Big Money

by Rebecca Donnelly

Rebecca Donnelly’s Big Money is identified in the supplied information as fiction for grades 3–7, but no synopsis or excerpt was provided. The teaching package below is therefore a text-dependent planning guide: it uses the title’s suggestion of money as an inquiry focus without inventing characters, events, or stylistic features; verify that focus against your classroom copy before teaching.

Big Idea

Use the title’s suggestion of money to investigate what characters value and how their decisions affect others. Study how a writer’s choices about scene length, dialogue, and withheld information influence readers’ attention.

Discussion Questions

1.Before reading, what expectations does the title Big Money create? Which details later confirm, complicate, or challenge those expectations?
2.Which character decision seems most important so far? What does that decision reveal about the character’s priorities?
3.Where, if anywhere, does money influence a character’s choices or relationships? What evidence supports your interpretation?
4.Which passage makes you want to read faster, and which encourages you to slow down? What writing choices create those effects?
5.How does your understanding of the title change after reading? Which scene best supports your interpretation?

Lesson Plan

⏱ 45–50 minutes📦 Classroom copy or copies of Big Money, a teacher-selected excerpt, paper, pencils, colored pencils, sticky notes, and a timer.

Learning Goals

Explain how a character’s decision develops the plot, using specific textual evidence.
Distinguish between narrative summary and an expanded scene.
Revise narrative pacing through dialogue, action, sentence length, and selective detail.
Explain how pacing influences suspense, emphasis, or emotional engagement.

Activity Steps

1.Read a short, teacher-selected passage from Big Money containing a clear decision. Identify who wants what, what stands in the way, and what happens next.
2.Mark places where the author moves quickly or slows down. Discuss observable features such as dialogue, action, description, and paragraph breaks.
3.Fold paper into three panels labeled Before the Decision, The Decision, and Immediate Result. Sketch and caption the passage, keeping its events accurate.
4.Write a two- or three-sentence summary of the moment, then expand it into a short scene using dialogue, action, and one meaningful detail. Label any invented dialogue as an adaptation rather than a quotation.
5.Read both versions to a partner. Have the listener mark a place that feels fast and a place that feels slow, then explain which version gives the decision greater emphasis.
6.Revise one passage and submit an exit ticket explaining one pacing choice and its effect. For grades 3–4, permit oral rehearsal and shorter drafts; for grades 5–7, require a supporting reference to the original passage.

Standards Connections

ELA: CCSS RL.3.3–RL.7.3 — Grade-appropriate analysis of characters, events, and interactions among story elements.
ELA: CCSS W.3.3–W.7.3 — Narrative writing using effective techniques, relevant details, and well-structured event sequences.
ELA: CCSS W.3.5–W.7.5 — Strengthening writing through planning, revising, and editing.
ELA: CCSS SL.3.1–SL.7.1 — Collaborative discussions that build on others’ ideas.
SEL: Responsible decision-making — Considering motivations, consequences, and the effects of choices on others.

Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!

Part 2: Pace-Write-Read Workshop Use Big Money as a mentor text for investigating how narrative time differs from clock time. A decision that takes a character only seconds may occupy a substantial passage, while a longer stretch of events may be summarized briefly. With a verified classroom excerpt, students can examine where Donnelly directs attention and how the amount of space given to a moment affects its importance. Because no text was supplied, the prompts below are investigations rather than claims about techniques the book necessarily contains. Begin with a question suggested by the title: what makes something “big”—its monetary value, its consequences, or its importance to a character? Test those possibilities against the story rather than assuming a money-related lesson in advance. Students then follow a Pace-Write-Read cycle: notice a pacing choice, try a related technique in their own adaptation, and read aloud to evaluate its effect. Features not present in the book should become optional writing experiments, not attributed authorial choices.

