Karana was stranded alone on an island off the coast of California. She had to learn to survive in the wilderness without tools or other people. Some of the challenges she faced were finding food, building shelter, and keeping wild animals from stealing her stored supplies. To protect her food, she built a fence using strong seal sinew instead of kelp, since animals would gnaw through kelp. The passage discusses Karana's struggles and resourcefulness in overcoming challenges to survive alone in the wilderness.

1. The Island of
Blue Dolphins
By Scott O’Dell

2. Day 1 – Content
Knowledge
 How do people survive in the
wilderness?
 Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs-
kTaKv2o

3. Oral Language

4. Concept Map
Amazing Words:
gutted, quartz, flint, blazing
Listen to these words in our
read aloud. Think about
what quartz is and what is
can be used for.
Where would flint belong
on our concept map?
How people survive in the wilderness
Tasks Challenges Wilderness Resources
Flint

5. Read
Aloud

6. Comprehension Skill: Theme and Setting
Comprehension Strategy: Inferring

8. Vocabulary
 Discuss the meaning of each of the words about.
 In your reading spiral write down a definition for the
vocabulary words.
 Choose three words and write them in a sentence.
Share your sentences with your neighbor!

9. Research and Inquiry – Identify
Research a topic of wilderness survival. Come up with a few open ended-
questions for this topic. At the end of the week you will share your safety tips
from your list!
Possible Questions: What does someone need to do to survive in the
wilderness?
What are some good basic tools?
Work in pairs to come up with a narrower topic and write an inquiry question.
Spelling – Long Vowel Diagraphs
Take your Spelling City Pretest
ws: DVD19
Conventions – Independent and Dependent Clauses
An independent clause has a subject and a predicate and makes sense
on its own.
Transparency 3 #1-3 as a class or in groups.
Students complete 4-9 independently.
Handwriting – cursive
packet

10. Day 2 – Content
Knowledge
Oral Language Video –
 Weekly Concept – How do people survive in the
wilderness?
 He huddled over his tepee and smacked the quartz
against the knife like a flint. A spark flashed, and the
tinder ignited. – “Jenks and the Fire”
 What do you think the word flint means? – What
context clues can we use?
 Why might he be huddled over the fire?

11. Concept Map
Amazing Words:
prey
pursuit
Look at the photographs on
page 82-83.
What does prey mean?
What are some animals
that can be prey?
What does pursuit mean?
Previous words:
gutted, quarts, flint, blazing
If you eat fish at a
restaurant, has it already
been gutted?
Explain how to use quartz
and flint to start a fire.
How people survive in the wilderness
Tasks Challenges Wilderness

12. Word Analysis
 compound words: words that are made up of two words.
 In your reading spiral choose a word below from the first
column. Then choose a word from the second column to
create a compound word.
 Example: Pick head from the first column. In the second
column choose land. Headland is a high piece of land
that juts out into the water.

13. Literary Terms: Imagery
 Authors use imagery in stories so the reader
experiences the story as the characters do. An
image is any detail that stimulates the senses and
imagination.
 Imagery helps create a mood and visualization of
the story.
 Look at the first paragraph of “Alone” on page 85.
How do you think Jesse feels when he hears, “the
summer wind rustling the tall prairie grass” and
what is the mood the author created?
 look for another example of imagery in “Alone.”

14. Vocabulary Skill: Unknown
Words

15. Vocabulary Skill: Unknown
Words Read “Island
Survival” on
page 87.
 Write the
definitions to
the highlighted
words in your
reading spiral.
 If you do not
know the
definition use
a dictionary!

16.  This is a novel. A novel is
longer than a short story and
can have many characters,
more description, and more
subplots.
 Look at the title and illustration
of the girl. What do you think
will happen?

17. Conventions: Independent and
Dependent Clauses
 After I went to the play I came home.
 The first clause is dependent because it does not
express a complete thought.
 The second clause is independent because it can stand
on its own as a sentence.
 Combine each clause in the first column with the clause
in the second column to form a complex sentence
 Only insert a comma when a dependent clause begins
the sentence.

18. Research and Inquiry – Navigate/Search
Search on ______ website using your inquiry questions and
keywords to guide your research plan.
What experts could we ask about wilderness survival?
Create some questions you could as a wilderness expert.
Spelling – Long Vowel Digraphs
In a vowel digraph, two vowels together stand for one sound, which is the
long sound of the first vowel.
Reader’s and Writer’s notebook p. 66
Vocabulary – Unknown Words
WS 68
Conventions – Independent and Dependent Clauses
WS 65

19. Day 3 – Content
Knowledge
Oral Language How do people survive in the wilderness?
 Today while we are reading, think about how Karana
overcomes challenges in the wilderness so that she can
survive.
 “I would have used seal sinew to bind the ribs together,
for this is stronger than kelp, but wild animals like it and
soon would have gnawed the fence down.” –The Island
of Blue Dolphin p. 94
 What does sinew mean and why would she build a fence
from it?
 What does gnawed mean?

