Teaching Plans 

CCSSELA:  CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions). 

 Suggested Delivery:  Independent Read 

Key Vocabulary: 

• Grief: Deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death. 

• Senile: Showing poor mental ability in old age, especially being unable to think clearly and make decisions. 

• Self-Conscious: Easily embarrassed and nervous because they feel that everyone is looking at them and judging them. 

• Arthritis:  

• Pension A disease that causes swelling, stiffness, and pain in a person's joints. 

• Advocacy: An action that speaks in favor of, recommends, argues for a cause, supports or defends, or pleads on behalf of others.  

• Sheepishly: In an embarrassed manner due to shame or a lack of self-confidence. 

• Stationery Store: A store that is run by stationers. This word originally applied to a bookseller, but by the middle of the 17th century, it began to be used for a person who sells papers, pens, and office goods. 

Building Schema: 

Before Reading: Begin by asking students what they know about Chinatown in San Francisco. Encourage them to share any prior knowledge or experiences they may have. Show pictures or illustrations of San Francisco's Chinatown to provide visual context for the discussion. Display the large world map or globe and point out the location of San Francisco in California. Discuss how people from different parts of the world immigrated to San Francisco and contributed to the formation of Chinatown. Have students write down or draw on index cards/sticky notes where their families originated from and place them on the map. Encourage them to share their family heritage if they feel comfortable. Discuss how diverse backgrounds contribute to the rich tapestry of Chinatown's culture and community.

 During Reading: Have students make a one-sheet book that directions for can be found below. Have them create multiple booklets to label a page for characters, settings, themes, plot, and rising action. As students read the book have them add the information as they come across it. Encourage them to draw and add images to their booklet. Have them try to use at least two mediums such as markers, crayons, or pencils. 

After Reading: Have kids put on a reader theater presentation. Have students choose a scene from the book to act out. Make sure that it includes multiple characters and has plenty of dialogue. 

Writing Activity: Using the booklet that you created above have students write a scene that might have been lost from the book. Make sure students' scenes follow the sequence of the story and make sense of themes. Students could create another booklet so that their product resembles a chapter in the book. Have them include illustrations for further comprehension. 

Extend The Text