Posts tagged ‘inference’
151. The Ant Bully by John Nickle
Retell: Lucas constantly gets picked on by the neighborhood bully. He takes out his frustration on the ants in front of his house. The ants decide to take revenge and teach Lucas a lesson.
Topics: bullying, revenge, ants
Units of Study: Fantasy
Tribes: mutual respect
Reading Skills: analyzing character motivation, interpretation
Writing Skills: experimenting with sentence structure
Thoughts: Apparently this story was made into an animated movie back in 2006. I guess I’ve been out of the loop.
This is a great read aloud for teaching about karma, the Golden Rule and the basic concept of treating others (even non-humans) with respect. It’s also a great mentor text for students writing fantasy stories. The structure is short and simple enough to mirror the fantasy stories that upper grade students may be writing. It’s also great for demonstrating how stories can be structured around teaching the reader a lesson.
Unfortunately, it looks like this book is out of print. Definitely worth a trip to your local library.
146. When I Was Young In the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Retell: Rylant beautifully recalls her childhood where she swam in swimming holes and sat on porch swings.
Topics: grandparents, family, rural communities, childhood, country
Units of Study: Memoir, Personal Narrative
Reading Skills: inference, interpretation
Writing Skills: writing commas in lists, including poignant details
My Thoughts: This is a read aloud classic that I have rediscovered. My class has just started collecting ideas for their memoirs. I read this book out loud the other day. Though half the class had read it previously, there were no groans when I showed the cover and read the title. During a “turn-and-talk” I over heard one student convincing her partner that the author was trying to show how special rural life can be. She said, “In the city, you are never allowed to go outside by yourself. But in this book the girl was allowed to go to the swimming hole all by herself. I think this book might be about freedom.” I had never actually read this book in that way before. I love it when my students make me see a book in a new light.
Read this book when you need the room to go to a peaceful, sentimental silence.
145. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Retell: A boy visits the home of the Once-ler who, for a fee, tells him the story of how he destroyed the pristine Truffula Forest and its inhabitants.
Topics: trees, deforestation, environment, environmentalists, pollution, consumption, greed, factories, habitat, animals, Earth Day
Units of Study: Social Issues, Content Area, Talking and Writing About Texts
Tribes: Mutual Respect
Reading Skills: inference, interpretation
Writing Skills: incorporating rhyme and rhythm, connecting the beginning with its ending
My Thoughts: I recently read this book to my class to celebrate Earth Day. There were misty eyes when the last truffula tree was cut down; I have never heard the room so quiet. Upon rereading I noticed how well the illustrations supported inferential thinking throughout the story. Specifically, the color of the illustrations helps support the idea that without trees the world is a dark, miserable place. In the beginning of the story, the pages are illustrated in dark tones: navy, burgundy, and gray. When the Once-ler flashes back to the first days of his Thneed venture, the illustrations are painted in bright, cheerful hues: magenta, yellow, green and turquoise. One student pointed out toward the beginning of the story, while the illustrations were still bright and cheery, the Once-ler’s materials were painted in dark tones, a premonition that the environment was going to change for the worse.
144. Just Us Women by Jeanette Caines
Retell: A niece describes her annual road trip with her favorite aunt.
Topics: road trips, family, freedom, women, bonding
Units of Study: Talking and Writing About Texts
Tribes: mutual respect
Habits of Mind: applying past knowledge to new situations, thinking flexibly
Reading Skills: inference, interpretation
My Thoughts: I’m beginning a new unit this week–a unit devoted to strengthening my students inference and interpretation skills. I’m looking for short and engaging texts to read aloud. This is a great text for modeling how readers can infer a lot of information about a character/relationship from a simple line of text.
141. Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson
Retell: Ada Ruth can’t wait for her mom to return home from Chicago. The story takes place during World War II. Ada Ruth’s mother has gone North to seek jobs on the railroad. With help from her grandmother and her new feline friend, Ada Ruth is able to wait patiently for her mom to come on home.
Topics: goodbyes, World War II, Chicago, family, pets, cats, poverty, hunger
Units of Study: Historical Fiction, Talking and Writing About Texts, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best
Reading Skills: inference, prediction, interpretation
Writing Skills: tucking in details about setting, zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: This is a great text to read aloud during an Historical Fiction unit. It’s a useful text for modeling how readers think about symbolism (or alternatively how writers incorporate symbolism). For example, it would be helpful to point out the meaning of the kitten in the story. One could read the story without giving much thought about the kitten’s importance. However, upon closer reading, one could read into the kitten’s significance. Perhaps the kitten is a symbol that represents Ada Ruth’s hope that her mother will write soon. Perhaps the kitten symbolizes her loneliness.
136. Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
Retell: This is the biography of Cesar Chavez, the leader of the National Farm Workers Association who worked to organize farm workers to rally together and fight for better pay and working conditions.
Topics: family, Cesar Chavez, conflict, drought, California, farming, Spanish, migrant workers, unions, La Causa, strikes, protests, boycotts, farm workers
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect, appreciations/no put-downs
Habits of Mind: persisting
Reading Skills: inference, interpretation, determining importance, synthesis, empathy
My Thoughts: Back when I taught in California this was required reading–in the Bay Area Cesar Chavez’s birthday is a school holiday. This book could fit into different types of text sets. For example, you could include this book when teaching a unit on the labor unit. You could also choose to read this book as a companion text to Esperanza Rising.
133. The Well by Mildred D. Taylor
Retell: During a drought, the Logan family shares water from their well with anyone who needs it, be they white or black. Hammer, the narrator’s brother, finds it difficult to share with the Simms family who have tormented the Logans for being black. After Hammer defends his brother David and beats up Charlie Simms, he and David are forced to work on the Simms’ farm to avoid jail. Hammer, however, never quite manages to swallow his pride and gets involved in another altercation that causes Charlie to take revenge.
Topics: drought, racism, segregation, bullying, fighting, family
Units of Study: Historical Fiction, Talking and Writing About Texts, Social Issues
Tribes: mutual respect, right to pass, appreciations/no put-downs
Habits of Mind: managing impulsivity
Reading Strategies: inference, synthesis, interpretation, envisionment
My Thoughts: I’ve been trying to locate shorter chapter books to read aloud. I’m finding that some of my favorite chapter books are too long to complete before the end of a unit. The Well is short, only 92 pages and can be completed within a month-long unit. I think this could be a great book to read if a class is struggling with the issue of revenge. In this story, Hammer cannot control his temper. The situation is extremely unfair, and you empathize with Hammer for fighting with Charlie. But on the other hand, his decision to take revenge led to his family’s well getting poisoned. It raises the question whether or not it’s better to fight back with violence or fight back in other ways.
