SUCCESS ACADEMY
Language Arts/Reading
9th GRADE
Student Packet
TUTORING SESSION 1
Focus Lesson: Word Meanings and
Main Idea
Mini-Lesson passage: “Kofi
Annan Wins Nobel Peace Prize”
Instructional Passage: The Story of My
Life By Helen Keller
Name: ____________________________
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
Perla Tabares Hantman, Chair
Dr. Lawrence S. Feldman, Vice Chair
Dr. Dorothy Bendross-Mindigall
Carlos L. Curbelo
Renier Diaz de la Portilla
Dr. Wilbert “Tee” Holloway
Dr. Martin Karp
Dr. Marta Pérez
Raquel A. Regalado
Alexandra Garfinkle
Student Advisor
Alberto M. Carvalho
Superintendent of Schools
Milagros R. Fornell
Associate Superintendent
Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Maria P. de Armas
Assistant Superintendent
Curriculum and Instruction, K-12 Core
Karen Spigler
Administrative Director
Division of Language Arts/Reading
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
Session 1
Review the following definition and examples with your teacher:
Context clues - words, phrases or sentences around an unfamiliar word that
provide clues to the word’s meaning.
Restatement Signal Words – words or phrases such as in other words and that is can
signal the meaning.
EXAMPLE: The umpire treated every player in an exacting manner; that is, he was stern
and uncompromising with them.
EXPLANATION: From the context, readers can tell that exacting means “stern and
uncompromising.” The phrase that is signals that the words stern and uncompromising
restate the meaning of the word.
Contrast Signal Words – words or phrases such as but, by contrast, or although indicate
that an unfamiliar word contrasts with another word in the passage.
EXAMPLE: Jose was disdainful of the new homework policy, but his friend found it
invigorating and inspiring.
EXPLANATION: From the context, readers can tell that disdainful means “scornful”,
“tedious” or “contemptuous.” The word but signals that disdainful contrasts with the
words invigorating and inspiring.
Definition/Explanation Clues – a sentence may actually define or explain an unfamiliar
word by using commas, hyphens, or parenthesis to signal the meaning of the word.
EXAMPLE: The ancient Egyptians used natron, a hydrated mineral, to dry the corpse
during the mummification process.
EXPLANATION: From the context, readers can tell that natron means “a hydrated
mineral” or salt. The commas signal the meaning of the word.
Student Practice
Work in pairs to determine word meaning and signal words.
1. Many types of fauna, for example the Burmese python, the Yellow anaconda,
and the boa constrictor have invaded Everglades National Park.
2. The police officer was judiciously protected by two fellow officers, but the suspect
was imprudently and unwisely alone.
3.
The king and his old guard were accused of rampant corruption and nepotism
(favoritism), when he appointed his nephew ambassador.
4. The newspaper’s incredulous advertisement stated that the new eco-friendly air
cooler would reduce electric bills by 96% and reduce carbon emissions by 78%.
5.
Bella is a typical belligerent character, that is, she is strong and quarrelsome.
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
A main idea is a statement that expresses concisely, but completely, what the
passage is about. Supporting information includes details, examples and reasons.
Each piece of information is, by itself, not as important as the whole idea, or essential
message of the passage.
While reading ask yourself the question, “What is the author saying about these
ideas or details?”
Remember that sometimes the main idea is implied rather than stated directly; you may
have to infer what the main idea is.
Read the following sample passages with your teacher. Notice the position of the
sentence stating the main idea.
The main idea is in the first sentence followed by details:
Clara Barton, known as America’s first nurse, was a brave and devoted humanitarian.
While caring for others, she was shot at, got frost bitten fingers, had severe laryngitis
twice burned her hands, and almost lost her eyesight. Yet she continued to care for the
sick and injured until she died at the age of 91.
The main idea is in the middle of the paragraph with details on both sides:
The coral have created a reef where more than 200 kinds of birds and about 1,500 types
of fish live. In fact, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef provides a home for many interesting
animals. These include sea turtles, giant clams, crags, and crown-of-thorn fish.
The main idea is the last sentence summarizing the details that came before:
Each year Antarctica spends six months in darkness from mid-march to mid-September.
The continent is covered year-round by ice that causes sunlight to reflect off its surface. It
never really warms up. In fact, the coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica.
Antarctica has one of the harshest environments in the world.
The main idea is not stated in the paragraph and must be inferred from the supporting
details (implicit):
The biggest sea horse ever found was over a foot (45 cm) long. Large sea horses live
along the coasts of New Zealand, Australia, and California. Smaller sea horses live off
the coast of Florida, in the Caribbean Sea, and in the Gulf of Mexico. The smallest adult
sea horse ever found was only one-half inch (1.3 cm) long.
