Learning Strategy: Know Your Strengths

My name is Mitch. I am from the Ojibway Nation. When I was a kid, I got a head injury. It made it hard to read and write. So I left school when I was 9. Even though I was just a kid, I went to work. I got jobs cleaning, fixing fences, and digging holes. There was no job I couldn't do. One day when I was 16, the police said I stole a car. I didn't. But they put me in jail anyway. I felt so angry. When I got out, it was hard to find work. I have lots of skills. I am good with tools. I can build and fix just about anything. I'm friendly and honest. But it's hard to find work when you can't read and write. So these days I live outside. I tried to stay in a shelter once. But it felt too much like jail. At night, I sleep in a tent in the park. In the summer, it's not so bad. In the winter, the nights are long and cold. One day, I will be a carpenter. I won't just build houses. I will live in one. In the meantime, I go to school twice a week. I am learning how to read and write. My teacher says I have a positive attitude. My positive attitude is how I get by.

Writing Task

Write the title Know Your Strengths at the top of the page in your notebook. On a new line, answer these questions:

1. What are Mitch's strengths? Make a list.
2. What are your strengths? Make a list.

Attribution

Unit 1: Mysteries in BC History

Rubric- The Shooting of Ginger Goodwin Rubric- The Gentleman Bandit

Unit 2: Snapshots of BC Culture

Rubric- All Together Now: BC Festivals Rubric- Bold and Bright: Sook-Yin Lee Rubric- Spread the Word: First Nations Languages in BC

Unit 3: Wild BC

Rubric- The Rare Spirit Bear Rubric- Journey of the Salmon Rubric- Spy-Hopping with Orca Whales

Make a web

1. Ask your instructor for the Make a Web sheet, or open and print one from the link. For this task, use a marker or pen.

2. Write sasquatch -- the subject -- in the big shape in the middle.

3. In each of the smaller shapes, write one of these questions:

a. What does it look like?

b. Where does it live?

c. Why do people think it is real?

d. Where have I heard about it?

4. Add your ideas to the lines around each question.

Word Attack Strategy

Practice reading these words

Use Your Strategies

Finish your web

1. After you have read the text, close your eyes and ask: When I think of the word sasquatch, what new things come to mind?

2. Get a different colour of marker or pen. Add your new connections to the web you made at the beginning of this chapter.

Now look at all of your new connections! What do you think about the Connect strategy? Did it help you make sense of what you read? Rate this strategy in your notebook. How many stars would you give it? One star means it did not help you. Five stars mean it helped you a lot.

Check Your Understanding

Write true or false for each statement

1. The sasquatch is two metres tall.

2. The sasquatch can run very fast.

3. The sasquatch uses its hands and feet to walk, like an ape.

4. The sasquatch does not have a good smell.

5. People in British Columbia are allowed to hunt sasquatches.

Answer these questions

Who

6. ...told a judge he was kidnapped by a sasquatch?

7. …was the reporter who researched sasquatches?

8. …has told stories about sasquatches for thousands of years?

Where

9. …is the Land of the Sasquatch?

When

10. …do scientists say a beast like a sasquatch once lived?

Use your vocabulary

11. Here are some vocabulary words from the reading. Try writing your own sentence for three of the words.

Grammar

Use the sentences above to answer these questions

1. Which statement is true?

a. In each statement, the subject comes before the verb.

b. In each statement, the subject comes after the verb.

2. Which statement is true?

a. The subject is always at the beginning of the sentence.

b. The subject is not always at the beginning of the sentence.

3. Which statement is true?

a. The subject is always just one thing.

b. The subject can be one thing or a group of things.

Copy these sentences, underline the subject, circle the verb

4. John Green researched stories about the sasquatch.

5. The sasquatch stands three metres tall.

6. Harrison Hot Springs is a place in the Fraser Valley.

7. The government of Harrison Hot Springs started a search party to look for the beast.

8. Scientists know an ape three metres tall did exist 200,000 years ago.

Seeing subjects and verbs in your sentences

9. Now write two or three sentences of your own. Write about whether you think the sasquatch is real. Give your reasons.

10. Underline the subject in each sentence. Circle the verbs.

Writing

Writing Task

In everyday life, we often need to fill out forms. Imagine you are going on a trip to search for a sasquatch. 1. Ask your instructor for the Sasquatch Searchers forms, or open and print them from the link. 2. Fill out these forms to sign up for your trip. Print as neatly as you can. 3. Use a dictionary to look up any words you do not know. 4. When you are done, hand in your forms to your instructor.

Try this

1. In your reader, look at the title of the next reading.

2. Look at the pictures that go with the reading.

3. Look at these words from the story: