&&000 CANADIAN SCHOOLBOOKS                                                            CAA706.TXT
GRADE 6, 1970S
Samples from OISE/UT Toronto library by dph 9-10 dec 03
1st edit by dph 22 dec 03
re-edited 21 June 2005

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Your price is fifty dollars each. Give the reader your telephone number and the most convenient
time to reach you.
Announcements are usually made orally, although they may be written, too. If you have a public
address system in your school, the principal and other students probably use it to make
announcements that are of interest to all students. Most announcements tell about a coming
event. It is important to arouse interest in your listeners when you make an announcement. It is
also important to include all of the necessary information:
What? the event; its purpose; the price of admission, if there is one
Who? the people sponsoring the event When? date and time
Where? the place where the event is to be held; directions to get there, if they are necessary
Why? any other details that may be interesting or important
Be brief. Be clear. Be interesting, especially in your introduction. Be imaginative and original.
Write announcements for one or more of these imaginary events. Deliver them orally to your
class or to a group of students. If you want to interest others in what you are saying, you yourself
must sound enthusiastic and interested. You must speak clearly and distinctly enough for
everyone to hear.
(a) You are having a barbecue at your home for the whole class.


From THE SONG OF THE SKI
I poise on the hill and I wave adieu:
My curving skis are firm and true
The slim wood quickens, the air takes fire And sings to me like a gypsy's lyre. Swifter and
swifter grows my flight: The dark pines ease the unending white. The lean, cold birches, as I go
by, Are like blurred etchings against the sky.
Swifter and swifter on I fare,
And soon I'll float with the birds on air. The speed is blinding; I'm over the ridge, Spanning space
on a phantom bridge. The drifts await me; I float, I fall: The world leaps up like a lunging carp. I
land erect and the tired winds drawl A lazy rune on a broken harp.

The beat in a poem may be hard to feel at first. This happens in a poem that seems to be a
"stream of words that flows and flows". But if you read the next three poems aloud, you will find
their rhythm.




when he went walking it jiggled-like that! If you pause for a beat or two after jiggled, you will
get the best effect. Try it.

Your tone of voice should change for different parts of the poem. Work out where the changes
should come. =DonDurk is a remarkably splendid fellow. You might sound a little breathless
when you're describing him. He has a magnificent air of bravado. Which lines show this most?
He is also supposed to be mysterious and evil. Can you suggest these things with your voice?
There are words that you can roll off your tongue with a flourish. =Squizzamaroo is one of them.
Be careful to say the words as the author intended you to. Crooked is pronounced here as one
syllable, not two as it usually is. Work out a script with solo and group lines marked. Enjoy the
poem; it exists simply for fun.

This poem has plenty of possibilities for fun if it is read chorally. Work with a group to prepare a
reading of it.


WHO the person writing or speaking
SAYS WHAT the content and its organization
TO WHOM the audience who will read or hear the
report WITH WHAT EFFECT  the purpose for reporting

Sometimes static or other interference prevents clear communication by radio or telephone.
"Static" can occur in oral and written communication of every kind. It may be in the form of
confused thought, poor =English usage, or incorrect spelling or punctuation. Language is
communication. Using language effectively means getting rid of all interference so that there is a
clear channel of communication between writer or speaker and reader or listener.
Organization is an important part of informational reporting. Since sentences are usually
arranged in units called paragraphs, we will use these units as our examples. Besides, when you
have learned to construct paragraphs it is not difficult to put several of them together to make a
longer article.
Most paragraphs begin with a general statement, or topic sentence. The rest of the paragraph
supplies details about the topic.
A teaspoon is a utensil for scooping up and carrying small amounts of something. It has two
joined parts: a flat, narrow, tapered handle, by which it is held, and a shallow, oval bowl to dip
and carry liquid, food, or other materials. The handle is about four inches long. It arches slightly
up at the wide
In the morning the whole village gazed in awe at the new baby. He had grown so fast during the
night that his chubby little feet and hands stuck out through the doors and windows of the ox
shed. The big double sheets were stretched to the ripping point across his tummy. And he was as
hungry as a bear. He doubled his little fist and banged it down on the ground, crushing to
splinters several racks for drying codfish. He waved his little leg in the air, knocking down two
pine trees and a retired sea captain. Something had to be done.
The first problem was food. All the cows in =NewBrunswick were herded together to give him
milk. Several shiploads of cod-liver oil, meant for Boston, were put in storage for him. He had to
have three barrels of it every day. The clothing problem was solved by a sailmaker from Saint
=John. He cheerfully donated a pair of mainsails to be made into pants. The =LadiesAidSociety
offered to do the sewing. A wagon maker gave a dozen cart wheels to be used for buttons.