20. Concept Map
Amazing Words:
shipwreck
famished
What is the definition of the
word shipwreck?
Discuss with a partner:
Why might a shipwreck
happen?
What story do you know
that is about a shipwreck?
What does famished
mean?
When might someone be
famished?
How people survive in the wilderness
Tasks Challenges Wilderness

21. Main Story
 Describe the story’s setting.
What clue about the story’s
theme does the setting reveal?
 Why does Karana want to
build her home in the southern
part of the island?
 Pages 96-101

22. Think
Critically

23. Research and Study
Skills SPQ3R
 Survey, Predict, Question, Read, Recite, Review

24. Research and Inquiry – Step 3 Analyze information
Spelling – Long Vowel Digraphs
Worksheet 71
Conventions – Independent and Dependent Clauses
Worksheet 24

25. Day 4 – Content
Knowledge
Oral Language How do people survive in the wilderness?
 Video-
 “They were so numerous that I could never hope to
get rid of them either by traps or with arrows. They
were clever thieves and nothing I stored would be
safe until I had built a fence.” – Island of Blue
Dolphins p. 94
 What word could we use instead of numerous?
 How is describing the red foxes as clever thieves
different from just saying they stole food?

26. Concept Map
Oral Vocabulary Amazing Words:
resourceful
wilderness
Karana had to be very
resourceful to survive on
the island. She had to
make a shelter, find and
cook food, and protect
herself without tools or
weapons. What do you
think resourceful means?
What other ways could she
be resourceful?
What does wilderness
mean?
Discuss with a partner:
Imagine you are
shipwrecked on an island.
How might you use the
How people survive in the wilderness
Tasks Challenges Wilderness

27. Science in Reading How-to Text: Problem Solving.
 A how-to text lists step by step
instructions on how to do a task.
 What kind of situations require you
to solve a problem?
 Often, it is necessary to follow a
how-to text in order to solve a
problem.
 What are some examples of time
we might want to read a how-text?
 What are some things we might
find in a how-to text?
 Work with a partner to write a
short how-to paragraph about how
to solve a problem or play a game.

30.  Karana was stranded on an island
off the coast of California.
 What does the word coast mean?
 What is a way we can decipher the
meaning of coast?
 Work with a partner to identify
unknown words from Island of
Blue Dolphins. In your spiral write
down three unknown words and
their definitions.

31.  In order for a how-to
demonstration to be successful,
directions must be clear and
concise.
 You will need multiple steps and
the steps must be in the correct
order.
 Work in your reading spiral to
create a how-to demonstration
about building a structure. Think
about the tools and materials you
will need to have.
 When you finish share your how-to
with a partner!

32. Research and Inquiry – Step 4 Synthesize
Look over your research.
Compare and contrast sources of information and make sure you found expert
advice.
Make sure you group together similar information.
Create a presentation for your report.
Spelling –
Together create a vowel digraph word web for each vowel (ai, ee, ea, oa,
ow).
Individually complete spelling worksheet 25 for homework
Conventions –
independent and dependent clauses worksheet 72
Type to learn – 15 minutes

33. Day 5 – Content
Knowledge
Oral Vocabulary Unit Question: What Kinds of challenges to people
face and how do they meet them?
 Weekly Question: How can people survive in the
wilderness?
 Finish Video!

34. Concept Map Amazing words – gutted,
quartz, flint, blazing, pursuit,
prey, shipwreck, famished,
wilderness, resourceful
 Use the concept map
and what you have
learned from this week’s
discussions and reading
selections to form and
– a
realization or big idea
about meeting
challenges.
 In your spiral write down
a few sentences about
your
beginning with, “This
week I learned…”
How people survive in the wilderness
Tasks Challenges Wilderness Resources
make fire keeping
warm
cold bow and
arrow
find food cooking famished fence
build shelter weather animals bowls
protection prey flint

35. Review
 Comprehension Skill: Theme and Setting
 Theme: underlying meaning of a story.
 Setting: where and when the story takes place.
 What is the theme of Island of the Blue Dolphins?
 Survival
 What in the text made you think that this was the
theme?
 Work on Theme and Setting worksheet
independently.

36. Review
 Vocabulary Skill: Unknown Words
 We use a dictionary or glossary to determine the
meanings of unknown words.
 What else can we find in a dictionary?
 pronunciation, syllabication, part of speech, alternate
meanings
 With a partner use each your vocabulary words in a
sentence.

37. Review
 Word Analysis: Compound Words
 Compound Word: A word that has a combination of
two or more words that function as a single unit of
meaning.
 In you reading spirals break apart the following
words by circling the smaller words. Then write your
own definition for the word.
 starfish, gatekeeper, packhorse, seabird, bedtime,
thumbtack

38. Review
 Authors use imagery to describe how things in the
story taste, smell, feel, sound, and look.
 Read page 93 of Island of the Blue Dolphins.
 Look for examples of imagery. Find words that help
you understand what your five senses would
experience.
 Write three examples in your reading spiral.

39. Test
 Weekly Assessment p. 13-18

40. Research and Inquiry – Finish Presentation
Spelling – Post Test Spelling City
Conventions – Worksheet 27