Using specific texts to delve into Craft and Structure with the Common Core Standards

Using specific texts to delve into 

Craft and Structure with the

Common Core Standards

Start by choosing a story that has some connection to history/reality.  That way you can also include some supportive pieces.  Here I included a story, a YouTube video of a song with images and a flyer from the time period.

Story:

Have you read A Train to Somewhere? It's by the amazing Eve Bunting. Based on the 19th century orphan train, it follows the story of a young girl hoping her mother will meet her at one of the stops.

YouTube video:

Rider on an Orphan Train written and performed by David Massengill.  Here is link to a YouTube video of the song with images from the time period.  

Flyer:

Here is an orphan train flyer from the time.

Craft and Structure Reading Standard #4
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4
"Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone."

Some questions that meet the standard:

• Why do you think the author used the word: clutches?  What feeling is she trying to evoke?
• In italics, the author says She'll be there.  She'll want me.   Who is she?
• On page 12, you get a picture of what the adoption process looks like.  Why did the illustrator draw it this way?
• The author says the people felt the boys muscles.  Why do you think the author wrote that?
• "My mother didn't want me." The author wrote this very bluntly.  Do you think this is true?
• Mrs. Book says "Sometimes what you get turns out to be better than what you wanted in the first place."  What does that mean?

Remember to focus on the intent of the author.  What feelings or understandings is the author trying to get across?

Craft and Structure Reading Standard #5
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5
"Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole."

David Massengill lyrics : "Rider On An Orphan Train"

Once I rode an orphan train
And my brother did the same
They split us up in Missouri

James was five and I was three

He got taken by some pair

But for me they did not care
We were brave and did not cry
When they made us say goodbye


That was the last I saw of him
Before some family took me in

But I swore I'd run away
And find my brother James someday


I went back when I was grown
To see how old the Children's Home
And I asked for to see my file

Of when I was an orphan child

It's sad, they say, there's been a flood

File washed away in Missouri mud
Sometimes life is a stone wall
You either climb, or else you fall


In every town, on every street
All the faces that I meet

And I wonder, could one be
My brother James come back to me


Though I don't know where he's gone
I have searched my whole life long
Now I roam from town to town

But there's no orphan lost-and-found

Sometimes I dream a pleasant sight

My brother James and I unite
Remembering our last goodbye
No longer brave, we start to cry


I hope he lives a life of ease
And all his days a soft, warm breeze

May he sit upon a throne
And may he never sleep alone


Once I rode an orphan train
And my brother did the same
They split us up in Missouri

James was five and I was three

Craft and Structure Reading Standard #6
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6
"Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text."

Look at the flyer.  Do you fee the creator was persuasive in creating this flyer?  What type of people would come to adopt children?

As you can see all the questions focus on the author and the intentionality in using certain words or structures in demonstrating a point of view or writing for a specific purpose.

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IMWAYR: Brown Girl Dreaming

Monday Linky from Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers!

Brown Girl Dreaming 

by Jacqueline Woodsen

I just finished this and it just wowed me.  It's written in narrative prose.  It's so powerful.  It's a collection of the author's own memories growing up in the 60's and 70's as an African American.  She has her feet in two worlds: New York City and South Carolina.  It details her thoughts about growing up in these places during the Civil Rights era.

I loved the section entitled The Other Woodsen which will resonate with anyone who had a brilliant older sibling and always came up short.

Another section I loved was:

reading

I am not my sister. 

Words from the books 

   curl around each oth-

   er 

make little sense 

until 

I read them again 

and again, the story 

settling into memory. 

   Too slow 

the teacher says. 

Read faster. 

Too babyish, 

the teacher says. 

Read older. 

But I don’t want to read 

   faster or older or 

any way else that might 

make the story disappear 

   too quickly from 

   where 

   it’s settling 

inside my brain, 

slowly becoming 

a part of me. 

A story I will remember 

long after I’ve read it for 

   the second, third, 

tenth, hundredth time.

Woodson, Jacqueline (2014-08-28). Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book) (p. 226). Penguin Young Readers Group. Kindle Edition. 

How beautiful was that?  Something we need to remember this in the the age of reading levels.  Don't limit your kids.  We need to allow our students to read outside of their levels.  Sometimes they need to reconnect to those primary books that are so meaningful to them and sometimes they need to read older books because they are motivated.  Let them fly!

Thinking about Mentor texts?  Read this!!

learning 

from 

langston 

I loved my friend. 

He went away from me. 

There’s nothing more to 

   say. 

The poem ends, 

Soft as it began— I

 loved my friend. 

