My Life in Dog Years 4th grade Module 2 ELA Lesson 19

My Life in Dog Years

By Gary Paulsen

Lesson 19

Lesson 19-28

My Life in Dog Years

By Gary Paulsen

The book we’ll begin today is
an autobiography. That’s
an interesting word. It has
two prefixes.

Auto

Bio

Gary Paulsen organized his life story in an unusual way. Each
chapter is about one of the many dogs he’s owned. So really,
the book is not just about him but also about his dogs. It’s a
collection of dog biographies. But we’ll learn a lot about the
life of Gary Paulsen by reading them. We’ll also find out how
very different the personalities of dogs can be.

After we read today, I’ll ask you to write a diary entry as though
you were Gary Paulsen. Be thinking about what you would write.

Chapter 1-

Cookie
A dedication

Lesson 19

Vocabulary

One of the words from our book today was analyze.

Analyze means to logically break down a problem or
situation. The police try to analyze the evidence at a crime
scene. In this chapter, we read: “she saw me drop, instantly
analyzed the situation, got the team up—she must have
jerked them to their feet—got them pulling, and they pulled
me out.”Analyze means to break down a problem using
logic.

You can use that word: When I need to analyze something, I
_____. I like to analyze _____ because _____.

Another word from our book today wasunabashed.

Unabashed means without shame or embarrassment.
Some people always say just what they think and are
unabashed even if other people are surprised. When Gary
Paulsen talks about his dogs, he says, “I make no excuses
for unabashedly loving them.” Unabashed means without
shame or embarrassment.

You can use that word: I admire people who are unabashed
when _____. I try to be unabashed when _____.

Vocabulary

Open Ended

What information did we learn about Cookie?

Open Ended

What information did we learn about Gary Paulsen?

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Draw

Now change the verb wearing. What other verbs would work there?

Open Ended

Add a new phrase to the sentence:

I did not set out to race dogs whose