On the Trail with Lewis and Clark

$On the Trail with Lewis and Clark book cover$

Grade 4
3 skill lessons · 2 math-through-reading

Math

Skill lessons

The mathematics the book carries, taught directly. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1Three Times, or Two Hundred Sixty More
2One Dot, Two Readings
3The Word That Points the Finger

Math + reading

Math through the reading

The same book, entered through a sentence it prints. Change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it.

4Two Months Called the Most
5Three Copies of November

Reading

Reading and language lessons

The same book read as a text. What a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how the writing is put together - no mathematics.

6A Graph Is a Drawing or Chart: Reading a Definition Before the Facts Arrive
7October Saka-Jawiya Joins: Reading a Line Where Two Things Got Joined
8A Trip Was Made By: Reading Sentences That Put the Doer Last
9What Is Now Known As: Naming a Place Twice at Once
10Treated as Heroes: What the Last Paragraph Does That the Others Did Not

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Skill lessons

3 lessons on the mathematics the book carries. Printable workbook pages and teacher keys are not available for this book yet.

1. Three Times, or Two Hundred Sixty More Reasoning · Comparing two stated monthly distances additively and multiplicatively

One sentence in this book carries its highest monthly distance and asks for its lowest, and the answer sits directly after it: three hundred ninety miles against one hundred thirty. The two numbers stand in an exact relation - three hundred ninety is three copies of one hundred thirty - and they also stand two hundred sixty apart. Students build both rows in base-ten pieces, find the number of copies by laying the shorter row along the longer, and then say the relation forwards and backwards. The reversal is the work: a child who has the number three often still says one third in the wrong direction, and the rows on the desk are what settle it. Both quantities come from the book; neither is supplied.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Take both numbers from one sentence (4 min)
One sentence in the book carries the highest month and asks for the lowest; the answer follows it. Write the two months and their miles on two strips of paper - September at three hundred ninety, November at one hundred thirty. Keep both strips; you will need them to stand for the two dots.
Word preview: most, fewest
This graph shows that Lewis and Clark traveled the most miles in September 1805, 390 miles, in which month did they travel the fewest miles?
November 130 miles.
2. Build both months in hundred-and-ten bars (6 min)
Lay out three hundred ninety in base-ten pieces beside one hundred thirty, in two rows that start level. Count what is in each row aloud. Then find how many times the November row fits inside the September row by laying copies of it end to end, and say the number of copies before you say anything else.
Word preview: times, fits
3. Say the relation both ways round (6 min)
Say aloud what you found in two sentences that mean the same thing: September is three times November, and November is one third of September. Point at the rows while you say each one. Then say the difference sentence too, September is two hundred sixty miles more than November, and say which of the three sentences your base-ten rows show most plainly.
Word preview: times, third
4. Test a reversal that changes the word (4 min)
Your partner says one of your three sentences with the two months swapped but the comparison word left alone - September is one third of November. Decide together whether it is still true, say which word has to change to make it true, and change it. This is the check: a reversal that keeps the old word is the error worth catching.
Word preview: reverse

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Take both numbers from one sentence (4 min)
Write the two months and their miles on two strips - September at three hundred ninety, November at one hundred thirty. Both come from one sentence of the book and the answer after it.
Word preview: most, fewest
November 130 miles.
2. Say the relation both ways round (5 min)
Lay three hundred ninety beside one hundred thirty in base-ten pieces, find how many copies of the shorter row fit the longer, then say both sentences: September is three times November, and November is one third of September.
Word preview: times, third

Three levels

Support: Work with the rows built and left standing, and say only the two multiplicative sentences while pointing - September is three times November, November is one third of September. Lay the three copies of the November row along the September row again whenever the direction slips, and let the pointing finger settle which name goes with which row before the sentence is finished.
At Grade: Build both rows, find the number of copies by laying the shorter along the longer, then produce all three sentences - three times, one third, and two hundred sixty more - and say which the rows show most plainly. Catch a partner's reversal that keeps the wrong comparison word and repair it.
Extension: Take the other pair the book states, three hundred eighty miles in May against forty in June on the graph on page ten, and find whether that pair sits in a whole number of copies the way this one does. Say what you have to do when it does not, and why the difference sentence still works for a pair the copies do not.

English learners

Comparative and multiplicative syntax is where a child whose arithmetic is sound goes wrong in English. Three times as many and one third as many use the same two nouns in the same order, so word order cannot be the clue; the child has to hold which row is being described. Rehearse the pair as a frame with the rows in view - "September is three times November" said pointing at the long row, then "November is one third of September" said pointing at the short one - and let the finger move first each time. Several languages express the smaller side with a division word rather than a fraction word, so accept a child's own construction for one third in a first language and place the English fraction word into the rehearsed frame afterwards.

