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The Best of Dr. JAC
NEW BOOKS, NEW READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS
from Weslaco ISD NJWPT Trainers
This time, though, Dr. JAC has taken a holiday and has invited trainers from Weslaco ISD to take book and pen in hand and write their ideas about these books. We have given these wonderful trainers full credit at the conclusion of their contribution.
Title: Do you Have a Hat? Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Author: Eileen Spinelli
Illustrator: Geraldo Valerio
Grade Level: Pre-K - 6
Artifact: Miniature straw hat, hat/cap-shaped eraser
Summary: Eileen Spinelli uses rhyming text to feature famous people who wear uniquely distinctive hats.
READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS:
1. Show students different types of hats or pictures of hats (helmet, fireman's hat, baseball caps, cowboy, etc.)
2. Discuss use of hats worn by family members.
3. Open the book to expose the front and back cover. Ask what the people in the illustrations have in common. Allow students to predict why different people may be wearing that particular hat. Allow discussion of people they may have recognized.
4. Open the book to the end pages and read a few of the excerpts about the famous people.
5. Read through the book and stop to discuss the different hats and add names of hats and famous people to the word bank.
Twelve Hats for Lena: A Book of Months by Karen Katz
Shall I Knit You a Hat? A Christmas Yarn by Kate Klise
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Jennie's Hat by Ezra Keats
When Everybody Wore a Hat by William Steig
Miss Tizzy by Libba Moore Gray
Nonfiction
Hats, Hats, Hats by Ann Morris
Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora and the History of an American Style by Neil Steinberg
Author Study
The Hat by Jen Brett
History
She's Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head by Kathryn Lasky
LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION:
Students find in their reading or write "hat hyperboles" e.g. "a cone-shaped hat so very high, it poked a gargogle in the eye."-from Do You Have a Hat?
SCIENCE CONNECTION:
Students may develop a twelve month book where they write about different hats worn during the different seasons of the year.
SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTIONS:
1. Students select one of the famous individuals featured in the book to research.
2. Students research the chronology of hats (history) and create a timeline or they use cash register tape to make a timeline of people from the endpages.
MATHEMATICS CONNECTIONS:
1. Students practice elementary geometry by identifying the various shapes of hats.
2. Students look at the cost of hats in catalogues and write original word problems based on these costs.
ART CONNECTION:
Students create or design a hat.
TAKS CONNECTION:
Students fold a paper in half. On one side they list all the hats they have ever worn. On the other side they make some notes about something that happened to them while wearing each hat.
Remind students to write a good story they need trouble.
Students revisit the list and star the hats and happenings that had trouble connected to them.
They choose one. Write a title (to keep them focused) that hints at the trouble.
They write about that happening.
PUBLISHING:
Students display their writing under the hat they created or designed. Hang on bulletin board. Call the display HATS AND WRITING ARE UNIQUE!
Contributed by: Rosa Garcia, Sam Houston Elementary School; Cindy Gonzales, North Bridge Elementary School, and Lucy Herrera, Dr. R.E. Margo Elementary School
Summary: Cinder's happy life is shattered when her father remarries after her mother's death. When she learns of the Silver Salmon Festival and the prize being offered, she dreams of a new life for herself. After a magical eagle gives her a special gift, there is hope that her dream could come true.
Materials: Colored markers, chart paper, fish shaped large paper (word bank), small paper fish (individual word bank), artifact
READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS:
1. Show the cover of the book and ask the students what they notice - guide them to focus on the dress, shoes, and where Cinder is walking (if they don't make note of these things themselves).
2. While reading the story make sure to show the students the illustrations and discuss them.
3. During the reading check for comprehension of similes and metaphors.
4. As the salmon become more and more important to the story, briefly touch on the running of the salmon as a micromini lesson on science.
5. Invite predictions throughout the reading, and guide students into making text to text connections.
6. Teach the symbolism of:
eagle - freedom, power
salmon - struggle
compass rose - home
net - being caught
music - mom & happy times
color of eyes - fire, desire
7. After the reading, make connections to other Cinderella stories and note parallels.
8. After reading, revisit the title and discuss author's purpose of choice. What else could she have titled this piece?
1. Students in small groups earch library for other Cinderella stories and make text to text connections.
2. Look at the Motif Index of Folk Literature to find other fairy tales that have different versions. Have small groups read them and create visual aids of compare and contrast, including but not be limited to the Venn diagram.
ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTION:
Students write a Cinderella story based on their own cultures.
SCIENCE CONNECTION:
Study the salmon lifecycle and connect it to other lifecycles. Find patterns in lifecycles and make connections, compare and contrast other lifecycles.
SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTIONS:
1. Study fishing cultures and connect to students' culture. Use for a quick compare and contrast lesson. Ask students to make inferences to what a fishing or a non-fishing life tells about those cultures.
2. Study maps of Alaska including topographic atlas and population grids. Ask students how these maps help us understand more about the places we are studying.
3. Use the compass in the story as an introduction to compasses. Learn to read them by working with individuals or small groups. Students write directions to a place using directional words.
MATHEMATICS CONNECTIONS:
Introduce the concept of "probability" by referring to the chances of the boy finding Cinder and the chances of Cinder having the winning ticket.
Talk about what does probability mean? Change number of tickets sold overall and number of tickets purchased by Cinder. Supply manipulatives that connect to text and ask probability questions.
ART CONNECTION:
Reference salmon and the color salmon. Lead into the shiny dress in the story and discuss prisms. Bring a prism to class and show it in the sunlight. Create prisms on paper. Study effects of light. Where do we see prisms in the real world? ( Aurora Borealis, oil slicks, rainbows, etc.)
PHYSICAL EDUCATION CONNECTION:
Connect running of salmon to an obstacle course. Create an obstacle course for students to run.
MUSIC CONNECTION:
Discuss the importance of the music in the story. Listen to some culturally relevant songs. Learn and sing them.
TAKS CONNECTIONS:
1. Make reference to figurative language such as similes, metaphors, and alliteration. Students search other texts for figurative language and incorporate figurative language in their own writing. Build understanding of how to read figurative language.
2. Each student writes a story placing himself or herself in the role of Cinderella.
3. Symbolism - work on the symbolism within the story and discuss how authors use symbolism to add depth to their texts. Search through other texts for samples of symbolism. Students reread their papers to see if they have used or could use symbolism to their own pieces.
RESEARCH:
Offer up research topics such as boating, Alaska, fishing, and the rainforest. Groups decide what they want to research and how they want to present their findings.
PUBLISHING:
Create a map of Alaska on the bulletin board using brown paper shopping bags. Students fill in the significant places. Display students writing on, above, beside, beneath, and around the map. Label it WELCOME TO THE SILVER SALMON FESTIVAL OF WRITING.
Contributed by:
Reyna Ortega, Airport Elementary
Isabel Corona, Weslaco East High School
Elvira Aguayo, Weslaco East High School
Laura Zimmerer, Cleckler-Heald Elementary
Title: A Sweet Smell of Roses, Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Author: Angela Johnson
Illustrator: Eric Velasquez
Grade Level: All
Artifact: Little flags, silk roses, cut out of roses, red ribbon
Summary: Two young sisters sneak out of their house and go across town to hear Dr. MLK Jr. speak at a freedom march. Then they return to a worried mother who hugs them when they get home.
READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS:
1. Before reading this book make sure that you have discussed and shown pictures of the Civil Rights Movement so that your students have prior knowledge of the history connection to the book.
2. Listen to one of Dr. King's speeches, e.g. "I Have a Dream..."
3. Show the cover of the book. Ask students to share what they see. Discuss possible meanings.
4. Begin reading and show the illustrations as you read.
EXTENSIONS:
VOCABULARY:
curb
march
cobbled
equality
nonviolence
ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS CONNECTIONS:
1. Teach or reinforce the concept of "prepositions."
2. Use this book to point out how authors use recurring themes, color, and phrases. Encourage students to try to do the same in their writing.
3. Make text to text connections with Mississippi Burning (movie), Roll of Thunder, Here My Cry by Mildred Taylor, "His Big Words"(MLK's speech), "Strange Fruit" (song/poem) sung by Nina Simone, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
4. Create an ABC book of Civil Rights;
class collaborates or individuals write own books.
5. Students write their own Freedom Song/Poem.
6. Students write own Student Bill of Rights or Declaration of Civil Rights.
7. Research current events and find out who is working for change and a more peaceful future. Students write letters to these community leaders.
8. Retell the story from the point of view of the bear, the mother, or the policeman.
9. Read historical accounts of events and write newspaper articles. Put together scrapbook.
10. Write a news broadcast script to re enact this freedom march or MLK's assassination.
11. Students choose a page from the story and write dialogue/conversation bubbles for what people are saying in the pictures.
SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTIONS:
Students may research the following:
Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Bill of Rights
Segregation/Integration
Racial Prejudice
Thurgood Marshall
Robert Kennedy
Rosa Parks
Nelson Mandela
Ralph Abernathy
Gandhi
Fannie Lou Hamer
Harriet Tubman
Medgar Evers
Emmett Till
Malcolm X
Ida B. Wells
MATHEMATICS CONNECTIONS:
Discuss the concept of "million" in relationship to "The Million Man March."
