Thursday, January 28, 2016

One Came Home, Amy Timberlake

One Came Home
Written By Amy Timberlake
Copyright 2013
Random House Children's Books
Reading Level: Lexile- 690, Grade Level- 5-6

A 2014 Newbery Medal Honor Book
 An ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Book
Winner of Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Juvenile Novel

"mystery, sisters, misadventure, historical, Wisconsin"

Plot

In 1871, Placid, Wisconsin, young Georgie Burkhardt is known for her sharp shooting skills and her tendency to speak her mind freely. After her older sister Agatha flees town with traveling pigeoners, and the sheriff returns weeks later with an unidentifiable body wearing Agatha's dress, everyone assumes the worst. Georgie refuses to conform to the common belief that Agatha is dead and sets out on her own journey to find her older sister. With her determination and help from her friend, Billy McCabe, Georgie travels through the west searching for traces of her missing sister. However, her skills and resolution can never prepare her for some of the trials she will face on the western frontier.

Suggested Delivery

Read aloud to students over the course of multiple readings.


Electronic Resources

http://recollectionwisconsin.org/

This site contains countless stories and photos regarding the history of Wisconsin. Viewing these primary sources will give students a chance to build schema about the location and time period that the book takes place before reading.

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2014/why-passenger-pigeon-went-extinct

The National Audubon Society is a well-credited source that can be used in this case to explain what passenger pigeons are to students. Passenger pigeons went extinct years ago and its likely that most or all students would not know what they are. Since passenger pigeons play a very large and recurring role in this story, its essential for students to learn general information about them prior to reading the book.

Teaching Suggestions

1. Vocabulary:


  • Decomposition: a natural process that causes something to be slowly broken down
  • Suitor: a man who wants to marry a particular woman
  • Eulogy: a speech that praises someone who has died
  • Condolence: a feeling of sympathy or sadness especially when someone is suffering
  • Psalm: a song or poem used in worship, particularly from the bible
  • Influx: the arrival of a large amount of people or things
  • Submersion: to go underwater; to be fully involved in an activity or interest
  • Precede: to happen, go, or come before
  • Loiter: to remain in an area without a particular reason to be there
  • Onerous: difficult and unpleasant to deal with
  • Palatable: having a pleasant or agreeable taste
2. Reading Strategies

Before Reading:


Before reading One Came Home, have students build schema/ prior knowledge about the setting in which the story takes place. Using the electronic sources listed above, students can view photographs and primary sources displaying daily life in 1870s Placid, Wisconsin and passenger pigeons. Ask student to study the pictures and encourage them to ask questions and make observations. After studying the pictures, ask the students to complete a venn diagram that compares life in Placid Wisconsin in 1871 to life today


During Reading:


The main character, Georgie, is a rounded character who changes over the course of the story. To increase both literal and inferential comprehension have students create a "Storyboard" that analyzes the changes in Georgie's character against the events taking place in the story. While students map out the actual events occurring in the story, engaging their literal comprehension, they will also be making inferences to what Georgie is thinking and feeling and how she is changing.


After Reading:


After completing the text, separate students into groups of 3-4 and increase comprehension by carrying out a tossed terms activity. Give each group a cube or a ball to (gently) throw around and define whatever term from the text faces up. Use the vocabulary from above, or have students use vocabulary they didn't understand from the text.


3. Writing Activity:


After reading the text students can complete an activity that increases comprehension while encouraging students to write from a different point of view. Ask students to consider the events in the story while writing a diary entry in Agatha's voice about the day she decided to leave Placid or about the day she discovered Georgie had been searching for her. Students should look back into the text for evidence to support their journal entry and be encouraged to use vocabulary taken from the text.




