They Called Her Molly Pitcher

Narrative Nonfiction

Big Idea

Essential Question

Target Vocabulary

legendary - something or someone who comes from legends; well known
formal - something that follows set traditions
gushed - poured our in a very fast and forceful way
strategy - a plan for reaching a goal
retreat - a withdrawal from an attack
foes - enemies
shimmering - reflecting light to seem sparkly; glimmering
magnificent - very beautiful and impressive
revolution - a sudden change in the way things have been, usually political in nature
plunged - dove in suddenly

Comprehension

Target Skill

Conclusions and Generalizations - a judgment reached through reasoning and a broad statement that is true most of the time. To draw conclusions or make generalizations, you need evidence or support. Readers can draw conclusions based on text details.

Target Strategy

Analyze/Evaluate - analyzing and evaluating text details helps to draw conclusions and make generalizations. Ask questions about how the details are connected. Analyzing and interpreting parts of the text will help evaluate the author's purpose and how well it is achieved.

Fluency

Phrasing: Pauses - good readers automatically group words together into phrases. Phrasing helps readers and listeners make sense of ideas in the text. Good readers usually pause slightly to mark natural phrases in their reading.

Decoding

Recognizing Initials and Medial Digraphs - a consonant digraph is two letters that stand for a single sound, such as sh, ch, ph and th. Initial digraphs appear at the beginning of a word, as in childhood, and medial digraphs appear in the middle of a word, as in merchant. The letters of a digraph are never separated into different syllables. Think of a consonant digraph as though it is a single consonant.

Vocabulary Strategies

Thesaurus - reference tool that provides an alphabetical list of words and their synonyms and sometimes their antonyms. Synonyms are words that have the same, or almost the same, meaning. Antonyms are words that have opposite or very different meanings.

Grammar

Regular and Irregular Verb - regular verbs add -ed or -d to its present tense to show action that happened in the past; may use helping verbs has, have, had. An irregular verb is not formed by adding -ed or -d to its present tense. Some forms need to be memorized.

Writing

Write to Persuade

Focus Trait: Ideas - a persuasive letter clearly states a goal and supports it with reasons. Including facts and examples makes the supporting reasons stronger. A clearly stated goal helps convince readers because it leaves no question about what the writer wants to do.