Materials

Printed source passage in this step
Paper strips, two per pair
Base-ten pieces, one tray per pair
Lined half-sheet, one per student
Sticky note, two per pair
Word cards: times, third, more

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

2. One Dot, Two Readings Representation · Reading a month and a value off a line graph

The book explains that a line graph records facts as dots joined by lines, and then prints the answers a reader would get from four of its own graphs. Students plot the two values the book states for 1805, three hundred eighty miles in May and forty in June, and then read those heights back off the line - down to the month, across to the miles. The representation is the content: what a dot is worth here is a pair of readings, and a student who takes only one of them has not read the graph. No student invents a value; the two plotted here are the two the book prints.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Find what a dot is for (4 min)
Read the two sentences that say how a line graph is made and put a finger on the two things they name: a dot, and a line joining dots. Say aloud what one dot holds - a month and a number of miles together, never one without the other. Do not draw yet.
Word preview: dot, connect
The facts are recorded on the graph by dots, then lines are drawn to connect the dots.
Line graphs show facts over a period of time.
2. Plot the two months the book answers (6 min)
Write the months May and June along the bottom of your grid and the miles up the side, counting by fifties to four hundred. Place one dot for May at three hundred eighty and one dot for June at forty, then join them. Say what your line does between the two months and check a partner's dots sit at the same two heights as yours.
Word preview: miles, month
May, 380 miles.
June, 40 miles.
3. Read a height back off the line (5 min)
Trade grids with another pair. Without being told which is which, put a finger on the higher dot, run it down to the month underneath, and say the month aloud. Then run it across to the side and say the miles. Do this for the lower dot too. The two readings are what a dot is worth: a month from underneath, a number from the side.
Word preview: most, fewest
In which of these months in 1805 did Lewis and Clark travel the most miles?
4. Say the pair of readings as one sentence (5 min)
Write one sentence for each dot in the book's own shape - the month, then a comma, then the miles. Read both sentences to your partner while they point at the matching dot. If your partner points at the wrong dot, find which half of your sentence sent them there.
Word preview: traveled
This graph shows that Lewis and Clark traveled the most miles in September 1805, 390 miles, in which month did they travel the fewest miles?

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Plot the two months the book answers (5 min)
Write May and June along the bottom of your grid and the miles up the side, counting by fifties to four hundred. Place a dot for May at three hundred eighty and a dot for June at forty, then join them.
Word preview: miles, month
May, 380 miles.
2. Read a height back off the line (4 min)
Trade grids with another pair. Put a finger on the higher dot, run it down to the month underneath and say the month, then across to the side and say the miles. Do the same for the lower dot.
Word preview: most, fewest
In which month did they travel the fewest amount of miles?

Three levels

Support: Work on a grid already ruled and already labelled with May and June along the bottom and the miles counting by fifties up the side, so the only new work is placing the two dots and reading them back. Keep both readings spoken while a partner points, and say the month before the miles every time.
At Grade: Rule and label the grid, place both dots from the book's two sentences, join them, and read each dot back as a month and a number of miles. Write the two sentences in the book's own shape and test them on a partner who points at the dot each sentence names.
Extension: Add the two values the first graph in the book gives for a single traveller, six miles in April and none at all in February, on a second grid of your own ruling. Then say what the February dot sitting on the bottom line means about that month, and why a dot on the bottom line is still a reading and not a missing one.

English learners

The word most does not mean largest in every language a child brings, and several mark the superlative with a separate word rather than an ending, so most miles can be heard as many miles. Rehearse the frame "In May they traveled 380 miles" and its partner "In June they traveled 40 miles" before any comparison is asked for, so the two readings are secure before the relation between them is. A child who reads the graph fluently in a first language should give both readings in that language first and then place the month and the number into the English frame; the pointing finger carries the meaning while the sentence is being built.

Materials

Printed source passage in this step
Blank grid paper, one sheet per pair
Ruler, one per pair
Coloured pencil, one per student
Sticky note, two per pair
Lined half-sheet, one per student
Word cards: dot, miles, month

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

3. The Word That Points the Finger Concept · Using most and fewest to locate a value on a line graph

Every graph in this book is asked the same two questions, and the only thing that changes between them is one word. Students lay most and fewest side by side, answer both off a single line, then cover one word with the other and watch the answer move while the graph stays still. The mathematics is locating an extreme value on a plotted line; the concept is that the word, not the picture, decides which extreme is wanted. The book's own answers are the check, so nobody is grading against a number a teacher chose.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Collect the two question words (4 min)
The book asks the same two questions of every graph it prints. Take a card for each of the two words that make them different - most and fewest - and lay them one above the other. Say what each word tells a finger to do on a line: one sends it to the highest dot, the other to the lowest.
Word preview: most, fewest
In which of the months shown on the graph were the most miles traveled?
In which of the months were the fewest miles traveled?
2. Answer both questions off one line (6 min)
Using the grid from the first lesson or one already ruled, find the dot the word most sends you to and write the month beside the card. Do the same for fewest. Then check the book's own two answers against yours and say whether your finger went the same way the book's did.
Word preview: highest, lowest
April 6 miles.
February 0 miles.
3. Swap the word and follow the finger (5 min)
Cover the word most in the question and lay the card fewest over it instead. Read the new question aloud. Point at the dot it now names and say what changed - not the graph, only where the finger landed. Say which word did that, and what the answer would be if the two cards were swapped back.
Word preview: swap
4. Write a question the graph can answer (5 min)
Write one question of your own about your line using either most or fewest, and hand it to another pair with the graph but not your answer. When they answer, check whether they landed on the dot you meant. If they did not, decide together whether the graph or the wording sent them wrong.
Word preview: question

