Brrr...will this cold ever go away? On a brighter note...
It's Time for Tried It Tuesday!
It's Time for Tried It Tuesday!
What have you tried recently at school or home?
Theme
I have been busy purchasing more mentor texts for my library this year and these recently arrived in the mail. It is becoming a slight addiction! :) Amazon must love me!
See that tiny book in the middle? Yep, didn't realize this copy of "The Paper Bag Princess" was SO small! Oops!
We studied theme last week and I wanted to share this great lesson I used by the talented Jess at I {Heart} Recess.
I have been busy purchasing more mentor texts for my library this year and these recently arrived in the mail. It is becoming a slight addiction! :) Amazon must love me!
I passed out the "Big Ideas-Themes" guide from this packet and we discussed some chapter books we have read with their themes. Students shared with their partners some themes from books they are reading independently and easily discovered that books often have many themes that can be supported with text evidence.
We read "Chicken Sunday" by Patricia Polacco together and discussed the themes with text evidence.
Then, students worked in small groups to read another mentor text and work on the graphic organizer that came with this pack. Many other texts could also be used, but since I already had the titles "The Bad Case of the Stripes," "A Chair for My Mother," and "Chrysanthemum," I just needed "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" and "Thank You, Mr. Falker." I wanted those books for my growing collection anyway. :)
Here are the students working in small groups and pictures of some graphic organizers.
To read the book and complete the graphic organizers took the groups close to 30 minutes. When they were finished, I heard so many students say, "This was fun!".
Do you use mentor text in small group work? I have also thought about having some of my struggling students read these mentor texts at a listening station. Many of them are on youtube and students could follow along in the book or just watch the video if you didn't have the book.
I'm looking forward to reading what others have tried recently!
