Character Sketcher:
Your job is to sketch Nick Allen.
Discussion Director:
Your job is to write 5 questions to be answered by your group members.
Be sure to include the answers to your questions and the page number they
can be found on. Ask the following types of questions:
1 Character
1 Fact/Opinion
1 Cause/Effect
1 Italics
1 Prediction
Passage Picker:
Pick 4 passages that exhibit the following:
1 Step by Step
1 Important
1 Funny/Amusing
1 Descriptive
Word Wizard:
Your job is to complete your role sheet for the following words (pick
4):
Shushed p.25
Plopped p.21
Pounced p.4
Frantically p. 12
Jolt p. 3
Screech p.26
Summarizer:
Prepare a brief summary of today’s reading. Make sure to include
all main ideas and points.
Frindle
Section 1 Jobs
Character Sketcher:
Nick Allen is…
Convincing: page 1, par. 3
Nick was convincing because he could easily get others to join with
him in some venture of his.
Worried: page 12, par 1
Nick was worried about the school year with Mrs. Granger as a teacher
because Mrs. Granger had a bad reputation at Lincoln Elementary.
Clever: page 26, par. 2
Nick discovers a way to delay class once again. He decides to
read straight from the dictionary when giving his report to the class on
the first day of school.
Character Goal:
Nick’s goal is to delay class so that no homework assignment would
be given for that night.
Problem:
Nick decides to delay the homework assignment just like he had done
in other classes. However, Mrs. Granger gives him an extra assignment
instead.
Solution:
Nick decides to give a very long report that delays class again the
next day. So, he begins to read a part of the dictionary to the class.
Discussion Director:
· Does Nick think that he can charm Mrs. Granger like he has
his other teachers? Explain your answers. (p. 26) Nick tries
to charm Mrs. Granger, but he is not successful.
· Do you think Nick really dreads Mrs. Granger or the dictionaries
when he thinks about returning to school? Tell why. (p.11)
Nick dreads having Mrs. Granger for a teacher because she is so strict
on every student.
· What happened when Nick tried to stall Mrs. Granger at the
end of class? (p. 15) Nick received an extra assignment to
be completed that night.
· Why is this “this lady plays for keeps” italicized on page
23? It is italicized because it is part of Nick’s thoughts and the
author wants it to be emphasized.
· Predict what will happen next in the story. I think
that Nick will come up with some plan to try to counteract Mrs. Granger’s
previous actions.
Passage Picker:
Passage 1: pages 1-2, paragraph 3
· Begins “One time”…”ended. Suddenly.”
· Step by Step Passage
· This passage goes through each of the steps that Nick went
through in order to create the South Seas in his third grade classroom.
· Do you think Nick will always have this kind of luck with
teachers? I don’t think Nick will continue to have this luck.
Eventually, he will run into a teacher that won’t allow his antics.
· This passage is included because it gives us a chance to see
how Nick has influenced people in the past, as well as his creativity.
This is necessary background in order to understand his behavior later
on in the book.
Passage 2: page 32, paragraph 2
· Begins “She was”…”for today.”
· Important Passage
· It appears that Nick is going to give up, but it ends with
a hint of foreshadowing. It shows that although Nick has been defeated,
he isn’t going to give up.
· What do you think Nick is going to do next? Will he
sit back and watch or will he fight back against Mrs. Granger? I
think Nick will test Mrs. Granger. He seems to be the kind of boy
that wants to see exactly where his limits are. For this reason,
he will probably fight back a little bit, but he won’t go too far to get
him into a bunch of trouble.
· This passage is included because it keeps the reader glued
into what is coming next. The suspense in these few words makes the
reader want to keep reading.
Passage 3: page 31, paragraph 3
· Begins “Mrs. Granger”…”homework assignment.”
· Amusing passage
· It shows that Mrs. Granger is not going to give up.
Also works in conjunction with the description of Mrs. Granger because
it shows that she is determined to win this battle.
· Is Mrs. Granger setting up for a battle with Nick? Is
she trying to stop Nick in his tracks now? Mrs. Granger is going
to challenge Nick. I think this may be a way for her to challenge
him. Perhaps she has heard from other teachers about Nick’s antics
and wants to use them productively.
· This passage shows that Mrs. Granger isn’t just going to let
Nick slip through with his antics as other teachers have allowed in the
past.
Passage 4: pages 6-7, paragraph 3, 1 and 2
· Begins “Mrs. Granger”…”her famous.”
· Descriptive passage
· This passage describes Mrs. Granger from Nick’s perspective.
· Do you think Mrs. Granger is really as bad as Nick makes her
sound? I think Mrs. Granger is set in her ways, which doesn’t make
her a bad person. She probably is a very nice lady, however she can’t
always let the kids see that because she feels she needs to be strict.
· This passage is included because it describes Mrs. Granger.
It also gives the reader an idea of who Nick is dealing with, or fighting
against, in the story.
Word Wizard:
Word 1: Shushed: page 25, par 1
· “She shushed the class and said, “Go on, Nicholas. That’s
a fine beginning.”
· Part of speech: verb
· Meaning: quieted
· Shushed: to quiet something down
· This is used by Mrs. Granger. It is a word that you
could hear an older lady saying in order to try to get a group quieted
down.
Word 2: Jolt: page 3, par 1
· “Lincoln Elementary needed a good jolt once in a while, and
Nick was just the guy to deliver it.”
· Part of speech: noun
· Meaning: livening up
· Jolt: a sudden bit of excitement needed to stir things
up
· This is a vibrant would to use in this sentence, and it is
used in reference to Nick – a vibrant student.
Word 3: Screech: page 26, par 3
· “Mrs. Granger got off her tall stool, and it’s wooden legs
made a screech on the linoleum.”
· Part of speech: noun
· Meaning: to make a noise
· Screech: a loud, halting noise
· This word was used because with the screeching noise, Nick’s
report is put to a screeching halt. The screech gets the attention
of the class and let’s Nick know that Mrs. Granger is finished with his
report.
Summarizer:
At the beginning of the book, Nick is dreading starting the fifth grade
at Lincoln Elementary because he will have the most dreaded teacher of
all – Mrs. Granger. Mrs. Granger teaches fifth grade English and,
according to Nick, is “in love” with dictionaries. Nick has always
been the guy in class who can charm and delay the teachers, so Nick decides
to stall Mrs. Granger who is trying to give a homework assignment at the
end of the first day of class. Nick is clever and asks where words
come from. Instead of giving Nick the long drawn out answer he was
aiming for, Mrs. Granger gives Nick the assignment of finding the answer
and giving a presentation on the topic in class the next day. Nick,
then, went home baffled about what to do for this presentation. Eventually,
he came up with an idea. The next day, when Nick gave his presentation
to the class, he took up the majority of the class. In the last eight
minutes of the school day, Mrs. Granger went over all of the homework from
the previous day, as well as given an assignment for that night. Nick feels
somewhat defeated. He knows that this battle is over, but it appears
that he is expecting more battles to come!
