Context - Scientist in The FieldAs you work toward those nonfiction learning targets with kids, keep your eyes open for great nonfiction books. I've come across a series that might not be new to you, but I love them. They are part of the Scientists in the Field Series. They not only make scientific problems engaging, they introduce kids to real scientists. They make the work come alive and give kids a sense of who they could become. Here's one that I think looks really
fascinating...maybe it's because I love honey so much. :-) They are excellent for teaching about Nonfiction Text Features and the Problem-Solution structure (though many of the other structures are also present. If you can't find them in the school library, let me know and I'll check them out for you at my local library.http://www.amazon.com/Hive-Detectives-Chronicle-Catastrophe-Scientists/dp/0547152310/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303413581&sr=1-1
Context - Chocolate!
What a great way to begin thinking about the structure of text. Here is a link to the Hershey Website. They have a great set of short videos that explain the making of a chocolate bar from bean to wrapper. This is an excellent way to introduce Nonfiction Structures. This one happens to be sequential. Also try out some of the ideas from Summarinzing and Synthesizing from the Strategies that Work book.
http://www.hersheys.com/ads-and-videos/how-we-make-chocolate.aspxContext - Fossils
Digging Up Tyrannasaurus Rex is an excellent book for helping kids talk about sequencing and ordering technical events. Attached is a pdf document with photographs that sequence moving the T-Rex fossil from where it was found to the museum. This would also be a great book for teaching summarizing and synthesizing. Many kids have at least some information about dinosaurs, but after reading this book they are likely to add new information to their learning.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_VBXnTxMgiVYTc4ZGNjOTQtYzZmYi00MTY1LWJmMjYtMGQ4ZGYwODU1ZjQ5&hl=en&authkey=CNjA1qkD
Context - PalentologyMary Anning lived through a life of privation and hardship to become what one source called "the greatest fossilist the world ever knew."* Anning is credited with finding the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus acknowledged by the Geological Society in London. She also discovered the first nearly complete example of the Plesiosaurus; the first British Pterodactylus macronyx, a fossil flying reptile; the Squaloraja fossil fish, a transitional link between sharks and rays; and finally the Plesiosaurus macrocephalus.
Context - ImmigrationWhen Jessie Came Across The Sea, Amy Hest/P.J. Lynch
This beautiful picture book is perfect for teaching visualization, particularly the idea how the character must be feeling. In this immigration story, Jessie is chosen from all in her village to travel from her tiny village to New York City. It's hard not to empathize with this character as she leave everyone and everything she's ever known.
Immigrant Kids, Russell Freedman This is a super nonfiction text on immigration. Give the whole first chapter to students to code their thinking as they monitor their comprehension. After the first chapter I show the kids the index and ask them where they might find answers to their questions and have them search. This is a good beginning to learning to read to find answers.
Theme - Courage
Context - WWII
This set of books is a very nice look at the theme of courage as set in WWII. The stories actually all involve the courage of children. Listed below the comprehension strategies that I think are best suited to these books, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. -Angie
Snow Treasure - This is an old, but adventurous chapter book. I would use this as the center point of the study. This books is perfect for visualization, but you may want to give the kids an idea of what a fjord looks like first. Many kids can't imagine sledding to the sea!
World War II - An Overview - This is a concise piece of text that helps kids activate background knowledge. It gives them a good, board picture of what was happening across the globe and why.
The Greatest Skating Race - Longer picture book that is perfect for questioning and learning to code text. I would use this book over 2-3 days for minilessons. It is the perfect anchor for the unit and the theme of courage since the main character, a Danish boy, must skate the canals from town to town, past the Gestapo, with his cargo, two younger Jewish friends. Also see the links to the Elfstedentocht (the famous skating race)on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1tBk3HTJjg
The Littlest Ships and The Cats in Krasinski Square - These texts are shorter than The Greatest Skating Race. Because they are shorter and written almost in verse, they leave lots of space for the reader to ask questions. But I think their greatest value would be to follow The Greatest Skating Race and look for text to text connections. I will admit that both of these books gave me a lump in my throat with means that they would be great for me to stop and model my thinking and coding for kids as well.
The Children of Topaz - I have owned this book for a long time. The author signed it after I attended one of his sessions at a conference. Since finding out that my Grandma Young's best friend Jessi was in an internment camp while her husband Nobi fought in the war, I have been curious about this part of the war that happened so close to home. This is an actual journal kept by a 3rd grade class and their teacher. It would also be an interesting comparison to the daily lives of the kids in the previous books that took place in Europe. I would use it to model making connections for kids. This is a longer book, but would be a good extention for a curious reader.
