April Key Learning Guide

Learning Guide will be check off Friday November 20th.  

Context clues RI 8.6 the summation will be Friday as well.  

KEY – Wednesday Wars April Learning Guide

Learning Objective:  Students will demonstrate chapter comprehension of the novel Wednesday Wars.  Included are introductions and reviews on figurative language and literary elements (RL 8.1-4), grammar and punctuation,

(L 8.1-6).

Teaching Objective:  Students will listen to the audio of Wednesday Wars and complete the written learning guide in a variety of ways (individually, as a class, in small groups).  Students will learn the importance of completing the work - to be used on the summative test.

A.  Vocabulary

*allusion / indirectly call something to mind                                                *levitate / rise, hover in air

*humane / show compassion                                                                           *berserk / wild, frenzied

*scaffolding / temporary structure used when building or cleaning       *skittered / move lightly and quickly

B.  Grammar – Write two novel content based sentences that are examples of each tense.  Answers will vary.

Present:  _____________________________________________________________________________________.

               _____________________________________________________________________________________.

Past:       _____________________________________________________________________________________.

               _____________________________________________________________________________________.

Future:   _____________________________________________________________________________________.

               _____________________________________________________________________________________.

C.  Punctuate and capitalize the following sentences correctly.

1.  “You will be nice to Mrs. Baker,” ordered Mr. Hoodhood.

2.  “Take the erasers outside,” said Mrs. Baker, “and clean them thoroughly.”

3.  “Where did I put those books, Heather?” asked Holling.

4.  “I think,” said Danny, “that you should buy cream puffs for everyone.”

5.  “You are wrong,” replied Holling. “I have read some of Shakespeare’s plays.”

6.  “Oh no!” yelled Holling. “I can’t wear those tights!”

7.  “Have they found him?” asked Mrs. Baker as Mrs. Bigio sobbed.

8.  Heather responded angrily, “I will go to college! You won’t stop me.”

9.  “Holling,” smiled Heather, “I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

     OR - Holling smiled, “Heather, I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

10. “Did you find yourself?” Mr. Hoodhood asked Heather.  Heather replied, “I am still looking, but I will,” as she smiled at her father.

D.  Conversation / Dialogue Writing – Write a conversation that might take place between two or three characters as they discuss an event from the novel.  Remember – for each change in dialogue (each time a new character speaks), you begin a new paragraph.  Answers will vary.

E.  Figurative Language – answer the questions

1. In what way is “Operation Pegasus” a classical allusion (p. 185, fifth paragraph)?  Refers to Pegasus (the winged horse) from Greek Mythology

2.  What is the analogy between Mrs. Sidman and Presidents Johnson’s jobs (p. 186, paragraph 4)?  Opposites - Mrs. Sidman is starting a new job; President Johnson is leaving the Presidency.

3.  In what way are the cream puffs being personified on page 188 bottom of third paragraph?  Cream puffs are sending their scent

4. What analogy does Holling make to how many miles a day the cross country team runs (p. 188)?  More miles than most commuters drive

5.  Whose face is being compared in a simile to that of President Johnson (p. 190, middle of page)?  Mr. Hoodhood’s

6.  Which two type of figurative language are being used in the line “…you figure you can’t hang on until the end of June, because the warm breezes are coming in the window like quiet happiness.”?  Simile – breezes are like happiness, personification – breezes are happiness

F.  Literary Elements – answer the questions

1.  What new location setting does this chapter take us to?  Yankee Stadium for the Yankee game and Salisbury Park for the track meet

2.  Explain the exposition (back ground information) regarding Mrs. Baker in this chapter.  Mrs. Baker almost made up five places in the Melbourne Olympic Games in just one hundred meters

3.  What might be a climax of this chapter?  Explain your answer.  ANSWERS WILL VARY – When Holling passes the eighth grade boys in the race because it built up to everybody wondering why he was holding back.

G.  Remembering What You Have Read

 1.  What might a reader infer is the reason Mrs. Sidman has replaced Mr. Guareschi as the Camillo Jr. High principal (Ideas vary throughout the chapters)?  Mrs. Sidman has gone from meek to strong – example, the way she handled the rats.  The school board may have felt Mr. Guareschi was not handling issues well – rats living in the walls, keeping kids in school with no electricity, bus accident etc…

2.   Cite evidence to show Mr. Hoodhood and his daughter’s conflicting views on why President Johnson is not going to run for re-election (p. 186).    Daughter – can’t win against Bobby Kennedy, doesn’t want to lose and be humiliated, Mr. Hoodhood – can’t win against Richard Nixon, has the whole war on his back.

