Jerry Spinelli. 254 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination. Circle the words that tell you what Spinelli is going to talk about.

Transcription

1 Jerry Spinelli is famous for his funny, true-to-life books. His most famous book, Maniac McGee, received several top awards, including the Newbery Medal. Spinelli s wife, Eileen, is also a children s-book writer. The Spinellis have seven children. The following story is from Spinelli s Knots in My Yo-yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid. Read on to see just why Spinelli s works are treasured by so many readers. Reading Standard 3.7 Explain the effects of common literary devices (for example, symbolism, imagery, metaphor) in a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts. Jerry Spinelli Circle the words that tell you what Spinelli is going to talk about. subscription (s b skrip n) n.: agreement to pay for a magazine or newspaper for a certain period of time. Read the boxed passage aloud twice. Experiment with your tone and speed to produce a comic effect. 10 I did not read. Not books, anyway. Now, cereal boxes that was another story. Every morning I pored over boxes of Wheaties and Cheerios at the breakfast table. I looked forward to new cereals as much for a change in reading material as for a change in breakfast fare. And comics. I read them by the hundreds. Mostly I read cowboy and war comics. I bought them at corner stores and newsstands. Then when I was twelve, I got serious. I decided the comic should come to me. I got my first subscription: Bugs Bunny. Once a month, accompanied by the metallic flapping of the front door mail slot, the postman delivered Bugs s latest adventures to me. My favorite comic character of all, however, was neither man nor rabbit. In fact, I m still not sure what it was. All I know is that it was called the Heap, and it looked something like a haystack. The Heap never spoke, and the From Knots in My Yo-yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid by Jerry Spinelli. Copyright 1998 by Jerry Spinelli. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc. 254 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination

2 reader never saw it move, but the Heap appeared on the scene when people were having problems. Somehow or other the Heap managed to solve the problem, though it never got credit. As far as most of the people knew, it was just another haystack in the field. Of course, I read the newspaper comics too. While I never missed Dick Tracy, Little Lulu, and Mandrake the Magician, my favorite of all was Alley Oop. Another part of the newspaper got my attention as well: sports. Mostly I read the sports pages of the Times Herald. I especially liked the clever writing of sports editor Red McCarthy in his daily column. Until then I had thought there was only one English language the language I spoke and heard in the West End of Norristown. I was happily surprised to discover that there was more than one way to say something, that the words and their arrangement could be as interesting as the thing they said. From April to September in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, I read the major league baseball batting statistics. They were printed in small type in a long box, row after row of numbers and names, hundreds of them every player in the majors. To the non-baseball fan, they were as boring as a page in a phone book. I loved it. I wallowed in the numbers. What was Ted Williams s batting average this week? Stan Musial s? Richie Ashburn s? Was Ralph Kiner still the leader in home runs? Who had the most RBIs? Did Mantle have a shot at the Triple Crown? Or Mays? It was like peeking at a race once every seven days, watching the lead change places from week to week. Stop at line 24. Sum up what Spinelli has told you so far about his reading. Based on lines 25 26, what is Spinelli going to talk about next? The sentence I wallowed in the numbers (lines 40 41) cannot be taken literally. What might this figurative expression mean? What is its effect? from The Autobiography of a Kid 255

3 Access SE_6-6_Final Confirming2 9/24/01 10:32 PM Page 256 Menu On Course Print Answer Key Cereal boxes, comics, baseball stats that was my reading. As for books, I read maybe ten of them, fifteen What is the topic of the paragraph beginning at line 47? tops, from the day I entered first grade until graduation 50 from high school. I remember reading a few Bobbsey Twins adventures, and in junior high, sports stories about Chip Hilton, a fictional high school hotshot athlete. I read The Adventures of Robin Hood, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and Kon-Tiki, the true story of a man who crossed the Pacific in a raft. That s about it. Why didn t I read more? curriculum (k rik yº l m) n.: courses offered at a school. I could blame it on my grade school, which had no library. I could blame it on the curriculum, which limited my classroom reading to See Dick run. See Jane run. 60 Repetition of sentence length and structure, and even the words within a sentence, is a literary device called parallel structure. Re-read the last paragraph on this page, and explain the effect of parallel structure on the reader. 256 Chapter 6 See Spot do something on the rug. I could blame it on history, for enrolling me in life and school before the time of book fairs and author visits. I could blame it on my friends, because like me, the only books they read were comic books. Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination

