Lessons & Units :: Fourteen Cows for America 4th Grade Unit

Read-Aloud Lesson: 14 Cows for America

Lesson Plan

14 Cows for America | AD540L

14 Cows for America
Learning Goal
Describe the most important actions taken by the members of the Maasai tribe in response to the story they are told, and explain why the Maasai took those actions.
Duration
Part 1: Approximately 40-45 minutes
 
Part 2: Approximately 15-20 minutes
 
Part 3: Approximately 15-20 minutes
Necessary Materials

Provided:
1. Detailed lesson plan
2. Graphic organizer for guided practice
3. Independent student worksheet
4. Issue brief: 9/11 Fact Sheet for students
5. Issue brief: The Maasai Tribe of Kenya Fact Sheet for students

Not Provided:
14 Cows for America

 
  1. This lesson is a close reading of the entire text. So it’s important to engage students often, to enhance their learning. Here are two tips:

    •   When you ask the more complex questions from the lesson, ask students to “turn-and-talk” or “buddy-talk” before answering.

    •   Once you are deep into the lesson, instead of asking students every question provided, ask them to share with you what questions they should be asking themselves at that point in the text. This is also a great opportunity to use "turn-and-talk."
       
  2. Suggested teacher language is included in the lesson.

  3. We recommend you read the book once to your students, either the day or morning before teaching the lesson.

  4. This research-based, read-aloud lesson may seem long. Why do students need the lesson to be this way?
 

Part 1: Teacher Modeling & Questioning

 

Write the following student-friendly learning goal on the board, then read the learning goal, out loud, with the class.

We will explain what the members of the Maasai tribe did and why they did what they did.

 
Prepare Students for the Lesson
 
Prior to reading the book the first time, we recommend you review the two issue briefs about 9/11 and the Maasai tribe provided for students. This will ensure that students have a basic understanding of facts external to the book that are necessary for understanding 14 Cows for America. Note that a photograph of the Twin Towers has been provided. Please use discretion to determine whether the photograph is appropriate for your students.
 
Transition Students into the Text
 
Teacher says: Let’s read to learn what 9/11 and the Maasai tribe in Kenya have to do with each other in this book called 14 Cows for America.
 
Read page 2 out loud, then stop. Page 2 ends with, “...away a long time.”
1.
Teacher says: The author tells us there is someone named Kimeli. The author also writes that “he watches a herd of bull giraffes" and "he smiles.”
2.
Teacher asks: Whom is the author referring to with the word “he”?
 
Students answer: The author is referring to Kimeli.
3.
Teacher asks: The author tells us it is “his village.” Whose village is it?
 
Students answer: It is Kimeli’s village.
4.
Teacher asks: Is Kimeli returning home, or is he leaving his village to go somewhere else?
 
Students answer: Kimeli is returning home.
Read more
 
Read pages 3 through 8 out loud, then stop. Page 8 ends with, “...the cow is life.”
5.
Teacher asks: What does the author tell us about how the Maasai treat their cows?
 
Students answer: The Maasai treat their cows as kindly as they do their children.
6.
Teacher asks: What are three examples of how the Maasai treat their cows?
 

Students answer:

  • They sing to them.
  • They give them names.
  • They shelter the young ones in their homes.
7.
Teacher asks: Why do the Maasai treat their cows with so much care?
 

Students answer:

  • To the Maasai, the cow is life.
  • Without the cow herd, the tribe might starve.
8.
Teacher asks: From what we’ve read in the book, explain whether the Maasai would want to give a lot of their cows away.
 
Students answer: The Maasai would not want to give their cows away because their cows are so important to their survival.
 
Read pages 9 and 10 out loud, then stop. Page 10 ends with, “He remembers September.”
9.
Teacher asks: What is Kimeli learning to be?
 
Students answer: Kimeli is learning to be a doctor.
10.
Teacher asks: What place does Kimeli think of?
 
Students answer: Kimeli thinks of New York.
11.
Teacher asks: What month does Kimeli think of?
 
Students answer: Kimeli thinks of September.
 
