Raw Egg Head

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary is realistic fiction about an 8 year old girl. Like Olive’s Ocean, she goes through various struggles at all children her age would go through. Ramona struggles with her sister and her mother and her father and school, but most of all she struggles with Willa Jean Kemp, the girl whose house she goes to after school. Her home life is stressful since her dad has been back at school, he is never able to spend time with her.  While all this goes on she feels like everyone is depending on her.  Her problems with her family and Willa Jean Kemp aren’t her only problems she is faced with; she also tries hard to fit, sometime unsuccessfully, like when she cracks a raw egg on her head. She also thinks that her teacher hates her. All of these small problems could feel like a huge burden.  This realistic story is easy for students to relate to and is very enjoyable.

Web Resources:

• Awesome web resource, it has worksheets with questions for each section of the book, as well as activities for each section. There are also activities to do after the book is finished, and all of the activities are online and printable and it’s all FREE!
• All of the Beverly Cleary books are here, there are FREE teacher’s guides, which if you download, there are plenty of extension activities, an interview with Beverly Cleary , and a synopsis for each of her other books.

Vocabulary:

 Nuisance, squeamish, rueful, lariat, indignant, calamity, aloof, brood, quarrel, quaver, overwhelmed, encumber, arouse, dawdle, sheaf, exasperation, dawdle, scant, sulk, timid, reprimand, and triumphant

Before: I would pre-teach the vocabulary. I would pull out the sentences from the book with these words and write 5 on the board and all of the sentences on a handout. Then I would go through the first five with the students and ask them what they think the words mean from the context and/or the affixes and root words.

During:

To have the students practice their summary skills. I would hand out a worksheet with the following questions:

What was the main idea in the section you read?

What did the main character do?

After reading:

Since the written part CMTs in 3^rd and 4^th grade is a narrative piece, I will have my students write a short story about an event in their life in which they learned a lesson. I would give them the example that Ramona heard her teacher tell another teacher that she’s a nuisance, but in the end she finds out that the teacher really did not think that about her at all. Ramona’s lesson was that even though that is what her teacher said, it is not what her teacher meant, and that you shouldn’t take everything you hear literally. Then I would give the example in my life where I quit doing Irish dance because I thought I was bad at it only to realize years later that I was actually pretty good. The lesson I learned was that I shouldn’t give up just because I don’t think I’m great at something because I can only get better. Then I would tell them that you should describe all the events that lead up to your lesson. For me I could say how I was winning 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place medals but I still didn’t think I was good enough. I would emphasize the idea that you need to elaborate on everything so anyone who reads your story will understand and be able to follow.