Perspective Biographies

I love this time of year; anticipating the fresh start of a new school year around the corner. I love striving to do better than I did the last. And one goal I always have is to help all students connect better with literature that fits them. I believe in using a wide variety of literature in mini lessons, in hopes that a few kids will connect and go on to read more. I've written about many biographies here, here, and here.  Different historical figures connect with different students, and it is fun to use a variety.

Past biographies I've written about are picture books that could probably be read aloud in completion. The books I'm featuring today are great biographies that are longer. I like to use a few pages for a mini lesson and provide copies for students to read independently if they choose.

The other cool thing about these books is that they are both written from a unique perspective!

Lewis and Clark and Me

Lewis and Clark and Me is written from the perspective of Meriwether Lewis's dog, Seaman. It is so fun to experience the expedition from the dog's eyes! This book is 64 pages broken into 9 chapters. Each chapter has a beautiful illustration. The text size is a bit larger than your average novel, making it a not-so-intimidating chapter book. I also found this book to be very ELL friendly for many of my intermediate 5th graders because the pictures in each chapter provide great support, there is a great map, and not too much confusing jargon. 

For mini lesson ideas:

Preview and Predict: If you introduce it being from the dog's perspective and show the map, then you can have student's predict what types of things a dog would think about on a journey like this. (How would he eat? Would he hunt? Would he have to protect the men during danger? Is he a guard dog?)

Visualize it!: For fun, I like having my kids crawl on their hands and knees for a second and imagine the dog's physical perspective for a minute. What kinds of things is Seaman seeing? 

Primary Source Documents: The end of each chapter contains a very short excerpt from Meriweather Lewis's journal. This makes for great discussion on Primary Sources, authenticity, validity, etc. 

You can play around with this book and use it in many ways. The chapters are very episodic, so you could easily pick one from any point in the book and read it aloud to suit your lesson purposes. The last chapter is a sweet chapter that connects to anyone who has a strong relationship with a pet. It's very sweet. This would be a great book to enjoy with your students or your own children! :-)

Play, Louis, Play!

Play, Louis, Play! is a biography of Louis Armstrong told from the perspective of his horn! Kinda extra cool that it's written from an inanimate object, and that gets me going with all sorts of writing ideas. Anyways, this book is 112 pages and feels like you're reading a novel and not a non-fiction biography. 

This story is a beautifully told tale of trials and obstacles Louis overcame. You can use this book to discuss theme, perspective and author's purpose. And SO much characterization of Louis. One of my favorite things in this book is Louis response to kids calling him names like "Sachelmouth"...Louis would keep smiling and say "A good nickname is hard to find." He never let anyone get his goat. It's an inspirational book for students! 

My kids also loved watching YouTube clips of Louis singing. This book is a great read! 

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Making Inferences with Sarah Stewart Books

If you teach grades 3-5, you need these books in your classroom! They are the perfect books for teaching inferences or drawing conclusions.

So, I never wanted to beat my head on a wall to explain the difference between making an inference and drawing a conclusion. After getting my master's in reading education, I'm still not sure if I understand! But, I usually think of conclusions as more final- you've got all the evidence and you make your conclusions?....Maybe inferences evolve more? I don't know!!! However you dice it, you can infer and draw conclusions from these books. 

Both of these books are written in the form of letters.

In The Gardener, Lydia Grace moves to the big city to live with her uncle. Most of the letters are written to her family back home. There are many inferences to make...First of all, you can infer many character emotions Secondly, you can infer what her parents may have written to her, sent to her, etc. 

In The Quiet Place, Isabel writes letters to her Aunt Lupita in Mexico after her family moves to the U.S.. It begins with their road trip North, and continues as they settle into their new life. Once again, you can infer emotions and character traits. You can also infer what her Aunt Lupita is writing to her.

I suppose that if you are thinking of drawing conclusions as more definitive, then you could apply that to the second letter in The Quiet Place. There are clues about "blue flowers" and a few other clues that make it pretty obvious they are in Texas on the second page, but you have to draw the conclusion because it doesn't come right out and say it. 

Another reason I love this book is because it related to SO many of my students. I taught a high population of students who had moved to Texas from Mexico, so The Quiet Place was an AWESOME book for teaching inferring, because inferring requires you to use your own background knowledge. (You can totally combine a schema lesson with this if you have students who relate to it.)

I loved how my students could relate to Isabel's fears, concerns, and feelings as she moved to a new place and learned a new language. Getting students to emotionally connect to characters is an important key to comprehension!

I would highly encourage you to check out these books for your class! And, when you are sharing this book with your class, do not forget to take some time to focus on the amazing illustrations!

First of all, the illustrations are beautiful, but secondly, you can draw conclusions from the pictures or confirm your conclusions. The pictures offer evidence. 

All of you should click here to see the illustrator, David Small, and his online sketchbook. I think his art is so whimsical and fun. I really really wish he would sell prints, because I think some of these could be really fun to frame! Believe, me I've googled every combination I could think of to look and see about buying his prints, but I don't think he has any for sale. 

