PLAIN TALK ABOUT
LITERACY AND LEARNING
MARCH 13-15, 2017
HILTON NEW ORLEANS RIVERSIDE
Text-Driven Comprehension
Instruction
Louisa Moats
(504) 840-9786 | [email protected] | www.cdl.org
About the Presenter
Louisa Moats
Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D., has been a teacher, psychologist, researcher, graduate school faculty
member, and author of scientific journal articles, books, and policy papers on the topics of reading,
spelling, language, and teacher preparation. After a first job as a neuropsychology technician, she
became a teacher of students with learning and reading difficulties, earning her Master’s degree
at Peabody College of Vanderbilt. Later, after realizing how much more she needed to know about
teaching, she earned a doctorate in Reading and Human Development from the Harvard Graduate
School of Education. Louisa spent the next 15 years as a licensed psychologist, specializing
in evaluation and consultation with individuals who experienced reading, writing, and language
difficulties. Louisa was the site director of the NICHD Early Interventions Project in Washington,
DC, where she was invited to testify to Congress three times on teacher preparation and reading
instruction in high poverty schools. She recently concluded 10 years as research advisor and consultant with Sopris
Learning. Louisa was a contributing writer of the Common Core State Standards, Foundational Reading Skills for
grades K-5. In addition to the LETRS professional development series, her books include Speech to Print: Language
Essentials for Teachers, Spelling: Development, Disability, and Instruction, Straight Talk About Reading (with Susan
Hall), and Basic Facts about Dyslexia. Louisa’s awards include the Samuel T. and June L. Orton award from the
International Dyslexia Association for outstanding contributions to the field.
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PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
TEXT-DRIVEN
COMPREHENSION
INSTRUCTION
Session Goals
•  Contrast a strategy approach with a text-driven
approach
•  Review the planning necessary to support text-
driven instruction: before, during, and after reading
•  Walk through teaching the narrative, Thank You
Louisa Moats, Ed.D.
Ma’m (Langston Hughes)
•  Walk teaching the informational text, Wolf
Reintroduction
•  Sum It Up!
Do You Remember Strategy Workbooks?
Using
The
Context
Finding
The Main
Idea
Drawing
Inferences
Making a
Summary
Drawing
Conclusions
Constructing
Mental
Images
Asking
And
Answering
Questions
Willingham’s Analysis
•  Strategy instruction can be effective.
•  Strategies that have not been studied thoroughly
may still be of some benefit … results are
inconclusive.
•  Brief instruction may be sufficient; amount of
practice needed will vary.
•  Instruction in strategies is most effective for grades
3 or 4 and beyond.
• 
(Willingham, 2006–07)
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
Examples of Strategy-focused Instruction
•  Palinscar & Brown’s Reciprocal Teaching Method (1980’s)
•  Pressley’s Transactional Strategies Instruction (1990’s)
•  Duffy & Roehler’s Informed Strategies Instruction (1990’s)
•  National Reading Panel (2000) meta-analysis supported:
•  Instruction in comprehension monitoring
•  guided visualization
•  cooperative learning (Collaborative Strategic Reading)
•  using graphic and semantic organizers
•  answering and asking questions
•  deliberate use of story structure elements
•  summarization
Let’s Compare Two Approaches
Strategy-Focused
•  Aims to directly teach
specific strategies
(summarizing, questioning,
visualizing, etc.)
•  Practice texts are
constructed for that purpose
•  Generalization to “real
reading” is expected; may
or may not be coached in
“authentic” texts
Text-Driven
•  Texts chosen by quality
and relevance to a theme
or topic
•  Focuses on keeping
students’ attention on
understanding text content
•  Teacher is mediator; guides
with questioning and
discussion aimed at
interpreting, building the
mental model
1
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
A Text-driven Approach
Texts are selected within a theme or content
area…
Texts are:
•  “worth rereading”
•  have “enduring value”
•  have complex ideas
•  support substantive discussion
Depends on Great and Relevant Literature!