man hit a looper that creased the second baseman's head.
Then, advancing to the plate, swinging three bats, came one of those overgrown
"fourteen-year-olds". He had hit safely every time.
Sissy prepared her very best knuckle ball, but it slipped prematurely from her fingers. The batter
grinned and lowered his head to let the overthrow pass. But as the ball neared the plate, it took a
drop like the graph of a bad day in a subscription contest and struck with a sodden thump on the
head of the guy in the batter's box.
The next man smacked a perfect bounce to third for a force-out, and the next one fanned.
=Sissy's eyes brightened. She smiled a smile of triumph. But pride cometh before a fall. She
tossed a blooper. =Nick had to run out in front of the plate to catch it. She threw another. Nick
jumped back to catch it. =Sissy tried another, but it was a ball. She had lost the range, and the
man walked.
Two out and the bases loaded! A great quiet settled over the diamond. =Sissy was trying hard,
and her drop was breaking more crazily than ever. The batsman decided if he just waited them
out, the odds would be in his favor. He was right. He stood there until the count was three and
two. Never since the =Stover boys left =Yale had the grand old game witnessed such a moment.
=Stover boys: the athletic heroes of a famous novel about =Yale University.


Old Wine in New Bottles
When you were much younger, you probably listened many times to a telling of the old tale
"=LittleRedRidingHood". This tale, and others.like it, is constantly being retold for each
generation. Find an old version of "=LittleRedRidingHood". Compare it with this humorous
modern retelling by =JamesThurber. Which version do you prefer? Why?

THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE WOLF
One afternoon a big wolf waited in the dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket
of food to her grandmother. Finally a little girl did come along and she was carrying a basket of
food. "Are you carrying that basket to your grandmother?" asked the wolf. The little girl said yes,
she was. So the wolf asked her where her grandmother lived and the little girl told him and he
disappeared into the wood.
When the little girl opened the door of her grandmother's house she saw that there was somebody
in bed with a nightcap and nightgown on.
She had approached no nearer than twenty-five feet from the bed when she saw that it was not
her 

"He's just a very old dog, son," Uncle =Henry said calmly. "The time comes when you have to
get rid of any old dog. We've got to be practical about it. I'll get you a pup, son. A smart little dog
that'll be worth its keep. A pup that will grow up with you."
"I don't want a pup!" =Luke cried, turning his face away. Circling around him, the dog began to
bark, then flick his long pink tongue at the back of =Luke's neck.
Aunt =Helen, catching her husband's eye, put her finger on her lips, warning him not to go on
talking in front of the boy. "An old dog like that often wanders off into the brush and sort of
picks a place to die when the time comes. Isn't that so, =Henry?"
"Oh, sure," he agreed quickly. "In fact, when =Dan didn't show up yesterday, I was sure that was
what had happened." Then he yawned and seemed to forget about the dog.
But =Luke was frightened, for he know what his uncle was like. He knew that if his uncle had
decided that the dog was useless and that it was sane and sensible to get rid of it, he would be
ashamed of himself if he were diverted by any sentimental considerations. =Luke knew in his
heart that he couldn't move his uncle. All he could do, he thought, was keep the dog away from
his uncle, keep him out of the house, feed him when Uncle =Henry wasn't around.
Next day at noontime =Luke saw his uncle walking from the mill toward the house with old
=SamCarter, a mill hand. =SamCarter was a dull, stooped, slow


thought drowned had been saved in this way.
"Come on, =Dan. Come on, old boy," he pleaded softly. As a little water came from the collie's
mouth, =Luke's heart jumped, and he muttered over and over, "You can't be dead, =Dan! You
can't, you can't! I won't let you die, =Dan!" He rocked back and forth tirelessly, applying the
pressure to the flanks. More water dribbled from the mouth. In the collie's body he felt a faint
tremor. "Oh, gee, =Dan, you're alive," he whispered. "Come on, boy. Keep it up."
With a cough the collie suddenly jerked his head back, the amber eye opened, and there they
were looking at each other. Then the collie, thrusting his legs out stiffly, tried to hoist himself up,
staggered, tried again, then stood there in a stupor. Then he shook himself like any other wet dog,
turned his head, eyed =Luke, and the red tongue came out in a weak flick at =Luke's cheek.
"Lie down, =Dan," =Luke said. As the dog lay down beside him, =Luke closed his eyes, buried
his head in the wet fur and wondered why all the muscles of his arms and legs began to jerk in a
nervous reaction, now that it was all over. "Stay there, =Dan," he said softly, and he went back to
the path, got his clothes and came back beside =Dan and put them on. "I think we'd better get
away from this spot, =Dan," he said. "Keep down, boy. Come on." And he crawled on through
the tall grass till they were about seventy-five yards from the place where he had undressed.
There they lay down together.

