Geronimo Stilton-Red Pizzas for a Blue Count: Student & Teacher Guide

This packet is everything you need for a novel study on Geronimo Stilton: Red Pizzas for a Blue Count. This could be used for literature circles, guided reading, and more. Geronimo Stilton is a student favorite and is a great opportunity for students to practice making inferences and interpret figurative language. It's at a 3rd grade reading level (Guided Reading Level O) but is enjoyed by students both older and younger.

This guide has two parts: a student response packet and teacher’s guide. Some chapters are grouped together so that each reading assignment is roughly 15 pages. For the reading assignments that contain less pages, students have more questions to respond to.

This literature packet does not focus on within text comprehension questions (i.e. listing the names of the characters, setting, etc.). Rather, it focuses on skills that require the students to go beyond the text and use evidence from the text to support their inferences. Often times there is more than one correct response. Some of the skills that are focused on are

*Using context to determine word meaning (and checking these meanings using a dictionary)

*Identifying character traits and supporting these traits with examples from the text

*Describing the meaning of idioms or phrases

*Determining characters’ (or the authors’) emotions

*Making justifiable predictions and checking them

The teacher’s guide contains several features:
*For each question: possible answer choices or examples from the book that students may use to support their response

*Discussion topics/questions

*Summaries of each chapter that highlights the main events

*3rd Grade Common Core State Standards (CCSS) correlations for each question (other grade levels are applicable as well, however, since Geronimo Stilton is at a third grade reading level, these were the standards that were focused on)

The Common Core Standards addressed are
RL.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

RL.3.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

RL.3.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.

RF.3.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
RF.3.4.B Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

W.3.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
W.3.3.A Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally

W.3.4 With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.

L.3.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning word and phrases based on grade 3 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.3.4.A Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.

L.3.4.D Use glossaries or beginning dictionaries, both print and digital, to determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.

L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
L.3.5.A Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context (e.g., take steps).
L.3.5.B Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe people who are friendly or helpful).