Posts tagged ‘community’
125. Under the Lemon Moon by Edith Hope Fine
Retell: One evening Rosalinda awakes to find a man stealing lemons from her lemon tree. During the theft, a branch is broken and the tree becomes sick. Rosalinda searches her village for a cure. A mysterious woman helps her cure her sick tree and help a family in need.
Topics: theft, family, community, trees, kindness
Units of Study: Realistic Fiction, Social Issues, Talking and Writing About Texts
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect
Habits of Mind: thinking flexibly
Reading Skills: empathy, interpretation, inference, monitoring for sense
Writing Skills: using words to describe sound, using interesting verbs, incorporating foreign languages
My Thoughts: This is a text that can be useful for many units and for many purposes. As I was reading this text I immediately noticed the beautiful verbs the author uses. A reader who is unfamiliar with the vocabulary in the text can easily figure out the meaning of the words by thinking about the context. It’s a great text for teaching the strategy of playing ‘fill in the bank’ when solving tricky words.
71. The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
Retell: When Mary Ellen becomes bored of reading her grampa takes her on a hunt for a bee tree. People from the community join them as they run through the Michigan countryside chasing bees. By the end of the bee tree chase Mary Ellen learns that there are many similarities between chasing knowledge through the pages of a book and chasing bees.
Topics: reading, outdoors, adventure, grandparents, community, knowledge
Units of Study: Realistic Fiction, Personal Narrative, Authoring an Independent Reading Life
Tribes: personal best
Habits of Mind: responding with wonderment and awe
Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, interpretation
My Thoughts: I like reading this book at the beginning of the year when we author our own independent reading lives. I think this year I want to keep referring back to the book when we have particularly juicy conversations. When students ask interesting, provocative questions I could refer to them as ‘honey questions’. I need to make a banner with Grampa’s words: “[Adventure, knowledge and wisdom] do not come easily. You have to pursue them. Just like we ran after the bees to find their tree, so you must also chase these things through the pages of a book!”
60. In My Momma’s Kitchen by Jerdine Nolen
Retell: This is a heartwarming collection of small moments that all take place in a family’s kitchen: a daughter receives a music scholarship, children make up stories, women chitchat and a father makes his signature dish.
Topics: family, community, childhood
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir
Tribes: mutual respect
Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, envisionment, interpretation
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: This is a great text to read at different points of the year. I originally purchased this book thinking it would be a good read aloud for the Personal Narrative unit. After reading it a second time, I realize that it’s also a great mentor text for the Memoir unit. Each story is connected by its setting–the kitchen. Using this text students could try out Nolen’s strategy of thinking of an important place (a room, a park) and write memories associated with that place. Since this book reads like an anthology of notebook entries, you could use this text when introducing the writer’s notebook.
40. Rent Party Jazz by William Miller
Retell: Sonny is worried. His mom just lost her job at the fish market and is worried that they may not make rent. Sonny meets the musician Smilin’ Jack who comes up with a solution that turns out to be both profitable and entertaining.
Topics: New Orleans, rent, money, jazz, parties, music, community
Units of Study: Social Issues, Historical Fiction
Tribes: personal best, attentive listening
Reading Skills: envisionment, interpretation
Writing Skills: using commas to tuck in details
My Thoughts: Great books teach us something new. Rent Party Jazz not only tells a story of Sonny and his family, but tells the story of the origin of rent parties throughout African-American communities in the South. The book will be great to read when your class needs to be reminded of the power a strong, supportive community. Even something as bleak as not being able to pay rent can be conquered when people work together.
28. The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter
Retell: This is the true story of Alia Muhammad Baker. During U.S. air raids in 2003, Baker managed to hide and save over 30,000 books from destruction.
Topics: libraries, Iraq, heroism, action, war, books, community
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content-Area Reading and Writing, Journalism
Tribes: mutual respect, personal best
Reading Skills: prediction, questioning
Writing Skills: using dashes
My Thoughts: Stories like this one restores my faith in humanity. Alia Muhammad Baker’s story is a great one to share with kids, many whom don’t even know that the U.S. is involved in two wars at the moment. Her story was originally published back in 2003 in the The New York Times. Reading The Librarian of Basra in conjunction with the The New York Times article could be a great way to emphasize the role of a journalist to bring to light stories that would otherwise go unnoticed. I plan on reading this at the beginning of the year to reiterate the importance of reading.
Click her to read Shaila K. Dewan’s 2003 New York Times article about Alia Muhammad Baker
20. Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler by Margery Cuyler
Retell: Mrs. Cooler’s class is getting antsy and cranky. She asks a few misbehaving students to do 10 acts of kindness at home. The next day during show and tell, others are inspired to do random acts of kindness. Eventually the project includes acts of kindness at school and throughout the community.
