Realistic

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byy Pauul Mason

illlusstrrateed by
Geervaasioo Benitez

PAIRED
Poetry
READ

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 STRATEGIES & SKILLS
Comprehension Vocabulary
Strategy: Ask and Answer attain, dangling, hovering,
Questions triumph
Skill: Theme

Vocabulary Strategy
Connotation and Denotation Word Count: 1,811

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by
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broadcast for distance learning.

Send all inquiries to:

McGraw-Hill Education
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New York, New York 10121

ISBN: 978-0-02-119191-8
MHID: 0-02-119191-3

Printed in the United States.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QLM 17 16 15 14 13 12
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 Essential Question
How do writers look at success in different ways?

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by Pauul Masson
illusttrateed by Geervassio Beniitezz

Chapter 1
Math Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 2
Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 3
The Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 4
“We Have a Winner” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Respond to Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

PAIRED
Cross-country Race . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
READ
Focus on Literary Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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 CHAPTER 1

A group of students were hovering around the

bulletin board outside Mr. Nelson’s office. Word
had quickly spread that he’d posted the names
of the team who would be representing Parkside
Elementary in the district math competition. Keisha
wiggled through the small crowd and found her
name on the list, right below her best friend Abby’s.

Keisha gave a shout and turned to Abby, who

was hanging back from the group. “We both
made it!” Then she noticed that her friend didn’t
look very enthusiastic. “What’s wrong? I thought
you’d be over the moon.”

Abby shrugged. “The truth is,” her voice

dropped as they walked to the cafeteria,
“I’m having trouble with math right now.”

Keisha chuckled. “Yeah,

right. You got an A on
our last assignment.”

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 “Only because I spent hours struggling with it,”
Abby replied. “It took me every night for a whole
week to get it right.” The girls picked up their
lunch trays and found a place at a table. “I used
to find math a breeze, but not right now. I was
kind of hoping I wouldn’t make the team.”

Keisha shook her head. This wasn’t like Abby.

“Have you talked to Mr. Nelson?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, you should—maybe you just need some

extra help.”

“You’re probably right,” replied Abby.

After lunch, Abby went to talk to Mr. Nelson

before class started. “Happy to be on the team?”
Mr. Nelson grinned. Abby stared at her feet as
she described what she’d just told Keisha.
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 Mr. Nelson listened patiently. “I’ve been
teaching for a lot of years, and I know a good
mathematician when I see one,” he said, smiling.
“You’ve worked hard to attain your position on
the team. I don’t want you to give your place to
someone else.”

Abby managed a laugh. “Really?”

“Yes,” Mr. Nelson replied, chuckling. “Why don’t

you stay after school today, and I’ll work with you.
Mrs. Diaz and I are supposed to be planning some
lessons, but I’m sure she won’t mind.”

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 After school, Mr. Nelson pulled out some
different resources, searching for something that
would help Abby. Mrs. Diaz was busy working at
another desk.

“Okay, so you’re having problems with fractions,

right?” Mr. Nelson said, handing Abby a worksheet.
“Try doing a few practice questions. Circle the
ones you don’t understand, and we’ll go over
them together.”

“Thanks,” Abby said, looking over the problems

on the worksheet.

“You know, I remember being totally stumped

by this impossible problem on a big math test,”
Mr. Nelson said.

“What did you do?”

“I gave up and handed in the test, leaving the

tricky question unanswered.” Mr. Nelson shook
his head. “When we went over the answers in
class afterward, I realized the problem wasn’t that
difficult after all. I just needed to look at it from
a different angle. I gave up too easily.”

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 CHAPTER 2

The next day, the math team did some

preparation for the competition. Mr. Nelson placed
a sheet of paper on the desk in front of each
of them. “Today you’re going to hit the ground
running,” he said. “We’re going to do some actual
questions from past competitions, so you’ll be
taking a real test in real test conditions.”

Abby glanced nervously over at Keisha, who

was sitting opposite her. Her friend smiled back
as if to say, “You’ll do fine.”

“Work together as a team,” Mr. Nelson

continued. When you’ve completed a section, hand
it in and I’ll give you another one. Each set of
questions gets more difficult. Are you ready?”
The team looked at each other and nodded.

“Great,” said Mr. Nelson, hitting the stopwatch.

