Sea Turtle Spring

Set a Purpose for Reading/Preview Text Features  (10 minutes)  

• Tell students that this play is a fictional story based on real events. The turtle hospital in the play is based on an actual turtle hospital in Marathon, Florida, and the character of Megan is inspired by a real person, Megan Mertsock, who works at the hospital.

• Call on a volunteer to read aloud the Think and Read box on page 23 and the Think and Write box on page 27. Ask students to keep these prompts in mind as they read the play.

• Have a volunteer read aloud the title and subtitle on page 22. Ask students to describe the illustration and predict what the play will be about. 

• Read aloud the Characters box on page 23 to familiarize your students with how the names are pronounced. 

• Point to the Spanish Glossary box on page 23. Explain that some of the characters speak a few words of Spanish throughout the play. Go over each term to familiarize your students with its meaning and pronunciation.

Introduce Vocabulary (15 minutes)

• While the play does not include definitions of vocabulary words with the text, a Vocabulary Skill Builder (available in your Resources tab) online previews eight challenging terms. You may also play our Vocabulary Slideshow, in which audio and images help students with pronunciation and comprehension.

• Vocabulary terms: hotline, flipper, marine animals, tank, releasing, adjust, glide, and inspired.

Focus on Fluency

• Storyworks 3 plays provide a perfect opportunity for students to build fluency.

• Remind students that the stage directions tell a reader or actor how to say a line or perform an action in the play. Direct students to page 23. Point to the word pointing in column 3. Read the dialogue aloud with appropriate expressions or actions. Ask students to repeat after you.

• Project, distribute, or assign the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions to the class. Preview them together. Ask students to read the play again and answer the questions as a class or in pairs. (Alternatively, assign all or part of the Learning Journey Slide Deck, which contains the questions from this lesson plan and a link to the stories.) 

• Follow up with the SEL Focus activity.

Close-Reading Questions (30 minutes)

• Read Scene 1. What do Marco, Mel, and Lolo find in the water near Sombrero Beach? (plot) They find a sea turtle that is floating instead of swimming.
• ​​In Scene 1, why does Marco want to go back to get his hat? What does this tell you about Marco and Mel’s friendship? (inference, character) Marco wants to go back because the hat was a gift from his friend Mel, who’s moving to Boston. This shows that Mel’s friendship is very important to him. He probably wants to have the hat as a reminder of her once she moves away.
• Read Scene 2. Why was the turtle close to starving? (cause and effect) The turtle was close to starving because he accidentally ate some trash that became stuck in his stomach. This caused his belly to fill with gas. Because the gas made him float, he couldn’t dive into the water to get food.
• Read Scene 3. What can you guess about how Marco is feeling about Mel being far away? How do you know? (inference, character) You can guess that Marco is thinking about Mel and really missing his friend. You can tell because Marco shows pictures of Mel’s room in Boston to Elmar. Some students might add: Also, you can guess that Marco is thinking about missing Mel when he asks Megan if Elmar’s friends might be wondering where the turtle is.
• Look at the photographs and caption on the right side of page 25 and the photograph and caption on page 26. How do they help you imagine the scenes that take place at the Turtle Hospital? (text features, setting) The photos show people who work at a real turtle hospital in Marathon, Florida. The hospital in the play is based on the one in Marathon. The character of Megan is based on Megan Mertsock, who is shown in a photo on page 25. Seeing these photos helps you imagine what the character Megan and the play’s turtle hospital look like. 
• Look at the photo on page 27 and read its caption. Why do you think the photo was included? (text features) The picture was probably included to show why turtles often confuse plastic bags with jellyfish and why turtles like Elmar eat plastic bags in the first place.
• In Scene 4, why does Megan tell Marco that “turtles can adjust to change when they need to . . . and so can humans”? (inference, character’s motivation) Megan wants Marco to understand that he will be able to adjust to the big change in his life, just as Hazel did. Marco can adjust and be OK even though Mel moved to Boston.
• Read Scene 5. How did Mel moving to Boston lead to Marco meeting Elmar? (plot) Because Mel was moving to Boston, she and Marco went for one last boat ride together. After Mel took Marco’s picture and Marco lost his hat, they found Elmar.
• Read Scene 6. Why do you think Marco starts his letter to Mel with “Dear Mel, something fantástico happened today . . .”? (inference) Marco starts his letter this way because he is going to tell Mel about Elmar’s return to the ocean after getting better at the Turtle Hospital. He describes it as fantástico because it is a wonderful change.

Critical-Thinking Question (10 minutes)

• How do Marco’s feelings about Mel moving away change from the beginning of the play to the end? (how a character changes) At the beginning of the play, Marco is sad because Mel is moving to Boston. In the Turtle Hospital, he looks at a photo of her and wonders where she is. Later he tells Lita that he is too sad to write back to Mel. He wants things to stay the way they were. When Lita tells him that change is part of life, Marco realizes that if Mel hadn’t moved, they would never have rescued Elmar on their last boat ride together. In the last scene, Marco starts a letter to Mel about Elmar returning to the ocean. Marco understands that he can adjust to change and be OK, just like Elmar and Hazel did.

Adjusting to Change  

Read Lita’s lines from Scene 5: “Change is a part of life. Sometimes change is upsetting. Sometimes change is fantástico.” Have a class discussion about the changes that happen in the play, along with the ways in which these changes are upsetting and/or fantastic. If appropriate, continue the discussion to talk about how you and your students have needed to adjust to change in your lives—and help them identify any silver linings (even small ones) that have resulted from these changes.

Featured Skill: Text Features

• Distribute our Text Features Skill Builder, and have students complete it in class or for homework.  

• Discuss the writing assignment in the Think and Write box on page 27. Remind students to include details from the play in their explanations.