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Collect the two question words (4 min)
Take a card for each of the two words the book's questions turn on, most and fewest, and lay them one above the other. Say what each tells a finger to do on a line: one goes to the highest dot, one to the lowest.
Word preview: most, fewest
In which of the months shown on the graph were the most miles traveled?
2. Answer both questions off one line (5 min)
On a ruled and labelled grid, find the dot the word most sends you to and write the month beside the card, then do the same for fewest. Check both against the book's own answers.
Word preview: highest, lowest
February 0 miles.

Three levels

Support: Stay with the one graph the book gives a full pair of answers for, April at six miles and February at none, and answer only the most question until the finger goes to the highest dot without hesitating. Then add fewest, with the two cards still in front of you, and say the word aloud before the finger moves.
At Grade: Answer both questions off your own line, check both against the book's printed answers, then swap the two words on one question and say what moved. Write a question of your own using one of the words and test whether another pair lands on the dot you meant.
Extension: Write a question about your line that neither most nor fewest can answer, such as one asking about a month in the middle, and say what a reader has to do instead of running a finger to the top or the bottom. Then say why the book asks only these two questions of every graph it prints.

English learners

Superlatives are built differently across languages - some mark them with an ending, some with a separate word, some by repeating the adjective - so a child may hear most miles and fewest miles as two ways of saying many miles. The pair of word cards is the scaffold that matters here: put them in the child's hand and have the finger move before the sentence is required. Rehearse "the most miles" pointing up and "the fewest miles" pointing down as a gesture pair first. Fewest is also irregular and low-frequency in speech, so accept least or smallest in the child's own account while keeping the book's word on the card.

Materials

Printed source passage in this step
Word card set, one per pair
Ruled and labelled grid, one per pair
Coloured pencil, one per student
Sticky note, two per pair
Lined half-sheet, one per student
Word cards: most, fewest

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

Math through the reading

The mathematics is reached through a sentence the book prints: change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it. These carry their own standards, matched against these lessons rather than inherited from the skill ones.

4. Two Months Called the Most Integrated · Students find the book naming two different months as its highest in the same year, compare 380 with 390, and argue to a partner which month was the most and of what.

Students find the book naming two different months as its highest in the same year, compare 380 with 390, and argue to a partner which month was the most and of what.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Put the two most-miles answers side by side (5 min)
Each pair gets the book's two answers written on separate cards - May, 380 miles on one and September 1805, 390 miles on the other. Students read both cards aloud, then place each card at its height against a number line marked in fifties from zero to four hundred. They say what they notice: the book called both of these the most.
2. Read where each answer came from (5 min)
Students find and read aloud the sentence in the book that each card came from, one partner reading the May sentence and one reading the September sentence. They underline the words in each that say what group is being asked about, and report to each other whether either sentence names the months it covers.
3. Take a card and say your claim (6 min)
Each student takes a position card - September, Both, or Cannot tell - and says their claim aloud to a partner holding a different card. Every claim must contain a month, one of the two numbers, and the sentence they are relying on. The partner replies with one sentence saying whether the evidence read out settles the question.
4. Say what the most is the most of (4 min)
Pairs finish a spoken frame together: 380 miles was the most of ___, and 390 miles was the most of ___. They say aloud what they would need the book to print in order to fill both blanks, and whether 390 being the larger number was enough on its own.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Put the two most-miles answers side by side (5 min)
Each pair gets the book's two answers written on separate cards - May, 380 miles on one and September 1805, 390 miles on the other. Students read both cards aloud, then place each card at its height against a number line marked in fifties from zero to four hundred. They say what they notice: the book called both of these the most.
2. Take a card and say your claim (6 min)
Each student takes a position card - September, Both, or Cannot tell - and says their claim aloud to a partner holding a different card. Every claim must contain a month, one of the two numbers, and the sentence they are relying on. The partner replies with one sentence saying whether the evidence read out settles the question.

Three levels

Support: Work with the two cards and the number line only. Place 380 and 390 at their heights, say which card sits higher, then say one sentence in the frame: I say ___ had the most, because the book says ___ miles. Read the sentence off the card rather than finding it in the text, and say the number out loud before the month.
At grade: Take a position card, defend it aloud with a month, a number and a read-aloud sentence, and answer a partner holding a different card. Then fill both halves of the most-of frame, saying what group each number was the largest within.
Extension: Take the position you did not argue and make the strongest case for it aloud, using the same two numbers. Then say what single sentence the book would have to add to end the argument for good - it must name months, not miles - and say why adding a third distance would not end it.

