Boom Town - Lesson - Basal

Oct 16, 2026

Unit 2, Week 1 focuses on the story “Boom Town,” centered on how determination and smart ideas help Amanda transform a wide, lonely western area into a lively town. The lesson plan guides teachers to review big ideas and key understandings, then support reading through teacher read-alouds, rereading, and text-dependent questions. Activities emphasize setting details, narrator insight, word choice, mining life, Amanda’s pie-making problem-solving, and how her actions drive town growth via supply-and-demand businesses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatDOCX

Pages10

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Unit 2/Week 1: Boom Town

Big Ideas and Key Understandings

Synopsis

Teacher Instructions

Text Dependent Questions and Evidence-Based Answers

Discussion and Vocabulary Support

Unit 2/Week 1 Title: Boom Town Suggested Time: 5 days (45 minutes per day) Common Core ELA Standards: RL.3.1, RL.3.2, RL.3.3, RL.3.7; W.3.2 W.3.4; SL.3.1, SL.3.2; L.3.1, L.3.2, L.3.5 Teacher Instructions Refer to the Introduction for further details. Before Teaching Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and the Synopsis. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description for teachers, about the big ideas and key understanding that students should take away after completing this task. Big Ideas and Key Understandings Through determination and smart ideas, Amanda helps turn a wide and lonely area of the west into an exciting and bustling town. Synopsis A family moves into an unpopulated area. With the ingenuity of one young girl, a town is established and grows. The idea of supply and demand is evident in this story. It begins with the young girl baking pies that leads to a trading post. The businesses in town grow to include a tanner, a cooper, a miller, a blacksmith and a laundry. Read entire main selection text, keeping in mind the Big Ideas and Key Understandings. Re-read the main selection text while noting the stopping points for the Text Dependent Questions and teaching Vocabulary. During Teaching Students read the entire main selection text independently. Teacher reads the main selection text aloud with students following along. (Depending on how complex the text is and the amount of support needed by students, the teacher may choose to reverse the order of steps 1 and 2.) Students and teacher re-read the text while stopping to respond to and discuss the questions and returning to the text. A variety of methods can be used to structure the reading and discussion (i.e.: whole class discussion, think-pair-share, independent written response, group work, etc.) Text Dependent Questions Text-dependent Questions Evidence-based Answers After looking at the pictures on pages 160 and 161 and reading the text on pages 163 and 164, what have we learned about the setting? The town has no electric lights and the streets are made of dirt. There are no cars or trucks. The girl is wearing a long dress and a hat. She is also wearing boots. The characters traveled by stagecoach to California. The family was going to live in a cabin. There is lots of land, no town and gold fields. What words or phrases does the author use to describe the west? Wide, lonesome, and even my shadow ran off. Who is telling the story? How do you know? What have we learned about this narrator? (Pg. 164) Amanda is telling the story because she refers to me Amanda. She has siblings, her dad works in the gold fields…In the first paragraph it says, “Ma found a cabin big enough for all of us: Baby Betsy, brothers Billy, Joe, Ted, and me – Amanda.” On page 164, Pa sings a song. What can you learn from the song about the life of a miner? What other information on page 164 helps you to understand what miners do and why? Miners use a mule, a shovel, a pick and a pan. The use these tools to look for gold. They work all day and are only paid when they find gold. He is foolish because he is not being paid for his work. He and other miners are hoping to find gold and make them rich. What is life like for Amanda in the West? What does she decide to do to change her life in the West? There are many chores and things to get done. Life seemed to be hard. Some chores were described: Gets water, washes clothes, makes soap, makes fires, sweeps the floor and makes the beds She was bored. Amanda decides to make pie. She does not have an oven, or pans. What does Amanda have to do to get the “pie right”? (Pgs. 168-169) Amanda finds a skillet instead of a pan. She picks gooseberries. She makes a crust from flour, butter, water and salt. She puts the skillet in the wood stove. She tries several times before she gets it right. (Pg. 168 the brothers take the hard pie outside and whack it with a stick. The second time the young ones get to the p

FAQs

What is the main big idea of “Boom Town” in this lesson?

Through determination and smart ideas, Amanda helps turn a wide, lonely area of the west into an exciting, bustling town.

Who tells the story, and how does the text show this?

Amanda tells the story because she refers to herself as “me Amanda,” including the line about “me – Amanda” in the first paragraph.

How does Amanda’s pie-making lead to changes in the town?

Amanda begins baking pies, which leads to selling and trading. As people buy and respond to what’s needed, Amanda’s efforts help spur businesses like a trading post and a laundry, showing supply and demand in the town’s growth.

Oct 16, 2026

Upload by Maya Linwood