In this example the implied main idea is that sea horses’ sizes vary based on where they
live.
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
Student Practice
Read the following passage: “Kofi Annan Wins Nobel Peace Prize”, with
your teacher. After reading, reread and use the graphic to take notes on the
key points and supporting details you believe to be important in the
passage.
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Main Idea
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Source: Exploring Nonfiction-Social Studies- Secondary. (2003). Teacher Created materials & TIME
Learning Ventures.
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
DIRECTIONS:
Read the following excerpt from the book The Story of My Life and
answer the questions which follow.
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher,
Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the
immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of
March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I
guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house
that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the
steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch,
and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar
leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I
did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had
preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this
passionate struggle.
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white
darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the
shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something
to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass
or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. “Light!” was the
wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my
mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who
had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.
The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a
doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman
had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. When I had played with it a little,
Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word “d-o-l-l.” I was at once interested in
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters
correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my
mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was
spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in
monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this
uncomprehending way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs
like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I
understood that everything has a name.
One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll
into my lap also, spelled “d-o-l-l” and tried to make me understand that “d-o-l-l” applied
to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle over the words “m-u-g” and “w-a-t-e-r.”
Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that “m-u-g” is mug and that “w-a-t-e-r” is
water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In despair she had dropped the subject
for the time, only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient at her repeated
attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted
when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret
followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in
which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the
fragments to one side of the hearth, and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of
my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into
the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought,
made me hop and skip with pleasure.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the
honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher
placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled
into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention
fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of
something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of
language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-at-e-r” meant the wonderful cool
something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it
light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in
time be swept away.
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name
gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched
seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new
sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I
felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together.
Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt
repentance and sorrow.
I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they all
were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them—words that
were to make the world blossom for me. It would have been difficult to find a happier
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the
joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come.
DIRECTIONS: Read the excerpt from the book The Story of My Life and answer
questions 1 – 7.
1. Read the sentence below.
Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that “m-u-g” is mug and that “w-a-te-r” is water, but I persisted in confounding the two.
What does the word confounding mean?
A. confusing
B. considering
C. contrasting
D. consolidating
2. In this excerpt, the author discusses the two lives that Helen Keller led. What
caused her life to change from one to the other?
F. She learned a way to communicate.
G. She gained a new friend and teacher.
H. She received a gift from other blind children.
J. She learned to appreciate simple pleasures like water.
3. How does Helen Keller’s character change from the beginning of the excerpt to the
end? Use details from the excerpt to support your answer.
_____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
4. What was the author’s purpose for writing this excerpt?
A. to describe a new teaching method
B. to explain how isolated she once felt
C. to share a major turning point in her life
D. to emphasize the importance of language
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
5. What probably caused Helen to feel attracted to the well-house?
F. the feel of the soft honeysuckle vines
G. the sight of the honeysuckle blossoms
H. the smell of the honeysuckle blossoms
J. the sounds of the bees around the honeysuckle
6. What method has the author used to arrange the excerpt from The Story of My Life?
A. She lists reasons why Anne Sullivan became her teacher.
B. She relates her personal experiences about learning the meaning of
words.
C. She poses questions about the process of learning a new language.
D. She describes the similarities and differences between Anne Sullivan
and her mother.
7. Helen Keller remembers the moment she realized what “w-a-t-e-r” meant as a
turning point in her life. What evidence does she offer to suggest her life changed after
this event occurred? Use details and information from the excerpt to support your
answer.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011
ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICY
Federal and State Laws
The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida adheres to a policy of
nondiscrimination in employment and educational programs/activities and strives
affirmatively to provide equal opportunity for all as required by law:
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of
race, color, religion, or national origin.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended - prohibits discrimination in
employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 - prohibits discrimination on the
basis of gender.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), as amended - prohibits
discrimination on the basis of age with respect to individuals who are at least 40.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963, as amended - prohibits gender discrimination in
payment of wages to women and men performing substantially equal work in the
same establishment.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - prohibits discrimination against
the disabled.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) - prohibits discrimination against
individuals with disabilities in employment, public service, public accommodations
and telecommunications.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) - requires covered employers
to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to “eligible” employees for
certain family and medical reasons.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 - prohibits discrimination in
employment on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Florida Educational Equity Act (FEEA) - prohibits discrimination on the basis of
race, gender, national origin, marital status, or handicap against a student or
employee.
Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 - secures for all individuals within the state
freedom from discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin,
age, handicap, or marital status.
Veterans are provided re-employment rights in accordance with P.L. 93-508
(Federal Law) and Section295.07 (Florida Statutes), which stipulates categorical
preferences for employment.
Revised 9/2008
Curriculum and Instruction
2010-2011