Teachable Texts

32. Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh

July 28, 2009 at 9:02 am Leave a comment

Retell: Thimmesh tells the story of the Apollo 11 mission.  It includes several quotes, interviews and amazing photographs from the moon landing.

Topics: moon landing, space, Apollo 11, teamwork, goals, problem-solving, perseverance

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content Area, Personal Essay

Tribes: attentive listening, mutual respect, personal best

Reading Skills: envisionment, inference, interpretation, determining importance

Writing Skills: using descriptive language, inserting quotations, using dashes, using ellipses

My Thoughts: To commemorate its 40th anniversary I plan to read at least one book about the moon landing this year.  What I love about this particular book is its emphasis on teamwork.  As the title suggests, Apollo 11 was successful because of the dilligence of several hundred-thousand people working together in teams trying to accomplish one goal.  It’s a dense book so I can see reading only a few sections at a time.  This could be used as a rich mentor text for writing nonfiction.  Thimmesh writes with excitement and enthusiasm making the text very engaging.

Entry filed under: Female Authors, nonfiction, Picture Books. Tags: Apollo 11, attentive listening, content-area, dashes, description, determining importance, ellipses, envisionment, goals, inference, interpretation, moon landing, mutual respect, nonfiction, perseverance, personal best, personal essay, problem-solving, quotations, space, teamwork.