English learners

Most is the one word this whole lesson turns on and it behaves unusually: it names a winner within a group, and the group is almost never said out loud. Students whose strongest language marks the group explicitly may hear the book's two sentences as straightforwardly contradictory, which is a reasonable reading and worth saying so. Comparing 380 and 390 transfers intact - the digits and the ordering are the same in any language. Invite students to work out their position in their strongest language, then bring it to English in the frame: I say ___ had the most miles, because the book says ___. Reading the book's own sentence aloud is offered as support, not as a test of pronunciation, and a student may point at the sentence while a partner reads it.

Materials

Two answer cards, one reading May, 380 miles and one reading September 1805, 390 miles
A number line strip marked in fifties from zero to four hundred
Three position cards per pair, reading September, Both, and Cannot tell
The two book sentences the answers come from, written where both partners can read them

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

5. Three Copies of November Integrated · Students build the book's only fully quantified pair, 390 miles against 130, as two rows on a shared edge and say the relation in both directions without changing what is true.

Students build the book's only fully quantified pair, 390 miles against 130, as two rows on a shared edge and say the relation in both directions without changing what is true.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Take both numbers out of one sentence (4 min)
Students read the book's sentence and the answer beneath it aloud and write each month with its miles on its own paper strip - September 390, November 130. They say which word in the book sent them to each number, most or fewest, and place the two strips face up between them.
2. Build both months on one edge (6 min)
Each pair builds September as three hundred bars and nine ten bars, and November as one hundred bar and three ten bars, in two rows starting level at the same left edge. They then lay copies of the November row end to end along the September row and count the copies aloud, stopping exactly at the end.
3. Say it forwards and backwards (6 min)
Students say both sentences aloud while pointing at the row each names - September is three times November, November is one third of September - then write both. They then match the rows against each other to find the 260 that sticks out past the short row, and write the two additive sentences the same way round.
4. Catch the reversal that kept the wrong word (4 min)
Each pair receives a sentence written by another pair with the months swapped and the comparison word left alone - November is three times September. Students say aloud what is wrong with it, point at the rows to show it, and write the sentence that pair meant.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Build both months on one edge (6 min)
Each pair builds September as three hundred bars and nine ten bars, and November as one hundred bar and three ten bars, in two rows starting level at the same left edge. They then lay copies of the November row end to end along the September row and count the copies aloud, stopping exactly at the end.
2. Say it forwards and backwards (6 min)
Students say both sentences aloud while pointing at the row each names - September is three times November, November is one third of September - then write both. They then match the rows against each other to find the 260 that sticks out past the short row, and write the two additive sentences the same way round.

Three levels

Support: Keep the two rows built and untouched on the desk for the whole lesson. Say each sentence with a finger on the row it names before writing anything, using the frame: ___ is three times ___, and ___ is one third of ___. Say the longer row's month first every time until both sentences come out true, then swap the order once.
At grade: Build both rows, iterate the short row along the long one to reach three copies, and produce all four sentences - two multiplicative and two additive - each naming both months and both numbers. Then repair another pair's reversed sentence and say what the repair changed.
Extension: Take the book's other stated pair, 380 miles in May against 40 miles in June, and try the same reversal. Say what happens when the copies do not land exactly on the end of the long row - what is true of nine copies and what is left over - and say which of the four sentence shapes still works when a whole number of copies does not fit.

English learners

Comparative syntax is where this lesson is hard, not arithmetic. Building the rows and counting the copies transfers completely; the sentences do not. Many languages mark the compared thing with a case or a particle rather than with word order, so a student whose mathematics is exact may still produce November is three times September, which is a syntax slip and should be named as one, not as a counting error. The one third sentence is harder again, because it uses a fraction word to say the same fact the times word said. Rehearse both frames aloud with a finger on the rows: ___ is three times ___, and ___ is one third of ___. Invite students to reason and check the copies in their strongest language first, then bring the two sentences to English.

Materials

Hundred bars and ten bars, enough for two rows reaching three hundred ninety
Two paper strips, one for each month and its miles
A half-sheet ruled for four sentences
Word cards: times, third, more
The book's sentence naming September and its answer naming November, written where both partners can read them

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

Reading and language lessons

5 lessons on the reading and language the book carries - what a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how a text is built. No mathematics: these are matched against the English language arts curricula, which are a different and smaller set than the mathematics ones.

6. A Graph Is a Drawing or Chart: Reading a Definition Before the Facts Arrive Language · How an Informational Text Defines Its Terms

