Teachable Texts

16. Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

July 12, 2009 at 9:10 am Leave a comment

Retell: A young boy loses confidence on his artwork after his brother insults his work.

Topics: art, interests, self esteem, confidence, sibling issues

Units of Study: Realistic Fiction, Launching the Writers Workshop, Character

Tribes: mutual respect, personal best

Reading Skills: inference, making connections

Writing Skills: using a mixture of dialogue and description

My Thoughts: A friend of mine who is an art teacher once told me that between the ages of 8 and 10 many kids give up artistic pursuits.  Apparently this age group becomes obsessed with making their art look realistic.  Many people, myself included, stopped drawing and painting at this age because they lost confidence in their artistic ability.  Ish is a story that addresses this issue in an adorable way.  During read aloud students can analzye the role of the narrator’s sister who helps encourage him to recognize the beauty in his work.  This book lends itself well to a discussion on personal best.  Later in the book, the young artist starts a writers notebook making this a great book to launch classroom writers notebooks.

Entry filed under: Male authors, Picture Books. Tags: art, character, confidence, dialogue, inference, interests, making connections, mutual respect, personal best, realistic fiction, self-esteem, sibling issues, writers notebook.