Lesson 9: The Mary Celeste - Part A
Completion requirements
Unit 5
What Are the Traits of a Good Mystery?
Lesson 9
Reader's Notebook
The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History
For this lesson, you are going to read the story of a real ship.
The Mary Celeste was launched in Nova Scotia in 1860 with the name Amazon. After suffering many accidents and going through many owners, she was bought by an American and renamed the Mary Celeste. (Ships are referred to as "she" because
many ships were named after wives or mothers that the sailors left behind on land.) On November 7, 1872, the Mary Celeste left New York for Genoa, Italy. The captain and crew were never heard from again.
Click each coloured row for information about the activity.
Think About It
How do writers make a setting believable? List three ideas about how writers make a setting believable.
Reader's Notebook
Go to the Reader’s Notebook: 5-4 Mary page and answer the Before Reading question.
Document: Reader’s Notebook: 5-4 Mary
Click here to download
For a printer-friendly version of the file, click here.
Download
- Download the document Reader’s Notebook: 5-4 Mary.
- IMPORTANT NOTE: When the download screen opens:
- Click the "Open with" button.
- Select "Adobe Reader".
- Click "OK".
- You will then be able to view the document Reader’s Notebook: 5-4 Mary.
Turn to pages 104 to 111 in the book Literacy in Action 5B.
Click each coloured tab for information about the activity.
Reader's Notebook
As you are reading the story, pay attention to how the story of the Mary Celeste is written as a story within a story. On the Reader’s Notebook: The Mary Celeste page, explain how this is done or accomplished.
As you are reading the story, pay attention to how the story of the Mary Celeste is written as a story within a story. On the Reader’s Notebook: The Mary Celeste page, explain how this is done or accomplished.
Compound Words
A compound word is made when two words are joined together to form a new word. Here are some examples of compound words:
- dog + house = doghouse
- fire + fly = firefly
- red + head = redhead
- soft + ball = softball
Websites
This Break It Up: Compound Words game will give you more practice with how compound words are formed.
Look back through the story you have just read. On the Reader’s Notebook: 5-4 Mary page, make a list of two compound words from the story. Complete Section 1 of Assignment 5-4.
Story Conclusions
To conclude a story, you can return to the beginning. On p. 111, the narrator of the story returns to the topic of her dad, a mystery solver. She rephrased her idea (said the same thing in a different way) of how to investigate one of her father's old mysteries. She concluded withcheck your clues.
Some other ways to conclude a story are:
- tell the lesson that the main character learned
- share the feelings of the main character
- provide the reader with hope about the future
- give the reader an update on the characters in the story
Complete Section 2 of Assignment 5-4.
Save
How to save a file:
- Scan the document to your computer.
- Have the file open and select Save As from the File menu.
- Name your Reader's Notebook: 5-4 Mary file in this format: jsmithla5_5-4-mary and save the file to your Documents folder.
Submit Assignment 5-4 when it is complete on the next page.