A sports biography provides an engaging context for developing basic comprehension skills: using the 5Ws to summarize and clarifying as a Reciprocal Teaching strategy. Students analyze whether the protagonist of Game is out for himself or playing for his team, developing skills at looking for evidence within the text. Students discuss dreams and what it takes to be successful, both in sports and in life. 

LITERATURE

Game (Myers) – Fictional chronicle of a New York City high school basketball team and the struggles of its star player by a young adult writer with a rare understanding of the game

Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates (Winter) – Beautifully illustrated, poetic portrait of the gi"ed Puerto Rican baseball player

Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Change: Courageous Actions Around the World

(Sundem) – A collection of true stories about kids changing their communities and making a positive impact 

FLUENCY TOPICS

gambling on sports, pressures of early sports specialization, recruiting of high school athletes, mixed martial arts and other controversial sports 

FOCUS

Literary analysis

• Elements of fiction: character, setting, plot
• Tracing a theme in fiction

Reading comprehension

• Summarizing and clarifying as components of Reciprocal Teaching
• Using 5Ws (who, did what, when, etc.) as a scaffold for summarizing
• Using and citing evidence from a text

Decoding

• Identifying base words and chunking compound words
• Identifying noun and adjective suffixes

Debate

• Should Drew follow Coach House’s plan?