5 Elephants

Written by Rob Laidlaw
Copyright ©2014
Published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside

Reading Level: Grades 3-8
Lexie Reading Level: 1110L
Fountas and Pinnell Guided Reading: Z

Genre: Non-fiction

Description: Follow 5 elephants as they discover the difficulties of living in captivity. This story will make you take a serious look at the conditions in which elephants live today and in the past.

5 words/ phrases to describe the book: Elephants, Survival, Family, Struggles, Captivity.

Suggested Delivery: Small Group Reading ( Reciprocal Teaching), Independent Reading for Information.

Technology to Enhance Learning:
www.newsela.com has news articles that can be converted based on reading level. Here is one about cracking down on the illegal very market. With this tool teachers can differentiate based on their students' reading level.

Here is a video about Elephants in captivity. Visual resources are always great in a classroom because they are beneficial to different types of learners.










Before, During and After Reading Activities:

Before Reading:
Take a look at the vocabulary. There is a glossary in the back of the book with tier III words used in the text. Give students plenty of time to prepare. This is a long non-fiction text for some students. Students can look at the chapter titles and pictures to get a feel for the book. Students should Write down what they want to learn from the text.

During Reading:
This is a great text for Reciprocal Teaching. This is a type of learning where each student has a job in a group of 4 or 5.

• summarizer
• questioner
• predictor
• clarifier

Students read a section or chapter independently or as a group. While reading students should be pulling out the key information. The summarizer summarizes the passage, the questioner comes up with questions about the text to discuss with the group. The predictor writes down and discusses predictions before reading and what he/she expects for the next reading, and the clarifier answers and clarifies questions about the text. For additional information about reciprocal teaching here is an article from reading rockets.

After Reading:

Because this text is so informational and dense it's a good idea to isolate key themes and ideas. This text is a great start for writing prompts and persuasive essays. 

Writing Prompt Examples:

• Do you think elephants should be kept in zoos and circuses? Why or why not?
• Why do you think the author chose to write this book? What is his message?
• What are some of the struggles elephants in captivity face? use examples from the text.
• What can people do to help animals who are living in poor conditions?

Vocabulary:

Allomother: a female elephant who comforts, assists and protects the calves of other female elephants

Boma: a livestock enclosure, often used to contain large animals

Bull elephant: an adult male elephant

Cow elephant: an adult female elephant

Dentine: the hard, bony material that teeth and tusks are made of

Ecology: a branch of science that looks at living things and their relationships to the environments in which they live

Extinction: the state when all members of a species have died out

Herbivores: animals that feed on grass and other plants

Mahout: an indian word for a person who owns and rides an elephant

Matriarch: a mature female elephant who acts as a leader of a family

Pachyderm: an old term for a large animal with hooves and thick skin, like an elephant or a hippopotamus

Poaching: the illegal hunting, killing or collection of wild animals or plants

Rewilding: the process of preparing an animal to live in the wild