Juana will need to learn how to speak English and along the way she wonders if learning English is a good use of her time.

        Carmen is starting school, but her first language is Spanish. She struggles to understand the other children and they struggle to understand her too. She meets a teacher who helps her learn English and Carmen relays what she learns back to her little sister.

Tell the students that they are going to be asked to recall what has been read. Have five cards for each group each saying "add, zoom, flashback, squeeze, and x-tend" and the directions for each of the cards. Each card has a different way to engage the reader. Create small groups after the the text has been read. Have one student start to retell the story and then have another student draw a card and follow the directions on the card to think more deeply about the story. The teacher will walk around and facilitate the discussion.

Allow readers to reflect on perspective. Read Carmen Learns English ask questions such as the following: "what was my purpose for reading this text?" "what did I learn from reading this text?" "why did the author write this text?" "what was the author trying to tell me?" etc. Discuss with the students that the book will be read again but this time they will consider other points of views other than the author's. The students will receive a Challenging the Text Grid to complete to further explore the text.

        Yoon is new to the United States and she must learn how to write in English. She likes writing in Korean and asks her father to go back to Korea, but her father insists that America is their home now.