•  The Gettysburg Address (speech to memorize)
•  Letter from a Birmingham Jail (MLK)
•  The Autobiography of Malcolm X
•  The Diary of Anne Frank (as a play)
•  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (classic fiction)
•  Dissociative Identity Disorder (informational)
•  White Fang (fiction)
•  Introduction of Wolves into Yellowstone
•  The Outsiders (fiction)
•  How to Investigate a Crime Scene (informational)
Model of Comprehension Processes
A Text-driven Approach
•  Focus is on the process of deriving meaning and
establishing a coherent mental model of what a
text is about
Surface Code
(words, sentences)
Long
Term
Memory
Goal:
Working
Memory
Mental Model
•  Focus is on “what readers do with the text
information to represent it and integrate it into a
coherent whole”
(McKeown, Beck, & Blake, 2009)
Teacher Mediates Between the Text
and the Students
Text Base
(meaning
behind
words)
Before Reading: Thank You Ma’m
•  Identify purpose for reading
What do we know about
this character
so far?
What are his choices
for solving this
problem?
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
•  Raise or teach requisite background
knowledge
•  Anticipate text structure
•  Make predictions – preview text
2
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
Preteach Vocabulary: Thank You, Ma’m
During Reading
•  Identify how language works (words, sentences,
paragraphs)
• balance
• suede
• permit
• presentable
• release
• embarrass
• frail
• latch
•  Use text structure to organize thinking
• furnished
• stoop
•  Seek answers to questions and prompts; formulate Q’s
•  Use background knowledge to fill in gaps and make
inferences
•  Verify predictions; make new ones
Basic Story Elements and Key Questions
Characters
Who? What kind? How
many?
Where? When?
Setting
Plot
Problem
First Event/ attempt
2nd Event/attempt
3rd Event/attempt
Climax and
Resolution
us?
•  How do you know?
What? How? Why?
So what?
•  Were you surprised here? Why?
meaning (semantics)
discourse structure
(syntax)
•  What do you think the author is trying to tell
What has happened? What
is happening?
What will happen? Why?
Who? When? How?
Where are the linguistic challenges in the text?
sentences
Examples of Queries
morphology
language
phonology
pragmatics
writing system
(orthography)
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
•  Why do you think the character said that?
•  What have we learned about this so far?
•  Was that part clear to you?
•  What problem is the person trying to solve?
(1) She was a large woman with a large purse that
had everything in it but a hammer and nails. It had a
long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder.
It was about eleven o’clock at night, dark, and she was
walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried
to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the single tug
the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s weight and
the weight of the purse combined caused him to lose
his balance. Instead of taking off full blast as he had
hoped, the boy fell on his back on the sidewalk, and his
legs flew up. The large woman simply turned around
and kicked him right square in his blue-jeaned sitter.
Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his
shirtfront, and shook him until his teeth rattled.
3
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
(2) After
that the woman said, “Pick up my pocketbook, boy, and
give it here.”
She still held him tightly. But she bent down enough to permit
him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said, “Now ain’t
you ashamed of yourself?”
Firmly gripped by his shirtfront, the boy said, “Yes’m.”
(3) The woman said, “What did you want to do it for?” The boy
said, “I didn’t aim to.”
She said, “You a lie!”
By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to
look, and some stood watching.
“If I turn you loose, will you run?” asked the woman.
“Yes’m,” said the boy.
“Then I won’t turn you loose,” said the woman. She did not
release him.
“Lady, I’m sorry,” whispered the boy.
“But
you put yourself in contact with me,” said the woman.
“If you think that that contact is not going to last awhile, you
got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir,
you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington
Jones.”
(6) Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to
struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of
her, put a half-nelson about his neck, and continued to drag
him up the street. When she got to her door, she dragged the
boy inside, down a hall, and into a large kitchenette-furnished
room at the rear of the house. She switched on the light and
left the door open. The boy could hear other roomers
laughing and talking in the large house. Some of their doors
were open, too, so he knew he and the woman were not
alone. The woman still had him by the neck in the middle of
her room.