4 But I can t do that. It s always handy to blame things on one s parents, but I can t do that either. My father had his books on display in the dining room. Thirty times a day I passed his collection of histories and Ellery Queen mysteries. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother reading to me, stories like Babar and The Little Engine That Could. My parents steered me in the right direction. And the fact is, on those few occasions when I actually did read a book, I enjoyed it. Yet for some reason I would not admit this to myself. Instead of saying, Hey, that was good, that was fun, I think I ll read another I would dump my baseball glove into my bike basket and head out the path to the Little League field, and months would go by before I picked up a book again. Reading a book was for times when I was totally bored and lacking anything else to do. And what about words, which, packed together, made up a book as cells made up my body? I liked them. Yet this was such a naturally occurring, unachieved sort of thing that if someone had asked me in those days, Do you like words? I probably would have shrugged and blithely answered, No. Still, whether I knew it or not, words were claiming me. When I visited Hartenstine Printing, where my father worked as a typesetter, I saw words being created letter by letter, one thin slug of lead at a time. Once, in a comic book, someone with a bad heart was described as having a bum ticker. That tickled me to no end. I kept whispering bum ticker to myself for days. What simile can you find in lines 82 83? Underline it. How does the writer support his statement that words were claiming him (lines 88 89)? blithely (bl ƒ l ) adv.: in a carefree way; casually. How would you describe the difference between blithe and careless? from The Autobiography of a Kid 257

5 A gossoon (gä sºn ) (line 106) is a young boy. It comes from the Irish. What does Spinelli mean in lines , beginning with The tickle...? Pause at line 123. What do you predict happened when he wrote a poem? Except for the Heap, my favorite comic book characters were Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I liked them as much for their words as their ways. For me, the highlight of a scene was not what happened, but what Bugs or Daffy said about what happened. This is probably why Mickey Mouse never much appealed to me. His speech was too bland for my taste. Occasionally I had to look up a word in the dictionary. Sometimes my eye would stray to the surrounding words. Invariably it stopped at an interesting one, and I read the definition. In one such instance I discovered that I was a gossoon. I clearly remember two feelings attached to these moments: (1) surprise that a dictionary could be so interesting, and (2) a notion to sit down and look through more pages. I never did. And then of course there was my success in spelling. All of these items were indicators of an early leaning toward language, but I failed to see them as such. The tickle of a rabbit s wit, the rattle of alphabet in a compositor s drawer they simply took their place among the Popsicles and penknives and bike tires of my days. With one exception. In sixth grade our teacher assigned us a project: Make a scrapbook of Mexico. I found pictures of Mexico in National Geographic and other magazines and pasted them in my scrapbook, for which my father made a professionallooking cover at the print shop. Then I did something extra. It wasn t part of the assignment. I just did it. I wrote a poem. 258 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination

6 130 Three stanzas about Mexico, ending with a touristy come-on: Now, isn t that where you would like to be? I wrote it in pencil, longhand, my best penmanship, on a piece of lined classroom paper. I pasted it neatly on the last page of my scrapbook and turned in my project. Several days later my mother walked the three blocks to my school. She met with my teacher, who told her she did not believe that my poem about Mexico was my own work. She thought I copied it from a book. (Hah! If she only knew how few books I read, and never one with poetry.) I was suspected of plagiarism. I don t know what my mother said to her, but by the time she walked out I was in the clear, legally at least. Five years would pass before I wrote another poem. Plagiarism (pl j riz m) means taking someone else s ideas and passing them off as if they are your own. For example, a plagiarist might steal a plot or a passage from another writer. Plagiarize comes from a Latin word for kidnapper. Which verb has a more negative meaning: copy or plagiarize? Why do you suppose the teacher thought Spinelli had plagiarized the poem? from The Autobiography of a Kid 259

7 Literary Devices Jot down three short phrases from the story that contain literary devices. Then, explain how the story might differ if those devices had not been used. Autobiography This is a chapter from the autobiography of a famous writer of novels for young adults. In this chapter, Spinelli focuses on the reading he did as a boy (what there was of it). Write a brief account about what you have read so far in your life. Cite titles and characters, even if they are titles of comic books and characters in movies. Open with a general statement about how you feel about reading. Be honest. That is what readers look for in autobiographies. Personal Word List Word List. Record the words you learned in your Personal Personal Reading Log Record this selection in your Personal Reading Log, and write a brief response to it. Give yourself 3 points on the Reading Meter for completing this selection. Checklist for Standards Mastery Use the Checklist for Standards Mastery to track your progress in mastering the standards. 260 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination

