Thursday, January 29, 2015

Out of the Dust

John Newbery Medal
among many other notable awards
"And I know 
that all the time 
I was trying to get
 out of the dust,
the fact is,
what I am,
I am because of 
the dust.
And what I am 
is good enough.
Even for me."                              

 -Billie Jo



Out of the Dust is: Inspiring, Realistic, Historical, Heart-wrenching, Authentic
Out of the Dust
Written by Karen Hesse
Published by Scholastic, 1997  

 Reading Level:
Lexile: NP
Grade Level: 5.1
Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud, Guided Reading
Summary: During The Great Depression, fourteen year-old Billy Jo lives in the Dust Bowl with her father and pregnant mother.  With the frequent dust storms that destroy her father's crops, her family is left searching for ways to survive the depression and life in Oklahoma.  The one activity that takes Billy Jo away from all of the stress is playing the piano.  After her world is turned upside down by a horrible accident, Billy Jo is left wounded both mentally and physically. This story is about a young girl's quest for happiness, love, and forgiveness.  

Electronic Resources for Educators:



This interactive website is full of great activities for teachers to use to teach students about the Dust Bowl.  There are lesson plans and many online activities that give students an idea about what living in the Dust Bowl might have been like during the Great Depression.


This Library of Congress has great activities for teachers to use to help students understand the story as it connects to history.  There are fantastic primary sources in this document for teachers to let students read Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project about the Dust Bowl. There are also songs that students can listen to that Billy Jo would have heard or played on the piano.  

Teaching Suggestions:


Key Vocabulary:


Comprehension Activities for the Classroom Teacher:

Before Reading Activity:
In order for students to best understand the setting and the challenges that the characters face in the story, they need to know about the Dust Bowl. I recommend watching The Dust Bowl a film by Ken Burns.  If you do not have access to it then here are some different links that will help your students learn about the Dust Bowl.

Lessons from the Dust Bowl

Uncovering the Dust Bowl

Sting Dust and Forgotten Lives

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/dust/procedure.html

- While your students watch videos or read different articles about the Dust Bowl have them write down some important facts that they learn about it.  You can write some questions on the board that you want them to look/listen for as they read informational texts or watch videos on the topic.





During Reading Activity:Generative Reading Activity  
- the goal in this activity is to help students to become independent readers. Students read specific chapters and then come up with five discussion questions. The student becomes the leader of classroom/group for the chapter that they are assigned to.  This promotes students to learn on own.  It is very important that the teacher models for students how to come up with discussion questions. All students will complete all reading but a specific student will come up with the discussion questions for the particular chapter. 

 Post Reading Activity: Readers Theatre-
In groups students should create scripts related to the Dust Bowl or the book. They will then perform the play.  The scripts should demonstrate understanding of the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, or Billy Jo's life.

 Writing Activity:
 After Billie Jo meets the man in the boxcar, she decides to return home. Write a few paragraphs explaining why meeting this man influenced Billie Jo to return home to her father and the dust.
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Thursday, January 22, 2015

The Tale of Despereaux

John Newbery Medal 
" Once upon a time. Yes.
 Once upon a time, 
there was a mouse
 who was very, 
very small.                
Exceptionally small.  
And there was 
a beautiful human princess
 whose name was Pea.  
And it so happened
 that this mouse 
was the one 
who was selected by fate
 to serve the Princess, 
to honor her, 
and to save her 
from the darkness
 of a terrible dungeon." - Despereaux




The Tale of Despereaux is: Riveting, Motivating, Amusing, Brilliant, Thought-provoking

 The Tale of Despereaux
being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread
Written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering
Published by Candlewick press, 2003

Reading Level:
Lexile: 670 L
Grade Level: 4.8
DRA: 50
Suggested Delivery: Read aloud, Independent read, Small group read

Summary: The Tale of Despereaux, is about a young mouse who creates his own path in life.  He is unlike all of his mice friends, he isn't interested in eating crumbs off of the floor or walking in zig-zagging patterns.  This mouse wants to read, listen to music, and chat with his beloved, Princess Pea.  His choices get him in BIG trouble with the mouse community and he is sent to the dungeon! While the mouse prepares for life in the dungeon, fate is preparing for him to meet two other characters.  Despereaux will meet Chiaroscuro, a rat who oddly enjoys light places and doesn't enjoy making others suffer until a tragic event that makes him crave revenge on the Princess Pea. Chiaroscuro will make use of the not so bright Miggery Sow, who has never been asked what she wants and was sold for a Hen and a blood-red cloth.  Despereaux the brave, small mouse will defy the odds and teach readers what love and forgiveness truly mean. 

Electronic Resources for Educators:



This link is connected to a teacher's guide created by the publishing company, Candlewick Press.  There are different pre-reading, during reading, and post reading activities to help students grapple with the text.  There are also key vocabulary words, discussion questions, and many other activities to help teachers plan thoughtful lessons with this book.  


This is a great post reading activity for teachers to extend students ideas of the book and to check on their understanding of setting and characters.

Teaching Suggestions:

Key Vocabulary:


Comprehension Activities for the Classroom Teacher:

Before Reading Activity: Preview the book with your students. Look at the title, the picture on the front, read the inside flap, and look at the titles of some of the chapters.  Make a list of predictions on the board with your students.  Ask them what they think is going to happen? What do you think the title might mean? Who might be the main character? What might be the setting? What is the genre of the book?

