Memory Moment Lesson

Standard:
R.L.4.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poetry, in grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end range.
Objective:
Student will be able to recognize the authors theme by finding memory moments examples in a
text.
Materials:

Anchor Chart
The Tiger Rising by Kate DeCamillo
Passages from Hope Was Here.
Memory Moment Video
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLjumKKtgs
o Stop at 1:08
Clip from Rapunzel
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwjGTlACrI
Worksheet

Introduction:
In the past few weeks you have been learning about different Notice and Note signposts.
Today we will learn about Memory Moments and this is when the author or writer interrupts the
story to show that the character is remembering something or having a flashback. We are going
to start by watching a short clip explaining what a Memory Moment. Students will learn that a
Memory Moment are points in a novel where a character remembers something from the past.
Some clues that help us detect when a memory moment is about to occur is phrases like I
remembered or This reminds me of We want to be alert for these times so we can better
understand the character.
We want to ask ourselves why might this memory be important?
Modeled Teaching:
Lets watch a clip from the movie Tangeled and pull out why this flashback is important
to the movie or character. Quietly raise your hand if you ever saw Tangeled. Good.
These memory moments are important because it helps Rapunzel figure out how she
came to be and that she belongs somewhere else. The star like object helps her memory
remember where she saw them before.
Guided Practice:
We are going to know look at our passages from Hope Was Here and pull out a
memory moment. This book is about a girl named, Hope who, must leave a place shes calls
home, once again. Follow along as I read aloud.

We walked across the street to the old Buick that was packed to the hilt with everything
we ownedI didnt know what kind of customers Id get in Wisconsin.
Ok, so lets think. Ive noticed that the author interrupts Hope to tell us about a memory.
I know that memories are important to characters just like they are to us. In this passage, we can
see that Hope walking across the street seeing Morty reminds her of the first time she waited on
him. A memory from her earlier days working in the restaurant. She recalls that even on that first
encounter she had known that hes be an appreciative customer. Pause. Ask yourself, why might
this memory be important? Hope doesnt fuss over this memory but it is there for a reason, what
could it be? I think it helps me see how Hope is feeling about leaving. She is going to miss
Morty and it leads her to think what customers in Wisconsin will be like.
Lets look at another one, listen as I read aloud.
She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeezeAddie said it was our story.
Remember that when we come to such a moment we have to ask ourselves what
question? Why might this be important? Good. Turn and talk to a neighbor for two minutes.
Two minutes pass
What memory is being shared? Good. We are learning about her mother. Hopes mother
deserted her and Addie is her substitute mother and is extremely important to Hope. Our mothers
are someone we look up to for security and when we are anxious. Hope is thinking about how
her mother failed her with that support and reminds us how important Addie is.
Independent Work
Okay, now, we are going to look for memory moments in chapters from The Tiger
Rising. Explain worksheet: Whats happening when the character recalls it, the page, the memory
and why it is important.
Do that independently at your seats and use the worksheet to write it down.

After worksheet:

Independent read your choice book and write in your readers notebook any memory moments
you might find.
Differentiating:
Allow students to stay on the carpet, if they feel they need assistance.
Assessment:
I will know if my lesson is successful if students are able to fill out the worksheet (I will
go over it and collect it) and if they can find memory moments in their choice read books and
write it down in readers notebook.

Passage 1:
We walked across the street to the old Buick that was
packed to the hilt with everything we owned and had a U-Haul
trailer chained to the back.
It was May 26. We were heading to Mulhoney, Wisconsin,
to start work in a diner there that needed a professional manager
and cook (Addie), was short on waitresses (me), and was giving
us an apartment. The man we were going to work for had been
diagnosed with leukemia and needed help fast. I dont mean to
sound ungenerous, but working for a close-to-dying man didnt
sound like a great career move to me. I had to leave school right
before the end of my undistinguished sophomore year, too.
I hate leaving places I love.
We were about to get into the car just as Morty the
cabdriver double-parked his Yellow taxi.
Good old Morty. The first time I waited on him, he
unloosened his belt a notch before he even looked at the menu. I
knew I had a true believer.
I raised my hand to a great tipper.
You always took care of me, kid! He shouted this from
across the street as a UPS truck started honking at him to move
his cab.
I tried, Morty!
Wherever you go, youll do okay. You got heart!
The UPS driver screamed something heartless at Morty
who screamed back, Watch your mouth, big man in a brown
truck!
I didnt know what kind of customers Id get in Wisconsin.

