ReadWorks.org

Read Chapter 4: “The Owl” - Chapter 6: “Chinatown;” Complete Student Packet Worksheets for Chapter 4: “The Owl” - Chapter 6: “Chinatown”

Choose a photograph from a newspaper or magazine and show the photograph to the class. Ask students to make up a story about what’s going on in the photograph.

will explain that pictures are, indeed, worth a thousand words. Photographs tell their own stories, so an author of an autobiography often uses photographs or pictures to support the text in their book. I will explain that photographs help readers visually understand the people and events described with words in the book. Good readers examine the photographs and captions in a book to make a connection with events and ideas in the text. In The Lost Garden, the author has included photographs between Chapters 4 and 5.

I will examine three photographs and their captions. I will use descriptive language to describe what I see. I will then think about what the photograph might show me about the author’s life, and I will make a connection to the text.

The first photograph I will examine is the photograph of the author’s father at age 10. First, I will read aloud the caption. The caption tells me that it is the author’s father at about age 10, when he came from China. Next, I will use descriptive language to talk about the photograph. For example, I see a young child with a short haircut and a serious look on his face, rather than a playful look that most children have. The child is dressed in a suit.

I will make a connection to the text. I can go back to Chapter 1, on pages 6 and 7, where the author describes his father as a child. The author tells the reader that his father spent the first few months in America being beaten up by other boys. I can make a connection to the text: the author included this photo to show the reader what his father looked like as a child and to explain the difficult times his father encountered as a Chinese child in a new country. The photo shows the reader the seriousness of a boy who was teased and hurt by other boys and who did not fit into American culture.

I will examine the photo of the author’s mother at age 10, use descriptive language to talk about the photo, and then make a connection to the text. In the photo, I see a young girl with a mature but playful smile. The girl is wearing a collared sweater. In this pose, she has her hand on a book. The picture was taken in 1924, so I might say that this girl’s family could have been well-off because not all families had the means to take photographs back then. The caption tells me that the photograph is of the author’s mother when she was a 10-year-old girl living in West Virginia.

I will make a connection to the text. In Chapter 1, on pages 7 and 8, the author describes his mother as, “growing up in the rolling hills of West Virginia.” He also states that she was tutored by a teacher. The author mentions his mother was able to do things white children did. This tells me that his mother had a happy and perhaps wealthy childhood until she moved to California. The remaining information in the text describes the hard times the family faced. In this case, the picture supports the description of the author’s mother while she lived in West Virginia.

Ask: "How can I figure out how a photograph or caption supports a description or event in an autobiography?" Students should respond that you can use descriptive language to analyze the photos and captions used in the book. Then, you can make a connection between the photo and actual text to understand why the author would include this photo in the autobiography.

will look at the following photos and captions shown between Chapters 4 and 5: the author in his football gear and the author’s high school photo. We will use descriptive language to describe what we see in each photo. For example, in the football photo, we see a child dressed in football gear and smiling at the camera. We will read the caption aloud.

We will make a connection to the text for each photo, and we will analyze what is written in the text and why the photo/caption was used in the book in order to support the text. For example, in the football photo, we can see how the author, as a Chinese boy, tried to fit into American culture by playing football—a sport not traditionally played by Chinese children. The author included this photo to illustrate both his Chinese ethnicity and his American upbringing in an urban city.

will look at the photos/captions of the following photographs in the book: father/son in front of the car, and father in front of the store. You will use descriptive language on the Photos and Captions Worksheet to identify what you see in each photo. (See pages 10-11 in the Student Packet.) Then, you will make a connection to the text and cite page numbers and the details that support each photo. You will explain why the photos/captions were used in the book and how they support the details in the text. 

will come together to share our ideas about the photos/captions we have analyzed. We will discuss the questions,"How do photos contribute to an autobiography? Did your ideas about the people and events in Yep’s autobiography differ from what you saw in the photos?"