With LANGUAGE!, students build decoding and comprehension skills and increase fluency to
not only access but also fully understand sophisticated, challenging text.
Text selections encompass:
· Mini-Dialogs
· Expository Text
· Informational Text
· Science Fiction
· Contemporary Narratives
· Classic Literature
In 1605, Miguel de Cervantes published his novel, El
ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote. The story of the elderly,
idealistic knight, Don Quixote, riding around Spain on his
old horse, Rocinante, with his pot-bellied squire, Sancho
Panza, riding behind him on a donkey, was immediately
popular. Today, it is often called the first modern novel and
one of the greatest books written in the Spanish language.
The novel consists of two parts: the first published in
1605 and the sequel published in 1615. Cervantes tells a
comic story of a man so taken with chivalric romances that
he starts to believe they are true. Don Quixote is, on one
hand, to be laughed at for his silly pretensions of trying to be
a knight. On the other hand, he is to be admired for trying
to live a noble and heroic life. Sancho Panza knows that his
master is a little crazy, but stays with Don Quixote to get the
island and other riches Don Quixote promises him.
As the story progresses, Don Quixote and Sancho
Panza both evolve as characters to understand each other's
point of view. At the end of the second book, Quixote on his
deathbed admits he was mad. Sancho begs Don Quixote
to remember that the "one
vanquished today [can] be the
victor tomorrow." Four hundred years later, readers are
still enchanted by the story of this brave, eccentric knight
and his loyal servant.
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Don Quixote--Excerpt 1
235
vanquished
beaten; defeated
56 Unit 26 · Create Movement
You remember periods in your own childhood, periods
that affected you in different ways. As you read these
segments from Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango
Street, think about the storyteller's childhood experiences,
and see if you can relate to any of them. Have you ever had
to move? What's it like to move into a new neighborhood?
How does moving into a new neighborhood translate to
moving into a new passage of your life?
The House on Mango Street
We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we
lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived
on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I
can't remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot.
Each time it seemed there'd be one more of us. By the time
we got to Mango Street we were six--Mama, Papa, Carlos,
Kiki, my sister Nenny and me.
The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don't have
to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people
downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and
there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom.
But even so, it's not the house we'd thought we'd get.
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by Sandra Cisneros
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Fiber Optics: High-Speed Highways for Light
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optics
the science of light;
vision; lenses
cables
covered bundles
of wire
pulses
bursts of move-
ment; vibrations
signals
sounds, images, or
messages that are
sent or received
Faster than a bolt of lightning, able to carry
billions of light pulses a second, yet thinner
than a human hair, it's . . . optical fiber!
What happens when you download research from the
Internet? What carries your messages when you chat online
with a friend? You may be using fiber
optics. Fiber optic
cables hide under the streets of many of our cities and
towns. These cables carry all kinds of information.
Fiber optic technology is being used more and more. It
has been around since the 1930s. Today, though, as much
as 2,000 miles of fiber optic cable are being laid every hour.
Why is the use of fiber optics increasing?
One reason to use fiber optics is the material. It's better
than materials currently in use. Electric
signals use wires
that carry electrical
pulses.The electricity moves through
the wires quickly. What is the problem? The metal in the
wire slows down the signal along the way. Fiber optics is
different. It uses long, thin tubes made from glass. They
carry pulses of light instead of electricity. They deliver light
signals.
A second reason for using fiber optics is speed. Glass
allows light signals to travel at the speed of light. That's
millions of times faster than any racing car! The glass tubes
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Book D, Student Text
Book E, Student Text
Book F, Student Text
Culminates with sophisticated grade-level text
Begins with basic decoding and fluency skills
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LANGUAGE! Focus on English Learning Overview
9