DETECTIVES Teacher's Guide - Book - Page 213
THE DETECTIVES - TEACHER’S GUIDE - Unit 5
Let’s Notice and Remember (HOTS)
Before looking at the characters in this unit, discuss the title of the unit.
Ask and say:
What do you think the title of the unit, Problems at School, refers to? (Have students guess.)
What kind of problems could there be at school? (Have students bring up different things.)
Recap some of what they’ve been doing in the book – the different mysteries, the characters,
remind them all of what they already know.
Now let’s look at the characters.
Who do we already know? (Tom, Kate, Robert)
What have Tom, Kate, and Robert been doing in the previous units? (Make sure the
students remember some of the adventures of our heroes – the bikes that were stolen, the
paintings that were stolen, the animals’ habitats that were saved.)
Who’s new here? (Ricky, William, Josh, Maya, Nadia, Hallie, Ann, Miss Santos, Mr. Holmes)
Remember we are talking about problems at school, so how do you think all these people
are connected? (Accept any logical answers.)
Part 1: That’s Mean! (HOTS) (pages 162-166)
Discuss the title of the section.
Curriculum:
Say and ask:
AL: Students will compare different
Look at the word ‘mean’.
language elements of English, such as
tense and gender, to their mother
Who knows what it means? (Explain that the
tongue
word ‘mean’ has more than one meaning.)
Explain (you can use L1) the difference between
a. ‘mean’ (v) – definition, e.g., the word ‘upset’ means ‘sad’.
b. ‘mean’ (v) – intention, e.g., She didn’t mean to break it
c. ‘mean’ (adj) – cruel, evil, bad, e.g., She wrote a mean note.
Which of the meanings do you think is used in the title? (awful, cruel)
How do we know? (‘Mean’ here is an adjective, since the verb in the sentence is ‘is’ from the
‘that’s.)
Appreciation of Language
NOTE: Discuss the fact that one word in English can have so many meanings, and the way to
know if it’s a noun or verb or which meaning it has is through the context. Compare that with
Hebrew and Arabic words. Are there any words that have more than one meaning and are
context dependent?
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