LESSON 1 TEACHER’S GUIDE
Trading Talents
by Barbara Dodson
Fountas-Pinnell Level S
Realistic Fiction
Selection Summary
Edward wants to play basketball with his brother, Leon. The only
problem is that Edward is not very good. Leon needs help with his
math or he will fail. Edward is very good at math. The two brothers
discover that each has something to offer the other.
Number of Words: 1,952
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 narrative
• Action takes places over an unspecified time period.
• Various talents
• Teaching others
• Brothers helping each other
• We all have special talents.
• Helping other people is the right thing to do.
• People should believe in one another.
• Conversational language, the way children actually talk to one another
• Slang or unconventional language
• A mix of short and complex sentences
• Exclamations and questions
• Many sports-related and math-related words and terms, such as dribbling, hoop, quotient,
remainder
• Many multisyllable words, some of them challenging: possession, naturally, and
complicated
• Lively, colorful drawings support the text
• Thirteen pages of text; illustrations on most pages
• Thought bubble in one illustration
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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Trading Talents
by Barbara Dodson
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of a talent they might have to visualize the story. Build
interest by asking questions such as the following: Do you have a special talent? What
is it? How might you use that talent to help another person? Read the title and author
and talk about the illustration on the cover. Note the various illustrations in the story. Tell
students that this story is realistic fiction, so the characters will probably act like real
people.
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 is a story about two brothers who each have a unique
talent. Suggested language: Look at page 2 of the book. Read the first paragraph
of the story. Edward didn’t stop and ask if he could join Leon’s pickup game. What
do you think might be the problem of this story?
Pages 3–4: Explain that Leon doesn’t like excluding his brother, but Edward is not
very good at basketball. Explain that Leon’s friends “flat out declared that Edward
could not play with them anymore.” Ask: What does it mean to “flat out” declare
something? Leon is good at basketball. Read the first sentence of the second
paragraph on page 4. Ask: What is Edward’s talent?
Page 5: Leon needs help with his math. Why do you think the text in the middle of
page 5 is in italics?
Now turn back to the beginning of the story and read to find how Leon and Edward
solve their problems.
Expand Your Vocabulary
dividend – in a division problem,
the number that is divided, p. 8
pickup game – a game that is
started at the last minute, p. 2
Grade 4
pivot – to turn suddenly, p. 10
quotient – the number you get
when you divide one number
by another, p. 8
2
remainder – the number left over
when one number cannot be
divided evenly by another, p. 8
Lesson 1: Trading Talents
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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 Summarize Strategy
and to pay attention
to the important details within the story and describe them in their own words.
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the book.
Suggested language: How did Edward use his talent to help Leon? In what way did Leon
use his own special talents to encourage his brother? What do you think the brothers
learned about each other in the end?
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
• Edward uses his skills at math to
help his brother, Leon. In return,
Leon helps Edward become
better at basketball.
• We all have special talents.
• The emotions and feelings the
brothers have about and towards
one another are realistic.
• Both brothers use their own
individual talent to help each
other learn something new.
• Helping other people is the right
thing to do.
• People should believe in one
another.
• Edward and Leon realize what
it means to be a good sibling to
one another.
• The language sounds real, the
way people talk to one another.
• The illustrations help the reader
further understand the emotions
felt by the brothers.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite students to work in partners, choose a passage from the text, and
demonstrate pausing and phrasing during reading. Remind students to pause after
punctuation by taking short breaths after commas and stopping after periods and
questions marks.
• 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. Remind students that many multisyllable words are formed
from shorter words and affixes, such as the bound morpheme –ing. For example,
the word dribbling on page 10 is made up of the word dribble and the affix –ing. The
meaning of the new, longer word is closely related to the meaning of the shorter word.
Dribbling means “moving a ball by repeated light bounces.”
Grade 4
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 1.9.
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
Story Structure
Remind students that the structure of a story is important
in understanding the content of the story. Model how to add details to the Graphic
Organizer, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
The characters in the story are Edward and Leon. Write this in the
“Character” section of the chart. What is the setting? There are several
different settings in the story. One setting is on the basketball court.
