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 about a girl who traveled to Ethiopia to meet her long-lost twin.

Key Skills

cause and effect, text features, vocabulary, sequence of events, key details, inference, narrative writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose: The text describes how Azalea met her twin brother from whom she had been separated at birth.

 

Structure: The story is told from the first-person point of view, in mostly chronological order.

 

Language: The language is conversational.

 

Knowledge Demands: No prior knowledge is needed.

Levels

Lexile: 600L-700L 

Guided Reading Level: S 

DRA Level: 40

SEL Connection

This article and lesson promote relationship and social awareness skills.

Lesson Plan: An Ocean Apart

Essential Questions

  • What role does family play in our lives? Who do we consider family?
  • How can we make others’ lives easier and better?

Literature Connection

  • Novel: The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman (for younger readers)
  • Novel: Far From the Tree by Robin Benway (for older readers)

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article in the magazine or online. Then preview the text features by asking the following question:

  • Read the article’s title and subtitle (the text beneath the title). How do you think you would react if you learned that you had a twin brother you never knew about? Answers will vary.
  • Look at the map. Which ocean did Azalea cross to meet her twin brother? She crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (orphanage, translator, malnourished, nonprofit) 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 Digital. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • At the beginning of the article, Azalea describes her first time visiting the village where she was born. She says it was very different from her neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. What details does she include to show that the village was different from a neighborhood in an average American city? (key details) Azalea describes “dusty brown earth” that stretched out in all directions; small, round houses made of mud and topped with straw roofs; and cows and goats eating hay.
  • Reread the section “Shocking Information.” What information does this section heading refer to? (text features) The “shocking information” mentioned in the section is that Azalea has a twin brother. She didn’t know that until her mom got a message from her birth father saying that her twin brother was healthy.
  • In Shamo Boyo, many people greeted  Azalea with kisses and tears. Why do you think seeing her was such an emotional experience for the villagers? (inference) When the villagers had last seen Azalea, she had been a malnourished baby. You can guess that it had been years since they had heard how she was doing and that they hadn’t known whether they would ever see her again. To see her safe and healthy must have brought joy and relief to the many people who cared about her and her family.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • Azalea ends the first section of the article by noting that her trip to Ethiopia changed her life. In what ways was the trip life-changing? (key details) In Ethiopia, Azalea met her birth father and twin brother for the first time. She learned more details about her birth and why she was taken to an orphanage. She also identified a need in the village where she was born and found a way to help, which has led to a long-term connection with the village.  
  • Azalea describes seeing Mitiku for the first time as weird, like seeing a stranger while also seeing someone familiar. Why might she have felt this way? (inference) Azalea probably says this because she had never met Mitiku before, so in a way he was a stranger. At the same time, he is her twin brother, which means they might look alike or even act alike. 

3. Skill Building and Writing

  • Assign students to work in small groups to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Problem and Solution activity.
  • Go further: Use our Sequence of Events Skill Builder, available in higher and lower level versions.  (Click here to view all your Skill Builders.)
  • Writing prompt: Write a journal entry from the point of view of one of the people who welcomed Azalea to Shamo Boyo. Write about what it was like to know that Azalea had been adopted but not to know anything about her life. What might you think or wonder about? How would it feel to learn that she was coming for a visit?

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.

The First Line

Azalea begins her story by saying, “I’ll never forget the first time I saw the village where I had been born.” What did you think about when you read that line? Did any questions come into your mind? 

An interesting first line can make readers curious. It can make them want to keep reading. Choose a book that you like (or one you think you might like) and read its first sentence. Write it down, along with the answers to these questions:

  • What does the book’s first sentence make you think about?
  • What guesses could a reader make about the book based on its first sentence?
  • What questions might you ask based on the sentence?

Your turn! Write a sentence that, if it were the first sentence in a story, would make you want to keep reading. Share your sentence with your classmates, and read their sentences. Discuss where everyone got their ideas, what the sentences make you think about, and what you think might come next in each story.

Language-Acquisition Springboard

Teach the prefix non- to boost fluency.

Azalea and her mom worked with a nonprofit to put the money they raised to good use in Shamo Boyo. Explain to students that a prefix is a word or a group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word to change the word’s meaning. In nonprofit, the prefix is non-, which means not or without. Nonprofit means “without profit.”

Now read the sentences below aloud. Each one is missing a word. Ask students to complete each sentence with a common word that includes the prefix non-. 

  • Amy called Tim’s excuse for being late ________ because it didn’t make any sense. (nonsense)
  • I can’t eat dairy, so I hope this place sells ________ frozen desserts. (nondairy)
  • I don’t like the smell of cigarette smoke, so I’m glad this is a ________ hotel. (nonsmoking)
  • I thought this book was fiction because the story seems too crazy to be true, but it’s actually ________. (nonfiction)
  • My neighbor’s dog sometimes barks ________ for hours, not even seeming to pause for breath. (nonstop)

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.

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