Noelle’s Treasure Tale

Title: Noelle’s Treasure Tale

Author: Gloria Estefan

Illustrator: Michael Garland

Genre: Mystery/Adventure

Age: 1^st -3^rd grade

Published: 2013

Summary:

 

This is a cute story about a dog that goes on a wild adventure in search of a missing treasure that belongs to a royal family from Spain. Along the way she meets friends who help her find this treasure. She also follows different clues to help her. Unfortunately, not everyone she meets is out to help her. She has a scary dream about pirates and also a bad run-in with a raccoon and a snake. A scary hurricane also hits while she is on the island. All the people that she meets gave her helpful clues that eventually lead her to the treasure on Treasure Island. In the end, Noelle is able to bring the treasure back to Spain and saves the day. Throughout the adventure, even though Noelle gets scared at certain times she never gives up and keeps looking for the treasure.

How would I use it in my classroom?

 

This book is also a great rhyming book. Every line in the book ends with a word that rhymes with the next line. This book would be great to use when teaching children about rhyming words. Children would get to see how rhyming words can be used in a regular story book. I feel like kids are used to seeing rhyming words in only poems or a rhyming book, but it would be good for them to see how rhyming words can be used in regular picture book. To start the lesson, I would read the book and take rhyming words from the story and put them on the board. I will have my students try and come up with other words for these words that were not used in the book. After having some practice with coming up with different rhyming words I would have my students create their own story. They would create a story using rhyming words just like in Noelle’s Treasure Tale.

Teaching Strategy:

 

According to Tompkins (2013) a good way to teach children about rhyming words is to have them take the ending of a word like “ay” and come up with different words that have that ending. For example, students could come up with words like “bay”, “lay”, or “stay”. This would teach students about rhyming words and also the suffix of words. I would definitely use this strategy for my rhyming words lesson.

Estefan, G., & Garland, M. (2013). Noelle’s treasure tale: A new magically mysterious adventure. New York: Rayo.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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Just Ducks

JUST DUCKS

 

Author: Nicola Davies

Illustrated by: Salvatore Rubbino

Age :4-7

Grades k-2

Genre- Realistic  fiction

Published:2012

Summary: This book is a about a girl talking about ducks from the beginning of her day until the end. She starts off by talking about how the ducks sound in the morning. Then she going into how she feeds the ducks and gives information about what the boy ducks are called and what ducks like to eat . The little girl also says how to tell the boy ducks  apart from the girl ducks. She even talks about what the ducks during the different seasons.At the end of the book she is back in her bed and says how the ducks have disapeeared but she knows in the morining they will be there. Even though book is a story about a girl talking about ducks there are also little footnotes on the pages that give further information about ducks.

 

This book can be used to have children find books on what animals they love or find interesting. It is great to have children pick what they want to read and write about. The students can find a book about their favorite animals and then they have to read it. This book needs to have information about their animal because after reading it they want to be able to speak in group about what they know about their favorite animal. After the students have some information about the animal they chose they will then create a story about the animal. They will need to incorporate the fact about the animal that they learned about. Just like in the story Just Ducks. The little girl told us about her day while giving information about ducks. I want my students to create their own story about the animal they chose. This book will get students engaged and learning about something that interest them. It is a great way to show students how to collect information and put it into a creative story. They can  use the internet to find other information other than what they get from the books they find.  Tompkin(2013) states” young children are fascinated with computers, they can easily learn to use a mouse to point and click and play software programs on home and school computers”(p.73).Technology is a great resource for children to use and to also know how to use. There are also websites that are easy for certain age children to use for projects and research. student could work with another classmate if they would like to create a story together.

