El tigre torpe 6-pack Author: Barbara Beveridge ISBN: 9780790328324 Copyright Date: 2007 Grade Level: 2 Reading Level: I Strategy/Skill: Author's purpose, Comparing and contrasting, Main ideas, Summarizing Genre: Folk Tale/Traditional Story Theme/Topic: Environment Classification: Fiction Fluency: Fluent

Overview

This text is a folk tale in which a tiger is outwitted by a cat.  The tiger asks the cat to teach him to become quick and smart.  The tiger learns quickly, but there is one thing the smart cat realizes he shouldn’t teach him!  This text is a companion to the Dragonflies fluent title The Competition.

Suggested Purposes

This text supports the comprehension strategies of summarizing the main ideas, understanding the author’s purpose, using illustrations to understand text, and comparing and contrasting.  The storyline, illustration style, and features of a traditional tale provide opportunities for making connections between this text and The Competition.  It provides excellent opportunities for expressive reading and retelling.

Text Features (Focus on only one or two per session.)

• the clear narrative structure
• the features of a traditional tale
• the way the illustrations support and extend the ideas
• the direct address of the reader at the end of the story and the layout features
• text placement, italics, and bold print) that add emphasis
• the traditional opening that sets the tale in a distant time
• the talking animals
• the battle of wits between the characters
• the humorous ending
• the lively verbs – climb, hide, jump, pounce, prowl, run
• the adjectives – big, clumsy, quick, slow, smart, strong, tall
• the use of commas to support phrasing
• the indicators of time – once, one day, every day, soon, then
• the use of idiom on page 8
• the opposites – slow, quick
• the silent letters – climb, climbed, could, know, right, taught, through, who
• the different sounds for “ou” – could, enough, pounce, through
• Possible challenges
  • • the irregular verb “taught”
  • students for whom English is a second language may need support with the idiom “that’s it!” (meaning “that’s the end”) on page 8 and “just as well” (meaning “that’s a good thing”) on page 11.

For more information please see our Lesson Plan