Page 182 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade6_Flipbook

3. Knowledge and Ideas: What evidence from the text supports the idea that
Grandin loved the saddle her mom gave her? my Notes
4. Key Ideas and Details: What does Grandin mean by saying “Animals kept me going”? What evidence from the text helps support your inference?
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• Read the excerpt and continue to use the strategies you listed and look for textual evidence of how animals helped Temple Grandin deal with her autism.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
Excerpt from Chapter 6
Hampshire School for
Wayward Wizards
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World
by Sy Montgomery
1 ...But the memories she treasures most from high school are of the horses. All these years later, she remembers each of them by name. Bay Lady was the horse she rode most of the time: great in the ring—but halfway on the trail she’d prance and plunge. Otherwise she was the “perfect lady. ” Star couldn’t compete in horse shows because she had ankle problems. Circus, a big, gentle horse, died of colic,
a digestive disease brought on by eating oat straw. Beauty was gorgeous, but he
bit and kicked. Teddy was gentle enough for the littlest kids. King was an old gray horse, so well-mannered that just about anyone could ride him: then you could graduate to riding someone like Flash or Silver. Lady was hot-tempered, and her eyes were wild. “Nobody could ride that horse,” Tina Henegar, another schoolmate, remembered. “But Temple could—and beautifully. She was the best.”
2 Temple loved them all and could ride better than anyone.
3 It’s no wonder. Horses, like autistic people, are very sensitive to detail and
don’t like change. That’s why a horse might be frightened by a new white hat, but not a familiar black one—or might panic at the sight of a common object like a wheelbarrow in an unusual place or seen from a different angle. Temple could tell when a horse was starting to get nervous: a fearful horse swishes his tail, and the swishing becomes more rapid with mounting fear. But because Temple also noticed
biography
aCTIvITy 2.19
continued
wayward: turned away from what is right or proper
digestive: pertaining to the process by which food is broken down by the body
mounting: increasing
Unit 2 • The Power to Change 155
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