Explain or remind the students that cause-and-effect relationships are used to help readers understand that events happen and the reasons that cause such events to happen. There are many examples in the text to help students see cause-and-effect relationships. Below are four cause-and-effect examples taken from the text:

After reading P. A (this text uses the alphabet instead of numbers), ask the students what caused Sage to miss school? What was the effect? (Sage got sick.) What was the cause of the effect? (Forest was sick and he shared with Sage.)

After reading P. B, ask the students what caused Sage to write down the word “Miss Alaineus” on her vocabulary list? What was the effect? (Sage wrote down “Miss Alaineus.”) What was the cause of the effect? (Starr had to hang up, she told her the last word and didn’t have time to spell it.)

P. M, What caused the students to laugh at Sage after she gave her definition for “Miss Alaineus”? What was the cause and effect?

Ask the students if they heard any cause-and-effect clue words (because, if, then, since, so, therefore, as a result of) on page M. Did you have to infer what caused the students to laugh at Sage? Why?

What caused the students to applaud and laugh wildly at Sage? What was the effect?

This story lends itself to visualization because of the school and home setting. Begin the visualization strategy for the story by asking the following questions: “Have you every missed school because you were sick? Have you ever misunderstood an assignment? Do you look up words or ask a friend for help with new or interesting words you don’t know?” Stop and model with students the mental images you see after reading the first page. Ask the students, “Can you see yourself in this story?” “Have you ever sat beside a classmate that was sick?” Ask the students to create a mental image or movie of the story as it is read aloud. After each page or section of the text is read give the students enough time to visualize the event and setting of each story segment. Reveal the illustrations to the students after they’ve had time toindependently visualize.

Students should be given an opportunity to reread texts several times so they can read it smoothly, correctly, and with expression. In order to model the strategy select a paragraph to reread. On the first reading read slowly without expression. After subsequent rereading improve the quality of fluency and expression each time.

The following passage can be used for modeling this strategy: 

“To my astonishment: great shock and amazement, I won a gold trophy for The Most Original use of a Word in the Tenth Annual Vocabulary Parade. So this time Mom was right. There was gold in this mistake. And next year I think I’m going to be.....”

“Miss Sterious, Investigator of All Things Mysterious!”

The book combines a number of features that can be used to adjust reading rate. A comparison for this story book can be made to that of a social studies or science text because within the reading, definitions are given and the word list itself is based on words associated with dinosaurs. The book is written in first person and Sage’s tone and emotions can be used to apply different reading rates within the story line.

This strategy can be modeled using the following passages:

• Word list chart and definitions 
• “Mrs. Page opened her dictionary and wrote on the chalkboard...” 
• This page of the book is filled with Sage’s emotional retelling of her humiliating day and the class trip to the science museum.

The author’s purpose of this book can be two fold, it teaches the reader to look for a positive made from a mistake or misunderstanding, but it also teaches students awareness and understanding of words they don’t know.

To model this strategy select the following suggested words from the text:

• Scribble
• Miscellaneous
• Astonishment