduce as many words as you can from the vocabulary list into the discussion. You can bring the words into the discussion in an informal way. Alternately, you might like to list the following words on the chalkboard and have students predict how these words might be related to Einstein, Estefan, and Mutombo: determination, exiles, ghetto, potential, humanitarian, refuge, and legacies. 

Skim and Scan
Give students a copy of the book, and have them skim through it, looking at the photographs and reading the captions. Suggest that they might want to revise or add to their predictions now that they have looked at the photos.

Note any words in bold-faced type and discuss any words you think students might have difficulty with. Remind students that they can use context clues to understand unfamiliar words. Show students how to locate one of the bold-faced words in the glossary at the back of the book. Suggest that they use the glossary as they read if they need help figuring out the meaning of a bold-faced word.

During Reading

Set the purpose
Refer to the worksheet that students have been working on. Explain what they are to do on the worksheet.

Say: I want you to read the book silently at your own pace. As you read, I want you to think about the attributes listed on the worksheet. When you can confirm that an attribute fits the person, write yes in the During Reading column, and write down the words in the text that tell you this. 

After Reading

Building Comprehension
Discuss the three people in the book. Encourage students to make inferences about them and to evaluate their actions.

Ask: What words would you use to describe Gloria Estefan? Albert Einstein? Dikembe Mutombo? Show me places in the book that support your ideas. Which of these three people would you most like to meet? Why? Who do you think has made the greatest contribution to our lives? Why do you think that? 

Discuss the Attributes Chart, and have students compare their ideas. If students have differences of opinion, have them substantiate their ideas with references to the text. Encourage them to make comparisons among these three people. 

Ask: In what ways are the lives of these three people alike? In what ways are they different? 

Word Work
Adverbial Phrases
Explain to students that writers use groups of words called phrases to add details and clarity to their sentences. These phrases are called adverbial phrases. Their function is like an adverb, and they can tell where, when, how, and why. Phrases that tell when often begin with words such as after, when, while, and in. Phrases that tell where often begin with words like in, under, beside, over, and around. Write these phrases on the board, which are taken from the first two paragraphs about Albert Einstein: "around the globe" and "after several business failures." Have students find the phrases and read the whole sentences in which the phrases are found. Discuss whether the phrase tells where or when. Circle the word that starts each phrase. 

Give students Worksheet 2. Explain that they are to read the phrases from the book listed on the chart, then decide whether each phrase tells where or when. Have them circle the word that begins each phrase. In the second part of the Worksheet, have them find other examples of the phrases in the book and write them on the chart. They should determine whether the phrases tell where or when. Finally, they are to write their own phrase and note whether it tells where or when. 

Homophones
Remind students that homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. List these words from the book and have students think of the pair for each word. The first word listed is the word from the book and the second word is its pair: knows/nose; won/one; team/teem; new/knew; raise/rays/raze; allowed/aloud; peace/piece; hair/hare; hear/here; hour/our; way/weigh; break/brake; there/their. Have students use some of the words in oral sentences.

Learning through Visual Devices
Read and interpret a scientific illustration.
Point out the scientific illustration of the motion of the ball on the train on page 18.
Explain to students that certain features of scientific illustrations make them easier to read and get information from. They might include:

Measurement lines - Provide information about speed, distance, or amount. (In this case, speed.)
Labels - Identify different parts of the scientific illustration

Using these features, ask students to suggest information they can see in the scientific illustration.
Ask: Using the features we have talked about. What information can you see in this scientific illustration? 

Writing Link
Have students write a description that compares and contrasts Einstein, Estefan, and Mutombo. Help students brainstorm and plan their writing.

• Have them review the attributes chart that compares and contrasts the three people.
• Encourage them to brainstorm adjectives that can be used to describe these people. Record their ideas on the chalkboard.
• Before they begin writing, have them create oral sentences that make comparisons, using the information from their charts and from the board. Encourage them to use vocabulary for making comparisons such as: similar to, like, in contrast to, same as, both, all, although, different to, etc.

Assessment

• Review students' completed comprehension worksheets in order to assess whether they can find specific information in the text to make comparisons.
• Have students write sentences or paragraphs using selected words from the vocabulary list, or word work examples from the lesson, to demonstrate their understanding of word meaning.
• Review students' completed worksheets to assess whether they can identify whether the adverbial phrases tell where or when. Note whether they can find other examples of phrases in the text.