“"There’s nobody home at my house," said the boy.
"Then we’ll eat," said the woman, "I believe you’re hungry or
been hungry to try to snatch my pocketbook."
(9) "I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes," said the boy.
Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some
suede shoes,” said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. “You
could of asked me.”
“M’am?”
The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There
was a long pause. A very long pause. After he had dried his
face and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy
turned around, wondering what next. The door was open. He
could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run,
run, run!
(10) The woman was sitting on the daybed. After a while she
said, “I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.”
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
(4) “Um-hum! Your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your
face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to tell you to wash your
face?” “No’m,” said the boy.
“Then it will get washed this evening,” said the large woman,
starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy behind her.
He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild,
in tennis shoes and blue jeans.
(5) The woman said, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you
right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face.
Are you hungry?”
“No’m,” said the being-dragged boy. “I just want you to turn me
loose.”
“Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?” asked the
woman. “No’m.”
“There’s nobody home at my house,” said the boy.
“Then we’ll eat,” said the woman, “I believe you’re hungry—or
been hungry—to try to snatch my pocketbook!”
“I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes,” said the boy.
(7) She said, “What is your name?” “Roger,” answered the boy.
“Then, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face,” said the
woman, whereupon she turned him loose—at last. Roger
looked at the door—looked at the woman—looked at the door—
and went to the sink.
“Let the water run until it gets warm,” she said. “Here’s a
clean towel.”
(8) “You gonna take me to jail?” asked the boy, bending over
the sink.
“Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere,” said the
woman. “Here I am trying to get home to cook me a bite to eat,
and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe you ain’t been to your
supper either, late as it be. Have you?”
There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth
opened. Then he frowned, not knowing he
frowned. The woman said, “Um-hum! You
thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You
thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch
people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say
that.” Pause. Silence. “I have done things, too,
which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God,
if He didn’t already know. Everybody’s got
something in common. So you set down while I
fix us something to eat. You might run that comb
through your hair so you will look presentable.”
4
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
(11) In another corner of the room behind a screen was
a gas plate and an icebox. Mrs. Jones got up and went
behind the screen. The woman did not watch the
boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she
watch her purse, which she left behind her on the
daybed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of
the room, away from the purse, where he thought she
could easily see him out of the corner of her eye if she
wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him.
And he did not want to be mistrusted now.
(13) “Eat some more, son,” she said.
When they were finished eating, she got up and said, “Now,
here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede
shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto
my pocketbook nor nobody else’s—because shoes come by
devilish like that will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now.
But from here on in, son, I hope you will behave yourself.”
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it.
“Goodnight! Behave yourself, boy!” she said, looking out into
the street as he went down the steps.
(14) The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank
you, m’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but
although his lips moved, he couldn’t even say that as he
turned at the foot of the barren stoop and looked up at the
large woman in the door. Then she shut the door.
After Reading
•  Clarify if main ideas are not making sense
•  Connect new learning to existing knowledge base
•  Summarize enduring understandings
(12) Do you need somebody to go to the store,” asked the
boy, “maybe to get some milk or something?”
“Don’t believe I do,” said the woman, “unless you just want
sweet milk yourself. I was going to make cocoa out of this
canned milk I got here.”
“That will be fine,” said the boy.
She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox,
made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the
boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything
else that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told
him about her job in a hotel beauty shop that stayed open
late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women
came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish. Then she
cut him a half of her ten-cent cake.
Scaffolded Reading of Challenging Text
•  1st read – purpose, author’s intent, preview using
text features, read aloud, peer to peer statement
of one thing learned from each paragraph
•  2nd read – students use question types and
question words to formulate questions for one
another
•  3rd read – guided highlighting, focus on details,
context, and text evidence
Describe Mrs. Jones
Physical Traits
Personality Traits
•  Large
•  Stubborn
•  Matronly – old?
