Triple Play - Teacher's Guide
Building Skills
Systematic Vocabulary Development Use these activities
to help students understand and develop new vocabulary.
Setting
Mr. Watling’s garden
Main
Characters
Issy, Mr. Watling
Problem
Issy is drawn, over and over again, to the mysterious,
forbidden garden that belongs to Mr. Watling.
Solution
A figure in a green coat, the ghost of Mrs. Watling, leads
Issy to find Mr. Watling and save his life.
Building Background/Accessing Prior Knowledge
Word Count: 3635
Every Second Chance Reading
lesson meets all of the Reading
Comprehension Skills in the Chart
on pages 18–21.
The primary objectives met by the
activities and blackline masters for
this book are that students will be
able to:
•
read with fluency, accuracy, pacing,
and intonation. (WAFSVD 1.1)
•
ask questions that seek information
not already discussed. (LS 1.1)
•
interpret a speaker’s verbal and
non-verbal messages. (LS 1.2)
•
understand and explain frequently
used synonyms. (WAFSVD 1.3)
•
identify and analyze the
characteristics of fantasy/fiction.
(LRA 3.1)
spell suffixes correctly.
(WOEL 1.5)
For a complete listing of all skills
met by the activities and blackline
masters for this book, see the chart
on pages 18–21.
86
• Ask students to complete BLM 1:Word Twins to practise
finding synonyms for unknown words.
Support for
English-Language Learners
Reading Comprehension Review student answers to the
Reading Guide BLMs 2 and 3 with students. Discuss
comprehension strategies they used when reading.
Written and Oral EnglishLanguage Conventions
Literary Response and Analysis Use BLM 4: Fantasy Fun to
help students better understand characteristics of fantasy.
Introducing the Book
Objectives
•
Discuss the book with students to help them connect
the story’s main idea to their own experiences.You
might ask: What would you do if you were curious about
a place that you were told to stay away from? What
should you do? Use these and similar questions as a
warm-up for reading the book.
• Word Study Discuss questions like the following to
explore with students the meaning and structure of the words
in the story. Suggest that students use a thesaurus if they
need help. What is a synonym for grumpy? If you don’t know
a synonym for grumpy, where could you look to find one?
Why would you want to know more than one word that
means grumpy?
Display the front cover of Shadows in the Garden . Read
together the back cover synopsis. Then ask:
Where does the story take place?
Who are the main characters?
What is the story problem?
How would you summarize what we know?
Review the Table of Contents with students, and invite
them to make predictions about the story. Discuss
unfamiliar vocabulary and special book features that
you noted when selecting the book. You might also wish
to use the Word Study Activity and BLM 1:Word Twins
(see Systematic Vocabulary Development).
Reading the Book
Give students a copy of Reading Guide BLMs
2 and 3: Read It! Review the questions for
Chapters 1 and 2 to help them set a
purpose for reading. Ask students to
Observational Assessment
read Chapters 1 and 2 on their own
and complete the appropriate
As students read aloud,
questions on the Reading Guide .
look for evidence that
Repeat this procedure for Chapter s
they read with appropriate
3 and 4, then 5 and 6, and then 7
pacing. Say: Try reading
a paragraph so that the
and 8.
sentences flow from one
As students work independently,
to another. Let the
invite individuals to read aloud part
commas, periods, and other
of today’s chapter(s) to you. As you
punctuation guide you.
listen, assess and guide the reader
toward developing fluency, accuracy,
appropriate pacing, and intonation.
Second Chance Reading
Writing and Speaking Strategies and Applications Choose
from the following activities to help students write, draw, or
orally present responses to literature, using the text and their
own experiences to support their work.
• Narrative Have students write a story that picks up where
Shadows in the Garden leaves off. Suggest that their stories
answer questions such as: Do the other kids visit the garden?
Does Issy ever meet and talk to the ghost in the green coat?
Use BLM 5: Add the Ending to
help students spell suffixes
correctly.
Decoding Review
Write the following words on the
board: tonight, sidewalk, sideways,
knothole. Explain the definition of
compound word, and ask students
to divide each word
into two smaller words. Have
students look through Shadows
in the Garden to find other
examples of compound words.
• Response to Literature Ask students to write, draw, or
orally present a story about how they might feel if they met a
ghost, such as the one in the green coat. If students work on
a computer, remind them to use the spell check feature.
• Researching Information Have pairs of students research a
local or national “ghost story.” Suggest that partners gather
information from newspapers, magazines, or the Internet.
Pairs may write, draw, or orally present the information they
find.
