About this book
Grade Level Equivalent: 3.4
Lexile Measure: 600L
Guided Reading Level: J
Age: Age 6, Age 7, Age 5
Genre: Fables, Folk Tales and Myths
Subject: Cleverness, Asian and Asian American, Creativity and Imagination
Ask these questions as you read Arnold Lobel's Ming Lo Moves the Mountain.
Use a chalkboard chart like the one below as you direct the pupils' reading. Call on pupils for phrases or sentences to fill in the chart as the story progresses.
| Wise Man's Suggestion |
Did it work? |
Why or why not? |
|---|---|---|
| Push with a tree | No. | A person pushing a tree isn't strong enough to move a mountain. |
| Make lots of noise. | No. | A mountain isn't a person, so you can't scare it. |
| Take gifts to the mountain. |
No. | The wind blew the cakes and bread away. |
| Take your house apart and do a special dance. |
Yes. | The dance moved Ming Lo and his wife away from the mountain. |
Guide reading by asking questions like these:
- What problems do Ming Lo and his wife have with their house under the mountain? How could they solve these problems without trying to move the mountain? (For example: build a stronger roof; get a wood stove to heat the house; find a field away from the mountain's shadow in which to grow a garden.)
- Is the wise man really wise? Does he really think that his first three suggestions will work, or is he just trying to show Ming Lo the impossibility of moving a mountain?
- What do you think about the wise man's final suggestion? Is he playing a trick on Ming Lo? Is he trying to help him?
- If you were a friend of Ming Lo, what would you tell him when he says, “The mountain has moved far away”?
- Subjects:Cleverness, Family Life, Guided Reading, Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences, Story Elements, Asian and Asian American, Creativity and Imagination, Confucianism
- Skills:Problem and Solution, Social Studies, Listening Comprehension, Writing