“Let’s begin.”

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 Raj took the first piece of paper off Mr.
Nelson’s desk and the team huddled around it.
“If you take 1/3 of …” the question began.
“Great, fractions,” Abby thought.

By the end of the session, Abby’s head was

spinning. Though the team had completed the test
and had done reasonably well, Abby knew she
hadn’t pulled her weight. The first set of questions
had knocked her confidence.

“Don’t worry,” said Keisha, “everyone has

off days.”

“Tell me about it,” Abby agreed. “That was

tough—looks like I need practice and plenty of it.
Do you want to do some more practice problems
after school?”

“Sure,” said Keisha.

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 Each afternoon that week, the two girls went
to Abby’s apartment to work on their math.
Abby showed Keisha the questions Mr. Nelson
had given her, which Keisha had to admit were
pretty difficult. Keisha showed Abby some new
multiplication strategies. Abby paid close attention.

“Splitting the numbers into smaller chunks is

a much better way to do it,” she said, watching
Keisha figure out the last problem.

“My dad showed me that method, actually,”

admitted Keisha. “I was really stuck and
needed help.”

Abby thought about what her friend had said.

Keisha was right. It had been foolish to struggle
along on her own all this time. She should have
asked for help earlier.

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 Keisha searched on an online math Web site
and found some more problems for them to tackle
together. She raised her eyebrows. “How about
this one: ‘Frank makes 15 ice-cream cones in an
hour, but two of them melt every 15 minutes. How
long will it take him to make 210 cones?’ Ugh.”
Keisha wrinkled up her nose. “These are going to
be challenging!”

“Wait, I think I know how to do it,” Abby said,

and she started scribbling in her notebook.

Keisha glanced at her friend and grinned.

Abby was definitely getting her groove back.

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 CHAPTER 3

Keisha wasn’t the only one who noticed Abby’s

progress. At the next team practice, their teacher
watched as Abby tore into the problems with a
new hunger. “You were right, Mr. Nelson,” she said.
“I just needed to look at the problems differently.”

“Do you feel ready for the competition?”

he asked.

“I hope so,” replied Abby.

On the day of the district math competition,

Mr. Nelson led the team into the auditorium. At
the sight of the huge hall filled with rows of
tables, their jaws dropped. The winner’s cup sat in
a prominent place on the judges’ table, the prize
dangling like a carrot before them.

“I had no idea there would be so many other

teams here,” said Raj.

“And all these math-letes are at the top of their

classes in math. Just like you,” Mr. Nelson said.

Abby couldn’t stop a grin from spreading

across her face. “This is going to be great!”

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 As the team progressed through the pages
of problems—with Keisha running them back and
forth to the judges’ table—the calculations became
more complex. The scores were constantly being
updated on a board, and the team noticed they
weren’t doing as well as before.

“We must have gotten a few questions on that

last one wrong,” Sophie muttered.

“We’ve got to stay focused and positive,” said

Abby. “Trust me, I’ve been there.” Keisha brought
them the next set of problems, and Abby read
out the first equation. The others were grateful
that someone was taking charge. Abby guided
them through the problem, and before they knew
it, they had another problem in front of them,
and then another.

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 “Come on, guys,” said Abby, quickly glancing
over at the scoreboard, “we can do this!” They
had clawed their way up to second place.

Then the bell rang. Time was up, pencils were

put down, and there was a hush as the final
answers were scored.

“Mathematicians,” one of the judges announced,

“we have two teams tied for first place. This
means we’re going to have a tiebreaker!” A loud
murmur swept over the auditorium.

Abby and the others cheered as they saw the

name “Parkside Elementary” sharing the top slot
on the scoreboard. They’d been given one more
chance to win the cup—all they needed was to
keep their eyes on the prize.

From the other side of the hall, one of their

rivals waved at them, and Abby returned the
gesture. “May the best team win,” she thought.

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 CHAPTER 4

The judges reset the clock, allowing five

minutes to complete the final question and then
the starting bell sounded. Keisha and the runner
from the other team dashed over to the judges’
table and grabbed the sheets.

Abby read the problem aloud. As they

listened, the others groaned. “Any ideas?” asked
Raj. Keisha and Sophie both shook their heads.