All in all, I hope you can find a way to plug these books into your instruction, because they are lovely in word and image! I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from The Quiet Place.

"...after lunch when we drove through many, many, many blue flowers. The very next day the sky became that same blue. Chavo said, 'we left a sea of blue at our feet and entered an ocean of blue over our heads. I want to talk like that."- The Quiet Place

Pretty, isn't it?

Introducing Visualizing with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Okay y'all, this is going to be long, but visualization is one of my favorite topics!!! Bear with me, and you might get some inspiration for helping your students practicing their visualizing.

Over the years I have introduced visualizing in many ways, and I've tried many exercises to sharpen the mind's eye.

There is a time and a place for using a picture book to teach visualizing, but I really love working on visualizing with portions of novels. I love using a section of a novel to help peak student interest in that direction.

So, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an old classic, some of your students may have read it, and some may have seen the movie.

At first, I was apprehensive to use this book for visualizing, because I knew many students had seen the movie and I figure they might be visualizing what they remember from the movie....Then, the more I thought about it, I became okay with the idea.

So, the goal is for them to hear/read words and then see it in their mind. Even if their mental images look like the movie, they are still using the skill. AND, for students that struggle to visualize, picturing the movie actually scaffolds them into practicing the skill.

I have this edition of the book from Amazon. When I did this lesson, I had a class set of the books. But, I feel that in good faith, and in compliance with copyright laws, you could type up a few paragraphs to use as a class set hand-out. (Education World currently has a great series going about this topic.)

Here's a quick run down of how I taught this kind-of-mini-lesson:

1) *Each year I did various things to discuss visualizing, what it meant, etc...Sometimes I used Tanny McGregor's ideas from Comprehension Connections. Do whatever works for you.*

2) I gave my students paper and pencils, but had them keep them inside their desk, hands off of the materials at first. They had to have a clear desk. I told them that I would read a portion of the book, and that they would need to visualize as I read. I read the first few pages of Chapter 15, The Chocolate Room, aloud to students. (Without them having a copy.) 

This portion chapter goes into beautiful detail to describe

3) After the reading, I had students draw as much as they could remember. 

This is a big big big thing for teachers to keep in mind: 

When trying to retell, students who fail to visualize tend to just regurgitate words they remember. Students who visualize and saw it clearly in their mind can recall details of their visualization. They discuss what they SAW rather than words they HEARD.

So, I want my students to draw what they saw in their brains.

4) I read the same portion to students again, and have the continue into their drawing as they listen.

5) I have students share their drawings with an table buddy and discuss what they saw in their heads.

6) As a class, we discuss how we experienced not just seeing in our mind, but hearing, smelling, tasting, etc. (You could even have a chart up of each of the 5 senses and have students right on sticky notes about the sensory detail they visualized, etc.)

Some of the great descriptions in this section include the appearance and the sounds of the chocolate waterfall, imagery about the pipes that carried the chocolate, etc.

7) For some independent practice OR a station activity later, you can use a portion of Chapter 20, The Great Gum Machine. Have students read it independently and then try to draw what they saw there.

OR 

I also love having students practice this super simple visualization partner exercise:

a. Read the first part of this chapter silently, and when they finish immediately put it in their desk, no peaking!

b. Turn to a table partner and describe what they saw in their mind.

c. Walk around and listen, you will be able to tell who saw it and who didn't.

d. Share as a class.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory offers many sections that you can continue utilizing for visualization, another favorite of mine is Chapter 21, Good-by Violet. It describes violet's swelling and change of appearance in the middle. Or, you could use the OOmpa-Loompa's song/poem at the end of the chapter.

I find this book to be especially engaging, but these same strategies can be used with any portion of a book that offers great imagery/sensory details! And, BONUS--Later you can re-use this portion of the book when you are teaching imagery or sensory details! ;-) 

TEKS ADDRESSED: (8) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language creates imagery in literary text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to evaluate the impact of sensory details, imagery, and figurative language in literary text.

Figure 19: Reading/Comprehension Skills. Students use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in both assigned and independent reading to understand an author’s message. Students will continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts as they become self-directed, critical readers. The student is expected to: (C) monitor and adjust comprehension (e.g., using background knowledge, creating sensory images, re-reading a portion aloud, generating questions) 

Teaching with Pink and Say

Quick Summary: Pink and Say shows the friendship between Pinkus Aylee and Sheldon (Say) Curtis during the Civil War. Pink rescues an injured Say on the battlefield and takes him to stay with his grandmother, Moe Moe Bay until he is back to health. After marauders murder Moe Moe Bay, the pair become more determined to return to war. As they are returning to war, they are captured and taken to a confederate prison camp where Pink is killed. Through it all, lessons can be learned about the horrors of war and the virtues of friendship and courage. Patricia Polacco does an excellent job of covering the tough stuff in an elegant and appropriate way for students. Patricia Polacco's summary of the book is MUCH better than my extremely basic one, if you would like more details! 

