A classroom management tip for keeping track of student responses during the Global Read Aloud. Our class is reading Peter Brown's "The Wild Robot" and we are fortunate to be connecting with so many classes through the shared lessons on the Google Site. We are connecting by responding to questions about the book on Padlet and Flipgrid. The number of responses coming in from all over the globe is truly amazing, but how do you find your own students work when you still have to give grades?
When reading a book, you befriend characters as you accompany them on their journey. When friends go on trips together, they take photos of their shared experiences to remember their time together.
Step Away From The Book Room
Okay, not exactly ditching the novel, rethinking it--YES, and ditching this:
Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
He points at the ledge we’ve been leaning on. Names. I was drawn to the holes. The water. My mind didn’t connect the markings. Names. Hundreds. Thousands of names.
The fence told him exactly what his responsibility was and wasn’t. Peter often wished that responsibility had such bright tall fences around it off the ball field, too.
“Imaginary friends don’t come of their own volition. We are invited. We stay as long as we are needed. And then, and only then, do we leave.”
Choosing varied resources adds depth to a student’s understanding of the characters, theme, setting, or conflict of a novel. By building their background knowledge through paired texts, students are able to make more connections, which will increase both their enjoyment and understanding of the novel. Using paired texts within a novel unit also allows for exposure to, and analysis of multiple genres. Creating Novel units that include a diverse set of paired texts gives the students the opportunity to work towards mastery of both fiction and nonfiction reading standards.
When asking students to analyze a text pairing, guide them towards making deeper connections with these thinking prompts:
Can't wait for my next post and want to start building your own text set? Click on the "Padlet" button below to be taken to my online bulletin board of free text resources:
I am an English teacher, Curriculum Designer, and Instructional Coach that is passionate about literature.
In each post I will offer a review of a young adult novel and suggestions for text pairings. These posts will often include links to digital resources for teaching the content referenced in the post, as well as digital lessons (I use Google Docs) which you can download for free. Subscribe to my blog so that you can get an email notification when a new book is highlighted.