LESSON 8 TEACHER’S GUIDE
The Hidden World of Mold
by Nicholas Wetherbee
Fountas-Pinnell Level U
Nonfiction
Selection Summary
Mold is probably misunderstood by most people—it may mean that
food has gone bad, but it is also used to save lives. This text explains
how mold develops, and how it was accidentally discovered as the
base for penicillin.
Number of Words: 1,542
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Nonfiction
• Second-person narrative
• Underlying structures include description, sequence, and cause/effect
• Background information provided for scientific explanation of how mold forms
• Medical uses for molds
• Scientific innovation
• Pros and cons of mold
• Mold is used every day to save people’s lives.
• Figurative language compares mold with flowers
• Complex sentences, with embedded clauses
• Em dashes denote parenthetical information
• Some technical vocabulary: spores, decomposition, penicillin, specimen
• Some figurative language used to describe processes
• Some multisyllable words: compromise, decomposition, equations
• Photographs with captions and labels extend the text
• Sidebar warns readers how to avoid mold developing on food
• Twelve pages of text, with photographs on most pages
• Table of contents, headings, sidebar
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
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The Hidden World of Mold
by Nicholas Wetherbee
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of mold and how medicine is made to visualize the
selection. Build interest by asking questions such as the following: Have you ever seen
mold on food? What do you know about using mold to create medicine? Read the title
and author and talk about the cover photograph. Explain that mold is both helpful and
harmful to people.
Introduce the Text
Guide students through the text, noting important ideas and nonfiction features. Help with
unfamiliar language so they can read the text successfully. Give special treatment to target
vocabulary. Here are some suggestions:
Page 3: Explain that this text will focus on good mold, but that some mold can be
harmful. Suggested language: Look at the photograph and the caption. What do
you notice about this bread? Do you think this is an example of “good” mold?
Pages 4–5: Point out that captions can give clues about information in the text.
This text compares mold with flowers. Ask: What does the photo on page 4 show?
How does this mold appear like elegant flowers? The apples on page 5 are rotting.
What might this process, called decomposition have to do with mold?
Page 9: Read the caption. Explain that molds can be useful, such as in medicine.
Page 9 provides many examples of people trying to find the benefits of mold.
People know mold on food can make them sick. Ask: Why would this make them
reluctant to accept mold as a way to heal?
Page 11: Scientists finally realized that mold killed germs. They named this mold
penicillin. During World War II, a lot of penicillin was needed to treat injured
people. But there wasn’t an easy way to make penicillin. Ask: How do you think this
created a complex, or difficult, problem?
Now turn back to the beginning of the text and read to learn more about how using
mold to make penicillin transformed medicine.
Target Vocabulary
complex – complicated and not
simple to understand, p. 11
elegant – simple and refined or
tasteful, p. 4
compromise – settle a
disagreement by each giving
up something, p. 13
equations – statements that
show that two quantities or
ideas are equal, p. 11
decomposition – breakdown or
decay of something, p. 5
principle – a statement
describing natural processes
or an important, guiding rule,
p. 8
detached – broken off from; to
have no strong opinion or
feeling, p. 4
Grade 6
2
reluctant – to be unsure about
doing something or unwilling
to try it, p. 9
shriveled – dried out and
withered, p. 5
specimens – samples gathered
for the purpose of scientific
study and analysis, p. 13
Lesson 8: The Hidden World of Mold
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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 Infer/Predict Strategy
and to use text clues
to figure out what the author means or what might happen in the future as they read.
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the selection.
Suggested language: What did you find unusual or surprising about the discovery of
mold as a medicine?
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
• There are many kinds of mold,
and some can be used to make
medicine.
• Something as simple as mold
can be used to create something
as complex as medicine.
• Captions and labels help to
explain the photographs.
• Mold grows in damp, dark
places.
• A substance can be both harmful
and helpful.
• Mold is an important life-saving
ingredient used in penicillin. It
helped to save many lives during
World War II.
• A sidebar provides additional
information about what to watch
for when preventing the growth
of mold on foods.
© 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 use for a readers’
theater. Remind them to adjust their reading rate as necessary. For example, they
should remember to pause between paragraphs on dense pages of text, like page 11.
• 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. Explain that some words derive from Greek or Latin. For
example, medicine is derived from the Latin word medicina, meaning “of a physician.”
Related words include medic, medical, and medicinal.
Grade 6
3
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Writing about Reading
Vocabulary Practice
Have students complete the Vocabulary questions on BLM 8.1.
