Posts tagged ‘sensory details’
137. When Lightning Comes in a Jar by Patricia Polacco
Retell: Patricia Polacco describes a fun-filled family reunion where the adults challenge the kids to baseball games, the aunties make meatloaf and jello salads, and everyone catches fireflies.
Topics: reunions, family, baseball, curiosity, storytelling, fireflies, tradition, parties
Units of Study: Memoir, Personal Narrative
Reading Skills: envisionment, interpretation
Writing Skills: incorporating sensory details, storytelling
My Thoughts: When planning read alouds, I have been trying to create text sets, planning books not just by unit of study, but by themes. I’m thinking of creating a text set with the theme of ‘traditions’ which may include When Lightning Comes in a Jar, The Keeping Quilt, and When the Relatives Came. This book could also be great to read when you are teaching students to storytell to their partners. Storytelling is a Polacco family reunion tradition.
82. Flying Over Brooklyn by Myron Uhlberg
Retell: On a snowy, winter’s evening a boy dreams of flying over Brooklyn. He visits many of his favorite places: Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Bridge and of course, Coney Island.
Topics: Brooklyn, birds-eye view, dreams, flying, imagination, winter
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir
Habits of Mind: responding with wonderment and awe
Reading skills: envisionment, making connections
Writing Skills: using sensory details, using observation to generate entries, zooming in on small moments
My Thoughts: This book is beautifully written. I think it will be an excellent book to use as a mentor text for using descriptive language. When I read this aloud, I plan on pointing out how the author makes you feel the snow and sense the quiet throughout the snowy city. 4th grade teachers in New York may want to read this during a Geography unit. After reading the book aloud, students could find each place on a map or make their own map based on places visited throughout the text.
61. The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
Retell: Every summer the relatives from Virginia drive several hours to visit their family. There is a lot of hugging, a lot of chatting and a lot of eating. When they leave, the house feels a bit empty.
Topics: family, summer, reunions
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir
Reading Skills: envisionment, inference, making connections
Writing Skills: using sensory details, describing how time passes
My Thoughts: I found this classic for only $2 at a great used bookstore in Mt. Shasta, California. It used to belong to a library so the bottom of each page is cracked, crinkled and reinforced with tape–a testament to how much we love this book. This is a wonderful book to use during the Personal Narrative unit. Though it’s not technically a small moment (the book spans over two weeks) sections of it can be used as a mentor text. I notice that many of my students struggle when writing about time. They often spend a lot of energy including each detail because it happened ‘next’. I see a lot of stories where each sentence begins with ‘then’. Sections of The Relatives Came could be used to show how authors deal with time. The relatives drive for a long time but Rylant doesn’t describe every single thing they see or every pit stop they make. She chooses to focus on a few details only, the strange houses, mountains, and their thoughts of purple grapes back home. The illustrations also tell a story themselves making it a good book for modeling inference.
50. Home: A Collaboration of Thirty Distinguished Authors and Illustrators of Children’s Books to Aid the Homeless
Retell: An anthology of poetry and prose all based on the subject ‘home’. Many famous writers and illustrators contributed pieces such as: Virginia Hamilton, Aliki, Jon Sciszka, Jane Yolen and more.
Topics: home, hiding places, family, children
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir, Launching the Reading Workshop
Habits of Mind: thinking flexibly, creating-imagining-innovating
Reading Skills: making connections, envisionment, monitoring for sense
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, using sensory details
My Thoughts: This is a handy resource for the Personal Narrative unit. Many of the poems and stories within the anthology will be great ‘small moment’ mentor texts. Home contains some great pieces that will encourage students as they author their independent reading lives. The story “Comfortable Old Chair” by Karla Kuskin features a girl who loves reading in her favorite chair. In the poem, “Elevator” Lucille Clifton describes a girl who reads in the corner of her building’s elevator. I plan on using these pieces to show how dedicated readers take charge of their lives at home and find a place that’s entirely theirs. I knew a student who used to have trouble finding a quiet space to read in his crowded apartment. He started scheduling bathroom reading time. He would bring in pillows, blankets and books and make a comfy reading spot in the bathtub.
41. Shanghai Messenger by Andrea Cheng
Retell: Xiao Mei is invited by her uncle to visit China. At first she is reluctant to travel by herself and once she arrives she finds the new setting lonely and disorienting. She eventually adjusts and begins to appreciate her extended Chinese family.