•  Not easily intimidated
•  Answer questions with evidence
•  Discuss and evaluate predictions
•  Write in response to text
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
5
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
Comparison of Text Structures (Genres)
Writing Assignment
Narrative
•  Write a paragraph or two explaining why Mrs. Jones
Informational
Tells about events meant to
solve a problem or conflict
May be fiction or nonfiction
Fewer propositions per
sentence
May include more figurative
language
Purpose is to stimulate
emotion, insight, imagination;
often to entertain or transport
reader to another time/place
treated the boy the way she did.
•  Write your philosophy of punishment. Do you think a 14
year old should be locked up if they commit a crime like
this?
•  __________________________________________
Explains concepts or
information
Is factual and non-fiction
Sequence of ideas is
determined by the logic of
ideas in the text
Usually more dense
Uses content-specific
vocabulary and requires
background knowledge
Purpose is to inform
34
Wolf Reintroduction: Informational Text
Mental Map of a Partially Known Word or Idea in
the Mental Dictionary
wolf
“bad”
dog-like
lives in the wild
Mental Map of a Well-Known Word
35
36
synonym:
Canis lupus
word structure:
4 phonemes,
1 syllable;
Plural wolves
common contexts:
protected species
social animal/pack behavior
conflicts with humans
roles in mythology and fables
wolf
examples:
Gray, Red, Arctic
personal associations:
Little Red Riding Hood;
wolf management
controversy
descriptors:
canine mammal; 100-150 lbs.;
pack social hierarchy; a top
predator, keystone species;
feeds on elk and deer
multiple meanings:
A canine predator (n.)
To eat hurriedly (v.)
Womanizer (n.)
When wolves were reintroduced to parts of
Idaho and to Yellowstone National Park in
1995, there was debate about the potential
threats to elk populations and concern about
impacts to the overall health of the ecosystem.
Ten years later, the positive results in
Yellowstone exceeded all expectations. Wolf
populations are increasing, and the benefits to
the ecosystem have been dramatic.
p.
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
6
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
• 
37
For many decades, the absence of a significant
predator allowed the elk populations to inhabit
virtually any area in Yellowstone that suited them.
They transitioned from feeding in the relative
protection of the dense forests to congregating and
browsing in river valleys where food sources were
easy and plentiful. This led to ravaging young trees,
small shrubs, and ground cover. After the wolves
returned, elk were forced to move back into the
relative protection of the trees and onto the slopes
where they could watch out for wolves. No longer
able to graze at will, they have had to work a bit
harder to find food, with profound results.
Outlining an Argument
Integrate Strategies into Text-Driven
Instruction
Before Reading
Major Cause or Reason
Contributing
Reason
Willows and aspen trees, instead of being
eaten or trampled, now had a reasonable chance for
survival and rebounded along river valleys. The
recovered vegetation halted the erosion of soil into the
streams. Additional shade cooled the water
temperature, resulting in more stable habitat for trout.
Migratory birds returned and found food and shelter in
the recovered growth. The new vegetation provided
building materials and food for beavers, with new
dams resulting in wetlands and marshes that attracted
ducks and other birds.
39
Assertion or Opinion
Contributing
Reason
38
Contributing
Reason
During Reading
After Reading
Identify purpose for
reading
Identify how language works
to convey ideas (words,
sentences, paragraphs)
Clarify, use repair strategy
if main ideas are not
making sense
Raise or teach new
background knowledge
Use background knowledge
to fill in gaps and make
inferences
Connect new learning to
existing knowledge base
Anticipate text structure
Use text structure to organize Summarize enduring
thinking
understandings
Preteach Key Vocabulary Seek answers to questions
and prompts; formulate Q’s
Answer questions with
evidence
Make predictions
Discuss and evaluate
predictions
Verify predictions; make new
ones
Write in response to text
Closing Statement
In Conclusion…
That’s All Folks!