Write this in the chart. The characters and setting of the story help
identify the plot.
Practice the Skill
Encourage students to think of another story and explain its structure.
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
• What will most likely happen when Edward wants to play basketball with Leon again?
• Which sentences on page 6 show that the brothers have learned to compromise and
work together?
• The main purpose of the story is to
________________________________________________________________.
Grade 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 them that both Leon and
Edward have something important to offer each other.
Cognates The story includes many cognates. Point out the English words and their
Spanish equivalents: consist (consistir), positive (positivo), talent (talento), and dividend
(dividendo).
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: Who are the main
characters in the story?
Speaker 1: Why does Leon need his
brother’s help?
Speaker 1: What do Edward and
Leon learn about one another?
Speaker 2: Edward and Leon
Speaker 2: Leon is not doing well in
math.
Speaker 2: Edward and Leon
learn that they both have special
talents to share. Edward shares
his skills in math with Leon, so
Leon will do better in math. Leon
helps Edward with his basketball
skills so that Edward will become
a better basketball player.
Speaker 1: What does Edward want to
do?
Speaker 2: play basketball
Speaker 1: Why doesn’t Leon want
Edward to play basketball with him?
Speaker 1: What does Edward want in
return for helping Leon in math?
Speaker 2: Edward wants Leon to help
him learn to play basketball better.
Speaker 2: Edward is not very good.
Lesson 1
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.9
Name
Date
Critical Thinking
Trading Talents
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions. Possible responses shown.
1. Think within the text What advice works for playing
basketball or doing math problems?
The first thing you do is stay cool and stay focused.
2. Think within the text Why is Edward so good at helping
Leon with math?
Edward teaches Leon different ways to approach the math problems. He also
challenges and encourages Leon.
3. Think beyond the text Based on the story, how do you think
Leon feels about Edward?
Leon really cares for Edward. Leon wants to include Edward in the basketball
games even though Leon’s friends do not. Leon listens to Edward when Edward
helps him with math.
4. Think about the text Why did the author choose to call the
story Trading Talents?
Trading talents is the main idea of the story. Edward and Leon are good at
different things. By sharing their talents with each other, each gets better at the
thing he was not as good at.
Making Connections Everyone has a talent for some things. Everyone has
trouble doing some things, too. What is something you are good at doing?
What is something you have to work extra hard to do?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Critical Thinking
11
Grade 4, Unit 1: Reaching Out
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Name
Date
Trading Talents
Thinking Beyond the Text
Think about the question below. Then write your answer in two or three
paragraphs.
Remember that when you think beyond the text, you use your personal
knowledge to reach new understandings.
Leon and Edward learned several important things about each other in the
story. They also learned a few life lessons. What lessons do you think they
learned? How do you think these lessons will help them in the future?
Support your ideas with examples from the story.
Grade 4
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Lesson 1
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.9
Name
Date
Critical Thinking
Trading Talents
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions.
1. Think within the text What advice works for playing
basketball or doing math problems?
2. Think within the text Why is Edward so good at helping
Leon with math?
3. Think beyond the text Based on the story, how do you think
Leon feels about Edward?
4. Think about the text Why did the author choose to call the
story Trading Talents?
Making Connections Everyone has a talent for some things. Everyone has
trouble doing some things, too. What is something you are good at doing?
What is something you have to work extra hard to do?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 4
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Student
Lesson 1
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 1.13
Trading Talents • LEVEL S
page
5
Trading Talents
Running Record Form
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
A few days later, Leon’s math teacher, Mr. Cox, pulled him
aside. “You need to do better, a lot better, or you’re not going
to pass this class,” he told Leon. “There’s a big test coming
up. Unless you get a good grade on that test, I’m going to have
to fail you.”
Leon’s heart sank. He wished that he had his brother’s math
ability. He was so upset that he skipped basketball that
afternoon. As he walked through the front door to his
apartment, he could see Edward working on his math
homework at the kitchen table. Edward didn’t even glance
at him.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/104 ×
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
1413915
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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