Abby was thinking silently. Then it hit her:

this problem was similar to the one about making
ice-cream cones that Keisha had found the other
day. Abby reread the question, then furiously
started solving it.

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 In a flash, Abby finished, and she sprinted to
the judges’ table just as the bell sounded. She got
there in the nick of time.

As the judges reviewed the two teams’ answers,

Abby shrugged at her teammates. “I’m not sure if
I got it right,” she said.

One of the judges stepped up to the

microphone. “We have a winner,” he paused,
keeping them in suspense … “Parkside Elementary!”
he said at last.

The sound of loud applause filled the hall as

the Parkside team collected the cup together in
triumph. Abby beamed at Mr. Nelson who was
sitting at the back of the hall, and he gave her
a look that said, “I told you so.”

“Looks like you had an on day today,”

said Keisha.

“I guess I did,” Abby said with a grin.

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 Summarize Detail
Summarize how Abby achieves
Detail
success in The Math-lete. Your
graphic organizer may help you. Detail

Theme

Text Evidence
1. What features of the story tell you it is realistic
fiction? GENRE

2. What does Abby achieve in the story? THEME

3. On page 9, Abby “started scribbling in her

notebook.” What other words could the author
have used instead of scribbling? Why do you
think the author used the word scribbling instead
of another word? CONNOTATION AND DENOTATION

4. Write about how Abby becomes successful at

math. Use details from the story in your answer.
WRITE ABOUT READING

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 Compare Texts
Read about how a runner feels having finished a race.

Cross-country Race
The course stretches out before me,

Like a stony mountain I must climb.

I’ve never reached the top before,

But I’m determined to do it this time, this time

I will finish the race this time.

With a blast of the horn we’re off,

Twenty sharp-eyed runners and me,

I’ve already fallen behind

to the tail,

But I’ll cross that line,

they’ll see, they’ll see,

I’ll run to the end,

they’ll see.
Illustration: Burgandy Beam

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 My heavy shoes slog in the field,

Sweat trickling down like a stream,

I gulp for breath, my face scalds red

But my eyes have a gleam, a gleam,

My eyes have a hopeful gleam.

Soon arrives the clatter of hands,

The first of the runners is through,

Over the line, in record quick time,

And pinned with a medal of blue, of blue,

They were pinned with a medal of blue.

Not for me such a moment of glory,

But I won’t give up without a fight,

And though I’m the last one running,

I’ve got the end in my sight, my sight,

The end of the race is in sight.

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 Illustration: Burgundy Beam

I stumble across the finish line,

The crowd roars as loud as a storm,

They know that I’ve never finished before,

And want to make me feel warm, feel warm,

Like sunshine their cheers feel warm.

Make Connections
How do the words the writer uses in Cross-country
Race help you to understand how the runner feels?
ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What do Abby in The Math-lete and the runner

in Cross-country Race have to do to achieve their
personal goals? TEXT TO TEXT
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1R
 Repetition Poets use repetition to make readers slow
down and take notice. This encourages them to focus
on the meaning of the words. Repetition also helps
poets achieve a rhythm.

Read and Find In Cross-country Race the repetition in

the last two lines of each verse helps us understand
the effort the narrator is putting into the race and her
determination to complete it “this time.” If you read
the poem aloud, the rhythm of the repeated words
is similar to the rhythm of a runner’s breathing, or of
feet pounding the ground.

Your Turn
Work with a group to create a multimedia version
of the poem. Practice reading the poem aloud
several times until you can feel the rhythm. Make
a recording of your reading. Create a soundtrack, a
series of drawings, or a set of physical movements
to accompany the recording. Share your work with
the class.

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 Literature Circles
Fiction

Characters
Who are the main characters in The Math-lete?
What are the main characters like?

Sequence of Events
What happened during The Math-lete?

Plot
What was Abby’s problem in the story?
How did she solve it?

Conclusions
What conclusions can you draw about
the importance of personal and group
achievement?

Make Connections
How is Cross-country Race like other poems
you have read?

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 Achievements

GR R • Benchmark 40 • Lexile TK

Grade 4 • Unit 4 Week 5

www.mheonline.com

ISBN-13 978-0-02-119191-8
MHID 0-02-119191-3
99701
EAN

9 780021 191918
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