Teachable Texts

139. Andrew’s Angry Words by Dorothea Lachner

December 6, 2009 at 5:09 pm Leave a comment

Retell: When Andrew’s sister bumps into him, scattering all of his toys, he screams angry words that travel around the world causing harm to everyone they meet.  The rampage of the angry words is halted by a woman who dumps them into the ocean and replaces them with nice words.

Topics: anger, regret, kindness, mistakes, communication, respect

Units of Study: Fantasy, Talking and Writing About Texts

Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs, mutual respect

My Thoughts: When teaching the Tribes agreement of appreciations/no put-downs, I usually conduct some sort of funeral for put-downs.  Students write a put-down onto a sheet of paper, tear it up and put it in the trash.  Andrew’s Angry Words is the perfect text to support this lesson.  The illustrator does a good job of making Andrew’s put-downs into something that looks dangerous, even poisonous.  The story gives me a new idea to add to the lesson.  After the funeral for put-downs, students could write an appreciation to replace the angry words or even better have them turn the angry words into I-messages.

Entry filed under: Female Authors, Picture Books. Tags: anger, appreciations/no put-downs, communication, fantasy, I-messages, kindness, mistakes, mutual respect, regret, respect, talking and writing about texts.