Read pages 11 through 15 out loud, then stop. Page 15 ends with, “...suffering or injustice.”
12.
Teacher says: The author is using figurative language by stating that the story Kimeli thinks of "burned a hole in his heart."
13.
Teacher asks: What is the author trying to communicate to the reader when using the phrase, “It has burned a hole in his heart”?
 
Students answer: It means that the story hurts Kimeli emotionally, or makes him very sad.
14.
Teacher asks: Describe the buildings in Kimeli’s story.
 
Students answer: The buildings are described as being “so tall they can touch the sky.”
15.
Teacher asks: Describe the fires in Kimeli’s story.
 
Students answer: The fires are described as being “so hot they can melt iron.”
16.
Teacher asks: How many people lost their lives in Kimeli’s story?
 
Students answer: Three thousand people lost their lives.
17.
Teacher asks: Let’s remind ourselves: what place was Kimeli thinking about in his story?
 
Students answer: Kimeli was thinking about New York.
18.
Teacher asks: And let’s also remind ourselves: what month was Kimeli thinking about in his story?
 
Students answer: Kimeli was thinking about the month of September.
19.
Teacher asks: So based on what we’ve read, can we infer what real life event Kimeli is talking about in his story?
 
Students answer: Kimeli is talking about the terrorist attacks of September 11th in New York.
 
Read pages 18-23 out loud, then stop. Page 23 ends with, “...he can only marvel.” Show the illustration on pages 23 and 24 as you make the following statement.
 
Teacher says: This picture shows us what the book has just described. Here are the Maasai in full tribal splendor. You can see their beaded collars and blood-red tunics. A tunic is a type of clothing that loosely covers a person's upper body and goes down to around the person's knees.
 
Read pages 24-30. Page 30 ends with, "...cannot offer mighty comfort."
20.
Teacher says: A United States diplomat is someone who represents the United States government in another country. The U.S. Embassy in the city of Nairobi, in the country of Kenya, is the building where the U.S. diplomats in Kenya lived.
21.
Teacher asks: What did the Maasai people give to the U.S. diplomat?
 
Students answer: The Maasai people gave the diplomat fourteen cows.
22.
Teacher asks: Was the gift just for the diplomat for his personal use?
 
Students answer: The gift was not just for the diplomat for his personal use.
23.
Teacher asks: Then to whom were the Maasai giving the gift of fourteen cows?
 
Students answer: The Maasai were giving the gift of fourteen cows to all of the people of America.
24.
Teacher asks: From what you have read about the Maasai in this book, explain whether the gift was a generous gift to the American people.
 
Students answer: The gift was generous. To the Maasai, the cow is life. Without their cows, the Maasai would starve. So the gift of the fourteen cows was a very generous and valuable gift.
25.
Teacher asks: Why did the Maasai give this gift?
 

Students answer: The Maasai gave this gift because they were deeply moved by Kimeli’s story about the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The author also writes that the Maasai are “easily moved to kindness when they hear of suffering or injustice.”

 
Reread the sentence on page 30. Page 30 ends with, “...cannot offer might comfort.”
26.
Teacher asks: Does it seem that the author of the book had a specific country in mind when she wrote that no nation is so great that it cannot be hurt?
 
Students answer: Yes, the author had the United States in mind.
 
If students struggle with this answer, remind them that Kimeli has returned to his village from the United States and that Kimeli tells his tribe about the 9/11 attacks and how the attack hurt the people of the United States. Also remind them that the United States is a much larger and more powerful country than Kenya or the Maasai people, so the author explains that even a large and powerful, or great, country like the United States can still be hurt.
27.
Teacher asks: The author says there is not “a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.” What group of people in this book does the author use as her example of a group of people that is small, but is able to provide mighty comfort?
 
This is a key sentence-level comprehension question. Students need to understand the references in order to understand the broader meaning of the sentence and story.
 
Students answer: The Maasai is the small group of people.
28.
Teacher asks: Based on what we’ve read, is the author communicating a message to us through the story? Is there a lesson to be learned from reading about what the Maasai people did when they learned what happened to the people of the United States on September 11th?
 