 During Reading Activity: Have your students fill out a concept map as they read. It can be confusing for students to read this book because there are three separate stories that are all happening at the same time.  Using a concept map helps students to remember what is happening in each individual character's story. Have your students write the main character for the chapter they are reading in the center oval. I would also describe the character in the main oval.  For example, Despereaux is a very small mouse who likes to read and enjoys the princess's company. As students read have them fill out different events or feelings that the character is experiencing. For example one oval might say that Despereaux was sent to the dungeon for speaking to the princess.



 Post Reading Activity: Student Book Talk-
     A student or group of students share with their classmates about the book. This demonstrates their understanding of the book and it may encourage other students to read the book.  It also may be fun for a student or group of students to create a book trailer for The Tale of Despereaux.  

 Writing Activity:  Follow the Light with Despereaux
To help children understand the themes and deeper issues of
The Tale of Despereaux, reread the parts of Book the First where
Kate DiCamillo uses images of light.

"The light was shining onto the ceiling in an oval of brilliance, and
he was smiling up at the sight." (Despereaux’s birth, p. 13)

"He was staring at the light pouring in through the stained-glass
windows of the castle. . . . “What is this thing? . . . Are we in heaven?”
(Despereaux on tour with Furlough in the castle, just
before he goes into the library, pp. 20–21)

“You will die, then, with a black heart.” (Words of the Most
Very Honored Head Mouse to Despereaux, just before the
threadmaster ties the red thread of death, p. 56)

“Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.” (Words
of Gregory, the jailer, to Despereaux, p. 81)

Engage children in a discussion about what they think light
might mean in the story. Goodness? Beauty? What does dark
mean? Does Despereaux really have a black heart? Let the children
write a few sentences about what light means to them.
Create a place in the classroom where you display children's writing.

http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/0763617229.btg.1.pdf



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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

John Newbery Medal
 " This I did not 
expect at all.
 It is what I 
love about life, 
that things 
happen 
which I do 
not expect."




Flora & Ulysses is
Comical, Endearing, Captivating, Adventure-packed, Memorable

 Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures
Written by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by K.G. Campbell
Published by Candlewick Press, 2013
Reading Level:
Lexile:520L
Grade Level: 3.1 
Suggested Delivery: Read aloud or Independent Read

 Summary: Kate DiCamillo’s Flora & Ulysses was the 2014 Newbery Medal Award winner! This novel begins with Flora Belle Buckman, a cynic, watching as her neighbor is vacuuming her yard when suddenly a squirrel appears and she vacuums him right up! Flora is prepared for life-threatening events like this because she has read every  issue of the comic series “ Terrible Things Can Happen to you!” So Flora rushes to save the Squirrel from the vacuum and she is able to revive him.  When Ulysses, the Squirrel awakens he has special super powers! He is impossibly strong, he can fly and he has the ability to write poetry! Through Flora and Ulysses’ adventures, Flora learns the value of friendship and she learns that sometimes its okay to be hopeful.  While reading this page-turner you will burst with laughter and wish that you too had a super-squirrel as your friend too.  


Electronic Resources:

Book trailer

Scholastic.com is a great resource for both students and teachers. This  link takes readers directly to a character scrapbook.  Students can create a scrapbook by designing the characters from the book and writing about them. This will helps students organize their thoughts during the book and help them to remember each character's significance.  

This link will take teachers and students to a discussion guide created by Candlewick press.  It has great questions to get readers thinking before, during, after reading this book. 

Teaching Suggestions:

Key Vocabulary: 


 Comprehension Activities for the Classroom Teacher:

Before Reading Activity: It is important to determine if your students would be interested in reading this book and what aspects of the book seem interesting to them.  A great way to find out if students would like to read this book is to show students the book trailer.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6cdkkJvgaA
After students watch the video give them time to write in a reading journal about what aspects of the book seem interesting to them and why they want to or do not want to read the book.   After students write, let them share their thoughts with a partner.

 During Reading Activity: Break students up into groups and give them roles such as  summarizer, predictor, illustrator or questioner.  If this is a new activity in your classroom then you will need to model each role and share your expectations for the activity with your students.  Have students work together to read a chapter or chapters and then discuss what they have read.  Provide questions for students to start their conversation: Example for chapters 57-59.  
What happens in chapter 57? Why does Flora go to William Spiver's house in the middle of the night? What does Flora's tone of speech tell us about how she is feeling?
Chapter 58: Why does Flora's mother have Ulysses in a sack? Where might she be taking him? What is he thinking? What would you be thinking if you were him?
Chapter 59: The cynic experiences a change during this chapter.  What is the change? Why might she be thinking this way?
Each student should share their thoughts and hopefully by listening to their peers their ideas about what they have read will be extended.

 Post Reading Activity:
 http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11227560&height=267&width=200

 Writing Activity:  Everyone changes in life, and we see many changes in Flora,
Ulysses, William Spiver, and George Buckman during this story. Pick two characters and write about the changes they experience during the story. Use examples from the book to
demonstrate these changes.

 http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/076366040X.btg.1.pdf


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