Questions to activate background knowledge:

Can you think of another time in history where a group of people have been treated unfairly because of the color of their skin?

Can you imagine being taken away from your family because of your ethnicity?

Why is the title so far from the sea when it looks like the sea behind them?

Why does the woman have spring flowers in the winter time?

Have you ever heard of World War II?

Who was locked up and killed during that war?

What is a spy?

Point of View: Who is telling the story?

Text-to-Self Connections: going somewhere that makes you feel nervous, making emotional connections

Inference: I am inferring that it is winter because they are putting on their jackets.  The wind is cold from the Sierra.

Setting: 1942, popular song: Don’t Fence Me In

Drawing Conclusions: Look at the location of Manzanar and draw a conclusion about why the author made the title “So Far from the Sea”

Mental Images: the field bigger than a football field, seeing it empty like erasing a blackboard, imagining he could climb on the mountain’s back and it would become a big eagle to fly him away, boat( a real American scout sail)  moving on as a way to say his grandfather had moved on, and so were they

Cause and Effect: Because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States, the effect is “the U.S. was suddenly at war”

Metaphor: What could the author mean when he says the grandfather began dying the moment he was put on the bus and taken to Manzanar?  The author is comparing dying to being taken so far from the sea and losing his boat and freedom.

Metaphor: What is “moving on” a metaphor for as the family leaves the cemetery? a boat moving on, the family moving on to Boston, the family moving on and letting the hurt of the grandfather’s mistreatment go

Organizational Strategies: What did you notice about the way the illustrator organized the illustrations with the color pages and the sepia no color ones?  What is he trying to show? Can you think of any other text-to-text connections that show a shift in time?

Compare and Contrast: The way the camp looks before and after the war.

Text-to-Text Connection: Tree of Cranes by Alan Say is set in Japan and a mother is telling her son what Christmas was like in America when she was a child.

Synthesis: Can you think of other groups of people who are thought of as suspicious because of their heritage in our present day time or in the past?–Jewish people during WWII, slavery in the U.S., today’s airport security with certain names, appearances, the Muslim religion, the controversy in NYC about the Mosque being built near the 9/11 site?

Synthesis: Can you think of a time when you had to “move on” and let something go that has hurt you?

Text to self connections: Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Sparrow, Peter Pan’s Captain Hook

Compare and Contrast the pirates in the book with the pirates in the movies using a T-chart.  Read the “Here’s How it Was” information at the end of the book.

The pirates in the book lead many boring days at sea, eat hard bread, receiving no pay: “Another Day at Sea”

Eating hard bread and soup that make them feel sick: “Table Talk”

Being whipped for fighting: “Cat-O’-Nine-Tails” vs. in the movies the fighting is viewed as fun

Point of View: “Through the Glass” from the POV of an official government ship captain

“Coming for Your Gold” from the POV of the Pirate

“Fog Attack” from the pirates POV

“What’ll the King Say, Cap’n? from the pirates POV

“Trouble” from one of the pirates POV about getting his share of the loot, the “plunder”

“Marooned” from the POV of a pirate that has been left on a deserted island

“On the Run” from the pirates POV

Characterization: “Blackbeard” characterized the pirate, Blackbeard.

Author’s purpose: to make a mental images and feel emotions of what it was like for real pirates

Characterization: Use the Cluster Word Web to list the traits of the pirates in the poems as you read.

Reader’s Theater of “The Pirate’s Code” could be performed after reading the book.

Cause and Effect: “Ship Rules” talks about the effect of breaking the rules.  Because you have joined the Pirates, the effect is that you will regret it.

Because you steal, the effect is being beaten with a whip.

Because you commit mutiny, the effect is being shot and thrown to sharks alive.

Because you lose an arm in battle, the effect is you will be paid well.

Drawing Conclusions: What evidence or clues can you find in the poems that supports the conclusion that people who chose to become pirates made a bad choice in careers? they were beaten, not fed well, lost body parts in fights, died young

“Captured” and “Farewell” support the conclusion as the pirates are realizing their lives are over.

Text-to-Text Connections: Both books are about weather and the sky.

The rhymes in Sky will make a connections from nursery rhymes.

Text-to-Self Connections: Some kids will have seen a double rainbow, snow, fireworks, and tornadoes.

Sequencing: Notice in Sky that there is a sequence that leads to the storm, then following the storm the birds come back out again.  Use a Sequencing Chart as you read that begins with the empty sky and continues on the storm and then the birds and butterflies.  Sequence the changes in the sky in Twister and see if there are similarities in how each storm begins.

Compare and Contrast: What is real and what is imaginary on the pages that show things in the sky.  The first double page shows things like kites, airplanes, and balloons, and in contrast, the second set shows dragons, flying saucers, and UFO’s.  There may have to be a third category for Santa Claus and angels since some of us will have knowledge that they do exist.

In Twister, compare and contrast the yard scene before and after the twister hits.

Cause and Effect: Because humans burn chemicals that create carbon residue in the air, the effect is that the air has smog and smoke in it.

