Fountas-Pinnell Level PPlaySelection SummarySome students in Ms. Price’s class, especially Tracey, are wary when they become pen pals with sight-impaired students. A shared fi eld trip to the zoo, where one of the sight-impaired students prevents an accident, helps them learn that sight-impaired individuals are not so different after all.
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Characteristics of the Text Genre • Play
Text Structure • Organized into three acts • Narrative structure includes multiple episodes related to a single plot• Stage directions facilitate classroom performance and reveal characters’ motivations
Content • School fi eld trip to the zoo• Sight impairment• Baseball• Making new friends and helping others
Themes and Ideas • Sight-impaired individuals do the same things sighted people do, only they do some things differently.
• Getting to know those with disabilities can help people overcome their fear of differences.Language and
Literary Features• Except for stage directions, text is entirely dialogue• Multiple points of view
Sentence Complexity • Some complex sentences containing embedded clauses and phrases • Questions in dialogue• Dialogue is patterned after natural speech with punctuation used in a way that may be
unfamiliarVocabulary • Some challenging words, such as Braille, burglary, conservatory
Words • Multisyllable words, such as speculated, chaperone, enraptured, encouraginglyIllustrations • Lively, cartoon-like drawings identify characters and support the story.
Book and Print Features • Twelve pages of text, illustrations on every page • Acts and scenes begin on new pages and are indicated with headings
assist – to help someone, p. 14burglaries – when things are
stolen, p. 6favor – an act of kindness, p. 8innocent – someone who has
done nothing wrong, p. 13
misjudged – having an incorrect idea about something, p. 7
prior – before something takes place, p. 9
regretfully – doing something in a way that shows someone is sorry, p. 14
scheme – a plan to get something done, p. 8
speculated – made guesses about a situation, p. 9
suspect – to think that something is true or probable, p. 5
A Friendly Field Trip by Natalie Behar
Build BackgroundHelp students use their knowledge of differences to visualize the selection. Build interest by asking questions such as the following: Have you ever known anyone who was sight-impaired? If not, what do you think that would be like? Read the title and author and talk about the cover illustration. Tell students that this story is a play, so it tells a story through words and actions of characters that are supposed to be acted out.
Introduce the TextGuide 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 this page shows the play’s cast of eight characters. Ask students why the cast is always listed at the beginning of a play.
Pages 4–5: Explain that in this story, a class of students is going to be pen pals with another class that happens to be sight-impaired. Have students read the stage direction, (Deflated), that comes before Tracey’s dialogue on page 4. Suggested language: The stage directions give information about how the character’s feel or speak their lines. Ask: How would an actor reading Tracey’s part show that Tracey is defl ated? On page 5, Ms. Price, the teacher, says all of the sight-impaired students are profi cient in Braille. Ask: What does it mean to be profi cient in Braille?
Page 7: The stage direction on page 7 says the batter, Ian, misjudges a pitch. Ask: What usually happens if you misjudge a pitch?
Page 9: One of the students, Ian, wonders aloud to his sight-impaired friend Syd if there is a way he can convince his classmates that sight-impaired people aren’t really that different. Read students the last line on page 9. Ask: What does Syd mean by saying Ian has an enterprising mind?
Now turn back to the beginning of the story to learn how about these students learned to be friends.
ReadHave students read silently while you listen to individual students read aloud. Support their understanding of the story as needed.
Remind students to use the Analyze/Evaluate Strategy and to think about what the students, especially Tracey, might learn in the play.
Discuss and Revisit the TextPersonal ResponseInvite students to share their personal responses to the text.Suggested language: What important things do these students learn about each other?
Ways of ThinkingAs you discuss the text, help students understand these points:
Thinking Within the Text Thinking Beyond the Text Thinking About the Text
• Ms. Price’s class participates in a letter exchange with sight-impaired students at another school.
• Some students, especially Tracey, are uneasy about exchanging letters with sight-impaired students.
• The students go on a fi eld trip with their sight-impaired pen pals.
• One reason that people are uncomfortable with situations is because they are not familiar with them.
• Sight-impaired people are not so different after all.
• The characters in the play react as real students might react.
• The author uses the characters of Syd and Ian to help readers understand people who are sight-impaired.