Topics: kindness, school, community, helping, volunteering, 100th day of school
Units of Study: Character, Realistic Fiction
Tribes: appreciations/no putdowns, mutual respect, community building, personal best
Writing Skills: using rhyme and rhythm
My Thoughts: I think I just found my 100th day of school read aloud. The 100th day of school always creeps up on me and I end up doing a last minute project. This year, I think I’ll use Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler to launch a Random Acts of Kindness Campaign. In the book Mrs. Ruler’s class tries to do 100 kind acts at home, school, or in the community. She puts each act on a paper heart and they have a celebration when they reach 100. Since the 100th day of school usually falls close to Valentine’s Day, a Kindness Campaign could be a good way to turn a commercialized holiday into one that promotes a good cause. Thanks Ms. Cuyler.
19. Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
Retell: It seems like everyone in school has a pair of black high tops with white stripes–everyone but Jeremy. Jeremy’s grandmother only has enough money for a pair of boots. When they spot a pair of “those shoes” at a thrift shop, Jeremy buys them with his own money, only to find out that they’re too small. He is then faced with a difficult decision–does he keep his blister-causing shoes or give them to a friend.
Topics: shoes, needs and wants, fads, money, grandparents, decisions, friendship, generosity
Units of Study: Character, Talking and Writing About Texts, Literary Essay, Realistic Fiction, Social Issues
Tribes: mutual respect, personal best, community building
Reading Skills: inference, prediction, making connections
Writing Skills: using dashes, transitional phrases, incorporating a balance of dialogue and summary
My Thoughts: My fabulous student teacher introduced this book to me last year. Every year it seems there is some sort of expensive fad: Tech decks, sidekicks, iphones, sneakers, smencils. My heart breaks when I think about the students who are being teased just because they don’t have the latest fad. Those Shoes is a book to address this issue. It is an ideal book to read aloud to discuss the differences between need and want. I can see reading this book aloud during a Social Issues unit. I could also see using this as a text to analyze during a literary essay unit.
10. Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
Retell: A young girl anticipates the long awaited thunderstorms that will cool down the humid city she lives in.
Topics: heat, rain, family, summer, cities, thunderstorms
Units of Study: personal narrative, poetry
Reading Skills: envisionment, making connections
Writing Skills: including similes, using active verbs, personification, alliteration
My Thoughts: This book makes me wish it was more humid outside right now. Every New Yorker without air conditioning will be able to relate to this book. I love how Hesse uses poetic devices throughout this small moment story, making it a nice mentor text for personal narrative or poetry unit. She includes personification: “The smell of hot tar and garbage bullies the air…” There is alliteration and assonance: “The first drops plop down big, making dust dance all around us.” Hesse teaches young writers to slow down and zoom in on ordinary moments.
5. The Girl Who Lost Her Smile by Karim Alrawi
Retell: One day in Baghdad a girl named Jehan loses her smile. Her father searches the world for someone who will help his daughter find her smile.
Topics: Baghdad, art, folk tales
Units of Study: Fantasy, Creating Community, Geography
Tribes: Personal Best, Mutual Respect
Reading Skills: envisionment, making connections, prediction
My Thoughts: This is a very quick read aloud which could be good for discussing the expectation of doing one’s personal best and the satisfaction it brings. Throughout the book Jehan’s father brings her the most beautiful art in the world to cheer her up. However, it is not until she participates in the arduous process of making a wall gleam that she finally finds her smile. It woule be nice to use this as a community building mentor text. We can discuss how Jehan’s family did their best to cheer her up and how we should try and give our friends encouragement and help them find their smiles when they are down. Her father brings art from around the world to cheer her up. I could see asking students to find those places on a world map to practice their geography skills.
3. Uptown by Bryan Collier
Retell: A young boy writes about his observations of Harlem.
Topics: neighborhoods, Harlem, community
Units of Study: Personal Narratives, Geography of New York
Reading Skills: envisionment
Writing Skills: writing small moments, including setting details, writing metaphors and similes
My Thoughts: This beautiful book shows that writers observe the world around them. Each observation is something that can turn into powerful writing. I plan on using this book as a mentor text for teaching about metaphors and similes. Collier writes, “Uptown is a caterpillar. Well, it’s really the Metro-North train as it eases over the Harlem River.” Though my students don’t live in Harlem, I’m hoping that reading this book together will show them that they need to share their world with others through writing. The world needs more books about Sunset Park, Brooklyn! For 4th grade teachers in New York, I can see using this book during a Geography unit. Perhaps after reading Uptown, students could locate the landmarks in the book on a subway map.
Teachable Texts 