8 from The Autobiography of a Kid Interactive Reading, page 254 Interact with a Literary Text Story-Image Frames Summarize the main events in this part of Spinelli s autobiography in a series of frames. Use drawings (you can use stick figures if you wish) to show what is happening in Jerry s life as a reader. Give each frame a title, perhaps a title taken from the text. Frame 1: Frame 2: Frame 3: Graphic Organizer 261

9 from The Autobiography of a Kid Jerry Spinelli page 254 Tell students that this selection is an excerpt from an autobiography. It is written by Jerry Spinelli about himself. Ask students if they are familiar with Spinelli or if they have ever read any of his books. Explain that the author is going to tell about important and memorable incidents from his childhood. Direct students attention to the Interpret note and to the sentence I wallowed in the numbers on Interactive Reading page 255. Model how you might respond to this sentence: This is a metaphorical expression. What does it mean? I think the narrator is saying that he is delighted by numbers. This makes me smile because the sentence he uses brings to mind a pig wallowing in mud! This really adds to the humorous tone of the story. Have students read the rest of the story independently. Remind them to note their responses to the sidenotes in their books. After students have finished reading, divide the class into small groups, and have them discuss their responses. Bring the class back together, and direct students to the Fluency note. Have a variety of students read the fluency passage aloud, experimenting with tone and speed to produce a comic effect. Invite students to choose other humorous excerpts to read aloud. Have students add the title of this story to their Personal Reading Logs. DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION from The Autobiography of a Kid Learners Having Difficulty To help students understand the autobiographical form, have them listen to this selection on the Audio CD before they read it independently. Benchmark Students This selection will be accessible to on-level learners. Have them skim the selection for its text features and preview the vocabulary before they read the selection independently. Advanced Students After they read the story, have students discuss this question: Spinelli did not read many books as a child. Why, then, do you suppose he became a writer? What makes someone want to be a writer? TEACHER TO TEACHER As students become active readers, they will probably find themselves wanting to comment on what they read. Encourage students to get into the habit of starring passages for later discussion. As an informal assessment, photocopy and distribute the What and Why? Chart in Section Three of the Teacher s Edition for students to complete and discuss. Use the Vocabulary Check on Teacher s Edition page 84 to evaluate mastery of the vocabulary standard. Use the Comprehension Check on Teacher s Edition page 85 to evaluate mastery of the literary standard. Have students complete the Story-Image Frames on Interactive Reading page 261 to assess their understanding of the story. Chapter 6 77

10 Name Class Date from The Autobiography of a Kid Interactive Reading, page 254 Reading Standard 1.5 Understand and explain shades of meaning in related words. Vocabulary Check Vocabulary Development subscription, noun curriculum, noun blithely, adverb agreement to receive a magazine or newspaper for a certain period of time courses offered at a school in a carefree way; casually A. Words in Context Use words from the list above to complete the paragraph below. Use each word only once. There I was, (1) paging through the latest copy of my magazine. Suddenly it dawned on me that my (2) was about to run out! It was ridiculous of me not to remember to renew, especially because keeping up on current events is an important part of the (3) at my school. B. Shades of Meaning For each not just... phrase below, write a word from the word box that is described by the phrase. ridiculous liked bland clever 1. not just silly, but extremely absurd 2. not just dull, but tasteless 3. not just tolerated, but warmly regarded 4. not just intelligent, but quick-witted Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. 84 Interactive Reading

11 Name Class Date from The Autobiography of a Kid Interactive Reading, page 254 Reading Standard 3.7 Explain the effects of common literary devices in a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts. Comprehension Check Academic Vocabulary idiom image simile metaphor expression peculiar to a particular language, which can t be understood from the literal meaning of the words descriptive words that appeal to one or more of the senses comparison of two unlike things using words such as like or as direct comparison of two unlike things without using words such as like or as Copyright by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. A. Circle the letter of the best response to each item below. 1. Which of the following contains an image? A My father had his books on display in the dining room. B I wallowed in the numbers. C Reading a book was for times when I was totally bored. D Five years would pass before I wrote another poem. 2. Which sentence uses a simile? F Cereal boxes, comics, baseball stats that was my reading. G As for books, I read maybe ten of them... H...words,which,packed together,made up a book as cells made up my body. J It s always handy to blame things on one s parents The rattle of alphabet in a compositor s drawer is an example of A an image C an idiom B a symbol D a metaphor 4. A bum ticker is an example of F a symbol H a simile G an image J an idiom B. Identify a passage in the selection that illustrates Spinelli s delight in words. Chapter 6 85