3.  What evidence does Mr. Hoodhood provide that could explain why might Meryl Lee might be moving to Kingston (p. 187)?  Kowalski and Associates is finished/washed up/kaput.  “We’ll (Hoodhood and Associates) will be the only architectural firm in town that matters.”

4.  Initially (at first), Holling is careful not to run faster and overtake any of the eighth grade students on the cross- country team.  Cite evidence to show why (p. 188).  They pull your shorts down to your ankles midstream

5.  Holling’s father says, “We are coming apart?  What has happened and to whom is he referring to as “coming apart (p. 190)?”   Martin Luther King Jr. is shot and killed - rioting everywhere – the country (USA) is coming apart 

6.  Cite evidence foreshadowing (providing hints) that Holling’s father is not going to show up to take him to the Yankee Stadium (p. 191).  Holling’s father isn’t genuinely invested/interested.  He says, “Isn’t there enough happening in the world that you shouldn’t have to go into the city for a baseball game?”  When Holling says that it is opening day his father shakes his head and never writes the note.  Holling writes it and then gets his dad to sign it in the morning.  When Holling reminds him to be there at 2:00 his dad just says, “Sure, sure.”    When Holling calls his dad’s office the secretary tells him Mr. Hoodhood has a meeting at 4:30.  He wouldn’t miss the meeting to go to a baseball game.  Holling knows that she is right.

7.  Cite one line of evidence showing how devastated Holling is that his father isn’t there to take him to the Yankee game (p. 193).  ANSWERS VARY – “I suppose there must have been a more miserable hour sometime in my life, but I couldn’t think of what it might have been.” / “I sat down at my desk, humiliated as President Johnson would have been if he had lost to Bobby Kennedy.” / “My heart beat against my chest.  I was surprised that no one else could hear it.” / “Mrs. Baker said, “Mr. Hoodhood I think I could get you there for some of the game – The sweetest words e’er spoken.   I almost cried.” 

8.  Summarize what you infer Mrs. Baker is trying to teach Holling when she says, “I tend not to want to see how far I can break the law before I’m caught (p. 194).  Breaking the law shouldn’t be about not getting caught – it should be about not breaking the law.

9.  Summarize the Yankee game experience (pgs. 195-198).  Answers Vary – Game was everything it was supposed to be…Horace Clarke and Joe Pepitone call boys down to field…they get three balls during game…Mrs. Baker is recognized from Olympic Games…the players take them on ballpark tour…they get to run the bases…

10.  What kind of coach do you think Mr. Quatrini is?  Cite evidence that supports your answer (Information found throughout chapters – some on pgs. 191, 198, 200).    Answers Vary – most will agree he is very hard on kids, unreasonable expectations, grumpy, sarcastic…Coach Quatrini scrunched the paper in a ball and threw it at me.  “I won’t go easy on you at the next practice,” he said. / “Coach didn’t ask for an autograph.  He kept his promise, and the next cross-country practice was about as hard as two practices put together.”  / “It’s this Saturday, so you’re all going to have to get up early and miss your cartoon,” he said.  “I feel really badly about that.  So badly, I could cry.  Boo-hoo.”  / “Winner gets a hundred-dollar savings bond.  Not that I expect any of you ladies to win.”    

11.  Re-read the dialogue between Mr. Hoodhood and his daughter regarding work and her continued education (p. 201).     Re-write the dialogue how the same conversation would more than likely sound between parents and kids today.   Be sure to use appropriate punctuation and paragraphing.  Answers vary – Mr. Hoodhood wants his daughter to stay working.  He says she has a good job and she’s not going anywhere, and “no place is crazier than college.  You’ll stay at your job and be safe.”  His daughter says she is going to Columbia University – stay “safe from what?  Thinking?”  Today’s conversation would, in most cases, be parents telling kids they need to go to college / will go to college. 

12.  Describe the setting for the Saturday morning Cross-country meet (p. 202).  Salisbury Park - cold, foggy, wet,

13.  Danny has the lead for much of the race.  What can we infer happened in the woods, causing him to finish close to last?  Provide evidence to support your answer (pgs. 203-205).  We can infer from his bloody knees, and that he is about to cry, and the message to Holling to “beat the pied ninnies” that some eighth grade boys beat him up because he was winning.  

14.  What is the key moment when Holling decides to outrun the eighth graders?   Cite evidence to support your answer (p. 207).    Mrs. Baker says, “Pass those boys.”  “And that was all it took.”

15.  While everyone is sprinting on a cross-country trail in Salisbury Park, what does Holling allude to (p. 207)?  Playing ball at Yankee Stadium

 16.  Which characters are not mentioned as being at Holling’s race?  Cite evidence that states where they were (p. 202)  his family – “They were all asleep when I left for the cross-country meet on Saturday morning.” 

Chart S will need to get from me but should be finished by Friday.