LESSON 8 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Gramps’ Favorite Gift
by Tanisha Carr
Fountas-Pinnell Level S
Realistic Fiction
Selection Summary
Quentin dreads the idea of playing jazz songs at his grandfather’s
birthday party. Although his brother Marcus is also reluctant,
he comes up with a plan to learn how to play the music. After a
frustrating start, Quentin practices and finally understands how to play
jazz. The brothers’ performance gets rave reviews at the party.
Number of Words: 1,481
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Realistic fiction
• Third-person continous narrative
• Single plot with detailed episodes
• Jazz
• Music practice and performance
• Celebrating a birthday
• Once you understand how to do something, it can become enjoyable.
• Coming up with a realistic plan can help you achieve a goal.
• Conversational language
• Descriptive language important to understanding characters
• Figurative language: room erupted; fingers fly over the piano keys; eyes welled up
• Complex sentences including dialogue and embedded clauses and phrases
• Sentences with parenthetical material
• Questions in dialogue
• Many music terms, some of which might not be familiar, such as lyrics, solo
• Many compound words, such as keyboard, background, download
• Words with affixes
• Realistic drawings add interest.
• Thirteen pages of text, most with illustrations
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Gramps’ Favorite Gift
by Tanisha Carr
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of music to visualize the story. Build interest by asking
a question such as the following: What kind of music do you like to play or listen to? Read
the title and author and talk about the cover illustration. Tell students that this story is
realistic fiction, so the characters will likely act like real people and the events could take
place in real life.
Introduce the Text
Guide students through the text, noting important ideas, and helping with unfamiliar
language and vocabulary so they can read the text successfully. Here are some
suggestions:
Page 2: Have students look at the illustration. Explain that according to the text,
it shows two boys who are brothers and musicians, Quentin and Marcus. The
text says that Quentin, who carries the saxophone, is dreading his mother’s
assignment. Ask: What does it mean to dread something?
Page 3: Read the second sentence on page 3. He was Quentin’s brother and a
model student. Ask: What makes a model student?
Page 5: Explain that the boys’ mother said that their grandfather’s favorite
music when he was young was jazz. Then have students read the third sentence
on page 5: Marcus understood the music a little better, but it wasn’t his style.
Ask: What does it mean for a type of music not to be your style? What do you
think the problem of this story might be?
Now go back to the beginning of the story to find out what Quentin and Marcus do
to make Gramps’ favorite gift.
Target Vocabulary
concerned – worried, p. 6
ruined – destroyed, p. 9
streak – move quickly, p. 7
feast – a very large meal, p. 10
schedule – a planned program of
events, p. 6
studio – a workshop for an artist,
p. 2
smeared – blurred or spread
around, p. 11
yanked – pulled hard or jerked,
p. 9
glorious – wonderful, p. 11
model – worthy of imitation, p. 3
Grade 4
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Read
Have students read silently while you listen to individual students read aloud. Support their
understanding of the text as needed.
Remind students to use the Visualize Strategy
the text to form pictures in their mind of what they read.
and to use details from
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the story.
Suggested language: Have you ever had to tackle a really tough assignment? What makes
their mother’s assignment such a challenge for Quentin and Marcus?
Ways of Thinking
As you discuss the text, help students understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text
Thinking Beyond the Text
Thinking About the Text
• Quentin dreads learning to play
jazz songs for his grandfather’s
birthday celebration.
• Learning about something can
help you learn how to do it.
• The illustrations make the
characters and events more real.
• Working as a team can make
achieving a goal more fun and
successful.
• The language sounds very
realistic, the way family
members really talk.
• Quentin learns about jazz, and
how to play it, by practicing with
Marcus.
• The author includes several
details about jazz music to make
the story more interesting.
• Quentin and Marcus give an
outstanding jazz performance at
the party.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite students to choose a passage from the text to act out. Remind them to
pay attention to punctuation, and to use appropriate tone, pitch, and volume as they
read the thoughts or words of different characters.
• Comprehension Based on your observations of the students’ reading and discussion,
revisit parts of the text to clarify or extend comprehension. Remind students to go
back to the text to support their ideas.
• Phonics/Word Work Provide practice as needed with words and word parts, using
examples from the text. Have students define the word conversation based on its
use on page 4. Ask students if they can name some words that share a root with
conversation (e.g., convert, conversion).
Grade 4
3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 8.8.
Responding
Have students complete the activities at the back of the book, using their Reader’s
Notebook. Use the instruction below as needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the
comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Understanding Characters
Remind students that they can learn more
about a character from his thoughts, words, and actions. Model how to add details to the
Graphic Organizer, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
When first trying to learn jazz, Quentin hears his mistakes and gets
frustrated. That is an action that shows his character. After the brothers
decide to listen to the jazz song on the laptop, Quentin says he’s starting
to really appreciate the song. Those are words that help you understand
his character.