12 Chapter 6 Practice Read: Who Was Cleopatra? Vocabulary Check, page 78 A: 1. feuds 2. deposed 3. ambitious 4. dynamic 5. jeered B: 1. greedy 2. feuds 3. jeered 4. toppled 5. dynamic Comprehension Check, page 79 A: 1. D 2. G 3. C 4. F B: Students responses will vary. Examples: Cleopatra was like a snake. Cleopatra was a tiger. Three Wise Guys Vocabulary Check, page 80 A: 1. obstructed 2. simplicity 3. distract B: 1. obstructed Example: Our access to the door was obstructed by a mean-looking dog. 2. distract Example: The clown on the sidewalk distracted all the passersby. 3. simplicity Example: The pattern of the curtains had such a simplicity to it. Comprehension Check, page 81 A: 1. D 2. F 3. C 4. J B: The house smelled of tamales and tacos. [smell] The living room was crowded with big-fannied ladies and fat-stomached men sashaying to the accordion music. [sight and sound] The children fell asleep on a lump of handbags. [sight] The Ancient Library of Alexandria Vocabulary Check, page 82 A: 1. universal 2. deposited 3. stationary B: 1. fragrance 2. odor 3. scrawny 4. slender Comprehension Check, page 83 A: 1. A 2. J 3. B B: He asserted that Earth was a sphere. He used geometric calculations and measured the lengths of shadows cast by sticks. He estimated that Earth s diameter was 7,850 miles. from The Autobiography of a Kid Vocabulary Check, page 84 A: 1. blithely 2. subscription 3. curriculum B: 1. ridiculous 2. bland 3. liked 4. clever Comprehension Check, page 85 A: 1. B 2. H 3. A 4. J B: Students may choose: And what about words, which, packed together, made up a book as cells made up my body? I liked them. Whether I knew it or not, words were claiming me. That [the word bum ticker ] tickled me to no end. Answer Key 115

13 254 Chapter From Knots in My Yo-yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid by Jerry Spinelli. Copyright 1998 by Jerry Spinelli. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc. something like a haystack. The Heap never spoke, and the was. All I know is that it was called the Heap, and it looked lead change places from week to week. like pigs wallow. 255 usually only animals a comic one because numbers. The effect is delighted in the that the narrator The sentence means The sentence I wallowed in the numbers (lines 40 41) cannot be taken literally. What might this figurative expression mean? What is its effect? the papers sports sections of how he also read Based on lines 25 26, what is Spinelli going to talk about next? He read lots of comics. Stop at line 24. Sum up what Spinelli has told you so far about his reading. from The Autobiography of a Kid like peeking at a race once every seven days, watching the neither man nor rabbit. In fact, I m still not sure what it Mantle have a shot at the Triple Crown? Or Mays? It was still the leader in home runs? Who had the most RBIs? Did panied by the metallic flapping of the front door mail slot, My favorite comic character of all, however, was week? Stan Musial s? Richie Ashburn s? Was Ralph Kiner my first subscription: Bugs Bunny. Once a month, accomthe postman delivered Bugs s latest adventures to me. the numbers. What was Ted Williams s batting average this boring as a page in a phone book. I loved it. I wallowed in got serious. I decided the comic should come to me. I got player in the majors. To the non-baseball fan, they were as at corner stores and newsstands. Then when I was twelve, I row of numbers and names, hundreds of them every Mostly I read cowboy and war comics. I bought them And comics. I read them by the hundreds. They were printed in small type in a long box, row after material as for a change in breakfast fare. From April to September in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, I read the major league baseball batting statistics. forward to new cereals as much for a change in reading Wheaties and Cheerios at the breakfast table. I looked be as interesting as the thing they said. surprised to discover that there was more than one way to and heard in the West End of Norristown. I was happily there was only one English language the language I spoke McCarthy in his daily column. Until then I had thought especially liked the clever writing of sports editor Red Mostly I read the sports pages of the Times Herald. I well: sports. Another part of the newspaper got my attention as Magician, my favorite of all was Alley Oop. never missed Dick Tracy, Little Lulu, and Mandrake the Of course, I read the newspaper comics too. While I just another haystack in the field. never got credit. As far as most of the people knew, it was was another story. Every morning I pored over boxes of Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination Read the boxed passage aloud twice. Experiment with your tone and speed to produce a comic effect. subscription (s b skrip n) n.: agreement to pay for a magazine or newspaper for a certain period of time. Circle the words that tell you what Spinelli is going to talk about say something, that the words and their arrangement could Reading Standard 3.7 Explain the effects of common literary devices (for example, symbolism, imagery, metaphor) in a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts. I did not read. Not books, anyway. Now, cereal boxes that Jerry Spinelli are treasured by so many readers. The Autobiography of a Kid. Read on to see just why Spinelli s works The following story is from Spinelli s Knots in My Yo-yo String: writer. The Spinellis have seven children. the Newbery Medal. Spinelli s wife, Eileen, is also a children s-book famous book, Maniac McGee, received several top awards, including Jerry Spinelli is famous for his funny, true-to-life books. His most other the Heap managed to solve the problem, though it scene when people were having problems. Somehow or reader never saw it move, but the Heap appeared on the Access TE_6-Ch6Anno_Final 10/17/01 4:34 PM Page 247 Menu On Course Print Chapter 6 Pupil Pages Pupil Pages with Answers 247