Passage 2:
She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze.
Addie never promised that life would be easy, but she did
promise that if I hung with her the food would be good.
Believe me when I tell you, I know about survival.
I was born too early and much too small (two pounds and
five ounces). For the first month of my life I kept gasping for
air, like I couldnt get the hang of breathing. I couldnt eat
either; couldnt suck a bottle. The doctors didnt think I would
make it. Shows what they know. My mother didnt want the
responsibility of a baby so she left me with Addie, her older
sister, and went off to live her own life. Ive seen her exactly
three times since I was born -- when she visited on my fifth,
eighth, and thirteenth birthdays.
Each time she talked about being a waitress. What made a
good one (great hands in personality). What were the pitfalls
(crazed looks and being on your feet all day); what was the
biggest tip she ever got ($300 from a plumber who had just won
the instant lottery).
Each time she told me, Hon, leaving you with Addie was
the best thing I could have done for you. You need constants in
your life. She had a different hair color each time she said it.
Addies been my number-one constant. . . .
Because of this, I dont buy into traditional roles. My
favorite book when I was little had pictures of baby animals, like
foxes and lambs and ducklings, who were raised by other
animals, like dogs, geese, and wolves. Addie said it was our
story.

Chapter 1 in The Tiger Rising

That morning, after he discovered the tiger, Rob went and stood under the
Kentucky Star Motel sign and waited for the school bus just like it was any other
day. The Kentucky Star sign was composed of a yellow neon star that rose and fell
over a piece of blue neon in the shape of the state of Kentucky. Rob liked the sign;
he harbored a dim but abiding notion that it would bring him good luck.
Finding the tiger had been luck, he knew that. He had been out in the woods
behind Kentucky Star Motel, way out in the woods, not really looking for
anything, just wondering, hoping that maybe he would get lost or get eaten by a
bear and not have to go back to school ever again. Thats when he saw the old
Beauchamp gas station building, all boarded up and tumbling down; next to it,
there was a cage, and inside the cage, unbelievably, there was a tiger a real-life,
very large tiger pacing back and forth. He was orange and gold and so bright, it
was like staring at the sun itself, angry and trapped in a cage.
It was early morning and it looked like it might rain; it had been raining
every day for almost two weeks. The sky was gray and the air was thick and still.
Fog was hugging the ground. To rob, it seemed as if the tiger was some magic
trick, rising out of the mist. He was so astounded at his discovery, so amazed, that
he stood and stared. But only for a minute; he was afraid to look at the tiger for too
long, afraid that the tiger would disappear. He stared, and then he turned and ran
back into the woods, towards the Kentucky Star. And the whole way home, while
his brain doubted what he had seen, his heart beat out the truth to him. Ti-ger. Tiger. Ti-ger.
That was what Rob thought about as he stood beneath the Kentucky Star
sign and waited for the bus. The tiger. He did not think about the rash on his legs,
the itchy red blisters that snaked their way into his shoes. His father said that it
would be less likely to itch if he didnt think about it.
And he did not think about his mother. He hadnt thought about her since the
morning of the funeral, the morning he couldnt stop crying the great heaving sobs
that made his chest and stomach hurt. His father, watching him, standing beside
him, had started to cry, too.
They were both dressed up in suits that day; his fathers suit was too small.
And when he slapped Rob to make him stop crying, he ripped a hole underneath
the arm of his jacket.
There aint no point in crying, his father said afterward. Crying aint
going to bring her back.