 

I would use this book to teach children about animals . This book would be great for students to listen to because they can get a wonderful story that is filled with information. Tompkins( 2013) states  Reading aloud to students engages the students (p.151). I would definitely read the book loud to my students because reading aloud to the students gets them active and involved  in the book.Tompkins (2013) states teachers demonstrate how to apply phonics information as they read big books with the class and do interactive writing” (p.73). I want my students to use certain words and be aware of all the information and vocabulary needed to make their stories come out well.  The students can see how enthusiast the teacher is when reading and this can get them interested in the story as well. This would just be an opener for the lesson. Then once the book is finished being read I will ask the students to give me some details they learned from the book about ducks. The students should be able to tell me what the ducks look like, what they eat, when they sleep, and what they eat? I will do this to see if the children are paying attention and if they have retained any information from the book. I want to monitor how they listen and pay attention to the book, it is important to monitor the children so i know what i need to do different next time. Then i will explain to the children how a book can be used to get information about things “ Teachers teach mini lessons about the nonfiction genre, the research process and how to share information students have learned( Portalupi& Flether, 2001).  Students will create their own story book about their favorite animal and once the their stories are done they will share them with the class. when students are looking up information for their book I will be observing them. I will also  walk around and observe the students while they write their stories.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Davies, N., & Rubbino, S. (2012). Just ducks! Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Jon Klassen;

Post by Ashley Woodill

 

Author: Mac Barnett

Illustrator: Jon Klassen

Age Recommendation: Five to 12 years/ kindergarten through sixth grade

Genres: Fantasy

Summary: The story opens to a young girl named Annabelle who lives in a dark and dreary town. She finds a box of yarn and soon realizes that there is an unlimited supply. She makes sweaters for herself and her dog, a grumpy boy and his dog, all of her classmates and teacher, and a hat for a peculiar man who doesn’t wear any clothes. She runs out of people to make knitted things for so she starts making sweaters for things that don’t wear sweaters (which is actually known as yarn bombing— it is essentially graffiti for people who knit!)

Everything is going great for Annabelle as she performs random acts of kindness by making items for people who do not necessarily deserve them. The pictures went from dull and colorless to illustrations that are bursting with color.

Suddenly the whole mood of the book changes when a new character named The Archduke shows up. The pages turn dark and dreary and he eventually steals Annabelle’s box at night. When he gets it home to open it he finds that there is no yarn in the box and he throws it out of the window. Somehow, the box magically makes it back to Annabelle and all is well again in her own colorful world.

Here is a wonderful clip of Mac Barnett reading the ending of Extra Yarn aloud. I just love the voice that he gives to the Archduke.

The reason why I suggest that this text can be used for older students is because this text serves as a great mentor text for all ages. There are some great vocabulary that support narrative writing and dialogue, a dramatic explanation of a climax, and a fantastic demonstration of mood. If this were used as a mentor text in fifth grade, students could see an example of how to use dialogue words such as “he demanded.” If this text was used this was it would be addressing the Common Core Standard: “Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations” (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.3.b).

Another way to effectively use this text in the classroom would be to identify the beginning, middle, and end. As Gail E. Tomkins in Language Arts: Patterns of Practice, “Students make a chart called a plot profile to track the tension in a story” (p. 279). This activity includes the students drawing three pictures: one of the beginning, one of the middle, and one of the end. At the end of the activity, students work with partners to discuss and analyze the charts and the  writers choice of including these events. This activity would meet the Common Core State Standard: “Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action” (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.5).

References

Barnett, Mac, and J. Klassen. Extra yarn. New York: Balzer & Bray, 2012. Print.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: Authors.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

The Great Seal of the United States

Sara Catalano

Dr. Norman

ED2510

September 23, 2014

Book: Bald Eagles by Sheila Griffin Llanas

Genre: Informational Text

Age Recommendation: 3rd and 4th graders

Published: 2013

This factual book is all about the history, life cycle, habitat, appetite and specific body parts pertaining to the many species of Bald Eagle. The detailed pages also explain how the Bald Eagle became the national symbol/bird for North America as well as why they are an endangered species.

I would most likely use this book in my classroom to teach a Social Studies lesson about why Bald Eagles are so important in our country. I would start off the lesson by reading the book from start to finish, followed by asking the class what their favorite chapter was. Alongside the paragraphs I would be reading aloud, there are small bubbles of information containing at least 2-3 sentences that would assist the students in understanding the contents of the chapter further. Additionally, there are vibrant snapshots of various Bald Eagle species in their natural habitat as well as a map pointing out where these rare birds live.