POV: In Twister, we hear the story from the POV of  Lucille, the girl.

Inference: Why do you infer that that Lucille starts asking Natt about his scars while they are waiting out the storm in the cellar?

Drawing Conclusions: What text evidence can you find that supports the conclusion that the kids and their mother were very compassionate toward Mr. Lyle?

Alliteration: the sound the porch swing makes and the sound of the thunder crashing.

Text-to-Text Connections: Both books are about teachers and what they do at school; Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss.

Compare and Contrast: What teachers do during school with what they do after the kids leave.  Match  teachers who are at your school with teachers in the books.  Who is the scientist?

Text-to-Self Connections:  Some students may have made the slime that the teachers made.

Drawing Conclusions: Can you draw some conclusions about teachers after reading these two books? (they like to have fun and enjoy pets)

What evidence from the text led to your conclusion?

Internal Consistency: Miss Fry is predictable in her response to each child.  What would be something she could do that would be inconsistent with her mannerisms?

Predicting: Predict what the parent will use as the reason for asking if the pet may stay at school in Teacher’s Pets.

Inference: Why do you infer that the student brought a sponge for a pet?

Text-to-Text Connections: The Adventures of Sparrowboy by J. Brian Pinkney

Text-to-Self Connections: Pets chewing on things, lightning strikes during a storm

Words with Multiple meanings: striking

Compare and Contrast how Weezer was before and after the strike with a Venn Diagram.

Synthesis:  What do you synthesize is Weezer’s hope for the world?

Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer such as the Venn diagram, to compare and contrast with The Three Little Pigs.

Compare and contrast with The Three Little Rigs.

Reader’s Theater: This story would work well with the reader’s theater format.  Students could ad lib after reading the story or write their own script.

Inference: Because the shark’s teeth fell out, we can infer that he is eating seaweed because he can’t eat anything hard anymore.

Text-to-Text Connection: The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon

Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer such as the Venn Diagram to compare with the fairytale, Hansel and Gretel,  by James Marshall.

Personification:  The truck rigs are given personalities and speak as human characters.

Reader’s Theater: This story would lend itself well to a reader’s theater presentation.  Students could ad lib or write their own script.

Cause and Effect: Because it snowed, the rigs could not see their bolts to find their way home.

Text-to-text connections:  The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon; both stories feature trucks and both are based on fairytales

Text-to-Self connections: helping mother, wishing to be older

Sequencing: The book begins when Ana is 6, and she goes through each part of the book with her age increasing.

Math: numbers are added by 2′s throughout the story

Mental Images: The story provides some good examples of images that young students can practice making such as: riding a bike without training wheels; the steps of making tamales

Cause and Effect: Because of being more mature at each age, the effect is that Ana will be able to do more responsible things.

Compare and Contrast: Compare what Ana can do now with what she can do as she gets older.

Synthesis: Can you synthesize from what you like now, what you think you will be doing when you are twenty?

Text-to-text Connections: Gingerbread Man stories, stories where characters are being chased

Compare and Contrast: the animals that want to eat or cool off with the ice cube to characters in other versions of the Gingerbread Man.  Compare the whale with the fox in the original story.

Sequencing: Sequence from the last animal to interact with the ice cube to the first.

Drawing Conclusions: What conclusions can you draw based on the last page of of the story with the freezer door open, water on the floor, and the legs of the boy and his mother?

Cause and Effect: Because the freezer door was left open, the effect is that the ice has melted

Predicting: Predict what the ice cube man will say when one of the characters wants to use him in some way.

Felt board story: I found some clip art to represent the characters in the story, laminated them, stuck some Velcro on the back, and made a quick felt board story to go with this book.

Text-to-Text Connections: These two books make a big connection in that they both talk about how wool is used to create a garment.  Charlie shares more technical information about the process.  Red Berry shows how the words used to create fabric can have more than one meaning.

The lamb thinks wash the wool as to get in the pond.  He thinks spinning the wool means to spin around and around, and he thinks knitting the wool means to be close with the boy.

Cause and Effect: Because the lamb spins in the meadow, the effect is that he gets dizzy and falls off of the cliff.

Because the boy looks after the sheep as his responsibility, the effect is that he is always there to save the sheep when he encounters danger.

Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer to compare the words used to make the wool fabric with how the lamb uses the words to make his wool into a sweater like the boy’s.

Synthesis: Students synthesize that snakes like to eat berries from Red Berry.  Many children share that they have been warned, mainly by their grandparents,  about watching out for snakes when picking berries.

Predicting: Predict what Charlie will be doing next spring based on the last scene in the book.

Sequencing: Sequence the skills used to take the wool to a garment.

Inference: Infer what the mouse in Charlie must be thinking throughout the book.

Point of View:  Retell Charlie from the point of view of the sheep  that keeps fighting for her wool.

Seasons: Charlie goes through the four seasons.  He shears the sheep in the Spring.  As the year goes by, the sheep’s wool grows.