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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for A Long Way from Chicago

The cover for A Long Way from Chicago Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

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Use A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck to turn your read aloud or small group work into a time to improve comprehension and talk about the text in purposeful ways.

A Long Way from Chicago is a series of short stories about the summers two children spend with their grandmother in rural Illinois. Full of hilarious and sometimes shocking stories, this award-winning novel is an ideal anchor text for Book Club discussions focused on character perspective and the ways in which the characters' perspectives grow and change with each passing summer. By following the minilessons included in this book club resource set, you'll provide students with the opportunity to track changes in perspective over time, determine pivotal moments that change perspective, and make inferences to identify a character's perspective.

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Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with A Long Way from Chicago in the drop down below.

Meeting 1

The Book Club for A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck focuses on tracking changes in a character's perspective across a longer text. This first meeting introduces the concept of perspective to the readers.

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Meeting 2

During the second book club meeting for A Long Way from Chicago, students will work to notice examples of the main character's changing perspective of his grandmother.

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Meeting 3

Author Richard Peck uses pivotal events in A Long Way from Chicago to change the perspective of the main character. During the third Book Club meeting, students will use a graphic organizer to track their thinking about Joey's perspective of his grandmother.

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Meeting 4

The fourth Book Club meeting focuses on the ways in which historical perspective affects the characters in A Long Way from Chicago. Students will learn in order to really understand Joey's perspective you have to consider his life and the rules he had to live by during the early 20th century.

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Meeting 5

Author Richard Peck changes the main character's perspective by using the influence of other characters. This Book Club meeting focuses on finding examples of this literary device in the text.

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Meeting 6

When readers use their prior knowledge and information from the text, they are able to make inferences that deepen their understanding of what is happening in the story. In the sixth Book Club meeting for A Long Way from Chicago, students will examine the ways in which the characters make inferences and how those inferences affect their perspective.

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Meeting 7

As students progress through Richard Peck's novel, they are exposed to a variety of changing perspectives. This Book Club meeting will invite students to consider how Mary Alice and Joey's perspective of their grandmother has changed as they've gotten older. The included graphic organizer will readers track their observations as they continue to read A Long Way from Chicago.

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Meeting 8

This Book Club meeting for A Long Way from Chicago Book Club will support students as they analyze the relationship between the author's message and the reader's perspective of Joey's grandma. Included in this meeting are prompts to support a discussion about how and why perspectives change throughout the novel.

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Meeting 9

The final Book Club meeting for A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck looks at how and why Joey's perspective of his grandmother changed over the course of the text. Readers are further encouraged to make a text-to-self connection and apply the same thinking to a time when their perspective about something was changed.

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Focus Assessment and Rubric

Use this six-question assessment to determine whether or not students understand the key concepts associated with perspective.

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Running Record with A Long Way from Chicago

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with A Long Way from Chicago. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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About the Book

The cover for the book A Long Way from Chicago

Title: A Long Way from Chicago

Author: Richard Peck

Genre: Historical Fiction

Themes: History, Award Winners, Summer, Adventure, Family

ISBN: 9780141303529

Publisher's Summary:

Each summer Joey and his sister, Mary Alice—two city slickers from Chicago—visit Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town. Soon enough, they find that it's far from sleepy...and Grandma is far from your typical grandmother. From seeing their first corpse (and he isn't resting easy) to helping Grandma trespass, catch the sheriff in his underwear, and feed the hungry—all in one day—Joey and Mary Alice have nine summers they'll never forget!

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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for A Long Way from Chicago