14 248 Interactive Reading: Teacher s Edition 256 Chapter comic books. 90 end. I kept whispering bum ticker to myself for days. described as having a bum ticker. That tickled me to no forgets details. person usually details. A careless unconcerned about A blithe person is 257 How would you describe the difference between blithe and careless? blithely (bl ƒ l ) adv.: in a carefree way; casually. words bum ticker. shop. He loved the created in his father s He saw words being How does the writer support his statement that words were claiming him (lines 88 89)? What simile can you find in lines 82 83? Underline it. from The Autobiography of a Kid Once, in a comic book, someone with a bad heart was letter, one thin slug of lead at a time. worked as a typesetter, I saw words being created letter by me. When I visited Hartenstine Printing, where my father Still, whether I knew it or not, words were claiming answered, No. words? I probably would have shrugged and blithely that if someone had asked me in those days, Do you like was such a naturally occurring, unachieved sort of thing up a book as cells made up my body? I liked them. Yet this And what about words, which, packed together, made else to do. for times when I was totally bored and lacking anything friends, because like me, the only books they read were by before I picked up a book again. Reading a book was the path to the Little League field, and months would go See Spot do something on the rug. I could blame it on of book fairs and author visits. I could blame it on my dump my baseball glove into my bike basket and head out my classroom reading to See Dick run. See Jane run. history, for enrolling me in life and school before the time good, that was fun, I think I ll read another I would not admit this to myself. Instead of saying, Hey, that was I could blame it on my grade school, which had no library. I could blame it on the curriculum, which limited did read a book, I enjoyed it. Yet for some reason I would Why didn t I read more? And the fact is, on those few occasions when I actually steered me in the right direction. a raft. That s about it. Kon-Tiki, the true story of a man who crossed the Pacific in earliest memories are of my mother reading to me, stories Hilton, a fictional high school hotshot athlete. I read The like Babar and The Little Engine That Could. My parents of histories and Ellery Queen mysteries. Some of my adventures, and in junior high, sports stories about Chip Adventures of Robin Hood, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and the dining room. Thirty times a day I passed his collection from high school. I remember reading a few Bobbsey Twins 70 It s always handy to blame things on one s parents, but I can t do that either. My father had his books on display in But I can t do that. tops, from the day I entered first grade until graduation Cereal boxes, comics, baseball stats that was my reading. As for books, I read maybe ten of them, fifteen Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination humorous point. this case, makes a certain ideas and, in structure emphasizes The use of parallel Repetition of sentence length and structure, and even the words within a sentence, is a literary device called parallel structure. Re-read the last paragraph on this page, and explain the effect of parallel structure on the reader. curriculum (k rik yº l m) n.: courses offered at a school. he read. The few books What is the topic of the paragraph beginning at line 47? Access TE_6-Ch6Anno_Final 10/17/01 4:34 PM Page 248 Menu On Course Print Chapter 6 Pupil Pages

