Gary Soto writes an autobiography about a time when he was eleven years old, wanting to be a gymnast like his cousin.  He thinks it is important that he look like a gymnast. He tries unsuccessfully to teach himself and after several humorous, yet failed attempts, he gives up the idea of becoming an Olympic gymnast. (Pearson Reading Street, 2010)

This lesson was created as part of the Basal Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in basal readers. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the basal reader named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.