Teachable Texts

37. Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief with Rosemary Wells

August 2, 2009 at 9:00 am Leave a comment

Retell: This is an autobiographical story of Maria Tallchief, one of the greatest American-born ballerinas of her time.

Topics: native americans, Osage, Oklahoma, ballet, Westward Expansion, music, interests, biographies, narrative nonfiction

Units of Study: Social Issues, Nonfiction

Tribes: personal best

Reading Skills: inference, determining importance, envisionment

Writing Skills: seeing the world as a writer, using interesting transitional phrases

My Thoughts: This story is great to read when discussing what it means to put your all into something.  Maria Tallchief lived, breathed, and ate music and dance.  She writes about how her teacher told her to live like a dancer “When you sleep, you must sleep like a dancer.  When you stand and wait for the bus, you must wait for the bus like a dancer.”  This particular scene reminds me how we often challenge our students to live like writers.  Perhaps now we can tell students, “When you wait for the bus, you must wait for the bus like a writer–notebook in hand, waiting to collect stories.”

Entry filed under: Female Authors, nonfiction, Uncategorized. Tags: autobiography, ballet, biographies, determining importance, envisionment, inference, interests, music, narrative nonfiction, native americans, nonfiction, Oklahoma, Osage, personal best, social issues, Westward Expansion.