Standards Correlations

R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.7, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will identify cause-and-effect relationships in a text.

Key Skills

cause and effect, text features, vocabulary, central idea and details, interpreting text, inference, critical thinking, narrative  writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose: The text tells how a teenager, Dhilan, formed a friendship with Janine, a Holocaust survivor in her 90s.

 

Structure: The text is written from the first-person point of view and includes cause-and-effect structures.

 

Language: The language is conversational.

 

Knowledge Demands: Basic understanding of World War II and the Holocaust is helpful but not required.

Levels

Lexile: 600L-700L 

Guided Reading Level: U 

DRA Level: 50

SEL Connection

This article and lesson promote social awareness and self-awareness skills.

Lesson Plan: An Unlikely Friendship

Essential Questions

  • What can we learn from stories of resilience and survival?
  • How can sharing personal stories help create understanding and make the world better?

Literature Connection

  • Historical fiction: I Survived the Nazi Invasion, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis
  • Graphic fiction: White Bird by R.J. Palacio

1. Preparing to Read 

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article in their magazines or at Action Online. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

  • Read the article’s title. Then read its subtitle: “How did a teenager and a 99-year-old woman become friends? Learn their incredible story—and the important message they’re trying to spread.” What do you think their friendship might have to do with the message the teen and the woman want to share? Make a prediction. Sample answer: Their friendship might show the importance of connecting with people from different generations.
  • Look at the pictures of Janine and Dhilan included in the article. What do the images and captions tell you about their relationship? What do they tell you about Janine and Dhilan individually? The pictures and captions show that Janine and Dhilan do volunteer work together. They also tell us that Janine is a Holocaust survivor and that Dhilan has given a speech about his volunteer work.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (exhibit, genocide, volunteer, tragic, resilience) aloud and discuss their definitions.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow. 

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

  • Set a purpose for reading: Tell students that after reading, they’ll analyze cause-and-effect relationships in the story. Point out the activity at the end of the story. 
  • Encourage students to pause at the end of each section so they can monitor their comprehension. Prompt them to take note of sentences they think tell them important ideas in each section, as well as any words or sentences they don’t understand.

2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

Read the article. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (20 minutes)

  • Why did Dhilan decide to start volunteering at the Holocaust Museum? (cause and effect) Dhilan decided to volunteer at the museum because the VR exhibit deeply moved him. He wanted to help others learn about the Holocaust and its important lessons.
  • How did Janine’s story change the way Dhilan sees challenges? (cause and effect) Janine’s story of resilience inspired Dhilan to focus on living life fully and to not stress too much about the future. Her strength made him feel more able to handle his own challenges.
  • What does the section header “Hard History” mean to you? (interpreting text) Sample answer: “Hard History” means painful events from the past, like the Holocaust, that are difficult to talk about but important to understand so that we can prevent them from happening again.
  • What does Dhilan’s project, Gen Z for Humanity, have to do with Janine? (inference) Through Gen Z for Humanity, Dhilan is continuing Janine’s mission to spread awareness about the Holocaust. Their friendship inspired him to share her message with others his age.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • Janine shares her story to educate others about the Holocaust. How might sharing personal stories help people learn important lessons? Sharing personal stories makes history feel real. It helps people connect emotionally to the lessons, making them more likely to understand and remember the message.
  • Dhilan and Janine come from different generations and backgrounds, yet they formed a strong friendship. How is it useful to build relationships with people who are different from you? Building relationships with people who are different from you allows you to learn about different experiences and see things in a new way. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

  • Assign students to work in small groups to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Cause and Effect activity.
  • Go further: Use our Central Idea and Details Skill Builder, available in higher and lower level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders.)
  • Writing prompt: Dhilan and Janine’s friendship shows the power of learning from others and sharing stories. Imagine their story as a book. Write a short passage in which Dhilan and Janine talk about Dhilan’s project, Gen Z for Humanity, and why it’s important.

Learn-Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Project the task below on your whiteboard or share it with students in your LMS.

Dig Deeper: The Holocaust

In the article “An Unlikely Friendship,” Dhilan talks a little about the Holocaust. Now learn more about this important and tragic time in history by watching our video “An Introduction to the Holocaust.”

In the video, award-winning author Lauren Tarshis discusses the events of the Holocaust, how something so terrible could ever have happened, and what we can do to keep anything like it from happening again. After watching the video, gather with two or three classmates to discuss the following questions:

  • Who was Adolf Hitler?
  • Why did people listen to Hitler?
  • With Hitler in charge, what was life like for Jewish people living in Germany?
  • What are three details found in the video that aren’t included in the article?
  • Like Janine, Tarshis says that talking about the Holocaust can help us keep terrible things like it from happening again. How?

Language-Acquisition Springboard

Have students write summary questions for self-assessment.

Before reading, point out that unlike some of the other articles in Action, the True Teen doesn’t come with Pause-and-Think questions (the questions at the end of each section). Let students know that they’ll be expected to come up with these questions after reading. Encourage them to try to think of suitable questions as they read.

After reading, divide students into pairs. Have one student in each pair write a question about the section “Hard History” and a question about the section “Sharing Stories.” Have the other student write a question about the section “Good Friends” and one about the section “Making It Through.” Then have the students in each pair try to answer each other’s questions. 

Possible questions:

  • For “Hard History”: Why did Dhilan first visit the Holocaust Museum?
  • For “Sharing Stories”: Why does Janine share her story with people?
  • For “Good Friends”: What is the purpose of Gen Z for Humanity?
  • For “Making It Through”: How has knowing Janine changed the way Dhilan sees challenges?

Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.

Lesson Plan

Read-Aloud Fiction

Lesson: An Unlikely Friendship

A step-by-step lesson plan for this text

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Text-to-Speech