Teachable Texts

88. Volcanoes by Seymour Simon

September 23, 2009 at 7:55 pm Leave a comment

Retell: The title pretty much speaks for itself.  Seymour Simon explains how volcanoes form and why some volcanoes are not as destructive as others.

Topics: volcanoes, magma, lava, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Shasta, plates, Mt. Hood, Surtsey, legends

Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content Area

Reading Skills: determining importance, envisionment, monitoring for sense

Writing Skills: supporting a thesis with reasons and examples, including similes in nonfiction writing

My Thoughts: The photographs in Simon’s books draw me in and I find myself becoming interested in subjects I had never cared about before.  Volcanoes is another great nonfiction title that could support the Earth Movements unit.  (See post #87.)  Unlike many nonfiction books for kids, this book doesn’t organize the information into friendly headings.  It’s a great way to model how readers organize expository text, creating our own mental headings and subheadings.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: content-area, determining importance, envisionment, lava, legends, magma, monitoring for sense, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta, nonfiction, plates, similes, supporting a thesis, Surtsey, volcanoes.