   —Langston Hughes 

   I love my friend 

and still do 

when we play games 

we laugh. I hope she 

   never goes away from 

   me 

   because I love my 

        friend. 

   —Jackie Woodson

Woodson, Jacqueline (2014-08-28). Brown Girl Dreaming (Newbery Honor Book) (p. 245). Penguin Young Readers Group. Kindle Edition. 

Isn't that the most powerful example of using a mentor text?  What a simple, beautiful way to show kids.

This book has won the John Newbery Honor Medal and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Fiction In YA and the National Book Award.  Here's her speech at the National Book Award.   All well deserved.  Congratulations, Ms. Woodsen on a triumph.

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Ideas for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with Fourth Grade Students

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll

So I'm teaching Fourth Grade this year. As we all know, we need to be thinking about text complexity and striving to challenge our kids. If you go to Appendix B of the Common Core State Standards, you can find the ELA Text Exemplars for all grades. The very first story for grades 4-5 is Alice in Wonderland! It's a tale about Alice who follows a white rabbit down a hole and many nonsense adventures ensue.

Because it was written so long ago, it is in the public domain and can be used freely. You can find it on Project Gutenberg. You can find various versions of the text, audio versions and a dramatization. If you go to Wikipedia, you can find comics, graphic novels and art related to Alice.

Here's the excerpt the CCSS provides:

Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by John Tenniel. New York: William Morrow, 1992. (1865)

From Chapter 1: “Down the Rabbit-Hole”

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’ (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT-POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.


Ways to use this literature with the common core...

Great standard to use with this text:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7
Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

Because there is so much out there on Alice, this is a great piece of literature to meet this standard. For example, look at the statue of Alice in Central Park.

You can ask kids: How does this representation match up with what you visualized when hearing this story? What parts of the story does it represent?

Why did Lewis Carroll choose to format the text in this way? How does it affect our understanding as readers?


There are even graphic novels you can purchase on iTunes! Here is an image from the graphic novel Alice in Wonderland - the Graphic Novel for iPadBy Ave!Comics Production and the original John Tenniel illustration. Compare the two images. Which captures the text most effectively and why?

Here are two writing activities:

• Have students write a companion book from another character's point of view 
• Students can write their own graphic novel of a specific chapter from Alice in Wonderland. 

I created a close reading guide to help address the Common Core standards when teaching this unit. You can find it here. Students love to hear this classic read aloud. There is so much out there to use with the students and spark their thinking about literature. Give Alice a try. It's a classic for a reason.





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Inside Out and Back Again: close reading guide

Inside Out and Back Again

by Thannha Lai

Watch this video to meet Ha and her family.

I created a close reading guide for Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. It's a wonderful book written in free verse chronicling Ha's, a ten year old girl, journey from war-torn Vietnam to Alabama and her problems as a second language learner and with bullying.

Close reading will be an integral part of teaching with the Common Core. Students need to know how to be analytic when reading texts and poems. I have outlined the components of authentic literacy and what it looks like in the classroom. I formatted the guide as follows. It begins with an explanation of close reading and how to format a lesson. Then, there is a story summary, themes listed and character descriptions. I created focus questions for each and every chapter. There are explicit gradual release formatted lessons throughout. I included a close reading sheet for each of the explicit lessons. You could use the focus questions to create more close reading lessons using the blank templates or for class discussions. At the end, there is a blank sheet for planning and to use with close reading of different chapters. I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did.

Awards for Inside Out and Back Again:
2012 Newbery Honor Book, 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, New York Times Best Seller

Some comments my close reading guide has received:

"This was my first year using this book and your resources helped me out greatly! Thank you!"
"Love this! My ESL students are struggling with the novel and this will help."
"Thank you for this wonderful product! Walking through a close read with my students, helped them understand the process. It was fantastic being able to reproduce the novel in a close reading graphic organizer. This product saved me a lot of time!"
"Awesome resource! I can't wait to use it. I can see that it will be useful with SEVERAL different grades. Thank you!"

Thanks for taking a look at my close reading guide on TPT!

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2+1 TPT Cybersale!!

Linking with Ideas by Jivey!  Thanks for hosting!

What's most wish listed from my TPT store? Well, my close reading guides see the most action. So it's my close reading guide for Wonder by R.J.Palacio. 

This is a guide to a close reading of Wonder by RJ Palacio. It's a wonderful book chronicling Auggie's, a young boy born with a facial deformity, journey through school and the adjustments he, his family and his classmates have to make.

