Grade: Grade 6 Subject: English Language Arts Created by: Kristin Huber Lesson Length: 2 hours Keywords/Tags: Short Story, Lincoln, Writing, Comprehension, First Dollar Lesson Description: The goal for this lesson is to provide the opportunity for students to bring together the skills that they have been working on all year. Students will explore the meaning of new vocabulary words, discuss their findings and how their lives relate to what they read as well as bringing the lesson together by writing an essay on what they learned from the story. Students will learn to reread a passage and find contextual clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. This lesson is a culminating activity of what has been learned throughout the school year.
Common Core Standards Covered with This Lesson
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.7: Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1d: Establish and maintain a formal style.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.2f: Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4a: Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Lesson Content: Reading
Instructions: Please read the following reading passage as many times as needed (aloud and silent) before starting to go through other lesson pages. Understanding the content of this passage is very important since the lesson activities will be all about this content. Feel free to print the passage if needed.
His First Dollar
After he became President, Lincoln told his Secretary of State the following story of the first dollar he ever had for his own:
Seward, he said, did you ever hear how I earned my first dollar? No, replied Seward. Well, I was about eighteen years of age . . . and had constructed a flatboat. . . . A steamer was going down the river. We have, you know, no wharves on the western streams, and the custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings they had to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board. I was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part, when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and looking at the different boats, singled out mine, and asked: 'Who owns this?'
I answered modestly, I do.
“Will you.” said one of them, “take us and our trunks out to the steamer?”
“Certainly,” said I. I was very glad to have a chance of earning something, and supposed that they would give me a couple of “bits.” The trunks were put in my boat, the passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on deck. The steamer was moving away when I called out:
“You have forgotten to pay me!”
Each of them took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life at that time. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day—that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.
Task 1: Vocabulary Activity
(40 points)
Instructions: Please complete the following vocabulary activity by choosing the correct meaning of each word selected from the passage and use of each word correctly in a sentence.
Vocabulary Questions
Word/Phrase: I was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part. | Tier: 2 | Points: 10
Q1
"I was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part." What does the word contemplate mean in this sentence?
A. to decide
B. to walk
C. to think about *
D. to set up
Which of the following sentences best uses the word "contemplate"?
A. Jessica contemplated whether to run for student body President or for Yearbook editor. *
B. Max will contemplate in math.
C. I am going to contemplate colors.
D. Ryan contemplated football.
Word/Phrase: I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. | Tier: 2 | Points: 10
Q2
"I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money." What does the word "scarcely" mean in this sentence?
A. Adequately
B. Almost not *
C. Plenty
D. Commonly
Which sentence best uses the word scarcely?
A. Thanksgiving is the time for scarcely any food.
B. Elephants eat plants scarcely.
C. Sloths sleep scarcely.
D. I could scarcely hear what she was saying from across the room. *
Word/Phrase: The trunks were put in my boat, the passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer. | Tier: 3 | Points: 10
Q3
"The trunks were put in my boat, the passengers seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer." In this sentence what does the word "sculled" mean?
A. to throw
B. to pull
C. to propel *
D. to race
Which of the following sentences best uses the word "sculled"?
A. The Captain sculled the boat across the finish line for a first place victory. *
B. Danny sculled the dog to the lake.
C. I sculled the water in the shower.
D. Mary sculled her foot in the dirt.
Word/Phrase: " We have, you know, no wharves on the western streams." | Tier: 3 | Points: 10
Q4
" We have, you know, no wharves on the western streams." In this sentence the word "wharves" means?
A. Tables
B. Docks *
C. Boats
D. Paddles
Which of the following sentences best uses the word "Wharves."
A. There were plenty of boats but not enough wharves to accommodate them all. *
B. There was a flock of wharves in my backyard this morning.
C. The wharves came to town and played a free concert.
D. My mom looks for wharves every chance she gets.
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.4a, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.6,
Task 2: Discussion Activity
(30 points)
Instructions: This discussion forum will have questions for students to respond. Read the posted questions, and respond to each. Students are responsible for posting one initial and and two peer responses for each topic.
Topic Title
Replies
Your First Dollar.
In this story you read how Lincoln earned his first dollar. How did you earn your first dollar and how did it make you feel?
Sent on: Jun 20, 2016 by: Kristin Huber
0
Important Incident
In the story the author said that at the time that was the most important incident in Lincoln's life. Why do you think that was the most important? Do you have a most important incident that has happened in your life? If so, what is it?
Sent on: Jun 20, 2016 by: Kristin Huber
0
Flatboat
What is a flatboat? Do you think that Lincoln was proud of the boat that he built? Do you think it was a wise investment on his part?
Sent on: Jun 20, 2016 by: Kristin Huber
0
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1c,
Task 3: Writing Activity
(30 points)
Instructions: At the end of the passage the author wrote, "I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time", in 2-3 paragraphs please explain what events in your life may have made you a more thoughtful or hopeful person and use examples to compare your events to the events in the passage.
Standards Covered with This Lesson Activity: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.1d, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.2f,