Choices for Further Support• Fluency Invite students to act out a scene from the play. Remind them to pay
attention to punctuation, and to use appropriate intonation, rate, and volume as they read to make the dialogue sound like natural speech.
• 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 as needed with words and word parts, using examples from the text. Tell students that differently on page 8 begins with the root word different. Adding -ly makes the word an adverb, a word describing a verb (in this case, the verb do). Have students locate other -ly adverbs in the story and/or practice making adverbs using other base words.
Writing about ReadingCritical ThinkingHave students complete the Critical Thinking questions on BLM 4.8.
RespondingHave students complete the activities at the back of the book, using their Reader’s Notebook. Use the instruction below as needed to reinforce or extend understanding of the comprehension skill.
Target Comprehension SkillTheme
Target Comprehension Skill Remind students that they can examine characters’ qualities and
motives to recognize the theme of the play. Model how to add details to the Graphic Organizer using a “Think Aloud” like the one below:
Think Aloud
A detail listed is that “Syd could babysit Ian.” Tracey and Julia both enjoy the visit to the nature conservatory. Put that in one of the detail boxes. Syd and Ian both like to read. Put that in another detail box. These details support the theme that “people who are sight-impaired aren’t really so different.”
Practice the SkillHave students share an example of a story in which they analyzed a character’s motives and qualities to determine a story’s theme.
Writing Prompt: Thinking Beyond the TextHave students write a response to the prompt on page 6. Remind them that when they think beyond the text, they use their personal knowledge to reach new understandings.
Assessment Prompts• On page 11, what does the word chaperone mean?
• Why does Tracey feel uncomfortable with Julia at fi rst?
• What do you think will happen in the future when students from Mrs. Price’s class meet others with disabilities? Why do you think that?
1. Think within the text Why are the students’ pen pals at the
other school called “sight-impaired” instead of “blind”?
2. Think within the text How will the sight-impaired students
read the letters sent by Ms. Price’s class?
3. Think beyond the text What role does the fi eld trip play in
developing the theme of the selection?
4. Think about the text Why do you think that the author
includes the scene between Ian and Syd?
Making Connections Everyone has something that places limits on what he or she can and can’t do. What is one limit you have? How have you overcome or adapted to it?
English Language DevelopmentReading Support Pair advanced and intermediate readers to read the story softly, or have students listen to the audio or online recordings. Remind students that this story is about accepting other people the way they are.
Idioms the story includes some idioms and phrases that may be unfamiliar, such as more than a little curious (p. 9), petting zoo (p. 10, illustration), and smashed big time (p. 14).
Oral Language DevelopmentCheck student comprehension, using a dialogue that best matches your students’ English profi ciency level. Speaker 1 is the teacher, Speaker 2 is the student.
Beginning/Early Intermediate Intermediate Early Advanced/ Advanced
Speaker 1: Who is this story primarily about?
Speaker 2: a group of students
Speaker 1: Who Ms. Price’s class exchanging letters with?
Speaker 2: sight-impaired students
Speaker 1: Where did Ms. Price’s class go at the end of the play?
Speaker 2: on a fi eld trip
Speaker 1: How does Ian know Syd?
Speaker 2: Syd is Ian’s babysitter.
Speaker 1: How will the sight-impaired students read the letters that Ms. Price’s students are writing?
Speaker 2: They will read them using Braille.
Speaker 1: How does Julia prevent Tracey from having an accident?
Speaker 2: Julia hears a bicycle approaching and stops Tracey from walking in front of the bicycle.
Think about the questions below. Then write your answer in two paragraphs.
Remember that when you think beyond the text, you use your personal knowledge to reach new understandings.
On page 9, Syd says that “people are afraid of things that are different or unfamiliar.” What does Tracey learn about Julia? Do you think it was hard for Tracey to learn this lesson? Why or why not?
1. Think within the text Why are the students’ pen pals at the
other school called “sight-impaired” instead of “blind”?
2. Think within the text How will the sight-impaired students
read the letters sent by Ms. Price’s class?
3. Think beyond the text What role does the fi eld trip play in
developing the theme of the selection?
4. Think about the text Why do you think that the author
includes the scene between Ian and Syd?
Making Connections Everyone has something that places limits on what he or she can and can’t do. What is one limit you have? How have you overcome or adapted to it?