Included in Chapter 4 of Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning by Pauline Gibbons, she mentions several ways to build knowledge of the topic according to The Curriculum Cycle. Gibbons (2002) mentions, “Use pictures to elicit or teach vocabulary. You could also get students to match labels to simple line drawings, introducing more technical vocabulary” (p. 62). After we read the book thoroughly as a class, I will hand out a worksheet including all of the bold vocabulary words on the left and their jumbled definitions on the right. For words such as environment, incubate, habitat, migrate, pinnacle, spawn and vomit, I will provide picture examples to further hint each word’s definition. I will also leave a blank space at the bottom for the students to write their favorite fact about Bald Eagles.

 

Bibliography

Gibbons, P. (2002) Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning. Reed Elsevier Inc.

Ellen’s Broom

Title: Ellen’s Broom

Author: Kelly Starling Lyons

Illustrated By: Daniel Minter

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: K-2

Age: 5-8 years old

Published: 2012

Summary:  This story is about a young African American girl named Ellen, who learns about her family traditions. Ellen’s parents had a broom wedding which consist of holding hands and jumping over the broom. On Sunday morning at church everyone had so much to be thankful for. Slavery was finally over and everyone was free. All the husbands and wife’s were able to be legally married by the courthouse, Ellen’s parents were one of those couples. Ellen’s parents always retold them the story of their broom wedding. This broom was a part of Ellen’s family and meant a lot to her parents. When her parents were going to the courthouse to be legally married, Ellen’s mother and she decided to bring the broom with them. While her parents were on line waiting to receive the certificate to be married Ellen and her sister decided to decorate the broom with flowers outside to be their mother’s bouquet of flowers. Her parents were officially married and when they got home they hung up the certificate and the broom over the fire place.  Ellen realized how important the broom wedding tradition meant to her family and she wants to keep the tradition going and jump over the broom when she gets married.

How would I use it in my classroom? We will be talking about different cultures and traditions. In class, we will define what a tradition means. This book can be used to help students connect to different cultures and get students interested in other cultures besides their own. They could learn about their classmates’ family traditions. The students can make a poster and bring in something that represents their family tradition or culture. Students could get in small groups and describe to their peers about their family culture and traditions. Students will be sharing their personal cultures to their classmates because it’s a good idea to know about other traditions and cultures in your classroom. I want the students to be aware of all the different cultures and family traditions. It is best for students to know that each family is different in their own special ways.

Reference to a teaching strategy: This lesson is going to be based on other cultures and family traditions. I would read the story aloud to my students. According to Tompkins (2013) reading aloud to students models what good readers do, and they actively engage students in the reading experience by asking them to make predictions and use other comprehension strategies (p. 151). As I read aloud to my students I will be sure to ask them questions as we read and make sure they are engaged in the story. After discussing the book when I finished reading, I will have the students think about their family cultures and traditions. The students will be in small groups talking about their culture, family traditions and explaining why they brought that object or poster into class today. For homework, the students will be writing on their reflection of the day’s lesson and anything else they would like to share about their own culture and family tradition. The students will draw an image to support their writing. Students will be sharing their writing and illustrations through authors chair the following class. “The student sitting in the author’s chair reads the writing aloud and show the accompanying illustrations. After the reading, classmates who want to comment raise their hands, and the author chooses several classmates to ask questions and give compliments. Then the author chooses another students to share and takes the seat in the audience” (Tompkins, p.165). This is a great activity for the students to be in control and share their writing and illustrations. I want the students to be proud where they came from and their family traditions.

References:

Lyons, K. S., Minter, D., & Thomann, R. (2012). Ellen’s broom. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Tompkins, G.E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns for practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Nicole Scicutella

Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson

Title: Seeds of Change

Author: Jen Cullerton Johnson

Illustrator: Sonia Lynn Sadler

Published: 2010

Genre: Biography

Age Recommendation: Grades 3-4

This book is about a woman named Wangari who is from Kenya and grew up always respecting nature. She was the oldest in her family and had to help out her family at home. Girls from Kenya were not educated but Wangari had always dreamed of going to school. When her parents had the money and supplies they sent her to school knowing that she would be successful. She continued her education but she had to then move away and was scared at first. While in school she discovered that her passion was science. After graduation she decided that she wanted to study biology in the United States. After all of  her  studies she moved back to Kenya where she accepted a teaching position at the University of Nairobi. At the same time she worked towards equal rights of female scientists. When she went home to her town she saw that the trees were being cut down and that the land was being destroyed. She made many efforts to protect the environment where she would plant trees and talk to presidents, ambassadors, teachers etc. In 2004 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for being an environmentalist. She showed great commitment to her cause and would not stop until something was done. In her speech she stressed the importance of how we must protect our environment and that kids are the future. She became a very important person in Kenya where she was elected to parliament and the minister of the environment and brought Kenya into their new democracy. To use this book in the classroom I would teach the students that protecting our environment is very important. It is important to save the trees which are important for making paper, giving us oxygen, and food. This is an important lesson because our environment does good things for us and it is up to us to protect it not just for us but for people of the future generations. It also teaches kids how if you work hard enough you can do anything that you want to do. Everyone is capable of doing great things and if you work hard enough you can make your dreams come true. People have the ability to make something of themselves no matter where you come from or what background you come from. This is important for them to know because some people think that if they don’t come from a good background that they cannot be successful. It is important for children to know that if they truly work hard enough the possibilities are endless.  One strategy that could be used would be collaboration. For students talking about it and social dialogue will eventually be internalized by the student which will become an important resource for their thinking (Gibbons, 2002). For collaboration you could have the students get into small groups and talk about why it is important to save the environment and have them give suggestions about what we can do to save it. By having the students collaborate and talk it out they get to hear what other students think and it shows how to go beyond what the people in the book did and come up with their own ideas. They are learning “how to think, not simply what to think.”(Gibbons, pg. 8).

Johnson, Jen. Seeds of Change.  2010. New York, NY. Lee and Low Books Inc.

Gibbons, Pauline. Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning Teaching Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. 2002. Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Written & Illustrated by: Peter Brown

Genre: Realistic Fiction/ Fable

Published in 2013

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild is a story recommended for children in Kindergarten to first grade. In this fable, Mr. Tiger is becoming bored living in his society which requires every animal to be proper, adhere to rules, and “not act like wild animals”. Mr. Tiger longs to let his hair down and take a walk on the wild side which results in him becoming the town rebel. Mr. Tiger walks on all fours, loses his clothes, and begins to “rawr” at the other animals which makes them feel uncomfortable and throw him out of the town into the wildnerness. Gladly, Mr. Tiger leaves and has fun going completely wild until he realizes he has no friends or family in the wildnerness and misses his old home. Once Mr. Tiger returns, he is happy to find out that the town has changed. In account of Mr. Tiger’s influence, all of the animals now have the freedom to be themselves whether that be proper, wild, or somewhere in between.

How I would use this book in a classroom: The illustrations used in this book are so well done that it portrays each animal’s emotion, including Mr. Tiger’s face of complete boredom in such a drab city. When introducing this book to my class, I would first ask what the students think the story is about by the title alone. Then, I would ask for my students, as a class, to try and figure out what is going on in the story by looking at the illustrations, covering the words with my hand. It would be interesting to hear my students come up with various situations that could be at hand according to the illustrations, requiring them to activate their prior knowledge. After going back and reading the story, I would ask for my students to think about a time they felt out of place or extremely bored like Mr. Tiger does in the story. Perhaps they cannot think of a personal memory but they remember a character from a book they read or show they watched that was similar to Mr. Tiger. The students will draw a picture of their situation and write a 2-3 sentence caption underneath it.

Reference to the text: According to Tomkins (2013), “students become more engaged in what they’re reading, notice sentences that have personal meaning, and become more sensitive to the author’s language” (p. 95) when they write a double-entry journal. Usually, in double-entry journals, for students in higher grades, they will use two columns: the left is used for writing down quotes from the book and the right is relating that quote to their own personal life, the world, or other books they have read. For younger children, it can be used as the left column for predictions of what will happen in the story based off of the illustrations alone and the right column will be the actual events that took place. Both of these options may be used for this book since connections will be made by relating the text to self and the world.

Brown, Peter. Mr. Tiger goes wild. France, Europe: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

-Danielle Rosado

Was Cinderella really meant to be a chicken?

