LESSON 25 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Rushing for Gold
by Sienna Jagadorn
Fountas-Pinnell Level N
Informational Text
Selection Summary
In January 1848, gold was discovered in a northern California river.
This was the start of the Gold Rush of 1849. Gold-seekers—known
as 49ers—flooded into California. Although not all miners grew rich,
people who opened stores, hotels, banks, and other businesses did.
Mining camps became cities, and California changed forever.
Number of Words: 713
Characteristics of the Text
Genre
Text Structure
Content
Themes and Ideas
Language and
Literary Features
Sentence Complexity
Vocabulary
Words
Illustrations
Book and Print Features
• Informational text
• Nine sections with headings
• Each section a different subtopic of the main topic: the California Gold Rush
• The cause of the California Gold Rush of 1849
• How gold-seekers traveled to California by land and water
• Facts about 49ers, boomtowns, and the growth of cities in California
• People will often face hardships in order to become rich.
• Businesses that meet people’s needs can make their owners rich.
• People’s success can lead to the growth of cities and even states.
• Simple, clear language
• Meaning provided through integration of illustrations with text.
• Sentences with introductory clauses
• Some sentences beginning with conjunctions: But soon the secret got out.
• Words whose meaning may be unfamiliar: swirled, sloshed, ghost towns
• Proper nouns that may be difficult to decode: January, California, San Francisco
• Some three-syllable words: travelers, dangerous, exploded, expensive
• Closed and open compound words: railroads, boomtowns, blue jeans
• Historical map of California
• Historical engravings and photographs
• Section heads indicate content
• Labels that help clarify text and art information
© 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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Rushing for Gold
by Sienna Jagadorn
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of valuable minerals such as gold to anticipate the
text. Build interest by asking questions such as the following: Have you ever heard of the
California Gold Rush? What do you know about it? Read the title and author and talk about
the cover illustration. Tell students that this book is informational text, so the words and
photos will give factual information about the topic.
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: Explain that this book is about the California Gold Rush of 1849, when
many people became rich.
Suggested language: Turn to page 2. The section heading is “Gold in the Hills!”
What do you expect to read about in this section?
Page 5: Read the section heading, “Traveling Over Land”, with students. The Gold
Rush took place in 1849, long before there were planes or trains. The picture
shows one way people traveled to California. How hard do you think it was to get a
wagon up steep mountain slopes? Land that slants upward or downward can be a
problem both ways!
Page 8: Draw attention to the photo, and read the caption and labels. Help
students understand the meanings of swirled and sloshed. The miner swirled the
water and dirt in the pan to find the gold. How long do you think it took a miner to
search one section, or part, of a river this way?
Pages 10–11: Explain that the photos on these pages show real Gold Rush miners.
The photos show some of the equipment the miners used. What do you think the
miner on page 11 used the pickaxe and hoe for? What other kinds of work is this
equipment used for?
Now turn back to the beginning of the book and read to find out about the
California Gold Rush of 1849.
Target Vocabulary
altitude – height measured from
the earth’s surface
approached – came near, p. 2
avalanche – large amounts of
snow or rocks that slide down
a mountain
Grade 3
equipment – things that are
needed for a particular activity
or purpose, p. 11
slopes – stretches of ground that
slant upward or downward,
p. 5
halt – to come or bring to a stop
increases – becomes greater
succeed – to manage to do what
you tried to do, p. 10
section – a part of something,
p. 8
tanks – containers that hold
liquids or gases
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Read
Have students read Rushing for Gold silently while you listen to individual students read.
Support their problem solving and fluency as needed.
Remind students to use the Question Strategy
questions before, while, and after they read.
and to think of
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: If you lived during the California Gold Rush of 1849, what would
you rather do, search for gold or run a business like a store or a bank? Why?
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
• After gold was discovered in
a river in northern California
in 1848, thousands of people
rushed there in hope of
becoming rich.
• The hope of becoming rich can
cause people to face dangers
and hardships.
• The captions and labels help
describe what is shown in the
photos.
• Opening a business that meets
people’s needs may lead to
success.
• The author includes many
details about the California Gold
Rush and how it helped make
California grow.
• Travel to California by land and
by sea was dangerous.
• Business owners grew rich by
meeting the needs of the goldseekers.
• Because of the Gold Rush,
California cities grew.
• Successful businesses can aid
the growth of cities and even
states.
• Gold is something that has
always had great worth.
• The section heads give a good
idea of what information will be
covered.
© 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 and demonstrate phrased
fluent reading. Remind them to pay attention to punctuation and to stress certain
words to sound as if the author were reading the text.
• 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. Guide students to take apart compound words to get at their
meaning: air/planes, rail/roads, boom/towns.
Grade 3
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 25.7.