Responding
Have students use their Reader’s Notebook to complete the vocabulary activities on page
15. Remind them to answer the Word Teaser on page 16. (Answer: compromise)
Reading Nonfiction
Nonfiction Features: Captions and Photos Remind students that nonfiction has many
features to help readers find and understand important information. Captions and photos
are two of these features. Explain that captions can be short phrases, or longer sentences,
both of which can be found in this book. Captions tell what a photo is about. Reading the
captions in a nonfiction book is a good way to preview the book before reading the main
text.
Photos are another important source of information. They often add information that is not
in the text. Photos can sometimes have a more authentic quality than illustrations.
Have students turn to page 12 in the text. Ask students how the photograph shows that
the work this person is doing is complicated (the very large machine; the surgical mask).
Ask them to create a caption for this photograph. Then have them discuss how the
information in the caption is helpful in providing a deeper understanding of the photo.
Writing Prompt: Thinking About the Text
Have students write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when
they think about the text, they reflect back on the text. They should notice and evaluate
language, genre, literary devices, and how the text is organized.
Assessment Prompts
• What can the reader conclude about using mold to create penicillin?
• Which sections of the book explain ways to avoid growing mold at home?
• What words on page 11 help the reader understand the meaning of the word
complex?
Grade 6
4
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English Language Development
Reading Support Pair English-speaking and English language learners so that they
can check their understanding with each other.
Cultural Support Students may not be familiar with some of the language in this
book. Explain the multiple meaning words sharp and key on page 7. Offer support as
needed. Tell students that cantaloupe (p. 13) is a type of fruit.
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 is the text about?
Speaker 1: How is mold like a flower?
Speaker 2: good and bad mold
Speaker 2: Mold looks like it has stems
and tops, like flowers. Mold spores
travel like flower seeds.
Speaker 1: Why is mold in the
house bad?
Speaker 1: What type of mold kills
germs?
Speaker 2: penicillin
Speaker 1: What type of tasty mold is
described in the text?
Speaker 2: The mold used in blue
cheese is tasty.
Speaker 2: Mold in the home is
bad for food. If it grows in the
house, it can damage the house.
Mold can make people in the
house sick.
Lesson 8
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.1
Date
Target Vocabulary
The Hidden World
of Mold
Target Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks in the Column Chart below with your ideas about
the Target Vocabulary words. Then complete the Column Chart with
three of the remaining Target Vocabulary words. Possible responses shown.
Vocabulary
detached
specimens
equations
shriveled
principle
reluctant
complex
Word and Definition
decomposition
elegant
compromise
This word makes me
think of . . .
This word might also be
useful for talking about . . .
not getting involved
with a debate
between friends
a boring subject
equations: say two
things are equal
numbers
math class, a calculator
complex:
a difficult test
a puzzle with many pieces,
the human body
detached: uninvolved
not simple
3
Target Vocabulary
scientists
Grade 6, Unit 2: Common Ground
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
08.01_6_246260RNLEAN_Target Voca3 3
Grade 6
5
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Lesson 8: The Hidden World of Mold
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First Pass
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Name
Date
The Hidden World of Mold
Thinking About the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
Remember that when you think about the text, you reflect back on the text.
You notice and evaluate language, genre, literary devices, and how the text
is organized.
On pages 11–13, the author describes how penicillin was eventually
produced faster and in larger amounts. How else might the author have
organized this information using graphics? Do you think it would be easier
to recall this information if there were graphics to refer to? Why or why not?
Grade 6
6
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Lesson 8
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.1
Date
Target Vocabulary
The Hidden World
of Mold
Target Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks in the Column Chart below with your ideas about
the Target Vocabulary words. Then complete the Column Chart with
three of the remaining Target Vocabulary words.
Vocabulary
detached
specimens
equations
shriveled
principle
reluctant
complex
Word and Definition
detached: uninvolved
decomposition
elegant
compromise
This word makes me
think of . . .
This word might also be
useful for talking about . . .
not getting involved
with a debate
between friends
scientists
equations: say two
things are equal
complex:
Grade 6
math class, a calculator
a difficult test
7
a puzzle with many pieces,
the human body
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Student
Lesson 8
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 8.23
The Hidden World of Mold
• LEVEL U
page
The Hidden World of
Mold
Running Record Form
Selection Text
3
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Have you ever seen gray, furry spots on the sandwich
meat that stayed in your lunch box over the weekend? Or
fuzzy, green dots on the bread that got left out? And what
about the big, round circle on a bruised peach that looks like a
small piece of soft cloth? They’re all types of mold.
Yuck! They’re ugly on food. They look like they’d make you
sick, and many do. But did you know that some kinds of molds
are used in medicines? Instead of making you sick, they make
you well.
Scientists think there are more than 100,000 kinds of
mold.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/103 ×
100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 6
Behavior
Error
0
0
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
cat
Error
1414239
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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