3rd-4th Grade Read Aloud

Made You Look
by Diane Roberts
Published by Delacorte Press
Copyright 2003

Readng level: Lexile Framework 620, reading level of 5.2

Suggested delivery: Read aloud, independent read

Vocabulary: crucial (12), entrepreneur (60), authentic (68), spectacle (88), incentive (99), nape (141) 

Awards: Finalist for the 2006 Connecticut Nutmeg Award, the 2005 Kentucky Bluegrass Award, and the 2006 Garden State Award in New Jersey

"When his parents surprise Jason with a family vacation to California, he is totally excited. Not only will he get to fly, he’ll have a chance to try out for Masquerade Mania! That’s before he learns that they will be camping cross-country in a sardine can (at least that’s what the contraption looks like). Jason’s willing to do just about anything to get a chance to be on Mania. But isn’t wearing pink underwear, enduring the stares of fellow campers, and putting up with his pain-in-the-neck sister above and beyond the call of duty?"- Amazon


This book is light hearted, relateable, silly, family oriented, and all around an enjoyable read! 





Pre-reading: Ask the class if they have been on a roadtrip with their family before. Choose a couple students to call on to ask how many people went on the trip, where they went, how long the drive was, etc. Then ask the class if when taking the trip if they ever got in fights or arguements. Ask a couple more students about what the arguement involved, who it involved, and how it started and ended. Tell the students that Jason's roadtrip with his family causes a lot of problems and risks his chance to be on the gameshow. 

During Reading: As they read, students could be asking themselves some questions as they consider the plot and the characters in the story: Pretend you are Jason and justify why spending time with your family on a roadtrip would threaten your chances of being on the gameshow?

Post Reading: After reading students could think about the question: Pretend you're Jason's family. Think about why spending time with your family is very important and how it could that benefit your performance in the gameshow? This is very similar to the during reading question, but this question has the students look at the opposite viewpoint of the situation.

Writing Activity: After reading the students could have an opinion based writing assignment asking the following question: Jason wanted to win the game show more than anything, but Amberson was always getting involved in everything he did. Do you think it was fair for Amberson to try to be like Jason? Why or why not? This question will assess the students' inferential comprehension since Amberson was a prominent character in the beginning and especially at the end of the story.

Electronic Resources:

Funology: Trivia and Facts
This website could be very fun for
students to browse around on to give 
them fun facts and trivia about many
different topics. This can give students 
the opportunity to see what kinds of 
questions Jason had to answer in order 
to train for the game show




Paragraph Building Hamburger
This worksheet and others like it can 
be a fun and a helpful way for students for formulate their sentences and neatly organize them into a coherent paragraph.