Friday, January 15, 2016

Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai




Inside Out and Back Again
Written by Thanhha Lai
Copyright 2011
Harper Collins
Reading Level: Lexile- 800, Grade Level- 5,6

2012 Newbery Honor Book
2011Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

"moving, refugee, struggle, Vietnam, changing"

Things begin to change in 11-year-old Ha’s world as the Vietnam war moves close o her home in Saigon. Ha struggles to find her place in her family while saying goodbye to her friends fleeing the country and hoping for her father’s return from the war. When Saigon finally falls to North Vietnam in `975  Ha and her family flee on a navy ship and spend months in refugee camps before being relocated to Alabama, Once in Alabama, Ha struggles to learn the new language and cultures while dealing with bullies at school. Ha begins to wonder if she will ever feel like she fits into the new culture and if she will ever see her father again.

Suggested delivery:  Small Group/ Individual read

Electronic Services:

            This online interactive activity gives students the opportunity to gain insight into the stories of children who have recently immigrated to the United States from foreign countries. Reading the stories will give support and build their schema of refugee and immigrant stories before reading the text.




            This brief video explaining the Fall of Saigon in South Vietnam and illustrates the devastating effects of the event including the state being reunited as a communist country and millions fleeing North Vietnamese rule. This video provides powerful but kid-friendly information that will help to build students’ knowledge of the Vietnam War and the time period in which the story takes place.


Teaching Suggestions

1. Vocabulary: 

  • Monsoon: a rainy season in southern Asia
  • Glutinous: to have adhesive qualities similar of glue; sticky
  • Imitation: to copy the actions of someone else
  • Vow: a promise
  • Communist: a person believing in the form of government in which major businesses are owned by the public or the state and wealth is divided among citizens equally
  • Chide: to scorn severely or angrily
  • Gaunt: to be very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
  • Idle: to be not in action or work
  • Putrid: to be in an advanced state of decomposition and having a foul odor
  • Tangible: to be perceptible by the senses, particularly the sense of touch
  • Martial: suggesting war or military life
  • Monastery: the residence of a religious community
  • Waver: to move in a rising and falling pattern
  • Pivotal: being of crucial importance
  • Implore: to call upon

2. Before, During, and After Reading Activities

Before:
            Build up schema and prior knowledge before reading by having the students complete a KWL chart, accompanied by a mini Social Studies lesson focusing on the Vietnam war. Questions such as “What do you know about the Vietnam War?” and “What questions do you have about the Vietnam War?” can be used to assess students’ prior knowledge on the topic. Based on students’ know, a brief lesson on the Vietnam war and refugees can be conducted accompanied with the electronic resources listed above to help students learn more about the experiences Ha has throughout the text.

During:
            Having students read this story to each other in small groups and participate in “book club” discussions are efficient strategies that will engage the students in collaborative learning and give them the opportunity to share their feelings and ideas on the text. Providing students with a few literal and inferential questions to outline their discussion and prompt students to share and comprehend key ideas and themes in the text.

            Sample Questions:

Literal Questions
Inferential Questions
What happened to Ha’s father?
Why did brother Khoi keep the dead chick in his pocket on the ship?
Who are the unfamiliar men in uniform boarding the ship?
Why did the passengers react the way they did when they heard news of the fall of Saigon?
What happens when Ha’s family visits the church with the cowboy?
Do you think Ha’s father is still alive? (Throughout text)
How does the family celebrate Christmas?
Why was Ha upset about Ms. Scott teaching the class about Vietnam?



After:
            In their book discussion groups, students will brainstorm, discuss, and record ways in which Ha adapts to her surroundings throughout the book. After coming up with the list, students can create a board game demonstrating how Ha’s life has changed from living in Vietnam, to fleeing on a Navy ship, to living in a refugee camp, to adjusting to a new life in America. The board game should use some sources from the text such as quotes as well as original illustrations, and brief summaries of events to illustrate Ha’s struggles and triumphs in adapting to her surroundings.

Writing Activity:

            Inside out and Back Again is written in free verse poetry and uses a lot of symbolism to illustrate main ideas. Students will brainstorm a major change that has occurred in their life (ie. Moving, having a new sibling, getting involved in a new activity etc.) Students will create an original free verse poem using at least 3 examples of symbolism describing how they adapted to unfamiliar experiences in their life. By writing about their own experiences in change, students will be able to draw connections between their experiences and the experience described in the text, increasing inferential comprehension.