1. Marven of the Great North Woods
Compiled by Terry Sams PES & Latonia Wolfe DES
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Illustrated by: Kevin Hawkes

2. Study Skills Genre: Biography Comprehension Skill: Fact and Opinion
Comprehension Strategy: Monitor and Fix up
Comprehension Review Skill:
Main Idea
Vocabulary: Dictionary/Glossary

3. Genre: Biography
A biography is a story of a real person’s life, written by another person.
It is written in the third-person. The author writes, “He was free! He found a job with a printer.”
A biography can cover a person’s whole life or part of it.
An autobiography is also a story of a real person’s life, but it is written by the person.

4. Summary Marven was only ten years old
when his great-aunt died of influenza. To protect him from the disease, his family sent him far away from the city, up to the Great North Woods. There he kept the books at a logging camp. Marven was scared of the big, grouchy lumberjacks, especially Jean
Louis, a “jack” whose feet were as big
as skillets. But he was even more scared when he skied into the woods-and
thought he saw a grizzly bear.

5. Comprehension Skill Main Idea
Main idea is an important point about the story’s topic
Supporting details give more information about a main idea.

6. Comprehension Review Skill Fact and Opinion
A statement of a fact can be proved true or false by looking in a reference book, asking an expert, or using your own knowledge and experience.
A statement of opinion cannot be proved true or false. It is a belief or judgment.
An opinion often contains words such as best, should, or beautiful. It may begin with words “In my opinion” or “I believe”.

7. Research/Study Skill – Graphs
A graph shows data, or information, in visual form. The title and labels tell what information the graph shows and compares.
A bar graph uses vertical or horizontal bars to compare data.
A circle graph is a circle that shows how a whole is divided into parts.

8. Research/Study Skill – Graphs
A line graph contains lines that connect a series of points. Line graphs often show changes over time.
A picture graph, or pictograph, uses pictures to represent amounts.
Let’s use practice book pages 89/90 to better understand graphs.

9. What is the value of a job well done?
Question of the Week
What is the value of a job well done?

10. Vocabulary - Say It
cord
dismay
grizzly (bear)
immense
payroll

11. More Words to Know
lumberjack
silhouettes

12. Review Pages
Which job do you think would be more difficult for a ten-year old: keeping a payroll or waking the lumberjacks? Explain
What causes Jean Louis to open one eye?
What facts have you learned about lumberjacks and Marven’s work in the lumber camp?

13. Review Pages
1. Describe the steps Marven took to organize the chits? What are chits?
2. If Marven gave you his word that he would do something, would you trust him? Why or Why not?
3. How is this selection like other biographies you have read? How is it different?

14. More Review Pages
4. Marvin has a problem about what to eat at breakfast. (p. 224) What would you do to understand why he has this problem?
5. The author describes the lumberjacks as “biggest and wildest” (p. 218). What else does she tell you about them to prove her point.

15. Fun Stuff More on Marven of the Great North Woods Web Quest
Spelling Hangman
Spelling Words in ABC Order
On Line Reading Test
On Line Spelling Test

16. Cord
A unit of measurement for measuring wood.

17. List of persons to be paid and the amount that each one is to receive.
payroll
List of persons to be paid and the amount that each one is to receive.

18. Sudden helpless fear of what is about to happen or what has happened.
dismay
Sudden helpless fear of what is about to happen or what has happened.

19. A large gray or brownish bear of western North America.
grizzly (bear)
A large gray or brownish bear of western North America.

20. immense
Very large; huge; vast

21. Lumberjack
Person whose work is cutting down trees and sending the logs to the sawmill.

22. Dark images; outlines against a lighter background.
silhouettes
Dark images; outlines against a lighter background.

23. The lumberjack cut a cord of wood.

24. The lumberjack cut a cord of wood.

25. A good boss will never forget the payroll for his/her employees.

26. A good boss will never forget the payroll for his/her employees.

27. When I saw the car accident I was in great dismay .

28. When I saw the car accident I was in great dismay.

29. The teacher was in immense pain when he hit his foot.

30. The teacher was in immense pain when he hit his foot.

31. The grizzly bear scared the campers in the woods.

32. The grizzly bear scared the campers in the woods.

33. The lumberjack wanted to cut down the trees.

34. The lumberjack wanted to cut down the trees.

35. The silhouettes of the girls’ profiles looked beautiful against the dark background.

36. The silhouettes of the girls’ profiles looked beautiful against the dark background.

37. GREAT JOB Lumberjacks!!!