READING AND WRITING PLAYS
It is often said that actions speak louder than words. Plays combine actions and words to show
what characters are like.
You may want to work in groups to read the play =TheTinkerofToledo. Read it silently first,
asking your teacher to explain any difficulties you might have.
Reading a play is not the same as reading a story. In stories, most of the actions are described for
you. There are passages of description that tell you how people look and dress. When you read a
play, you must use your imagination to supply the details that are missing because there are no
descriptive passages.
As you read a play, try to see the place and the people in it. Imagine how the characters are
dressed, whether they are fat, or thin, or tall, or short. Picture how they move about, where they
stand. Try to hear their voices. The author helps a little by supplying stage directions that tell an
actor how to say a line or when to take a certain action.
Because it is written as a radio play, =TheTinkerofToledo has a narrator who supplies
description. Why is a narrator necessary in a radio play and not in a play for the stage?
When you are ready to read the play aloud, choose people with contrasting voices to read the
parts. It is best to appoint a director, since actors cannot always judge for themselves how they
are performing in relation to

=PEDRO. Perhaps if they had built a fire and kept their minds on a skillet.
=GHOST. Perhaps. But now that you're here - and you look as if you'd stay.  I'll tell you what
you can do. Out there in the courtyard are three bags of coins. One copper, one silver, one gold.
You see, I stole them from some thieves many, many years ago.
=PEDRO. I see.
=GHOST. Going on confidentially. I brought them here to my castle and buried them out in the
yard. But no sooner were they safe underground than the thieves caught up with me and killed
me. He sobs as he recalls it. They cut me in pieces, but they did not find the bags. All these years
I've been waiting to get myself put together again. But not until some brave soul would stay here
with me could it be done.
=PEDRO. Well, now that you're a whole ghost, so to speak, what more can I do?
=GHOST. Eagerly. Come with me to the courtyard. There we shall dig up the coins. The copper
you must take to the church. The silver you must give to the poor. And the gold you may keep for
your trouble. When this is done, I shall have paid for my sins in full, and I may leave this
wretched castle forever.
=PEDRO. Very well. Fading out. Let us go to the courtyard at once.
SOUND: FOOTSTEPS AS THEY GO OUT.
=GHOST. Fading in. Stop here! Beneath this cypress tree the treasure is buried. You will even
find the



provides the facts in an organized and interesting way. Every effort is made to help the reader
who has not studied a subject to understand technical descriptions.
The following reading selection is an example of the reporting of scientific information.

ON THE MOON
At =1056 pm,  on July =20, =1969, =NeilArmstrong stepped into history. From the bottom rung
of the ladder leading down from =Apollo11's landing craft, he reached out his booted left foot
and planted the first human footprint on the moon.
Then he said the long-awaited words that are pure to be written in history books: "That's one
small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
There it was, man meeting moon. For explorers, it was the realization of centuries of dreams. For
scientists, it meant a chance for possible clues to the origin and nature of both the moon and the
earth.
=Armstrong was able to share the triumphal moment with mankind. Through the miracle of
modern communications, hundreds of millions of people on earth - probably the largest audience
ever, witnessed the astronaut's first step over TV and, heard his words on radio. It took just =1'3
seconds, the time it takes for radio waves to travel the =238'000 miles between moon and earth,
for =Armstrong's image to appear on home screens. This gave viewers a feeling of "I was there"
when history was made.


soaked log. Then his own head shot above the surface, and while he was sucking in the air he
was drawing in the rope, pulling the collie toward him and treading water. In a few strokes he
was away from the deep place and his feet touched the bottom.
Hoisting the collie out of the water, he scrambled toward the bank, lurching and stumbling in
fright because the collie felt like a dead weight.
He went on up the bank and across the path to the tall grass, where he fell flat, hugging the dog
and trying to warm him with his own body. But the collie didn't stir, the good amber eye
remained closed. Then suddenly =Luke wanted to act like a resourceful, competent man. Getting
up on his knees, he stretched the dog out on its belly, drew him between his knees, felt with
trembling hands for the soft places on the flanks just above the hip-bones, and rocked back and
forth, pressing with all his weight, then relaxing the pressure as he straightened up. He hoped that
he was working the dog's lungs like a bellows. He had read that men who had been
"=Luke," he whispered, "that dog had a stone around his neck."
"I fished him out of the stream," =Luke said uneasily.
"Oh. Oh, I see," Uncle =Henry said, and gradually the color came back to his face. "You fished
him out, eh?" he asked, still looking at the dog uneasily. "Well, you shouldn't have done that. I
told =SamCarter to get rid of the dog, you know."
"Just a minute, Uncle =Henry," =Luke said, trying not to falter. He gained confidence as Aunt
=Helen came out and stood beside her husband, for her eyes seemed to be gentle, and he went on
bravely, "I want to make you a practical proposition, Uncle =Henry."
"A what?" Uncle =Henry asked, still feeling insecure, and wishing the boy and the dog weren't
confronting him.
"A practical proposition," =Luke blurted out quickly. "I know =Dan isn't worth his keep to you. I
guess he isn't worth anything to anybody but me. So I'll pay you seventy-five cents a week for his
keep."
"What's this?" Uncle Henry asked, looking bewildered. "Where would you get seventy-five cents
a week, Luke?"
"I'm going to get the cows every night for Mr =Kemp."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, =Henry," Aunt =Helen pleaded, looking distressed, "let him keep the
dog!" and she fled into the house.
"None of that kind of talk!" Uncle =Henry called

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