Know your stuff.
Know who you are stuffing.
Stuff every minute of every lesson
[e.g., Facilitate growth of the mental model!]
Questions, comments, or reflections?
[email protected]
THANK YOU!
(with debt to Dr. Joe Torgesen)
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
7
PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING
New Orleans, LA | March 13-15, 2017
Comprehension Instruction, Planning Guide (Adapted from LETRS Module 6, Louisa Moats & Nancy Hennessy) Before Reading What do you want students to know, understand, and do at the conclusion of this lesson? How will you introduce the text? How will you explain the purpose for reading it? Which words will be most important to teach directly and explicitly? Which words will you incidentally teach, when and in what way? Does the text contain figurative language, obscure uses of familiar terms, complex sentence structures, dialect, or unclear references that may be challenging for your students? How and when will you work with these? What background knowledge is necessary for understanding what is in the text? What will you do to help students access prior knowledge and make connections to experience outside the text? How will you teach the students to use the text’s structure to organize their search for meaning? During Text Reading What questions will you ask? When will you ask them? Do you plan to use a graphic organizer to help students keep track of meanings/events? Expression of Understanding After Reading What strategies and activities will you use to have students demonstrate understanding at different levels? •
•
•
•
•
•
Clarification of difficult ideas
Connecting new learning to existing knowledge base
Summarizing enduring understandings
Answering questions with evidence
Discussing and evaluating predictions
Writing in response to text
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
8
815L/1,340 Words Thank You, M'am
by Langston Hughes
(1) She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails.
It had a long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o’clock at
night, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to snatch her purse.
The strap broke with the single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s weight and the
weight of the purse combined caused him to lose his balance so, instead of taking off full
blast as he had hoped, the boy fell on his back on the sidewalk, and his legs flew up. The
large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in his blue-jeaned sitter.
Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth
rattled.
(2) After that the woman said, "Pick up my pocketbook, boy, and give it here." She still held
him. But she bent down enough to permit him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said,
"Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself?"
Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, "Yes’m."
(3) The woman said, "What did you want to do it for?"
The boy said, "I didn’t aim to."
She said, "You a lie!"
By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to look, and some stood watching.
"If I turn you loose, will you run?" asked the woman.
"Yes’m," said the boy.
"Then I won’t turn you loose," said the woman. She did not release him.
"I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry," whispered the boy.
(4) "Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain’t you
got nobody home to tell you to wash your face?"
"No’m," said the boy.
"Then it will get washed this evening," said the large woman starting up the street, dragging
the frightened boy behind her.
He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue
jeans.
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
9
(5) The woman said, "You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I
can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?"
"No’m," said the being dragged boy. "I just want you to turn me loose."
"Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?" asked the woman.
"No’m."
"But you put yourself in contact with me," said the woman. "If you think that that contact is
not going to last awhile, you got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir,
you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones."
(6) Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked
him around in front of her, put a half-nelson about his neck, and continued to drag him up the
street. When she got to her door, she dragged the boy inside, down a hall, and into a large
kitchenette-furnished room at the rear of the house. She switched on the light and left the
door open. The boy could hear other roomers laughing and talking in the large house. Some
of their doors were open, too, so he knew he and the woman were not alone. The woman still
had him by the neck in the middle of her room.
(7) She said, "What is your name?"
"Roger," answered the boy.
"Then, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face," said the woman, whereupon she
turned him loose--at last. Roger looked at the door, looked at the woman, looked at the door,
and went to the sink.
Let the water run until it gets warm," she said. "Here’s a clean towel."
(8) "You gonna take me to jail?" asked the boy, bending over the sink.
"Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere," said the woman. "Here I am trying to get
home to cook me a bite to eat and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe, you ain’t been to your
supper either, late as it be. Have you?"
"There’s nobody home at my house," said the boy.
"Then we’ll eat," said the woman, "I believe you’re hungry or been hungry to try to snatch
my pocketbook."
