Tackling Complexity: Moving Up Levels of Nonfiction
Grade 5: Nonfiction, Unit 2
Readers, today you will read two texts to learn more about mountain climbers. Read text 1 and
answer questions 1 and 3. Then read text 2 and answer the remaining questions. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Summarize “It’s No Walk in the Park.”
When summarizing, remember to:
• write about more than one main idea
• include carefully selected details to
support each main idea
• keep your summary brief
• write about the ideas in the text, not your
own opinions.
Main Idea(s) and Supporting Details/Summary
3. In the article “It’s No Walk in the Park,” what
is the relationship between hiring Sherpas
and making it to the top of Mount Everest?
Describe the relationship and your ideas
about it.
When inferring about relationships within a text,
remember to:
• write about the major relationships
between subtopics or ideas
• include your own ideas about interactions
between ideas or key concepts
• use academic vocabulary.
Inferring Within Text/Cohesion
2. In lines 27–29 from “The Race to the Top
of Mount Everest,” the author uses a craft
technique. Explain the craft technique(s) the
author used and why the author may have
used this technique(s). Also, if the author had
made different craft choices, how would that
have affected the text?
When analyzing author’s craft, remember to:
• identify craft technique(s) the author used
• write about the writerly goal(s) the author
seems to have been aiming toward
• use academic language
• elaborate on how these technique(s)
support the author’s goals, writing at least
a few sentences
• as part of the above, write about how
the text would have been different if the
author had made different craft choices.
Analyzing Author’s Craft
4. Compare and contrast the two texts.
When comparing and contrasting, remember to:
• write about how the information in
one text was somewhat different (and
somewhat the same) as the information in
the other text
• compare and contrast the texts (or parts of
texts) in terms of perspective, craft, and/or
structure
• think about which author is on which side
of the disagreement (when texts contradict
each other), and try to figure out why the
two authors might each say something
different.
Comparing and Contrasting
May be photocopied for classroom use. © 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
Tackling Complexity: Moving Up Levels of Nonfiction
Grade 5: Nonfiction, Unit 2
Readers, today you will read two texts to learn more about mountain climbers. Read text 1 and
answer questions 1 and 3. Then read text 2 and answer the remaining questions. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Summarize “It’s No Walk in the Park.”
When summarizing, remember to:
• write about more than one main idea
• include carefully selected details to
support each main idea
• keep your summary brief
• write about the ideas in the text, not your
own opinions.
Main Idea(s) and Supporting Details/Summary
3. In the article “It’s No Walk in the Park,” what
is the relationship between hiring Sherpas
and making it to the top of Mount Everest?
Describe the relationship and your ideas
about it.
When inferring about relationships within a text,
remember to:
• write about the major relationships
between subtopics or ideas
• include your own ideas about interactions
between ideas or key concepts
• use academic vocabulary.
Inferring Within Text/Cohesion
2. In lines 27–29 from “The Race to the Top
of Mount Everest,” the author uses a craft
technique. Explain the craft technique(s) the
author used and why the author may have
used this technique(s). Also, if the author had
made different craft choices, how would that
have affected the text?
When analyzing author’s craft, remember to:
• identify craft technique(s) the author used
• write about the writerly goal(s) the author
seems to have been aiming toward
• use academic language
• elaborate on how these technique(s)
support the author’s goals, writing at least
a few sentences
• as part of the above, write about how
the text would have been different if the
author had made different craft choices.
Analyzing Author’s Craft
4. Compare and contrast the two texts.
When comparing and contrasting, remember to:
• write about how the information in
one text was somewhat different (and
somewhat the same) as the information in
the other text
• compare and contrast the texts (or parts of
texts) in terms of perspective, craft, and/or
structure
• think about which author is on which side
of the disagreement (when texts contradict
each other), and try to figure out why the
two authors might each say something
different.
Comparing and Contrasting
May be photocopied for classroom use. © 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
Text 1
It’s No Walk in the Park:
The Tough Climb Up Mount Everest
I
magine climbing across a field of ice, high on the slope of a mountain.
You are on the lookout for blocks of ice as big as cars that can fall at any
moment. You know the ice can move without warning, and you could
fall through a crack in the ice to your death. You are so high up—18,000
feet high—that the air is thin and it is hard to breathe. People need oxygen
in order to survive, and there is very little oxygen up here. Because of this,
you have a pounding headache. You feel dizzy, and sometimes you vomit.
And you haven’t even entered the Death Zone. In the Death Zone, winds
can be as strong as hurricanes. Temperatures can be as low as negative
100 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather can change in an instant. Still, you
continue hiking with your group. Your goal, the peak of Mount Everest, is
in sight.
This is what it’s like to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest
mountain. Only 4,000 men and women have ever made it to the top,
and hundreds of people have died trying. When you stand on top of the
summit, though, it is the perfect reward for years of hard work, planning,
and training. Kenton Cool has climbed the mountain 11 times. He said that
when you stand on the top of Mount Everest, you can feel “the whole of
the planet beneath your feet.”
