Teachable Texts

143. Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin

January 31, 2010 at 8:02 pm 1 comment

Retell: Through a worm’s diary the reader learns about the ups and downs of being an earthworm.

Topics: earthworms, diaries, composting, differences, predators, soil

Units of Study: Content Area, Nonfiction

Habits of Mind: Finding Humor

Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, synthesis

My Thoughts: My class has just started a study on earthworms.  Before read aloud each day we check on our worms working hard in our new worm compost bin.  Students are bringing food scraps from their lunches (one student even brought coffee grounds from home).  A colleague of mine referred me to this adorable book that allows readers to look at the world through the humorous perspective of a young earthworm.  I think this book will make an excellent mentor text for students who are deciding to write narrative nonfiction pieces.  It’s a great text for teaching readers to be on the look out for jokes and for teaching writers how to incorporate humor into their writing.

Entry filed under: Female Authors, nonfiction, Picture Books. Tags: composting, content-area, diaries, differences, earthworms, finding humor, monitoring for sense, narrative nonfiction, nonfiction, predators, soil, synthesis.