LESSON 6 TEACHER’S GUIDE
My Father, the Clown
by Nancy Wu
Fountas-Pinnell Level Y
Realistic Fiction
Selection Summary
As a doctor named Toni sits at her hospitalized father’s bedside, she
recalls how – when she was a young girl – he had trained her to be
his assistant medical clown. The two did magic tricks and told jokes
to calm the fears of frightened children who were being treated in a
hospital.
Number of Words: 3,496
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
• First-person continuous narrative
• Complex structure including narrator’s recall of past experiences and feelings
• Plot organized into five chapters following an introduction
• A father’s importance; remembering a parent’s love
• Volunteering as a hospital clown
• Using humor to allay children’s fears
• “Laughter is the best medicine”
• Experience is the best teacher.
• Parents have tremendous influence on their children.
• Alternating chapters switch from present to past
• Descriptive, informal language
• Multidimensional characters that develop over time
• Wide range of declarative, imperative, interrogative sentences
• Some very long sentences
• Complex sentences with phrases and clauses set off by dashes
• Some technical words requiring background knowledge or use of dictionary or glossary:
stethoscope, transfusion, transplant
• Many words with more than three syllables: experienced, phenomenal, elaborate
• Realistic illustrations
• Sixteen pages of text, many without illustrations
• Many lines of text per page, with very little white space
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
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My Father, the Clown
by Nancy Wu
Build Background
Help students use their knowledge of clowns to visualize the text. Build interest by asking
questions such as the following: Where was the last place you saw a clown? Have you
ever seen a clown in a hospital? In what ways might hospital clowns be different from
circus clowns? Read the title and author and talk about the cover illustration. Explain that
this is realistic fiction about a doctor who visits her father in the hospital.
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 3: Explain that the narrator provides a one-page Introduction.
Suggested language: Read the first sentence: I remember when I was five or
six years old, sick at home with a cold or some minor illness. . . . The narrator
describes her father’s face is lighting up like a light bulb. What does it mean for
your face to light up like light bulb?
Pages 4–5: Remind students that chapter titles tell us what a chapter is about.
This chapter is titled “My Father, the Patient.” Because he’s a patient, we know her
father is sick. Point out the terms exaggerate and vitality and read the sentences
with these words. Ask: How would painted lips exaggerate a clown’s smile? How
do people with energy and vitality behave? Does a sick person have much energy
or vitality? Read the second sentence on page 5: First I have to work through a few
of the stormier passages in our parallel lives. Ask: What do you think she means
by “parallel lives”? What might a “stormy passage” be?
Page 10: Direct students to the phrase CAT scans in the last line. Explain that a
CAT scan is a type of X-ray imaging used to diagnose medical problems.
Page 13: The narrator says her father used to give chocolate milk transfusions.
What is a transfusion?
Now turn back to the beginning to see how the narrator’s experiences as a medical
clown working with her father – also a medical clown – affected her life.
Expand Your Vocabulary
exaggerate – to represent as
greater than is actually the
case; overstate, p. 4
routine – a prescribed, detailed
course of action to be
followed regularly; a standard
procedure, p. 5
Grade 6
transfusion – the transfer of
whole blood or blood products
from one individual to another,
p. 13
vitality – physical or intellectual
vigor; energy, p. 4
transplants – transfers of tissues
or organs from one body or
body part to another, p. 11
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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 Analyze/Evaluate Strategy
carefully about the text as they read and form an opinion about it.
and to think
Discuss and Revisit the Text
Personal Response
Invite students to share their personal responses to the text.
Suggested language: What is most notable about the narrator’s relationship with her
father?
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
• Toni, a doctor, is worried about
her hospitalized father, who is
also an MD.
• Humor and kindness can be
used to help people in difficult
situations.
• Chapter headings show how the
story unfolds.
• He had been her childhood
mentor, teaching her to be a
medical clown as he was.
• Parents can teach important
lessons to their children.
• He recovers and will soon be
going home from the hospital.
• Introduction provides important
background information.
• Descriptive details
complemented by realistic
illustrations explain the
characters’ thoughts, feelings
and actions.
© 2006. Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, N.H.
Choices for Further Support
• Fluency Invite pairs of students to participate in choral reading. Remind them to pay
attention to punctuation and to stress certain words to sound as if Toni and her father
were actually speaking.
• 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 with words and word parts, using examples
from the text. The root word vital from the word vitality on page 4 comes from the
Latin root vita, which means “life.” A person with vitality is vigorous and energetic.
The word vitamin shares the same Latin root.
Grade 6
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Writing about Reading
Critical Thinking
Have students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 6.9.
