Because of Winn-Dixie is a realistic fiction novel (meaning that it is something that could happen in real life, but it has not actually happened) written by Kate DiCamillo. Students will complete all reading and discussing of the book in class, and will not receive their own book to keep and carry. I have, however, included PDF copies of each chapter set (see below) as well as YouTube videos of someone reading each chapter set that students and parents may use for review at home.

As students read Because of Winn-Dixie, we will focus on a few vocabulary words on the inside cover of their packets, as well as three major skills, each of which we will focus on for one week of the reading:

• Week One - Summarizing (writing a brief paragraph about the most important events from that chapter of the story or from a whole passage) using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then method.

• Week Two - Cause-and-effect relationships (which can be found here https://sites.google.com/s/0Bwj1H6YDyIAmRXlBeHptNFV2TWs/p/14qlxrEbyGlbwUTlZRf6SAeEjwpJM-5LQ/edit).

• Week Three - Figurative Language (identifying and distinguishing between similes, which are comparisons using the words "like" or "as," metaphors, which are comparisons that say one thing is another thing, and idioms, which are phrases like "it's raining cats and dogs," phrases that don't really make sense when you look at the literal meaning of the words, but that we know and understand in our society).

Note: Students in Core 3 will be participating in Literature Circle groups, so they will be asked to use skills such as a) creating open-ended questions, b) identifying and defining interesting or unusual words in a passage, c) finding figurative language and/or analyzing author's craft, d) summarizing, e) illustrating, using details and descriptions from the text, and f) communicating with group members by properly preparing for Literature Circle discussions and participating productively in their group meetings.

Use the Videos Below to Listen to Because of Winn-Dixie