15 Chapter 6 Pupil Pages A gossoon (gä sºn ) (line 106) is a young boy. It comes from the Irish. What does Spinelli mean in lines , beginning with The tickle...? He refers to his pleasure in Bugs Bunny s wit, page 258, and in the sound of the type in the compositor shop, page 257. Pause at line 123. What do you predict happened when he wrote a poem? Most students will think it will mark a turning point when he finally realized he wanted to be a writer Except for the Heap, my favorite comic book characters were Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I liked them as much for their words as their ways. For me, the highlight of a scene was not what happened, but what Bugs or Daffy said about what happened. This is probably why Mickey Mouse never much appealed to me. His speech was too bland for my taste. Occasionally I had to look up a word in the dictionary. Sometimes my eye would stray to the surrounding words. Invariably it stopped at an interesting one, and I read the definition. In one such instance I discovered that I was a gossoon. I clearly remember two feelings attached to these moments: (1) surprise that a dictionary could be so interesting, and (2) a notion to sit down and look through more pages. I never did. And then of course there was my success in spelling. All of these items were indicators of an early leaning toward language, but I failed to see them as such. The tickle of a rabbit s wit, the rattle of alphabet in a compositor s drawer they simply took their place among the Popsicles and penknives and bike tires of my days. With one exception. In sixth grade our teacher assigned us a project: Make a scrapbook of Mexico. I found pictures of Mexico in National Geographic and other magazines and pasted them in my scrapbook, for which my father made a professionallooking cover at the print shop. Then I did something extra. It wasn t part of the assignment. I just did it. I wrote a poem. 258 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination 130 Three stanzas about Mexico, ending with a touristy come-on: Now, isn t that where you would like to be? I wrote it in pencil, longhand, my best penmanship, on a piece of lined classroom paper. I pasted it neatly on the last page of my scrapbook and turned in my project. Several days later my mother walked the three blocks to my school. She met with my teacher, who told her she did not believe that my poem about Mexico was my own work. She thought I copied it from a book. (Hah! If she only knew how few books I read, and never one with poetry.) I was suspected of plagiarism. I don t know what my mother said to her, but by the time she walked out I was in the clear, legally at least. Five years would pass before I wrote another poem. Plagiarism (pl j riz m) means taking someone else s ideas and passing them off as if they are your own. For example, a plagiarist might steal a plot or a passage from another writer. Plagiarize comes from a Latin word for kidnapper. Which verb has a more negative meaning: copy or plagiarize? To plagiarize, because it implies deception and stealing because the plagiarist is passing off something as his own that is really someone else s Why do you suppose the teacher thought Spinelli had plagiarized the poem? Probably because he had never written a poem before. Maybe the poem was pretty good. from The Autobiography of a Kid 259 Pupil Pages with Answers 249

16 Chapter 6 Pupil Pages Literary Devices Jot down three short phrases from the story that contain literary devices. Then, explain how the story might differ if those devices had not been used. Autobiography This is a chapter from the autobiography of a famous writer of novels for young adults. In this chapter, Spinelli focuses on the reading he did as a boy (what there was of it). Write a brief account about what you have read so far in your life. Cite titles and characters, even if they are titles of comic books and characters in movies. Open with a general statement about how you feel about reading. Be honest. That is what readers look for in autobiographies. Personal Word List Record the words you learned in your Personal Word List. Personal Reading Log Record this selection in your Personal Reading Log, and write a brief response to it. Give yourself 3 points on the Reading Meter for completing this selection. Checklist for Standards Mastery Use the Checklist for Standards Mastery to track your progress in mastering the standards. 260 Chapter 6 Looking at Texts: Uses of the Imagination from The Autobiography of a Kid Interactive Reading, page 254 Interact with a Literary Text Story-Image Frames Summarize the main events in this part of Spinelli s autobiography in a series of frames. Use drawings (you can use stick figures if you wish) to show what is happening in Jerry s life as a reader. Give each frame a title, perhaps a title taken from the text. Frame 1: Visual summaries will vary. Frame 2: Frame 3: Graphic Organizer Interactive Reading: Teacher s Edition