Close reading will be an integral part of teaching with the Common Core. Students need to know how to be analytic when reading texts and poems. I have outlined the components of authentic literacy and what it looks like in the classroom. I formatted the unit as follows. It begins with an explanation of close reading and how to format a lesson. Then, there is a story summary, themes listed and character descriptions. After that, I created focus questions for each chapter. There are explicit gradual release formatted lessons sprinkled throughout. I included a close reading sheet for each of the explicit lessons. You could use the focus questions to create more close reading lessons using the blank templates or for class discussions. At the end, there is a blank sheet for planning and to use with close reading of different chapters. I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did. This isn't a bunch of worksheets as I don't teach that way. This is for going deep with the literature!

My second most wish listed item is my close reading guide for Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.

It's a wonderful book written in free verse chronicling Ha's, a ten year old girl, journey from war-torn Vietnam to Alabama and her problems as a second language learner and with bullying.

The format for my Inside Out and Back Again close reading guide is similar to the format for my Wonder close reading guide.  I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did.

Of course, my guides are common core aligned!!

What am I buying tomorrow?  I love the work of I'm Loving Lit.  I want her Interactive Writing Notebook!  That's the first thing I'm getting!

Happy shopping.  The cybersale is only two days so get your shopping in!

My close reading guide for Flora and Ulysses

Flora and Ulysses: An Illuminated Adventure!

This is such a great book.  As a child of divorce and knowing many kids are going through it too, I thought it a good book to work with.  Besides, I just love Kate DiCamillo.


Floraand Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures! This middle grade novel won the Newbery medal for 2014. The story is about Flora, a self-described cynic, who witnesses a tragedy/miracle in her neighbor’s backyard. She is able to revive the squirrel and names him Ulysses. The book is very funny but also tackles some serious issues such as divorce, abandonment issues and more. The book is written as part narrative and part graphic novel.

I formatted the close reading guide as follows. It begins with an explanation of close reading and how to format a lesson. I also included sentence stems aligned to Webb's Depth of Knowledge. Then, there is a summary, themes listed and character descriptions. I created focus questions for each and every chapter. Along with the focus questions, I culled out vocabulary you might need to review and creative writing activities, research activities or discussion points. There are explicit gradual release formatted lessons throughout for pivotal moments in the story. I included a close reading sheet for each of the explicit lessons. You could use the focus questions to create more close reading lessons using the blank templates or for class discussions. At the end, there is a blank sheet for planning and to use with close reading of different chapters. Finally, I added my version of Cornell Notes, which I use for homework reading. I added a sheet for using with the idea of a capacious heart and a printable for creating comic strips. There is also a rubric for grading the close reading sheets. I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did.

Awards for Flora and Ulysses:
The John Newbery Medal Winner 2014, National Book Award Longlist, Texas Bluebonnet Award 2014-15

Enjoy my new close reading guide on TPT!!!



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FFF: Free Common Core Bookmark for Reading

Fabulous Freebies Friday!

Linking with Teaching Blog Addict

Common Core: reading

It's nice to have a bookmark that helps students when reading.  
This is how it's organized:
Key ideas and details
 What is the author 
saying?
Craft and structure
 How is the author 
saying it?
Integration of knowledge and ideas
 Why is the author 
saying it?
 What is your 
interpretation of 
what the author is 
saying?
Text Complexity and Range
 Challenge yourself!

 Read a wide range of works

Of course I added a cute picture and a border.

It's free on my TPT store!  Enjoy!

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A Diamond in the Desert: A Guide to Close Reading this Text

A Diamond in the Desert

by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

So, I've been thinking of historical fiction so today I'm going to discuss A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.

This book is about Tetsu who is Japanese American. His family lives in California during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Like all other Japanese Americans, they are ordered to leave their homes and everything they know to go to an internment camp in Arizona. Worse, their father is sent to a different camp so the family isn't together.

The research Ms. Fitzmaurice did was amazing and your students will learn a lot about the Japanese American internment. Boys love it because of the sports references (baseball is a theme) and the main character. The girls will love it because its a moving story. Eleanor Roosevelt even visited the camp!

If you're looking for something that will appeal to all your students, look no further. It's a great read about a period in US history that is often overlooked.

If you'd like, check out my close reading guide. I added lots of hyperlinks to historical references. I use the story as an Interactive Read Aloud during Reader's Workshop. The language of the story helps me delve into comprehension, literary elements and genre. I use the questions I created in the close reading guide to help me "go deep" with the literature. Students turn and talk during this time and discuss their thinking. I also model how to annotate text, which students can do using the class read aloud or a book at their reading level during the workshop.

Once a week we do a formal close read during our language arts time. That's when I use the formatted sheets in the close reading guide. Gradual release is the teaching method in which responsibility shifts from the teacher to the student. The "I do it, We do it, You do it together, You do it alone" model. The lesson is very explicit and scripted. Close reading can be focused on anything you like: figurative language, theme, character development, story elements etc..  Find my store at TPT: LisaTeachR.




