Students should have a basic understanding of the Civil War in order to connect with the text. Before reading the book, explain that using prior knowledge can help them better connect to and understand a story.

• Model one piece of knowledge about the Civil War, preferably one that students may not generate. “I know that during the Civil War, many families were torn apart.”
• Ask students to brainstorm with a partner, and develop a mental list of 2 or 3 facts about the Civil War
• Students share their ideas while you record them on a chart. They should only share new ideas to avoid repetition.
• During the reading of the text, stop and reflect in places where the listed items are helpful to develop a meaningful understanding of the text. Example: “Moe Moe Bay tells Pinkus that his daddy ran off to fight in the war. She must be terrified to know that her son and husband are in harm’s way. This was definitely the case for many families.”(p.13)

Explain to students that inferring means using clues or evidence in the text to figure out something the author has not stated directly. There are many places in the story to model and/or have students practice inferring. Remember to confirm correct inferences later in the reading.

• When Moe Moe Bay talks to Pinkus about never leaving her again, why does Pinkus look troubled? How do you know? (p.13) Inference: Pinkus seems proud to have fought with his unit and says he had gotten lost from them. Maybe he wants to get back to the fighting.
• Sheldon thinks to himself that he does not want to go back to the war. (p.19) Why might he feel this way? Inference: He is very young. He was only supposed to carry the flag, but so many soldiers died that he had to carry a gun and fight. He uses the phrase “slaughtered like hogs” to describe the killing of soldiers.

Once you have modeled making inferences and supported your thinking with evidence from the text, stop in a few more spots of the text and ask students to share an inference and their evidence with a partner. Then choose 2 or 3 students to share with the group.

Pink and Say, the two main characters, share several similarities as well as several differences. While reading the text, work together with students to complete a Venn diagram that highlights the similarities and differences of the two characters including ethnicity, age, family, life before the war, and attitudes about the war.

Compare and contrast one of the main characters-Pink, Say, or Moe Moe Bay- to another Patricia Polacco character.

Compare and contrast Pink and Say to another Patricia Polacco Book, or a different text about the Civil War.

Sometimes when we read, we come across words that don’t sound quite right or don’t make sense in the sentence.That’s a clue that we should try a different sound.

Some letters can make more than one sound, like:

• "ea" in lead (it can sound like "ee" in read or "eh" in led).
• Silent letters that might not sound the way we expect.

Here’s how to use this strategy:

1. Say the word the first way you think it sounds.
2. If it doesn’t sound right, change one of the sounds.
3. Try again until the word makes sense in the sentence!

For example:

• Lead — If you say "leed", try "led" instead.
• Tote — If you say "tot", try "toht" (long "o" sound).
• Steadier — If you say "steed-ee-er", try "sted-ee-er" (short "e" sound).

This text is written with many longer, fluent sentences. For example: “I wanted to go back to our farm in Ohio and sometimes, when I’d fall into one of them strange sleeps, I’d be there with my Ma, tastin’ baking powder biscuits fresh out of her wood stove.” 

Write one or two of these sentences on chart paper, and model reading them without use of the punctuation and then with the use of the punctuation. Discuss the differences, highlighting the meaning conveyed when the text is read fluently.

Project a copy of one or more pages from the book onto a whiteboard. Model how to read the passage fluently with the punctuation. If necessary, place a curved mark under each phrase to identify your pauses.

This text is filled with rich Southern dialogue. Model how to read the dialogue with expression and proper rate in order to enhance meaning. 

Project a portion of the dialogue onto a whiteboard. Have students volunteer to read the dialogue aloud with expression.

During the read aloud, model strategies for using context clues (synonym, definition, example, contrast, inference) to define an unknown word.

Some examples include: mahogany (p.5); marauders (p.5);musket (p.13); spectacles (p.23); deserter (p.29)