Thematic Thursday Link-Up: Thanksgiving Ideas for Upper Elementary

I am not sure about you, but my family is holiday obsessed.  Any reason to put up decorations, we are in...here is a look at our turkey friend gracing our front yard.  Just wait until you see what Christmas brings...

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Celebrating Veteran's Day-Upper Elementary to Middle School

It is Monday and the perfect day to find an ideal mentor text to share with your students.  This week's focus is Veteran's Day.  Whether you have a special veteran in your life or not, this is one of those holidays that is essential to share with our students.  We must help them understand all that our veterans have sacrificed for our country and continue to do so in order to maintain our freedoms.  So here is my idea for you...

While there are a number of great reads and read alouds, this is one that is most meaningful to my upper elementary students because it involves a dog.  I am not sure about you, but the majority of my students are pet owners and animal lovers.  This text is engaging because it is about a feral dog who forms a bond with Major Brian Dennis, a Marine fighting in Iraq.  When Dennis' troop is relocated, Nubs travels over 70 miles to find his special human friend.  It is a story about the kindness of a soldier and the strong-will of a dog who is seeking the perfect owner.

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Novels and Stories that are for the DOGS

While I have blogged about novels and finding the perfect one more than once, I find that throughout the school year it is a challenge.  It is essential that we keep books in our students' hands and their brains active with great literature.  I am one of those teachers that could wander around the library or discount bookstore for hours in search of the best books to motivate my students.

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Common Core Novel Based Questions for Crash by Jerry Spinelli

One of my favorite novels to teach at the middle grade level is Crash by Jerry Spinelli.  In fact, it is the perfect text to begin the school year with because students will be able to make personal connections as the characters begin their school year as well.

The story begins with the narrator, John Coogan, explaining through flashback how he got his nickname, Crash.  He then goes on to share how another major character, Penn Webb, came into his life.

Flash forward to the first day of seventh grade, and the story takes off for student readers.  While I love this book as a read aloud, it is also a perfect literature circle text.  Chapters are short, holding student attention, and each chapter ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, begging for readers to continue on.  I can't tell you how often I HAVE to stop reading due to needing to switch classes and students are shouting, "ONE MORE PAGE!"  It is that good.

Over the years I have taught the novel in different ways, but I have utilized the same 67 questions for student response to check for understanding.  I generated these questions with the idea that students would read them before reading the text, list page numbers where they could go into the text to find their answers, and respond in complete sentences with correct capitalization, grammar, and punctuation. In addition, I wanted my students to answer both literal, inferential, short answer, and extended response questions.

If you are looking for a novel to teach with common core based questions that go chapter by chapter, check out this 18 page resource in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Student Enthusiasm for Writing and Teaching Plot

This has been a really productive week for my students-I am thrilled to share.  Our interactive Reader's and Writer's Notebooks are filling up with learning, student writing is taking off, and learning targets seem to be sticking.  Two of my students informed me that due to the fact that there is not a movie to go along with the novel that we completed a few weeks back, they would like to write a play and turn it into a Reader's Theater for their 6th grade classmates to perform.  IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER, DOES IT???!!!  Having to remind students to eat their lunches and not spend their entire lunch writing is an argument I will take on any day!

While writing is thriving-it has been a week of chock full of lots of reading too.  Learning target: PLOT...While plot can seem to be an easy concept to teach, there are lots of components that can be tricky for some students to grasp and identify when it comes to tackling a text on their own and determining the problem, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Since we recently completed Crash, that was a perfect place to start with students identifying characters, setting, and the minor and major events of the novel.  We then moved onto our Reading Street text.  I had my students listen to Viva New Jersey and identify all of the elements of plot in their small table groups and then share their findings as a whole group.  Today was fun to watch...I pulled a variety of picture books, gave students the chance to work independently or with a peer, and they were off.  Each student/partnership read two books and identified the plot structure from each.  A favorite comment by a student was after he read The Toll Bridge Troll by Patricia Rae Wolff.  Kenny asked, "I love this book-can I put it in my book box?"  Again, it doesn't get any better.

Here are a few of the texts I pulled for teaching plot and the graphic organizer I utilize to teach plot structure from Reading Street:

 

 

Good luck as you embark on this skill with your students.  Please share any strategies or texts that you utilize for plot that help the concept stick with your students.