ART CONNECTIONS:
1. Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman at Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
2. Study colors and their symbolistic meanings.
MUSIC CONNECTIONS:
Research freedom songs and spirituals
TAKS CONNECTIONS:
1. Symbolism of the color red.
2. Inference. The sweet smell of roses: why is this phrase recurring throughout the story?
Inference: Teddy Bear
3. Character feelings: Look at the faces of characters in the book: sisters, policeman, MLK, etc. Discuss/write about what the characters are feeling and why. On the page where MLK gives his speech, the author says, "He talks about peace, love, non violence, and change for everybody." Use MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and locate the phrases that support each of these ideas.
PUBLISHING:
Students create a collage on a wall or bulletin board of their writings and what they discover in their research-pictures, poems, snippets, songs, newspaper and magazine articles, etc. Over the collage float a banner which reads WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES.
Contributed by:
Terry Sample, North Bridge Elementary School
Cheryl Hinosjosa, B. Garza Middle School
Rebecca J. Cohen, Cuellar Middle School
Title: The Bremen Town Musicians and Other Animal Tales from Grimm, Roaring Brook Press, 2004.
Author: Doris Orgel
Illustrator: Bert Kitchen
Grade Level: 3 - 6
Artifact: Miniature lastic dogs, cats, donkeys, and roosters
Summary: Four animals (a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster) have outlived their usefulness and are driven off by their owners. They meet on the road to Bremen and decide to become musicians. After traveling all day, the animals discover a robber's home. They scare the robbers away. The four friends live happily in the house from then on.
READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS:
1. Display the cover of the book and ask students to describe what they notice. Students will also identify the animals. Have students take note of the animals' faces and ask what emotions their faces express. Identify the genre of the book.
2. While reading the story, ask students about events in the story. What the characters have in common, each character's strength. What motivated the characters to become musicians.
3. After reading the story, discuss themes such as diversity, team work, respecting your elders.
4. Invite students to describe a time they worked with your friends or strangers as a team.
5. Think about an elderly person you respect. Talk about what it must be like to be old.
Title: Sequoyah - The Cherokee Who Gave His People Writing, Houghton Mifflin, 2004
Author: James Rumford
Translator: (Cherokee) Anna Sixkiller Huckaby
Grade Level: All
Artifact: Splinters from redwood shingle on which to write/translate their name into Cherokee
Summary: A father tells his son the story of Sequoyah and how he invented a system of writing for the Cherokee people so that they could stand tall like Sequoia
READING/WRITING CONNECTIONS:
1. Show cover; elicit predictions and responses from students.
2. Show title pages and point out the Cherokee symbols.
3. Show copyright page and discuss implications of translator credit.
4. Read story; show pictures after reading. Point out translations on each page.
5. Show translation chart (Cherokee - English) and read explanation.
1. Photocopy pages with the Cherokee version only, hand out syllabary (found in back of book) and have each group translate their page of the story. Share by comparing to the English version. Talk about what happens when one language is translated into another.
2. Students write their names on the redwood shingle using the Cherokee syllabary.
SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTIONS:
1. Students research the languages of other Indian tribes.
2. Students create a vertical time line for the story.
ART CONNECTION:
Students design/create their own language syllabary and write their name in the new language. Teachers may want to share Paul B. Janeczko's new book Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing (Candlewick Press, 2004) to extend this activity.
TAKS CONNECTIONS:
1. Students write a letter from the viewpoint of a neighboring tribe explaining why you are against Sequoyah's writing system.
2. Students find a place in the story when there is a shift in mood (rhetorical shift) and explain the language used to explain it.
LIBRARY CONNECTIONS:
1. Students research other books that contain translations as part of the text such as the Cuban Tu Bossy Gallitol El Gallo de Bodas Lucia M Gonzalez y Lulu Delac
2. Students look for books in the library about people who tried to preserve a part of their culture such as Night John by Gary Paulsen, Family Pictures by Carmen Lomas Garza, Diego by Jeanette Winter.
RESEARCH:
Students research lost languages (Indian tribes in U.S. plus other cultures/countries).
PUBLISHING:
1. Display students redwood shingle with syllabary name.
2. Create/display quire (8 page book) of a story written in English translated into Cherokee or their personal syllabary.
Contributed by:
Steve Kelly, Mary Hoge Middle School
Celina Alvarez, Marge Hoge Middle School, calverez@wisd.us
Paul Conlon, Cuellar Middle School, guesspaul@aol.com