This book opens by defining its central term in three moves: the broad category, the narrower kind, and then the method by which the thing is made. Students take the opening paragraph apart move by move, then read the paragraph that follows and say which sentence adds a purpose rather than a definition. They finish by writing a definition of their own in the same three moves. The skill is analysing how a definition is constructed; no data is read off a graph and nothing is compared numerically.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Break the definition into its moves (6 min)
Read the printed passage below twice. On your definition chart, write the three moves it makes in order: the broad category a graph belongs to, the narrower thing a line graph does, and the method by which a line graph is built. Use the writer's own words for each move.
Word preview: definition
What are line graphs? A graph is a drawing or chart that shows information. Line graphs show facts over a period of time. The facts are recorded on the graph by dots, then lines are drawn to connect the dots.
2. Separate a definition from a purpose (5 min)
Read the printed passage below. It follows straight after the definition you charted. Decide with a partner which of its sentences tells a reader what a line graph IS and which tells a reader what it is FOR. Underline the purpose sentence and read it aloud.
Word preview: purpose
Line graphs can be used to show and compare the distance that someone traveled over a period of weeks, months, or years. The simple line graph on page 5 shows the number of miles a person traveled during a four-month period. Look at the line graph to answer the following questions.
3. Ask why the definition comes first (5 min)
Both passages are printed below. Together they occupy the whole opening of the book, before a single fact about the journey appears. Tell a partner what a reader would be missing if the book had opened with the journey instead. Give one reason drawn from the printed sentences.
Word preview: order
What are line graphs? A graph is a drawing or chart that shows information. Line graphs show facts over a period of time. The facts are recorded on the graph by dots, then lines are drawn to connect the dots.
Line graphs can be used to show and compare the distance that someone traveled over a period of weeks, months, or years. The simple line graph on page 5 shows the number of miles a person traveled during a four-month period. Look at the line graph to answer the following questions.
4. Write a definition in the same three moves (4 min)
Here is the opening definition printed again as a model. Choose something you know well, a bicycle or a recipe or a map, and write a definition of it in the same three moves the passage uses: category, kind, method. Read it to a partner, who names the three moves back to you.
Word preview: model
What are line graphs? A graph is a drawing or chart that shows information. Line graphs show facts over a period of time. The facts are recorded on the graph by dots, then lines are drawn to connect the dots.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Break the definition into its moves (5 min)
Read the printed passage below twice and write its three moves in order on your chart: the broad category, the narrower kind, and the method, in the writer's own words.
Word preview: definition
What are line graphs? A graph is a drawing or chart that shows information. Line graphs show facts over a period of time. The facts are recorded on the graph by dots, then lines are drawn to connect the dots.
2. Separate a definition from a purpose (4 min)
Read the printed passage below and underline the sentence that tells a reader what a line graph is for rather than what it is. Read it aloud.
Word preview: purpose
Line graphs can be used to show and compare the distance that someone traveled over a period of weeks, months, or years. The simple line graph on page 5 shows the number of miles a person traveled during a four-month period. Look at the line graph to answer the following questions.

Three levels

Support: Read the printed passage in step 1 with a partner. Find and copy the one sentence that says what a graph is. Underline the two words that name what kind of thing a graph is. Say the sentence aloud.
At Grade: Chart the three moves of the printed definition, then read the second printed passage and separate its definition sentence from its purpose sentence.
Extension: The printed opening defines the broad term before the narrow one. Write a short paragraph arguing whether that order helps or slows a reader who already knows what a graph is, quoting from both printed passages.

English learners

The definition leans on the passive are recorded and are drawn, which hides the person doing the recording and can leave a learner unsure who acts. Rewrite one sentence aloud in the active voice and set the two side by side. Invite students to define a familiar object in their strongest language and notice whether their definition also starts with a broad category. Rehearsable frame: A ___ is a kind of ___. It is used to ___.

Materials

On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, the passage printed in this step
Definition chart (category, kind, method)
Word cards: definition, purpose, order, model

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

7. October Saka-Jawiya Joins: Reading a Line Where Two Things Got Joined Language · Finding the Seam Where a Text Runs Together

Two printed passages in this book have lost the break between one part and the next: in one, a one-word answer runs straight into a section heading; in the other, a statement and a fresh question are joined by a comma. Students read each passage whole, mark where the seam falls, and say what punctuation would have made the join clear. Nothing is repaired in the printed text and no student rewrites the source; the work is diagnosing an unclear join and saying what a reader can and cannot conclude from it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Read a line that will not sit still (6 min)
Read the printed passage below aloud once, exactly as it stands. The last part of it does not work as one sentence. With a partner, put a light pencil mark between the two things that got joined, and say aloud what each of the two parts is doing: one answers a question, the other starts something new.
Word preview: seam
The graph shows how many miles the explorers traveled each month from May through October of 1804. In which month did they travel the fewest amount of miles? October Saka-Jawiya joins Lewis and Clark.
2. Find a second seam of a different kind (5 min)
Read the printed passage below aloud exactly as it stands. This one joins a statement and a question with a comma. Mark the seam. Tell a partner which mark should have stood there instead of the comma, and what the writer would have had to change about the next word.
Word preview: comma
This graph shows that Lewis and Clark traveled the most miles in September 1805, 390 miles, in which month did they travel the fewest miles? November 130 miles.
3. Compare the seams to a clean passage (5 min)
The printed passage below asks and answers its questions with every break in place. Read it beside the two you marked. On your strips, note what this passage does at each boundary that the other two do not. Say aloud which single punctuation mark does most of that work.
Word preview: boundary
By June 1805, the group reached the great falls of the Missouri River. Look at the line graph on page 10. In which of these months in 1805 did Lewis and Clark travel the most miles? May, 380 miles. In which month did they travel the fewest miles? June, 40 miles.
4. Say what a reader may safely conclude (4 min)
Here is the first damaged passage printed again. Because the join is broken, a reader cannot be certain the one word after the question mark is the answer rather than the start of the heading. Write one sentence saying what you are confident of and one sentence saying what you are not. Do not change the printed words.
Word preview: conclude
The graph shows how many miles the explorers traveled each month from May through October of 1804. In which month did they travel the fewest amount of miles? October Saka-Jawiya joins Lewis and Clark.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Read a line that will not sit still (5 min)
Read the printed passage below aloud exactly as it stands. Mark where two things got joined, and say what each of the two parts is doing.
Word preview: seam
The graph shows how many miles the explorers traveled each month from May through October of 1804. In which month did they travel the fewest amount of miles? October Saka-Jawiya joins Lewis and Clark.
2. Say what a reader may safely conclude (4 min)
Read the printed passage below again. Write one sentence saying what you are confident of and one saying what you are not. Do not change the printed words.
Word preview: conclude
The graph shows how many miles the explorers traveled each month from May through October of 1804. In which month did they travel the fewest amount of miles? October Saka-Jawiya joins Lewis and Clark.

