Page 175 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.18
continued
making Connections Through research
practically: almost, nearly
my Notes
companionship. That’s probably okay for a dog who’s been bred to be a companion animal, but a lot of the bigger breeds and practically all of the mix breeds were built for work. Having a job to do is a part of their nature; it’s who they are. The sad thing is, now that hardly anyone makes his living herding sheep, most dogs are out of a job.
It doesn’t have to be that way. I read a little story on the Web site for the American Veterinary Medical Association that shows the incredible things animals are capable of doing, and would do if we gave them a chance. It was about a dog named Max who had trained himself to monitor his mistress’s blood sugar levels even while she was asleep. No one knows how Max was doing this, but my guess
is people must smell slightly different when their blood sugar is low, and Max had figured that out. The lady who owned him was a severe diabetic, and if her blood sugar levels got low during the night Max would wake up her husband and bug him until he got up and took care of her.
You have to think about that story for only five seconds to realize how much dogs have to offer. Dogs and a lot of other animals.
Second Read
• Reread the excerpt to answer these text-dependent comprehension questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. Craft and Structure: What can you tell about how Grandin thinks about animals from the first two paragraphs? How do you know?
2. Knowledge and Ideas: What evidence does Grandin give to support the idea that animals helping humans can be good for the animals too?
3. Key Ideas and Details: What is the central idea of this text? Which details support the central idea?
148 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 6
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