• Storyworks 2 is full of amazing text-to-text connections to help kids gain context for what they’re reading. This article and our nonfiction article “The Dog That Saved a Town” on page 6 make
  an incredibly powerful pair.
• This poem also adds to the discussion for the essential question of this issue of Storyworks 2: What makes a hero? Reading and discussing “Hero” along with the other hero-themed texts in the magazine (the nonfiction article  “The Dog That Saved a Town,” the mini graphic “The Playground Monster,” and the fiction story “The Space Rock”) should give kids great insight into what it means to be a hero in the world.
• Through the above genres, students will discuss: What traits do heroes have? How do heroes act? What does it mean to be a good person (or dog!)?

Read the Nonfiction Article/Build Background (30 minutes)

• Kids will understand this poem best if they read the nonfiction article “The Dog That Saved a Town” on page 6 of this issue.
• That article tells the true story of Balto’s race to get lifesaving medicine to kids in 1920s Alaska. It comes with videos, printables, a vocabulary slideshow, and a lesson plan that make for an extremely rich reading experience. 
  

• Explain that poems can express feeling in a short amount of space. Tell kids that they are going to read a poem about Balto that fits on just one page but really tugs at the heartstrings!
• As they read, they should pay attention to how the poem makes them feel.
  
• Read the poem as a class. Model fluency by reading it aloud first with as much emotion as you can muster.
• Then call on students to read it aloud, four lines each. Ask them to try to read with expression.

ELA Focus: Comprehension/Idioms (10 minutes)

• Ask the question in the yellow box at the bottom  of the page: “What do you think the poem means by ‘he had a dog’s heart’?”
• Explain that the idiom, or saying, “to have a lot of heart” means to be kind and passionate.
• You can talk about how Balto ran with “a lot of heart”—a lot of passion and courage.

ELA Focus: Compare Two Texts (15 minutes)

• Use our Compare Two Texts skills sheet to teach the article and poem as a pair.
  

ELA Focus: Rhyming Words (10 minutes)

• Do our Rhymes in Poems printable to give kids practice with rhyming words as a feature of poetry.
  

ELA Focus: Vocabulary and Text Evidence (20 minutes)

• Kids learned the word persevere in “The Dog That Saved a Town.” Use our printable “Balto Kept Going!” to get more practice with the word persevere as well as practice with text evidence.