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A. Expanding Background
Answer the questions below. Gather and share your opinions.
1. What is an artist? Is there an artist that you like? Who is it?
B. Connecting Words
Fill in the blanks with the correct word from the box.
2. What is an author? Who is your favorite author?
1. My grandfather had a very interesting ________________________ . 2. The dog _______________ the cat.
3. One day, I will ___________________ a book about my adventures.
4. Jane loves to draw. One day she will be an _________________________ . 5. I am going to be a comedian, so I can _______________________ people.
6. Is it _______________________ for you to come to my house tomorrow?
illustrator career entertain publish chased possible
An Author
THEME 1CAREERS What do you think? What do you want to be when you grow up?
Making Books for Children
My name is Georgia Graham. I’m an author of children’s books. I’ve written more than ten of them. I’m also an illustrator. That means that I draw the pictures in the books too. Today my career is really great but it wasn’t always like that.
When I was a child, my father gave me paper every day. He brought the paper home from work, and I was always happy to get it. To me, paper was my toy. I made drawings and wrote stories on it. My first drawings were pictures of Bible stories. I went to sunday school at that time, and I wanted to make pictures to entertain the other kids. When I got older, I went to art school... I learned a lot there, but a career as an artist is not always easy...
For many years, my career was going nowhere. I wanted my books to be published, but nobody wanted them. Sometimes, I wanted to throw in the towel, but then my life changed. My books were published. Some people really liked my art!
These days, I’m very busy. I make two books every year. Sometimes, I write them. Other times, I only draw the pictures, but it is always fun.
As I get older, my career gets better, and I’m really happy that I decided to chase my dream. These days, I go to schools and meet thousands of students. I tell them about my job. I like to tell them that being an
artist IS possible.
1
■go nowhere: to not be successful
■throw in the towel: to stop trying, to give up
■chase a dream: to try to get something that you really want
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C. Checking Comprehension
Answer the following questions.
1. What is Georgia Graham’s job?
a. teacher b. actor and singer
c. author and illustrator d. publisher
2. What did Georgia’s father give her?
a. pencils b. paper
c. a towel d. a pet dog
3. What does Georgia like to tell students?
a. Being an artist is difficult. b. Being an entertainer is good.
c. Being an artist is possible. d. Being an artist is fun.
D. Using the Graphic Organizer
Read the passage again and look for the three elements.
Then, fill in the graphic organizer the way you were shown on the strategy page.
Name
Central Information
Background Information
Personal Beliefs
THEME 1CAREERS
A. Expressing Ideas
Choose a question that you want to talk about. Also, create your own question for the class!
(Note, some of the strategies come from other themes.)
B. Jotting Down Information
Write the question you chose in the blank space below. As you are having a conversation with the class, write down your ideas. When you hear good ideas from your classmates, write down their ideas too.
C. Preparing to Write
Your ideas gathered from the discussion will help you write a paragraph.
Continue to the composition on page 2 of your workbook.
My ideas and supporting ideas My classmates’ ideas
Topic 1 An Author
Fatima Miguel
Henri
Yoko Introduction
Introduce yourself. Don’t forget your personal beliefs!
Applythe
theme’sunifyingstrategy Five Ws
Talk about an adult you know who has a job.
What do they to?
Introduction
What is your talent?
What can you do better than other people?
Your Question Personal Response
What is your plan to achieve your dream?
2
COMPOSITION
Title:
A. Planning and Structuring
Think about the question(s) you discussed in class. Use the information you gathered during the class to finish your writing.
Area Coherence
Structure
Creativity Total
Comment
Ideas are well delivered and details used correctly.
There are too many ideas.
There is no conclusive idea.
Sentences are nicely planned and flow well.
Sentences are inconsistent.
Sentences are incomplete.
Student delivered very creative idea.
Student came up with fairly good idea
Student showed little originality in his paragraph.
Score 5 3 1 5 3 1 5 3 1
Topic sentence
Body Sentences
Closing sentence 1.
2.
3.
* Use the rubric above to assess the student’s paper.
AN AUTHOR
B. Final Work
Write the paragraph you have planned out. Share it with your peers and family members. Receive as much feedback as you can. Peer responses can help you improve your writing.