Three levels

Support: Read the printed passage in step 1 aloud with a partner. Find the question mark and put your finger on it. Say the one word that comes right after it. Then say aloud whether the words after that still belong to the same idea.
At Grade: Mark the seam in both printed damaged passages, name the punctuation each one needed, and say what the clean printed passage does differently.
Extension: Both printed damaged passages lose a boundary, but they lose different ones. Write a short paragraph explaining which of the two costs a reader more, quoting the printed lines without altering them.

English learners

English marks the end of a sentence only with a full stop and a capital, with no spoken particle to help, so a lost boundary leaves a learner with no other cue at all. Read the passage twice, once running the join together and once with a clear pause where the break belongs, so the difference is audible. Invite students to say how their strongest language shows where a sentence ends. Rehearsable frame: These two parts got joined. The break belongs after ___.

Materials

On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, the passage printed in this step
Seam marking strips
Word cards: seam, comma, boundary, conclude

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

8. A Trip Was Made By: Reading Sentences That Put the Doer Last Language · Who Acts and Who Is Acted Upon

The book's opening account of the expedition puts its actors at the ends of sentences or leaves them out, while a later passage puts the explorers in front doing things. Students convert three printed sentences into a doer-and-action chart, notice which sentences make them hunt for the doer, and say what the arrangement emphasises. They finish by rewriting one sentence with the doer in front and judging the trade. The skill is analysing sentence construction and emphasis; no distances are compared.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Chart the doer and the action (6 min)
Read the printed passage below. For each of its three sentences, write on your chart who did the action and what the action was. One sentence will make you hunt for the doer, and one will not name a doer at all. Mark those two.
Word preview: doer
In the early 1800s, a famous trip was made by two American explorers. Maryweather Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore a piece of land called the Louisiana Territory, which the United States bought from France in March 1803. Lewis and Clark were asked to find out more about the people, animals, and plants of this new land.
2. Read a passage that leads with its actors (5 min)
Read the printed passage below. Chart its sentences the same way. Tell a partner where the doer sits in these sentences compared with the ones you charted before, and how much hunting you had to do.
Word preview: subject
Lewis and Clark started their trip with the crew of men and William Clark's dog. They traveled many miles across unknown parts of the country, mostly by boat and on horseback.
3. Say what each arrangement emphasises (5 min)
Both passages are printed below. Read the first sentence of each aloud, one after the other. Tell a partner which word each sentence puts first and what that first word makes a reader think the sentence is about. Say which arrangement suits an opening and which suits an account of a journey.
Word preview: emphasis
In the early 1800s, a famous trip was made by two American explorers. Maryweather Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore a piece of land called the Louisiana Territory, which the United States bought from France in March 1803. Lewis and Clark were asked to find out more about the people, animals, and plants of this new land.
Lewis and Clark started their trip with the crew of men and William Clark's dog. They traveled many miles across unknown parts of the country, mostly by boat and on horseback.
4. Rewrite one and judge the trade (4 min)
Here is the opening passage printed again. Choose one of its sentences and rewrite it in your own notebook with the doer in front. Read both versions to a partner and say what your version gains and what it loses. The printed sentence stays as it is.
Word preview: rewrite
In the early 1800s, a famous trip was made by two American explorers. Maryweather Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore a piece of land called the Louisiana Territory, which the United States bought from France in March 1803. Lewis and Clark were asked to find out more about the people, animals, and plants of this new land.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Chart the doer and the action (5 min)
Read the printed passage below and chart, for each sentence, who did the action and what the action was. Mark the sentences that make you hunt for the doer.
Word preview: doer
In the early 1800s, a famous trip was made by two American explorers. Maryweather Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore a piece of land called the Louisiana Territory, which the United States bought from France in March 1803. Lewis and Clark were asked to find out more about the people, animals, and plants of this new land.
2. Read a passage that leads with its actors (4 min)
Read the printed passage below and chart it the same way. Say where the doer sits compared with the sentences you charted before.
Word preview: subject
Lewis and Clark started their trip with the crew of men and William Clark's dog. They traveled many miles across unknown parts of the country, mostly by boat and on horseback.