Responding
Have students complete the activities at the back of the book. Use the strategy below as
needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Text and Graphic Features
Remind students that paying attention to how
words, photos, and other graphics work together can help them understand what they are
reading. Model the skill, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
When I read, I think about why the author included headings, photos, and
captions. As I read, I look at all of these parts of the book. On page 12,
the heading is Some Got Rich. The photograph shows gold nuggets. The
caption tells me more information about how the nuggets made people
rich.
Practice the Skill
Have students share an example of the way in which they used the words and illustrations
in a favorite book to help them understand what they were reading.
Writing Prompt: Thinking About the Text
Have students respond to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they think about
the text, they reflect back on the text. They notice and evaluate language, genre, literary
devices, and how the text is organized.
Assessment Prompts
• What can the reader tell about the 49ers from this book?
• What are pages 12 and 13 mostly about?
• On page 8, find the word that means almost the same as spilled.
Grade 3
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English Language Development
Reading Support In Introduce the Text (p.2), use pictures, concrete objects, or
demonstrations that will help students understand the concepts and ideas in the text.
Don’t ask students to read any text they will not understand.
Vocabulary Provide help with combinations of adjectives and nouns that may present
problems for students, such as gold dust, summer travel, drinking water, river water,
business people, and mining camps.
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: When do you think the men
on the cover lived, today or long ago?
Speaker 1: Why did people go to San
Francisco in 1849?
Speaker 2: long ago
Speaker 2: They wanted to get rich.
Speaker 1: How did the Gold
Rush of 1849 change northern
California?
Speaker 1: What were the 49ers
rushing to find?
Speaker 1: What was this time period
called?
Speaker 2: gold
Speaker 2: It was called the Gold Rush.
Speaker 2: Camps and towns
grew and turned into cities. San
Francisco became one of the
biggest cities in the country.
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Lesson 25
Name
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.7
Critical Thinking
Responding
Rushing for Gold
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions. Possible responses shown.
1. Think within the text Why did San Francisco grow
really fast in one year?
Text and Graphic
Features What text and graphic features
did you find in this book? Copy the chart
below. Write one more example of each
type of text feature from the book.
TARGET SKILL
People moved there to find gold and get rich.
2. Think within the text Why was ship travel so difficult?
The ships were crowded, had rats, and had dirty drinking water that made people
sick. Also, the ships went through dangerous storms.
Headings
Photographs
Captions
Gold in the
Hills!
?
A gold nugget
?
Not every miner
found gold.
?
3. Think beyond the text Why do you think Levi Strauss
moved to California?
He knew miners needed clothing so he made jeans and sold them to the miners.
4. Think about the text Why did the author include the
map on page 4?
It shows what an old map looks like, and it shows that gold was found in a large
Write About It
area of California.
Text to Self What if you were a 49er in the
Gold Rush? Write a story about how you
mined for gold. Start your sentences with
the word “I” and write as if you are telling
the story to a friend.
Making Connections Think of another story you have read about
people moving West. How was that story like this one?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
15
Read directions to students.
Critical Thinking
9
Grade 3, Unit 5: Going Places
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Name
Date
Rushing for Gold
Thinking About the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in one or two
paragraphs.
The map on page 4 is from the 1800s. Many of the photos and illustrations
in this book are also from the past. Why do you think the author included
actual old maps, photos, and illustrations in the book? How do these help
you picture what the life of the 49ers was like?
Grade 3
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Lesson 25
Name
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.7
Critical Thinking
Rushing for Gold
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions.
1. Think within the text Why did San Francisco grow
really fast in one year?
2. Think within the text Why was ship travel so difficult?
3. Think beyond the text Why do you think Levi Strauss
moved to California?
4. Think about the text Why did the author include the
map on page 4?
Making Connections Think of another story you have read about
people moving West. How was that story like this one?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 3
7
Lesson 25: Rushing for Gold
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Student
Lesson 25
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 25.11
Rushing for Gold • LEVEL N
page
Rushing for Gold
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Many early miners did get rich. People found gold in almost
12
every part of northern California. Some miners found one
nugget that weighed 160 pounds. It would be worth more than
a million dollars today!
Not all the people who got rich were gold miners. Some people
13
went to California during the Gold Rush to open stores or
other businesses such as hotels and banks. Since miners were
willing to pay high prices, these business people got very rich.
And they never had to look for gold.
The Gold Rush of 1849 changed everything in northern
14
California.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/97 × 100)
%
Read word correctly
Code
✓
cat
Repeated word,
sentence, or phrase
®
Omission
—
cat
cat
Grade 3
Behavior
Error
0
0
Substitution
Code
cut
cat
1
Self-corrects
cut sc
cat
0
Insertion
the
1
cat
Error
1414121
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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