Students answer (will vary, but could include):

  • The value of a gift or act of kindness is determined by the thoughtfulness and intentions of the person or people who give the gift.
  • Comfort can be offered to another country, even if that country is much more powerful and larger than the group of people offering the comfort.
  • No nation or people is invincible.
  • One does not have to be powerful or wealthy to be able to provide meaningful acts of kindness or give important gifts that mean a great deal to those who receive those gifts.

 

We suggest that you do not read the last two pages of the book, A Note from Kimeli Naiyomah, until students have finished the entire lesson, including the guided practice and independent practice. Then please do return to the book and read this section aloud with your class.

 

Part 2: Guided Practice & Discussion

 
Transition Students into the Guided Practice
1.

Teacher says: Let’s think together again and summarize how 9/11 and the Maasai people were central to the story of 14 Cows for America.

 
Complete the charts included in the following pages with the discussion questions provided below.
2.

Teacher asks: We read a lot of important information about the Maasai in the book. We also read some interesting but less important details.

Which of the two following pieces of information from the text is more important for understanding the main idea of the story:

  1. The Maasai have roofs made of sun-baked dung, or
  2. The Maasai gave fourteen cows to the United States?
 
Students answer: The more important piece of information is that the Maasai gave fourteen cows to the United States.
Read more
3.

Teacher says: Now we are going to focus on the facts of the story by listing the events in the order in which they happened in real life.

We are going to look at each event and then number them 1 through 7. We’ll put a 1 next to the event that happened first, a 2 next to the event that happened second, and eventually we will put a 7 next to the event that happened last.

 
It is important to remind students that they are not putting the events in the order in which the events were mentioned in the story. They are putting them in the order in which they happened in real life.
4.

Teacher says: Now let's put the events in the order in which they happened in real life.

The U.S. diplomat receives the fourteen cows from the Maasai.

Terrorists attack and destroy the World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001.

The Maasai people are emotionally moved by the story told by Kimeli.

The tribe sends word to the United States Embassy in Nairobi, and the embassy sends a diplomat.

Kimeli tells the story of the September 11 terrorist attacks to the Maasai tribe.

The Maasai tribe surrounds Kimeli after he returns to his village in Kenya.

A Maasai elder asks what the tribe can do for the people of America.

 

After the answers for the graphic organizer have been completed with the class, ask the following main discussion questions.

 
Teacher asks: If the Maasai wanted to give the gift of the 14 cows to the country of the United States and to all of the American people, why did they give the cows to the U.S. diplomat in Kenya?
 
Students answer: The U.S. diplomat is a person who works for the United States government but lives in Kenya to represent the United States there. Since this diplomat represents the United States in the country of Kenya, he was the right person to accept the gift on behalf of the United States.
 
Teacher asks: Explain whether it was important to know some details about the Maasai and their way of life before judging whether a gift of 14 cows was either a valuable gift or an insignificant gift to the United States.
 
Students answer: Yes, it was important to know some details about the Maasai and their way of life because one truly appreciates the value and meaning of the gift of 14 cows by understanding how important cows are to the life of the Maasai.
 

Part 3: Student Independent Practice

 
Both the student question set and teacher answer sheet are provided in the 'Text & Materials' section.

Texts & Materials

Standards Alignment

(To see all of the ReadWorks lessons aligned to your standards, click here.)

User Comments

this was a very good help with my class thank you

Submitted by lbarnwell_2449354 on 11/24/16

Students were beyond engaged with this text and activity.

Submitted by ssmith94_1294477 on 10/22/15

I used this unit with my ESL children. Some could relate to the herding of cattle from their homelands. The book is beautifully written and illustrated. It is also an interesting way of teaching some of our country's recent history. Thank you!

Submitted by Brenda McGinnes on 9/7/15

I liked the lesson ! Thank you .

Submitted by deepakkumarpatro_1399714 on 4/27/15

This is a awesome lesson. My 4th graders devoured it! Thank you.

Submitted by kmartinez on 11/12/14