Three levels

Support: Read the first sentence of the printed passage in step 1 with a partner. Circle the words that name who made the trip. Say aloud whether those words come near the start of the sentence or near the end.
At Grade: Chart both printed passages for doer and action, and say which arrangement made you hunt for the doer and what each one puts first.
Extension: One printed passage opens with the trip and the other opens with the men. Write a short paragraph on what a writer signals by choosing each opening, quoting the first sentence of each printed passage.

English learners

English passives stack an auxiliary, a participle and an optional by-phrase, was made by, were sent by, were asked, and a learner may read the grammatical subject as the actor. Say the active version of each sentence first and then the printed one, so the swap of positions is heard. Invite students to say whether their strongest language has a way of leaving the actor out. Rehearsable frame: The sentence says ___ was ___ by ___. The doer is ___.

Materials

On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, the passage printed in this step
Doer and action chart
Word cards: doer, subject, emphasis, rewrite

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

9. What Is Now Known As: Naming a Place Twice at Once Language · How a Text Handles Names That Changed

This book repeatedly uses one phrase to bridge the name a place had at the time and the name a reader would recognise today, and elsewhere it names people whose spelling shifts inside the same text. Students find the bridging phrase, say what job it does, and then examine a passage where a person's name appears in a second spelling and decide what a careful reader should record. The skill is reading naming conventions and noting inconsistency; no dates or distances are computed.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Find the phrase that bridges two names (6 min)
Read the printed passage below. One five-word phrase appears twice, doing the same job both times. Underline both appearances. Tell a partner what the phrase lets the writer do that naming the place only one way would not.
Word preview: bridge
Lewis and Clark set out from Wood River, Illinois, and traveled down the Missouri River by boat. On August 3, the explorers met with Native Americans near what is now known as Council Bluffs, Iowa. Lewis and Clark spent the winter at Fort Mandin in what is now known as North Dakota.
2. Log the names of a person (5 min)
Read the printed passage below. It introduces the guide by name. Copy that name into your naming log exactly as it is printed, letter for letter. Then read the printed passage in step 3 and add the spelling you find there, again exactly. Do not correct either one.
Word preview: exact
Lewis and Clark met and hired a French fur trader and his wife to go on the rest of the trip with them. The woman was a young Shashon Indian called Saka-Jawiya. She knew the languages, the land, and the people.
3. Compare the two spellings (5 min)
Read the printed passage below. The guide's name appears here in a form that is not the one you logged first. Put the two spellings side by side in your log. Tell a partner what a careful reader should write down about this, and why choosing one of them silently would be the wrong move.
Word preview: spelling
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The Missouri River ended a short distance past the Great Falls. Sakajawiya's brother gave the explorer's horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the mountains, they were able to continue their journey on the Columbia River. The group reached the Pacific Ocean on November 16, 1805. They stayed at Fort Klatzop until the spring of 1806.
4. Say what the naming phrase cannot fix (4 min)
Here is the bridging passage printed again. The phrase you underlined works for a place whose name changed. Tell a partner whether the same phrase would solve the problem of a person's name being spelled two ways in one book, and say what a reader would need instead. Answer in two sentences.
Word preview: limit
Lewis and Clark set out from Wood River, Illinois, and traveled down the Missouri River by boat. On August 3, the explorers met with Native Americans near what is now known as Council Bluffs, Iowa. Lewis and Clark spent the winter at Fort Mandin in what is now known as North Dakota.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Find the phrase that bridges two names (5 min)
Read the printed passage below and underline both appearances of the five-word phrase that attaches a modern name to a place. Say what it lets the writer do.
Word preview: bridge
Lewis and Clark set out from Wood River, Illinois, and traveled down the Missouri River by boat. On August 3, the explorers met with Native Americans near what is now known as Council Bluffs, Iowa. Lewis and Clark spent the winter at Fort Mandin in what is now known as North Dakota.
2. Compare the two spellings (4 min)
Read the printed passage below and copy the guide's name from it exactly as printed. Say what a careful reader should write down when a book spells one name two ways.
Word preview: spelling
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The Missouri River ended a short distance past the Great Falls. Sakajawiya's brother gave the explorer's horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the mountains, they were able to continue their journey on the Columbia River. The group reached the Pacific Ocean on November 16, 1805. They stayed at Fort Klatzop until the spring of 1806.

Three levels

Support: Read the printed passage in step 1 with a partner. Find the words what is now known as and underline them both times. Say the modern place name that follows each one.
At Grade: Underline the bridging phrase in the first printed passage, then log the guide's name from both other printed passages exactly as each prints it, and say what the difference means for a reader.
Extension: One printed passage bridges a changed place name deliberately and another shifts a person's name without saying so. Write a short paragraph on the difference between a naming choice and a naming error, quoting both printed passages.