Element	How to notice or teach it in the novel
1. Pacing	Choose a consequential moment in Big Money and compare the time the event takes with the space devoted to telling it. Identify what makes the passage feel quick, slow, or deliberately uneven.
2. Plot	Map a character’s goal, obstacle, decision, and consequence using actual events. Discuss which event changes the story’s direction most significantly.
3. Prosody	Read a short passage aloud twice, varying stress, phrasing, and pauses. Ask which reading best fits the wording and the character’s situation.
4. Word	Collect precise verbs from a selected scene and investigate words connected to money or value if they occur. Test how replacing one verb changes urgency or tone.
5. Concept	Use Big Money’s title to generate possible concepts, such as value, ambition, or responsibility. Retain only those that students can support with evidence from the story.
6. Voice & Worldview	Find wording that reveals a narrator’s or character’s attitude toward an event. Discuss how that attitude shapes what readers notice or judge.
7. Point of View	Establish who narrates and whose thoughts readers can access. Rewrite a brief moment from another participant’s perspective and consider how information and suspense change.
8. Setting & Place	Identify where and when the selected scene occurs, using textual clues. Discuss how that setting enables, limits, or pressures the character’s choices.
9. Original Characters	Choose a distinctive action, desire, or expression belonging to an actual character. Explain how that evidence makes the character more specific than a generic story role.
10. Dialogue	If the excerpt contains dialogue, track what each speaker wants and what changes during the exchange. Compare its pace with a nearby passage of narration.
11. Details	Find a small detail that helps readers understand the stakes of a decision. Ask what understanding would disappear if the detail were removed.
12. Descriptions	Notice where description interrupts or accompanies action. Discuss whether it establishes place, clarifies an object, or gives readers time to absorb an emotion.
13. Firsts	Examine a character’s first appearance or the first introduction of an important problem. Identify what readers learn immediately and what remains uncertain.
14. Immediacy & Engagement	Locate a moment that feels especially close or immediate. Identify whether action, sensory detail, dialogue, or access to thought contributes to that effect.
15. Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures	Compare one dramatized scene with a passage that compresses events, if both are available. Discuss why a writer might expand one part of Big Money and condense another.
16. Tension / Suspense / Surprise	Pause before a consequential outcome and list what readers know and still need to know. After reading on, explain whether the outcome confirms an expectation or creates surprise.
17. Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger	Check for departures from chronological order or endings that leave an outcome unresolved. If none occur in the chosen section, try one as a clearly labeled adaptation and assess its effect.
18. Page Turns and Chapter Breaks	Study an actual chapter ending and the next opening in your edition. Ask what question, transition, or change encourages continued reading.
19. Pace & Creativity	Rewrite the same Big Money moment in a compressed version and an expanded version. Compare how each version directs attention without changing the central event.
20. Play	Place action, thought, dialogue, and detail from a selected passage on separate cards. Experiment with their order, then explain why the published arrangement may work better.
21. Performance	Perform an exchange or short narrative passage using only the printed language. Use pauses and changes in delivery to make shifts in intention audible.
22. Personality	Track how one character responds to a difficult choice. Support a description of that character’s personality with actions and language rather than labels alone.
23. Humor	If students identify humor, examine whether it comes from wording, timing, contrast, or misunderstanding. If the passage is serious, discuss how adding humor might change its impact.
24. Pause	Find a moment when action gives way to thought, observation, or silence. Discuss what readers are invited to consider during that pause.
25. Poetry / Poetic Devices	Look for figurative language or noticeable sound patterns without assuming they occur. Explain how an identified example changes the pace or sharpens an image.
26. Repetition	Track a repeated word, idea, or action if one appears. Ask whether its meaning changes as the story progresses.
27. Rhythm	Compare sentence lengths in an active moment and a reflective moment. Read them aloud to test how sentence patterns influence movement.
28. Punctuation	Examine punctuation in a short excerpt and follow its cues while reading aloud. Test how changing a stop or break affects phrasing, while recognizing that punctuation is only one influence on pace.
29. Questions	Record a question the story raises for readers and identify when it is answered. Distinguish that question from any questions characters explicitly ask.
30. Compare-Contrast	Compare two responses to the same problem, or one character’s responses at different points. Explain what the contrast reveals about priorities or growth.
31. Objects	Identify an object that matters to an actual scene; investigate money itself only if the text supports that focus. Track how the object affects action or acquires significance.
32. Threes	Check for a genuine three-part pattern in actions, descriptions, or events. If none appears, experiment with a three-beat sequence in an adaptation rather than attributing the pattern to Donnelly.
33. Lists	If a list appears, examine its order and length. Otherwise, create a brief list of a character’s text-supported concerns and consider how including it would alter the scene.
34. White Space & Negative Space	Inspect paragraph breaks and any larger gaps in your edition. Discuss how they separate speakers, mark transitions, or create opportunities to pause.
35. Art & Graphics	Examine the cover and any interior visual features actually present, distinguishing packaging from story content. If there are no interior graphics, create a storyboard as a reader response rather than claiming an illustrated narrative.
36. Interactives & Gamification	Turn a verified character decision into a classroom prediction challenge: choose a likely response and defend it with evidence. Treat this as a teaching adaptation, not a feature of the book.
37. Placement	Locate where an important fact is revealed relative to a character’s decision. Discuss how learning that fact earlier or later would change readers’ expectations.
38. Form	Identify the narrative form and chapter organization visible in your copy. Consider how that form controls access to events, thoughts, and transitions.
39. Dummy	Create a folded-paper mock-up of one selected scene, assigning a story beat to each panel. Move the imagined page turn to test where anticipation is strongest; this is an adaptation exercise, not a claim about the book’s production.
40. Passion	Identify what an actual character cares about most and how the text establishes that investment. Invite students to give a similarly clear desire to a character in their own writing.

Pace-Write It!

Twenty-Minute Pace-Write-It!: Stretch the Decision Before the workshop, select a short Big Money passage in which a character makes a consequential choice; use a money-related choice only if one occurs in the text. Minutes 0–4 — PACE: Read the passage aloud. Name the character, choice, and immediate stakes, then mark where the writing speeds up or slows down. Minutes 4–7 — PLAN: Write three factual beats from the passage: what happens just before the choice, the choice itself, and what follows. Add a page or chapter reference. Minutes 7–13 — WRITE: Retell those beats in two sentences, then expand the decision into a short scene using an action, a meaningful detail, and dialogue or thought. Preserve the original outcome and label invented language as adaptation. Minutes 13–18 — READ: Partners read both versions aloud. Listeners identify where the expanded scene slows time and explain whether that emphasis helps them understand the decision. Minutes 18–20 — REFLECT: Revise one sentence and complete: “I changed the pace by ___ so readers would ___.” Younger students may dictate or write fewer sentences; older students should compare their technique with one observable choice in Donnelly’s passage.

Classroom Activities

One Decision, Two Speeds

Students select a consequential decision from Big Money, preferably one involving money or competing priorities if the text supports that focus. They create a paper storyboard, then retell the same moment twice: once as a brief summary and once as an expanded scene. Partners read both versions aloud and identify how pacing changes the reader’s experience.

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