(9) "I wanted a pair of blue suede shoes," said the boy.
"Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes," said Mrs. Luella
Bates Washington Jones. "You could of asked me."
"Ma’m?"
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
10
The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There was a long pause. A very long
pause. After he had dried his face, and, not knowing what else to do, dried it again, the boy
turned around, wondering what next. The door was open. He could make a dash for it down
the hall. He could run, run, run, run, run!
(10) The woman was sitting on the day-bed. After a while she said, "I were young once and I
wanted things I could not get."
There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing
he frowned.
The woman said, "Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I
was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that."
Pause. Silence. "I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son neither tell God, if
he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that
comb through your hair so you will look presentable."
(11) In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate and an icebox. Mrs. Jones
got up and went behind the screen. The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going
to run now, nor did she watch her purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the
boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out
of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he
did not want to be mistrusted now.
(12) "Do you need somebody to go to the store," asked the boy, "maybe to get some milk or
something?"
"Don’t believe I do," said the woman, "unless you just want sweet milk yourself. I was going
to make cocoa out of this canned milk I got here."
"That will be fine," said the boy.
She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the
table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything
else that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel
beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came
in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish. Then she cut him a half of her ten-cent cake.
(13) "Eat some more, son," she said.
When they were finished eating she got up and said, "Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy
yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my
pocketbook nor nobody else’s because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet. I
got to get my rest now. But I wish you would behave yourself, son, from here on in."
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. "Goodnight!" Behave yourself,
boy!" she said, looking out into the street.
Center for Development and Learning
(504) 840-9786 | www.cdl.org | [email protected]
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(14) The boy wanted to say something else other than "Thank you, m’am" to Mrs. Luella
Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t do so as he turned at the barren stoop and looked
back at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say "Thank you" before she shut
the door. And he never saw her again.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Wolf Reintroduction – (Dutcher & Dutcher, 2005) What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected. -­‐-­‐ Chief Seattle When wolves were reintroduced to parts of Idaho and to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, there was debate about the potential threats to elk populations and concern about impacts to the overall health of the ecosystem. Ten years later, the positive results in Yellowstone exceeded all expectations. Wolf populations are increasing, and the benefits to the ecosystem have been dramatic. For many decades, the absence of a significant predator allowed the elk populations to inhabit virtually any area in Yellowstone that suited them. They transitioned from feeding in the relative protection of the dense forests to congregating and browsing in river valleys where food sources were easy and plentiful. This led to ravaging young trees, small shrubs, and ground cover. After the wolves returned, elk were forced to move back into the relative protection of the trees and onto the slopes where they could watch out for wolves. No longer able to graze at will, they have had to work a bit harder to find food, with profound results. Willows and aspen trees, instead of being eaten or trampled, now had a reasonable chance for survival and rebounded along river valleys. The recovered vegetation halted the erosion of soil into the streams. Additional shade cooled the water temperature, resulting in more stable habitat for trout. Migratory birds returned and found food and shelter in the recovered growth. The new vegetation provided building materials and food for beavers, with new dams resulting in wetlands and marshes that attracted ducks and other birds. Contrary to initial fears, the wolves did not adversely impact the elk populations. Since wolves will almost always hunt game that is least risky to bring down, the old and sick elk were the first choice. Until the top predator returned, old and ailing elk cows had been able to continue breeding, an aberration that actually had a limiting effect on their gene pool. Ultimately, the wolf’s return led to greater health and vitality within the elk herds. When we admire the beauty and grace of a deer or elk, we should remember that, in part, we have the wolf to thank. After ten years of scientific observation, it is now clear that the wolf is a “keystone species” – playing a critical role in keeping ecosystems healthy through natural checks and balances. From Living with Wolves (Jamie and Jim Dutcher) (2005) Seattle: The Moutaineers Books.(pp. 156-­‐158) Center for Development and Learning
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Center for Development and Learning
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