Responding
Have students complete the activities at the back of their book, using their Reader’s
Notebook. Use the instruction below as needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the
comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension Skill
Conclusions and Generalizations
Remind students that details can reveal
ideas that aren’t stated or that are generally true. Model how to add details to the Graphic
Organizer, using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
On page 6, Toni worries that her father is not doing well and thinks if
this is true, “It was an unbearable thought . . .” On pages 10–11, Toni
reluctantly begins helping her father as a medical clown and realizes “he
knew what he was doing, and what he was doing worked.” These details
support the conclusion that Toni loves her father and respects his work.
Practice the Skill
Have students share examples of another story from which conclusions and
generalizations can be drawn.
Writing Prompt: Thinking About the Text
Have students write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind students 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
• The author probably wrote this selection to
_______________________________________________.
• What is the meaning of transplants on page 11?
• What is the important message in the story?
Grade 6
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English Language Development
Reading Support Have students listen to the audio or online recordings. Make sure
the text matches the students’ reading level. Language and content should be accessible
with regular teaching support.
Idioms The story contains some idioms that might be unfamiliar. Explain the meanings
of gray as a ghost (page 6) and his eye naturally fell on me (page 8).
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 story about?
Speaker 1: What clown names do Toni
and her father use?
Speaker 1: How did Toni’s father
give children “nose transplants”?
Speaker 2: Toni is Dr. Ginger Snaps and
her father is Dr. Laughalot.
Speaker 2: He put fake red noses
on those scheduled for organ
transplants.
Speaker 2: father and daughter medical
clowns
Speaker 1: Who is the main character?
Speaker 2: Toni, the daughter
Speaker 1: What happens when her
father gets sick?
Speaker 1: Why does Toni’s father ask
her to work with him one summer?
Speaker 2: His medical clown partner,
Nurse Sneezer, moves away.
Speaker 2: She sits by his bedside and
writes this story.
Speaker 1: How did her father
calm children needing a blood
transfusion?
Speaker 2: He had Toni do a silly
“chocolate milk transfusion” by
sucking milk through straws.
Lesson 6
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 6.9
Date
Critical Thinking
My Father, the Clown
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions. Possible responses shown.
1. Think within the text Why does the narrator become Dr. Laughalot’s
assistant during the summer?
Nurse Sneezer takes another position.
2. Think within the text Why does Dr. Laughalot decide to call his new
assistant “Dr. Ginger Snaps”?
Ginger snaps are her favorite cookie.
3. Think beyond the text Do you think medical clowns might be helpful
with adult patients? Why or why not?
Being able to laugh or be joyful when you are sick must help you
feel somewhat better. I think that medical clowns might be helpful.
4. Think about the text How can you be sure the narrator is positively
influenced by her father’s career as a doctor? Support your answer
with information from the text.
It’s clear that her father’s career is a positive influence because the
narrator herself becomes a doctor. She also spends a lot of time
thinking back on her father’s medical practices.
Making Connections Think of a time when you felt grateful toward someone.
What prompted this feeling? How did you show your gratitude to that person?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
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Critical Thinking
Grade 6, Unit 2: Common Ground
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Name
Date
My Father, the Clown
Thinking About the Text
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in two or three
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 page 3, you read: “Laughter is the best medicine, someone once said.
It’s also the cheapest and the best tasting.” You know that laughter isn’t
really medicine and it doesn’t actually have a taste. What do these sentences
mean? From reading the text, what kinds of emotions can you tell Toni feels
about her father as she writes this story?
Grade 6
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Lesson 6
Name
BLACKLINE MASTER 6.9
Date
Critical Thinking
My Father, the Clown
Critical Thinking
Read and answer the questions.
1. Think within the text Why does the narrator become Dr. Laughalot’s
assistant during the summer?
2. Think within the text Why does Dr. Laughalot decide to call his new
assistant “Dr. Ginger Snaps”?
3. Think beyond the text Do you think medical clowns might be helpful
with adult patients? Why or why not?
4. Think about the text How can you be sure the narrator is positively
influenced by her father’s career as a doctor? Support your answer
with information from the text.
Making Connections Think of a time when you felt grateful toward someone.
What prompted this feeling? How did you show your gratitude to that person?
Write your answer in your Reader’s Notebook.
Grade 6
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Student
Lesson 6
Date
BLACKLINE MASTER 6.13
My Father, the Clown
Running Record Form
page
15
Selection Text
Errors
Self-Corrections
Accuracy Rate
Total SelfCorrections
Just before school started in the fall, Pop finally lined up a
permanent replacement for Nurse Sneezer. I guess my face fell
at the idea that I wouldn’t be doing Dr. Snaps again. But, Pop
didn’t berate me for being so difficult at first. Instead, he
placed his large, steady hands on my shoulders and said,
“Well, you’ll always be there as the reserve if I need you.”
As it turned out, the new assistant, who went by the name
Dr. Bea Wildered, proved to be very steady.
Comments:
(# words read
correctly/88 × 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
1414218
Behavior
ˆ
Word told
1
8
T
cat
1
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