Practice the Skill
Encourage students to share their examples of another story in which a character’s
thoughts, words, and actions help explain his or her attitudes or beliefs.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the Text
Have students write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they
think beyond the text, they use their personal knowledge to reach new understandings.
Assessment Prompts
• One idea present in this story is that
________________________________________________________________.
• The first paragraph on page 7 is mostly about
________________________________________________________________.
• What does Quentin mean when he says “This music streaks by so quickly,” on
page 7?
Grade 4
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Pair advanced and intermediate readers to read the story softly, or
have students listen to the audio or online recordings. Remind students that this story is
about two brothers learning to work together to give their grandfather a special gift.
Idioms The story includes idioms that might be unfamiliar. Explain the meaning of
expressions such as yanked…back on its heels and fell right back into the original beat on
page 9.
Oral Language Development
Check student comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches your students’
English proficiency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the student.
Beginning/Early Intermediate
Intermediate
Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: What do Quentin and
Marcus both like?
Speaker 1: Why does Quentin dread
playing jazz songs?
Speaker 1: Why does Mom want
the boys to learn to play jazz?
Speaker 2: music
Speaker 2: He doesn’t know anything
about jazz or how to play it.
Speaker 2: She wants them to
play Gramps’ favorite songs
at his birthday party. She also
wants them to learn about, and
enjoy, jazz music.
Speaker 1: What kind of music do they
learn to play?
Speaker 2: jazz
Speaker 1: What was Gramps’ favorite
gift?
Speaker 1: Why does Marcus download
jazz music onto his computer?
Speaker 2: He wants to listen to it to
help him learn how to play it.
Speaker 2: jazz songs
Lesson 8
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.8
Date
Critical Thinking
Gramp’s Favorite Gift
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions. Possible responses shown.
1. Think within the text Why are Quentin and Marcus not
happy to hear their mother’s idea for Gramp’s gift?
The songs sound old-fashioned and odd to the boys. Jazz is not Marcus’s style.
He is shy about performing in public. The time schedule is also pretty tough.
2. Think within the text What are the parts of jazz music
Marcus learns about?
Parts of jazz are written down and parts are made up as the music goes along.
3. Think beyond the text Do you think the boys’ mother’s idea
for a birthday gift to Gramps was a good one? Explain your
answer.
Yes, because the songs were what Gramps liked when he was young. The effort to
learn and play the songs would be a special gift.
4. Think about the text How does the author show that Marcus
and Quentin’s attitudes about jazz music change?
Marcus and Quentin both come to appreciate and respect jazz as an art form. They
are able to combine the music of the past with the music that they are already
familiar with.
Making Connections Describe a special gift you’ve given or received.
Explain why it was so special.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Critical Thinking
10
Grade 4, Unit 2: Do You Know What I Mean?
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Grade 4
5
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Lesson 8: Gramps’ Favorite Gift
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Name
Date
Gramps’ Favorite Gift
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in two paragraphs.
Remember that when you think beyond the text, you use your personal
knowledge to reach new understandings.
On page 8, when Quentin was tired and frustrated, he suggests: “Let’s listen
to the record again.” Why do you think he suggests they listen to the record
again? How does it help them to play the music? How do you think listening
to music can help someone learn to play music better? Support your
answers with examples from the text.
Grade 4
6
Lesson 8: Gramps’ Favorite Gift
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Lesson 8
Name
Date
Critical Thinking
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.8
Gramps’ Favorite Gift
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions.
1. Think within the text Why are Quentin and Marcus not
happy to hear their mother’s idea for Gramps’ gift?
2. Think within the text What are the parts of jazz music
Marcus learns about?
3. Think beyond the text Do you think the boys’ mother’s idea
for a birthday gift to Gramps was a good one? Explain your
answer.
4. Think about the text How does the author show that Marcus
and Quentin’s attitudes about jazz music change?
Making Connections Describe a special gift you’ve given or received.
Explain why it was so special.
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 4
7
Lesson 8: Gramps’ Favorite Gift
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Student
Lesson 8
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.12
Gramps’ Favorite Gift • LEVEL S
page
10
Gramps’ Favorite Gift
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
The days passed quickly. As the songs came together, the boys
found that they looked forward to playing them. Before long,
it was time for their grandfather’s birthday party. The house
was packed with friends and family. Everyone brought
presents and food. This party was a feast, packed with tables
of tasty treats.
In the center of the room, Gramps sat in a big lounge chair.
He reached up to hug each of his children and grandchildren
as they arrived. Though he couldn’t walk very well, he seemed
full of energy, clearly touched by all of the people who had
come.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/101 ×
100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 4
Behavior
Error
0
0
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
cat
Error
1413964
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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