Schema: Little Red Riding
Synonyms: Each page has a focus word printed large at the top of each page, and the word is used in context. Ask students to give you a synonym for some of the words as you read.
Carmine writes a haiku about her grandmother. Students may connect with writing their own haiku.
Inferences: the [...]
Schema: Frankenstein, Halloween, having a new baby in the family
Point of View: The story is told from a monster family’s point of view. From the parents’ point of view, Frankie is the scariest of all of the family.
Voice: The voice of the book is that of the monster parents until the end. Then we can [...]
Schema: text-to-text connections with Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Parody: copying someone’s style in a humorous way, making a spoof of something
Goodnight Goon is a parody of Goodnight Moon.
Compare and Contrast:
Similarities: same story pattern, same room design, same color of P.J.’s, both have snacks in their rooms, both have rocking chairs, both have red headboards, [...]
Schema: visiting relatives, being taken care of while parents are away
Book Talk: The book is set in Carbon City, near Seattle, Washington.
Characters: Aunt Ethel: 83 years old
Josh: 12 1/2 years old
Josh is sent to his step-father’s Great Aunt Ethel’s for the summer, and he is very upset about missing summer baseball at home.
Aunt Ethel shoots [...]
Schema: handmade brooms, fall decorations, define widow
Text-to-self connections: fantasy fiction with witches
Cause and Effect: Because the witches broom lost its power suddenly, the effect is that the witch falls to the ground and is injured.
Because the widow is kind to the witch by giving her a place to heal, the effect is that she leaves [...]
Schema: visiting pumpkin farms, tricking someone
Text-to-self connections: choosing a pumpkin, playing dunking for apples, biting a donut on a string, not wanting to play with a girl if you are a boy
Predicting: Why to you predict Andy is hiding from Delores in the pumpkin patch?
Maybe he is afraid of her, maybe he wants to jump [...]
Even though I’m a grown up school librarian, I get a little freaked out every time I think about it. I keep thinking the camera in the hall will catch something some day, but up to now, it just shows a screen full of snowy static.
I wish I never had to stay late to work, [...]
Schema: favorite foods, weather, tall tales
Text-to-Self Connections: food, making up a story
Mental Images: Make a mental image of your favorite food falling from the sky and you trying to catch it
Cause and Effect: Because of the pancake landing on Henry, the effect is that Grandpa made up the tall tale about falling food.
Inference: What do [...]
Schema: potatoes
Text-to-Self Connections: the one potato two potato rhyme crows, rodeo, roots growing out of the potato
Sequencing: counting, seasons
Reader’s Theater: The text is simple and could be written into a reader’s theater. Each student could hold a real potato and add some features to it with a marker.
Personification: The potatoes take on human characteristics.
Schema: mice, food, snacks
Text-to-Self Connections: quiet sounds, stuffed toys, bedtime snacks;
using brown sugar packed in a measuring cup, the mouse stacks the forms up to build a sandcastle like structure. Have you ever packed sand in a cup to build a sandcastle?
Condiments: olives, pickles, catsup–What is your favorite?
Bubble bath in a cup–Have you ever [...]
