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The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle

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Written by Leslie Connor & published by Harper Collins, ©2018

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Grade Level: 3-5                          Small Group Read

Lexile Score: 310L             Accelerated Reader: 2.7

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     Mason Buttle is a heavy middle schooler with dyslexia, which often makes him a target for bullying. This story takes place fifteen months after Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, tragically dies on the Buttle Family Orchard. Mason struggles with this grief, and it doesn’t help that Lieutenant Baird still comes around to ask questions about the ongoing investigation. Even with all this going on, Mason makes a great friend named Calvin. But when Calvin suddenly goes missing, Mason must figure out what truly happened to both Calvin and Benny.

Key words/phrases: friendship, investigations, love, mystery, acceptance

Suggestions for the Classroom

This video, from Fairfax County Public Schools, features a librarian and English teacher leading a book talk on The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle and can help students build schema surrounding the text.

This video features a librarian reading the first chapter of The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle for students to listen to and follow along with while they read.

This video, titled See Dyslexia Differently, describes dyslexia and aims to help younger audiences understand the struggles that children with this learning disability often have.

SUGGESTED COMMON CORE STATE STANDARD:

     CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
     Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama,

     drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

KEY VOCABULARY

     Aurochs: a type of ox that went extinct in 1627 and is similar to cattle

     Bramble: a prickly vine

     Chamber: a closed off space, like a cave

     Lieutenant: a police officer who has more responsibilites and is higher in rank

     Shaft: something long, skinny, and in the shape of a cylinder

     Synesthesia: a sensory condition described as a "blending" of the senses; for example, the

     number 8 might be blue, or listening to music might smell like peppermint

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES

     Before Reading: Instruct students to create a KWL chart (what I already know, what I want to know, and what I learned) in their notebooks. Focusing on the topic of dyslexia, instruct students to fill out the first two columns in the chart. Then, play the video titled See Dyslexia Differently (linked above). After viewing the video, instruct students to fill out the third section of their charts with what they learned from the video. Students should keep their KWL charts to continue filling out during reading. 

     During Reading: Divide the book into four to six roughly equal parts. At the end of each section, instruct students to work in their reading groups to create a chart that depicts a sequence of events for the section. Students are encouraged to choose the way in which they organize the events--it could be through a timeline, a chart, drawn pictures with captions--anything that motivates the students to organize the events!

     After Reading: In their reading groups, instruct students to create a short, five question quiz about the text. There should be at least two multiple choice questions and two open ended questions. After creating their quizzes, instruct students to switch with another reading group and complete the quiz as a team.

WRITING ACTIVITY FOR INFERENTIAL COMPREHENSION:     

     Have students respond to the following question in their notebooks: at the end of the book, when it is revealed that Matt Drinker sawed the ladder rung and killed Benny, Mason yells, “nobody meant to kill Benny!” Why do you think Mason doesn’t want blame Matt for Benny’s death, even after how mean Matt has been to him his whole life?

"If you can read, you can learn anything."

                    -Tomie DePaola

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