Sara Catalano
Dr. Norman
ED 2150
September 10, 2014
The children’s book I chose is “Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella” by Jan Brett, a brief tale about the traditional Cinderella story, except all of the main characters are hens. Cinders, who represents Cinderella, is the least popular of the coop when a Silkie hen uses her magic powers to help Cinders get ready for the ball. When she arrives, everyone in attendance is curious to find out who the mystery hen with the silver eggs is, dancing with Prince Cockerel. At midnight, the spell was broken and Cinders was forced to flee home, but fortunately she left her crystal slipper behind. The next morning, Prince Cockerel arrives to find out that the crystal slipper fits Cinders and they live happily ever after.
This genre of this story is a fairytale, published in 2013 and I would recommend it for second graders. In my classroom, I would use this book to engage with my class. The story of Cinderella may already be familiar to them, so while listening to this book my students will be activating their background knowledge as well as adding to it. According to the “Language Arts Strategies According to Mode” chart, every category includes activating background knowledge (Tompkins, p. 22). Likewise, when the teacher elaborates on the story by pausing to ask the class questions, “Students add details and examples to develop ideas more completely” (Tompkins, p. 20). Since most fairytales end with the two main characters living happily ever after, the students can assume and even tell their version of what they think is gong to happen.

While skimming through Language Arts: Patterns of Practice by G.E. Tompkins, I noticed a teaching strategy called “Literature Focus Units”. A brief description of this strategy is, “Teachers and students read and respond to one text together as a class or in small groups. After reading, students explore the text and apply their learning by creating oral, written, and visual projects” (Tompkins, p. 32). In my own classroom, I would use this strategy with the book by reading it out loud to the class, making sure to pause after every few pages to maintain the class’ focus on the story and have them relate it to Disney’s version of Cinderella. After reading the book, I will point out the halfway point of the book, which is when the clock strikes midnight and Cinders’ spell is broken. I will then assign a short writing activity asking my students to create their own ending to the story from the halfway point on. After about twenty minutes of free writing time, I will give the students a chance to present their creations to the class. I believe this activity will be enjoyable for the teacher and students, because they are able to use their imagination to come up with a new experience for Cinders and her Prince Charming; additionally, the teacher will be easily entertained by their creations.

Bibliography:

Tompkins, G.E. (2013) Language Arts: Patterns of Practice. Pearson Education, Inc.

Brett, J. (2013) Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella. Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Fancy Nancy by Heather Attanasio

Fancy Nancy
Written by: Jane O’ Connor
Illustrated by: Robin Preiss Glasser
Genre: Fantasy
Age: 6-8 year olds
Cunningham, P., & Allington, R. (2011). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

O’Connor, J., & Preiss-Glasser, R. (2006). Fancy Nancy. New York: HarperCollins.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Summary: Fancy Nancy is the first book written of a series of books following a young girl, Nancy through her normal life that she turns fancy. The character Nancy is a young girl who finds the simplest things and turns them fancy, showing readers that she can find a synonym for any regular/boring word and turn it fancy! In this book readers follow Nancy during a normal day in her life while learning synonyms for everyday, ordinary words. Nancy introduces young readers to words such as chauffeur, fuchsia, and stupendous in ways that allow the reader to add these new words to their everyday vocabulary. Fancy Nancy readers follow Nancy and her family around during their everyday routine and see how Nancy turns her ordinary family into a posh family. This book is great for lessons on synonyms and could definitely come in handy for a lesson on details and descriptive words because of the new synonyms students are learning.