Topics: Chinese, China, poetry, family, mixed-race, language barrier, traveling, homesickness
Units of Study: Character, Personal Narrative, Social Issues
Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs
Reading Skills: interpretation, inference, envisionment, making connections
Writing Skills: incoporating foreign languages, zooming in on small moments, including sensory details
My Thoughts: I love how this story is told as a series of free verse poems. I plan on reading this book aloud when I teach how writers zoom in on small moments. Each poem is a small moment from her trip. It can be a good mentor text for writers who want to write about a vacation and are tempted to write about the entire vacation. Cheng incorporates Chinese vocabulary throughout the story. She even includes a Chinese glossary with a pronunciation guide which will aid readers when they attempt to read it aloud. It’s also a good book to read when studying character change. In the beginning, Xiao Mei is afraid to go to China by herself and thinks she will never adjust to life in China. By the end she develops into a grown-up girl who is both completely American and completely Chinese.
35. One Green Apple by Eve Bunting
Retell: One Green Apple is the story of Farah, a Muslim immigrant, who struggles to fit in. Despite the language barrier she manages to make friends and participate during the field trip to the apple orchard.
Topics: immigration, language barrier, dupatta, field trips, friendship, Muslim characters
Units of Study: Social Issues, Talking and Writing About Texts, Realistic Fiction
Tribes: mutual respect, right to pass
Reading Skills: interpretation, inference, empathy
Writing Skills: including metaphors, using sensory details
My Thoughts: I wish I knew about this book last year. I had two students who recently came from China. Other students were having difficulty communicating with them. They got frustrated when the Chinese students didn’t understand their rapid speech. The Chinese students got frustrated when people spoke too loud to them and ‘dumbed material down’. I intend to use this book to address language issues. In the story Farah thinks to herself, “I understand. It’s not that I am stupid. It is just that I am lost in this new place.” I can see using this book as a mentor text for teaching about metaphors. You could discuss Eve Bunting’s decision to make Farah choose a green apple rather than a red apple like the others.
33. The A+ Custodian by Louise Borden
Retell: John Carillo is the custodian for Dublin Elementary School. Everyone in the school thinks he is a great custodian. A few students decide to find a way to appreciate all his hard work.
Topics: custodians, school, hard work,
Units of Study: personal essay, realistic fiction
Tribes: personal best, appreciations/no put-downs, mutual respect
Reading Skills: inference, envsionment
Writing Skills: incorporating tight lists, elaboration, including sensory details
My Thoughts: This is a fabulous book to take out when you feel the class needs to take more responsiblity picking up after themselves. The A+ Custodian reminds me that I should take more time thoughout the year to appreciate the janitors and custodians at my school. I love how the author emphasizes how much Mr. Carillo loves and is proud of the students of Dublin Elementary School. I plan to use this book when collecting ideas for personal essays. The text is a great example of the strategy, “Writers think of a person in their life and jot down ideas about him/her.” In fact the author’s note at the beginning itself makes a good mentor text for personal essay.
29. Saying Goodbye to Lulu by Corinne Demas
Retell: A young girl has difficulty saying goodbye to her beloved dog Lulu. With help from her parents, she learns how to move on without forgetting the wonderful memories of Lulu.
Topics: loss, dogs, reflection, death, dying, pets, grief, memories, family
Units of Study: Personal Narrative
Reading Skills: synthesis, making connections
Writing Skills: creating flashbacks, zooming in on small moments, using sensory details
My Thoughts: I shouldn’t have read this book in a cafe. Let’s just say that my eyes were quite red and puffy after reading this book. It is however, a great text for discussing various stages of the grieving process. She goes through denial, anger, sadness, reflection and finally acceptance. The author zooms in on small but important details (“I missed the sound of her tail going thump, thump while she waited for me at the bottom of the stairs…”) making it a great mentor text for writing narratives.
23. Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest
Retell: Hundred-year-old George Baker and his young neighbor Harry are friends. Each day they wait for the school bus that brings them both to school.
Topics: friendship, reading, literacy, growing old, learning, music, small moments, friendship
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Social Issues
Tribes: personal best, mutual respect
Reading Skills: envisionment, inference, interpretation
Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, alliteration, onomatopoeia, using sensory details
My Thoughts: This is a slow-paced story that easily lends itself to teaching small moments. Though you could also read this book aloud with a social issues lens, the author spends most of the story describing the moments just before going to school. It would be a good mentor text for paying attention to how authors incorporate sound into their writing.
9. Dogteam by Gary Paulsen
Retell: A moonlit night inspires the narrator to take his dogs on an exciting night ride.
Topics: dogs, dog sledding
Units of Study: personal narrative, content-area writing
Reading Skills: envisionment
Writing Skills: using active verbs, zooming in on a small moment, incorporating sensory details, adding suspense, inserting commas and semicolons, repetition
My Thoughts: Dogteam reads more like prose. In addition to including beautiful imagery, Paulsen’s book has many examples of how writers use all senses to describe a moment in time. Though I would categorize this as a personal narrative, one could also use this as a mentor text for writing nonfiction poetry.
Teachable Texts 