It had been six months since that day, six months since he and his father had
moved from Jacksonville to Lister, and rob had not cried since, not once.
The final thing he did not think about that morning was getting on the bus.
He specifically did not think about Norton and Billy Threemonger waiting for him
like chained and starved guard dogs, eager to attack.
Rob had a way of not-thinking about things. He imagined himself as a
suitcase that was too full, like the one that he had packed when they left
Jacksonville after the funeral. He made all his feelings go inside the suitcase; he
stuffed them in tight and then sat on the suitcase and locked it shut. That was the
way he not-thought about things. Sometimes it was hard to keep his suitcase shut.
But not he had something to put on top of it. The tiger.
So as he waited for the bus under the Kentucky star sign, and as the first
drops of rain fell from the sullen sky, Rob imagined the tiger on top of his suitcase,
blinking his golden eyes, sitting proud and strong, unaffected by all the notthoughts inside straining to come out.

Chapter 17 in The Tiger Rising

The next morning, Rob was helping Willie May in the laundry room. They
were folding sheets and chewing Eight Ball gum.
All night, he had tossed and turned, scratching his legs and thinking about
the tiger and what Sistine said, that he had to be set free. He had finally decided to
get Willie Mays opinion.
You ever been to a zoo? Rob asked her.
One time, said Willie May. She cracked her gum. Went to that zoo over
in Sorley. Place stunk.
Do you think them animal minded it? Being locked up?
Wasnt nobody asking them did they mind? Willie May pulled another
sheet out of the dryer and snapped it open.
Rob tried again. Do you think its bad to keep animals locked up?
Willie May looked at him over the top of her glasses. She started at him
hard.
Rob looked down at his feet.
When I wasnt by little, said Willie May, my daddy brought me a bird
cage. It was a green parakeet bird. That bird was so small, I could hold it right in
the palm of my hand. She draped the sheet over one shoulder and held out a
cupped hand to show Rob. It looked, to him, like a hand big enough to hold the
entire world.
Held him in my hand. Could feel his little heart beating. He would look at
me, cock his head this way and that. Called him cricket, on account of all the time
singing.
What happened to him? Rob asked.
Willie May bent and took a pillowcase out of the dryer.
Let him go, she said.
You let him go? Rob repeated, his heart sinking inside him like a stone.
Couldnt stand seeing him locked up, so I let him go. She folded the
pillowcase carefully.
And then what happened?
I got beat by my daddy. He said I didnt do that bird no favor. Said all I did
was give some snake its supper.
So you never saw him again? Rob asked.
Nuh-uh, said Willie May. But sometimes, he comes flying through my
dreams, flitting about and singing. She shook her head and reached for the sheet
on her shoulder. Here, she said. Go on and grab ahold of the other end. Help me
fold this up.

Rob took hold of the sheet, and as it billowed out between them, a memory
rose up before him: his father standing out in the yard, holding his gun up to the
sky, taking aim at a bird.
You think i can hit it? his father said. You think I can hit that itty-bitty
bird?
Robert, his mother said, what do you want to shoot that bird for?
To prove that I can, said his father.
There was a single crack and the bird was suspended in midair, pinned for a
moment to the sky with his fathers bullet. Then it fell.
Oh, Robert, his mother said.
It hurt the back of Robs throat to think about that now, to think about the
gun and his mother and the small thud the bird made when it hit the ground.
I know something thats in a cage, said Rob, pushing the words past the
tightness in his throat.
Willie May nodded her head, but she wasnt listening. She was looking past
Rob, past the white sheet, pass the laundry room, past the Kentucky Star.
Who dont? she said finally. Who dont know something in a cage?
After that, they folded the sheets in silence. Rob thought about the bird and
how when he had finally found its small still-warm body, he had started to cry.
His father told him not to.
It aint nothing to cry over, hes said. Its just a bird.