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The Cay: A Guide to Close Reading this Text

The Cay
By Theodore Taylor

A Close Reading Guide

This is a guide to a close reading of the classic, The Cay by Theodore Taylor. It was first published in 1969 and dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. It's about a young boy named Phillip who lives on the island of Curacao with his parents. When WW2 comes to the island, his mother insists they return to the states. However, their boat is torpedoed and Phillip is forced to survive on a small cay with a West Indian man and a cat.

Close reading will be an integral part of teaching with the Common Core. Students need to know how to be analytic when reading texts and poems. I have outlined the components of authentic literacy and what it looks like in the classroom. I formatted the unit as follows. It begins with an explanation of close reading and how to format a lesson. Then, there is a story summary, themes listed and character descriptions. After that, I created focus questions for each chapter. There are explicit gradual release formatted lessons sprinkled throughout. I included a close reading sheet for each of the explicit lessons. You could use the focus questions to create more close reading lessons using the blank templates or for class discussions. At the end, there is a blank sheet for planning and to use with close reading of different chapters. I hope your students enjoy it as much as my students did.

Awards for The Cay:
New York Times Best Book of the Year, Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Horn Book Honor Book, plus 6 more awards

Some comments for my close reading guide:
"Thanks so much for this resource. The close reading activities really add a dimension of rigor to our literature study that aligns so well with the Common Core. "
"It has great activities that are common core ready!"
"This close reading activities are great support to the common core. Loved how the standards were listed."
"Just what I was looking for!"

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Freebie Friday!

Freebie Friday!

I thought I'd take a minute and put some of my free items on TPT on one page! At least it's some of the free items as of now.  There are more, just visit my TPT store.

So I went to a conference this summer: CUE Rock Star Teacher and it was amazing!  I learned to create interactive videos, blogs and much more.  One of the things I learned about was Multimedia text sets.  Here is my first attempt!

These are bookmarks you can use with your students based on the Comon Core.

I just made this png on the Standards of Mathematical Practice.  Lots of resources have some of the standards wrong so this is my attempt after much research.

This is my original freebie.  One lesson plan for activating and connecting to background knowledge for Lilly's Big Day by Kevin Henkes.

If you're a TPT seller, this one is for you!  I went to the conference in Las Vegas and learned a ton!  Here is all my learning in one neat package!

There are more resources of course but I have to pick up my kids now! 




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BTT: The Giving Tree

It's time for Book Talk Tuesday!

Linking with Deanna Jump!

        

It's been 50 years!

We're all familiar with this classic. I just wanted to connect it with the Common Core standards!

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7
Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

Since this is a classic, there are different presentations you can use in conjunction with the text.  Here is the YouTube video of the book read by Shel Silverstein.

  Here is a comic strip version of the story with the tree played by mom.  It's Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.

Some questions:

• Is the video what you visualized in your head?  How is it similar or different?
• How is the comic strip similar or different from the story?
• What does the author of the comic strip mean by "happy-ish"?

Some activities:

• Create a wordle of the words that you think embody this story.
• Create a giving tree in your classroom or school and donate the gifts to a local hospital.
• Write a companion book told from the tree's point of view.

Hope this was helpful.  Enjoy!

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IMWAYR: The One and Only Ivan

Monday Linky from Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers!

The One and Only Ivan

In my classroom, we are finishing up The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This novel won the Newbery in 2013. It's based on the true story of Ivan, who lived in captivity for 27 years before public outcry got him moved to a zoo.

It's a beautiful story about Ivan the gorilla. It is told from his point of view in captivity in a mall/circus.


The standard I focus on the most is:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1
Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.


I made this anchor chart for my kids:

We use Ivan for two purposes. One: we do interactive read alouds during readers' workshop. I read aloud and plan stops along the way to show how to apply reading strategies. For example, My think aloud for character motivation might be "Why is it a turning point for Ivan when Ruby hits Mack? I think he's worried about what Mack could do to her. I'm going to keep reading to see what happens." Think alouds should be well-planned and short. If you're looking for some titles, TCRWP has a great list here. TCRWP is a great resource for all things connected with literacy.

Second: we use it for explicit close reading lessons. The third grade standard asks students to refer to the text but it is really called out in fourth grade and higher. Students need to be guided in how to use text evidence to support their ideas.  I made a close reading guide to help especially when it comes to asking my kids deep questions.  I formatted it with the text on one side and an open space on the other.  I use the gradual release method for teaching.

I hope this encouraged you to read The One and Only Ivan with your students. It really is a great book.






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