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Climbing Everest 101: What You Need to Know
You need a lot of skills to successfully climb Mount Everest. Many climbers
begin preparing ten years before their climb. Many climbers take courses
that teach them about the equipment they will use. Climbers learn about
ropes, pick axes, compasses. They learn also about the techniques they can
use in case of trouble. They learn how to survive when buried in snow by
an avalanche, how to navigate dangerous whiteouts, and above all, how to
stop yourself when falling, falling, falling down the steep icy slope. These
courses make survival more likely. Climbers often make plans so that in case
of injury, a helicopter can be reached with just one quick call and will then
immediately begin evacuating the climber from the mountain, flying that
person to a nearby hospital.
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Climbers not only need to build muscle before they climb, they also
need to gain weight. The trip up Mount Everest is so tough that many
people lose weight, so many prospective climbers try to gain weight before
their hike. Climbers also take practice hikes up other high mountains. They
might climb up Denali in Alaska. Even with all this preparation, many
climbers still do not make it to the top of Mount Everest.
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You Can’t Do It Alone
Even with all the training, few people make it to the peak of Mount Everest
without help. Instead, about 90 percent of people who travel to the top of
Mount Everest do so in huge groups with Sherpas. Sherpas are an ethnic
group of people who live in Nepal, and many of them serve as mountain
guides on Mount Everest. Sherpas do an incredible amount of work. They
carry the heaviest loads on their backs. Sherpas carry tents, tables and
chairs, and even vases of plastic flowers. Often, they take multiple trips
up the mountain with supplies so the other climbers can climb without a
heavy load. Of course, if a climber wants help from Sherpas, this adds to the
cost of the climb, and even without Sherpa help, these climbs are not cheap.
It costs at least $36,000 and often well over $65,000 to climb Mount Everest.
Although Sherpas are not inexpensive, they are important. Sherpas
have far more experience on the mountain than the people who have
hired them. Sherpas prepare safe routes for climbing, attach ropes and
ladders to the ice to help climbers cross the most dangerous areas, and give
recommendations about when to keep hiking and when to stop. Sherpas
might recommend stopping 500 feet from the top of Mount Everest and
turning around if the weather is dangerous. That advice can be difficult to
take. Still, climbers who listen closely to their guides are the most likely to
survive the climb.
Without the help of Sherpas, it would be almost impossible for climbers
to climb Mount Everest and reach their dreams of standing on the highest
point on Earth.
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May be photocopied for classroom use. © 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
Text 2
The Race to the Top of Mount Everest
W
ho was the first person to reach the peak of Mount Everest?
For years, the answer to that question remained a mystery. Sir
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first two people to
reach the top, kept it a secret. They would not tell who first stepped onto
the peak on May 29, 1953, at 11:30 a.m. Hillary said he wanted to make
it clear that they had made it to the top of the mountain as a team. “To a
mountaineer, it’s of no great consequence who actually steps foot first,” he
said.
Still, they weren’t able to keep the secret forever. Eventually, Norgay
revealed that Hillary had actually been the first person to reach the peak.
Reflecting on this, Hillary said, “Often the person who puts more into
the climb steps back and lets his partner stand on top first.” Was Norgay
disappointed to be second? Most likely not. He said, “If it is a shame to
be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this
shame.” After this experience, Norgay and Hillary remained friends for life.
Hillary and Norgay were far from the first people who attempted to
reach the summit—but those before them didn’t reach that goal. As far
back as 1921, people began trying to be the first to reach the top of Mount
Everest. Most of the other mountains in the world had been successfully
climbed. Outer space travel was still just a dream. Mount Everest was every
climber’s chance to be first.
Before Hillary and Norgay made it to the top of Everest, fifteen previous
groups had set out to climb the mountain, and all of them had been
unsuccessful. For some groups, the problem was not having enough oxygen
in tanks to make it to the top. In those times, oxygen tanks were not made
well, and the oxygen often didn’t last long. For other groups, the problem
was the weather. Two climbers who set out right before Hillary and Norgay
turned around because of exhaustion. They were 300 feet from the peak,
less than the length of one football field. In all, thirteen people died trying
to be first to make it to the top.
Why were Hillary and Norgay successful when others had not been?
Above all, they learned from the advice of other mountaineers. Hillary and
Norgay also prepared for a very long time. Before climbing Everest, they
had climbed mountains together in both the summer and the winter. They
practiced using an ice pick. They also wore especially designed outfits made
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May be photocopied for classroom use. © 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
out of windproof material. Also, they carried oxygen tanks, and the tanks
they wore when they reached the top of the mountain were more modern
and better than those that earlier climbers had worn. This meant that the
pair could carry more oxygen than previous climbers had carried. Also,
Hillary and Norgay had good luck with the weather.
After decades of dreaming, years of preparation, and weeks of climbing,
Hillary and Norgay spent just fifteen minutes at the summit of Mount
Everest. They took photos, planted flags, and even looked for the bodies of
climbers who disappeared before them. Although people have since climbed
to the same spot as Hillary and Norgay reached, it’s Hillary and Norgay’s
climb that people across the world still remember. The climb is remembered
because it was the first, and because Hillary and Norgay were so supportive
of each other.
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May be photocopied for classroom use. © 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).