English learners

The phrase what is now known as is a fixed English frame carrying a relative clause and a passive at once, and it cannot be taken apart word by word. Teach it whole, then use it with a local place whose name has changed. Invite students to name a place from their own region that has been called more than one thing and to say both names. Rehearsable frame: They stopped at ___, in what is now known as ___.

Materials

On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, the passage printed in this step
Naming log
Word cards: bridge, exact, spelling, limit

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

10. Treated as Heroes: What the Last Paragraph Does That the Others Did Not Language · How a Closing Section Changes Its Job

For most of this book each section reports a leg of the route. The closing section reports the return and then does something new: it tells a reader how the men were received and what the journey left behind. Students separate the reporting sentences from the two closing ones, name the shift, and hold the closing beside a middle section to see the difference. The skill is recognising an author's closing move; the mileage and duration in the passage are not used as figures.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

1. Sort the closing paragraph into two jobs (6 min)
Read the printed passage below. Two of its sentences report what happened, and two say what the journey meant afterwards. Draw a line on your chart between them and copy the first few words of each sentence into the right column. Read the two meaning sentences aloud.
Word preview: closing
The Trip Home Lewis and Clark had traveled over 8,000 miles by the time they returned to St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1806. The trip took two years, four months, and nine days. Lewis and Clark were treated as heroes when they returned. They brought back several journals and maps that helped other explorers as they traveled west.
2. Hold it beside a middle section (5 min)
Read the printed passage below. It is a section from the middle of the journey. Sort its sentences with the same two columns. Tell a partner which column stayed empty and what that tells you about the job a middle section is doing.
Word preview: report
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The Missouri River ended a short distance past the Great Falls. Sakajawiya's brother gave the explorer's horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the mountains, they were able to continue their journey on the Columbia River. The group reached the Pacific Ocean on November 16, 1805. They stayed at Fort Klatzop until the spring of 1806.
3. Name the move the writer makes (5 min)
Both passages are printed below. Read the last sentence of each aloud, one after the other. Tell a partner what the closing sentence does that the middle one does not, and say which of the two you would quote to somebody asking why the journey mattered.
Word preview: shift
The Trip Home Lewis and Clark had traveled over 8,000 miles by the time they returned to St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1806. The trip took two years, four months, and nine days. Lewis and Clark were treated as heroes when they returned. They brought back several journals and maps that helped other explorers as they traveled west.
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The Missouri River ended a short distance past the Great Falls. Sakajawiya's brother gave the explorer's horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the mountains, they were able to continue their journey on the Columbia River. The group reached the Pacific Ocean on November 16, 1805. They stayed at Fort Klatzop until the spring of 1806.
4. Write a closing sentence of your own (4 min)
Here is the closing passage printed again as a model. Write one more sentence that could follow it, saying something about what the journey left behind. Match the printed passage's voice: no I, no you, past tense. Read it to a partner, who says whether it reports or means.
Word preview: voice
The Trip Home Lewis and Clark had traveled over 8,000 miles by the time they returned to St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1806. The trip took two years, four months, and nine days. Lewis and Clark were treated as heroes when they returned. They brought back several journals and maps that helped other explorers as they traveled west.

Short version — 9 minutes

1. Sort the closing paragraph into two jobs (5 min)
Read the printed passage below and separate the sentences that report what happened from the two that say what the journey meant. Read the meaning sentences aloud.
Word preview: closing
The Trip Home Lewis and Clark had traveled over 8,000 miles by the time they returned to St. Louis, Missouri in September, 1806. The trip took two years, four months, and nine days. Lewis and Clark were treated as heroes when they returned. They brought back several journals and maps that helped other explorers as they traveled west.
2. Hold it beside a middle section (4 min)
Read the printed passage below and sort its sentences with the same two columns. Say which column stayed empty and what that tells you.
Word preview: report
Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. The Missouri River ended a short distance past the Great Falls. Sakajawiya's brother gave the explorer's horses to cross the Rocky Mountains. After crossing the mountains, they were able to continue their journey on the Columbia River. The group reached the Pacific Ocean on November 16, 1805. They stayed at Fort Klatzop until the spring of 1806.

Three levels

Support: Read the printed passage in step 1 with a partner. Find the sentence that says how the men were treated when they came back. Copy it out. Say aloud whether it tells you where they went or how people felt about them.
At Grade: Sort both printed passages into reporting sentences and meaning sentences, and say which column the middle section leaves empty.
Extension: The printed closing ends on the journals and maps rather than on the men. Write a short paragraph on why a writer might close an account on what a journey left behind, quoting the printed closing sentence.

English learners

The closing leans on were treated as heroes, an English passive with an as-phrase that a learner may read as the men behaving heroically rather than being received that way. Say the active version, people treated them as heroes, and then the printed one. Invite students to say how a returning traveller is welcomed where their family is from, in their strongest language first. Rehearsable frame: They were treated as ___. That means people ___.

Materials

On the Trail with Lewis and Clark, the passage printed in this step
Two-column chart (reports / means)
Word cards: closing, report, shift, voice

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.