I do not even know where to begin with this book, because it could be utilized in so many ways. Every time I've read it, you can hear a pin drop in my room, even with my noisiest of classes! The writing is so beautiful, and the story is so heart-wrenching that you will have the kids in the palm of your hand when you read this aloud. Pink and Say is well suited for 5th grade, because it is a mature book and it incorporates The Civil War. Since, grade 5 covers American History in most states, this book just works.

From the Social Studies TEKS: (4)  History. The student understands political, economic, and social changes that occurred in the United States during the 19th century. The student is expected to:

(E)  identify the causes of the Civil War, including sectionalism, states' rights, and slavery, and the effects of the Civil War, including Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution

However, I don't feel that you have to wait until your Civil War unit to use this. Most 5th graders have plenty of background knowledge on this time period already. So, here are some ideas for utilizing it:

SCHEMA: You can utilize this book to discuss how we bring our background knowledge into our comprehension when reading. Draw on student's knowledge of The Civil War. Even if their knowledge is basic, it is crucial for comprehending the story. You could easily create some type of T-Chart and collect student's background knowledge. Then, as you are reading, write about how that information is incorporated into the book. 

METACOGNITION: So this is a given, and I pretty much shouldn't put this on here, but any time you are modeling/doing think-alouds, you are showing students how to reflect on their own thinking. There are PLENTY of places in this book where you could stop to share your thoughts and reactions.

SUMMARIZING/STORY ELEMENTS: Summarizing is a tough skill, so I always start by teaching fiction summaries. I like to spend time writing  a few summaries as a class, and then later having students write their own. I have used Pink and Say to write a summary as a class.

I teach summary by having students record the elements of the story such as setting, characters, conflict and resolution. Then, we work from there to write our summary. This story works well for elements.

THEME: Theme is an abstract concept, making it tough, however this book has great themes such as friendship and courage. I would not teach theme early in the year with this book, because I like using it for schema, metacognition and summary, at first. However, when it is time to teach theme later on, I would definitely pull this book back out and discuss! 

This TEK is well covered in this book, because the "historical event" has a major effect on the theme of the story: 

5.3 (C) Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to explain the effect of a historical event or movement on the theme of a work of literature

In the end, there are many objectives you can achieve with this book from an academic stance, but most importantly, this book speaks to the heart and can be used to discuss more important concepts in life. I hope you check it out! 

Other Figure 19 TEKS that could be met with this book: (C) monitor and adjust comprehension (e.g., using background knowledge, creating sensory images, re- reading a portion aloud, generating questions); (D) make inferences about text and use textual evidence to support understanding; (E) summarize and paraphrase texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order within a text and across texts 

Favorite Books for the Beginning of 5th Grade

I wanted to spend some time this week showcasing some of my favorite books to use during the first few weeks of school. While I used these in 5th, I feel that these books could be appropriate in grades 4-6. These are books I've used many times to introduce specific reading strategies.

These are all a good double-punch, because they are amazing for teaching foundational reading strategies, but they also hook students into great literature and help students become interested in various authors and titles.

So, here are the titles I love, and then I'll tell you a bit more detail about just one of them today...

Chicken Sunday is a great book to teach metacognition, summary and conflict-resolution.

Pink and Say is SO powerful. I have never read this to my class without getting misty eyed. I use it to teach metacognition and summarizing. It is also a great book to use for teaching theme. 

Sarah Stewart and David Small teamed up to produce 2 beautiful books written entirely in letters in The Gardener and The Quiet Place. Both books are wonderful for teaching inferring and drawing conclusions. I usually use one for modeling and then put one in a literacy station...more on that later this week.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an old favorite, and it is wonderful for teaching visualizing. I'll post how I taught that lesson later this week.

Finally, Among the Hidden. 

I want to focus on this book today...Y'all, when I read this a few years ago I finished it in a day because I was pretty into it. It intrigued me as I was reading, and made me question things in a natural way.

I believe learning with good literature should be organic. Great literature is not literature written for the purpose of teaching "questioning" as it sometimes seems to be in basal readers...rather, great literature naturally leads our minds to question, predict, confirm, question, predict, confirm. 

This book is the first text I use to introduce questioning. I usually put the book on the document cover and have students brainstorm/write on scratch paper a few questions that they come up with from only seeing the front cover. Then, share with elbow buddies or partners. 

Who is the boy? Is he hiding? Who is in the window? Are they trying to catch him? Etc. Students will amaze you with what they come up with. 

After sharing questions as a group, I use the first few pages of the book to model metacognition and questioning to my students. I do think-alouds, etc. 

It is the perfect text for introducing questioning. Bonus, the book is suspenseful and interesting very early on. So, I usually read aloud the first few chapters of the book during that week. Then, I found that many of my students sought this book out to finish on their own. Love that!

TEKS ADDRESSED: Reading/Comprehension Skills. FIGURE 19: Students use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in both assigned and independent reading to understand an author’s message. Students will continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts as they become self- directed, critical readers. The student is expected to:

(A) establish purposes for reading selected texts based upon own or others’ desired outcome to enhance comprehension;
(B) ask literal, interpretive, evaluative, and universal questions of text; 

I can't wait to share more on the other books with you this week!