Assessing Progress
Performance Assessment
Written Assessment
Use BLM 6: Show You Know!
to assess whether students
have met the lesson’s
objectives.
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
Choose from these activities to informally observe whether
students have improved their oral reading, comprehension,
and literary analysis skills.
• Read aloud a favourite descriptive paragraph.
• Retell the story using the illustrations.
• Compare the ghost in this story to a ghost in another story
you know.
87
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Word Twins
1
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Read It!
(p. 1)
2
Read the assigned chapter(s).
Answer the assigned question(s).
Synonyms have the same or almost the same meaning.
Look in a thesaurus to find synonyms for words.
Chapter 1
The flowers are enormous.
1. As the story opens, how is Issy feeling?
The flowers are huge.
The word enormous is a synonym for huge.
Read the sentences.Then write a synonym for each underlined word.
If you need help, use a thesaurus. The first one is done for you.
1. I’d been feeling grumpy all day.
crabby
Chapter 2
2. Why are the neighbourhood kids afraid of Mr. Watling?
2. We looked to see what had scared everyone.
Chapter 3
3. The garden was incredible.
3. What does Issy see when she looks through Mr. Watling’s fence?
4. The figure beckoned again.
4. What happens just after Mike shouts, “Last kick!”?
5. The kids had all scattered.
6. I hesitated for a brief moment.
Chapter 4
7. Soccer was hopeless.
5. Why does Issy decide never to return to Mr. Watling’s garden?
8. I think it’s a beautiful garden!
9. Mr. Watling seemed helpless.
88 WAFSVD 1.3
Triple Play: Shadows in the Garden
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
Triple Play: Shadows in the Gar den
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
RC 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
89
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Read It!
(p. 2)
3
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Fantasy Fun
4
Read the assigned chapter(s).
Answer the assigned question(s).
A fantasy is a story in which some
of the events could not happen in real life.
Chapter 5
6. Why do you think Issy keeps going back to the garden?
Read each event from Shadows in the Garden. Write real life if the
event could really happen. Write fantasy if it could not really
happen.The first one is done for you.
1. A thirteen-year-old girl walks to school.
Chapter 6
real life
7. Who do you think “The Other Shadow” might be?
2. Kids play soccer on a vacant lot.
3. A soccer ball is kicked over a fence.
8. What causes Issy to go into the house?
4. A ghost wears a green coat.
Chapter 7
5. A garden becomes overgrown.
9. What do the letter carrier and Issy do to find out who was beckoning to Issy?
6. A ghost beckons to a girl for help.
10. Do you think the figure in the green coat was Mrs. Watling? Why or why not?
Write one or more sentences to explain how you know
Shadows in the Garden is a fantasy.
7.
Chapter 8
11. Why do you think Mr. Watling decides to let the kids use his garden?
90 RC 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
Triple Play: Shadows in the Garden
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
Triple Play: Shadows in the Garden
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
LRA 3.1
91
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Add the Ending
5
Suffixes are word endings. Every suffix has a meaning.
ly means how someone or something did something
Adding a suffix slightly changes the meaning of a word.
Issy was sad.
(meaning: unhappy)
Shadows in
the Garden
Name:
Show You Know!
6
Look up each underlined word in a thesaurus. Write one
synonym from the thesaurus that would make sense
in the sentence.
1. Issy didn’t know what they were afraid of.
2. The garden was awesome.
Write the answer to this question.
Issy spoke sadly.
(meaning: in an unhappy way)
3. Do you think Issy will continue to visit Mr. Watling? Why or why not?
Read each suffix and its meaning.
Read each event from Shadows in the Garden. Write real life if the event
could really happen. Write fantasy if it could not really happen.
ly means how someone or something did something
less means without something
ful means full of
4. An old man makes a new friend.
5. A run-down house has a weedy garden.
Write the suffix ly, less, or ful to correctly complete each
sentence. The first one is done for you.
ly
1. The figure beckoned again, even more urgent
2. The garden was quiet and peace
6. A shadowy ghost follows a girl.
Write the suffix ly, less, or ful to correctly complete each
sentence.
.
7. The Other Shadow didn’t seem unfriend
.
8. Issy was not feeling play
3. “We’ve got lots of time,” I said slow
.
9. Mike felt help
that morning.
when his ball was kicked over the fence.
10. The letter carrier looked sharp
4. In those small yards, soccer was hope
5. The kids warned Issy to be care
6. Mr. Watling was help
92 WOEL 1.5
.
at Issy.
.
when she kicked the ball.
after he fell.
Triple Play: Shadows in the Garden
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
Triple Play: Shadows in the Gar den
©2001 Scholastic Canada Ltd.
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