Fancy Nancy is a book filled with synonyms and new vocabulary words that students could use in everyday language that they may have never heard of before. Simple words such as chauffeur and accessories are words that can be used everyday. On one of the pages Nancy has chalk board and has two sections plain and fancy, one example on the board is leather and patent leather; this is a perfect example of showing the students how they can add more detail to their writing. This book would be a read aloud during the lesson and students could be taught what fancy words/synonyms are and to be on the look out for them during the reading. It is important to enhance a student’s vocabulary and to always work on expanding it, according to Cunningham and Allington (2011) “reading is one of the major opportunities for vocabulary learning.” By having students point out the fancy words/synonyms in the book they are expanding their vocabulary. By having a follow up assignment of having students choose some fancy words and find more synonyms for them, allows students to expand their vocabulary even further.
The lesson used for this book would touch upon all five stages of the reading process. Tompkins (2013) states “reading is a process in which readers negotiate meaning in order to comprehend, or create an interpretation.” The first stage of the reading process is pre-reading; which is where students would activate prior knowledge and set purposes for reading, students will think about what a ‘fancy word’ is and what they know about synonyms along with learning that they will be searching for fancy words throughout the reading. The second step is reading; students will listen to the read aloud and apply strategies such as drawing inferences and using clues to find the fancy words and their meanings. Step three consist of responding; students will have the opportunity to share with the class which words they think are fancy and explain why The next step, number four is exploring; students are able to work together and brain storm the meanings of the newly discovered fancy words and learn more vocabulary words and their meanings. In the final step of the reading process students will reread Fancy Nancy and will find words that they can find synonyms for that are not in the book. Students will have to use the strategy of generating; creating new vocabulary words for themselves and their peers to learn.

-Heather Attanasio

Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream For Me Review by Ashley Woodill

 

 

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Above, please view the video of the author’s live performance of his version of Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me. Beaty’s performance is motivating, empowering, and arresting.

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Author: Daniel Beaty

Illustrator: Bryan Collier

Age: Pre-k-Grade 6

Genre: Realistic Fiction

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Summary: This is the story brings readers into an urban setting where a little boy lives. Every morning his father wakes him up playing a game as the father  knocks on the door to find the little boy pretending he is asleep. The climax comes when the father doesn’t come one morning. The boy spends days waiting for his father to return until he finally writes him a letter and leaves it on his desk in hopes that his father will return home to find it. Eventually the father returns a letter which gives readers the idea that he did not die, but he never returns. The letter essentially tells the boy that the father’s life does not have to be the boy’s future; rather there are many possibilities that the boy can explore. Through the illustrations we can see that the boy eventually becomes a man and wears the father’s hat but in a bright yellow color. This could represent the memory of his father that he holds dearly with the bright future that he created for himself.

Use of book in a lesson: This story has a positive ending full of hope while holding the potential of touching the lives of so many children who grow up with an absent parent. While the story never tells the readers exactly where the father has gone, the author’s note gives us a clue that points towards incarceration. Since Beaty never tells readers where the father goes, the story remains universal and can be related into the lives of many children today. The vague location of the father also allows this story to be brought down to any aged child as any age could feel the emotional impact of the story without the harsh reality.

Since the message of this book is universal, I would most likely use this as a read-aloud for any class from grades K-6. As this story can be a mirror or a window book for any child, Knock Knock will certainly build community within the classroom. The way that I would incorporate this story would be different depending on the grade level. A generic direction would be to discuss the point of view of the narrator and how the story might be different if told from another perspective. For example, if this were used in a fifth grade classroom I may read this book as an introduction to a bigger literature lesson to explore point of view while addressing the Common Core State Standard for “describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described” (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.6) If this lesson needed to be geared down to for second graders, we could aim our discussion towards different speakers and their points of view as we see them in the story. When reading the letter aloud, the same voice would be used as the father’s dialogue since the letter is the father’s message to his son. This would address the Common Core State Standard for “Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud” (CCSS.ELA-Literacy-RL.2.6).

In order to assess understanding I would facilitate a “talk show” in which the students take turns playing different roles of characters. The rest of the class would have opportunities to ask each “guest” on the show different questions to enhance meaning and comprehension of the story. In his article, “What’s New With Literature Circles and What’s the next Big Thing?” Harvey Daniels (2008) explains, “We now favor performance-oriented projects over more static types: readers theater, talk shows, tableaux, found poetry, song parodies, and the like” (p.5). Since the story would certainly change if told from any other person in the family, this lesson and method of assessment will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the story as well as point of view.

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References

Beaty, D. (2013). Knock knock: My dad’s dream for me. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company.

Daniels, H. (2008). What’s new with literature circles and what’s the next big thing? (p. 1-8). Handout from the Walloon Institute.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Washington, DC: Authors.