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.

Before beginning, read the guide produced by the publisher which provides a background for understanding:

Author’s purpose: The author takes us into the world of a refugee and helps refugee’s to see that they are not alone.

POV: The story is told from Kek’s point of view.

Voice: We hear Kek’s voice throughout the story as we experience his situations from his POV.

Text-to-Text Connections: 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

Drawing Conclusions: We quickly draw the conclusion that Kek is new to the United States.  What text evidence leads you to this conclusion?

Mental Images: The reader is forced to make a mental image of Kek’s description in order to follow his thoughts.

He describes common things in unique ways without using the common name for it such as the flying boat for the airplane.

Characterization: Use the Describing Wheel to list Kek’s traits: Eleven years old, maybe an orphan, afraid, sad, brave

Symbolism: How is the title a symbol for the way Kek thinks of America?

Note about an African custom from Alan Cohen’s “Eyes on Africa” page on Facebook

Schema: cows, feeling sorrow for someone’s pain

Text-to-self connection: remembering or hearing about September 11, 2001;  being kind to others; feeling the emotion of something being “sweet and sad” because it can not be lasting for long

Background information: The Maasai people believe that ownership of cattle represents well-being and wealth.  To own a large heard is something to strive towards.

Author’s purpose: to share the Maasai values and compassion toward America and to encourage others to be practice ‘Ubuntu.”

Cause and Effect: Because the U.S. was attacked on 9-11-01, the effect is that Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah wanted to do something to help with the sorrow and ended up making the cow donation as a symbol of  Ubuntu.

POV:  The people of Maasai;  Think of the African people listening to the story of how the city was attacked.  They are trying to make mental images of buildings that touch the sky and fires melting iron.

Voice: We hear the voice of Kimeli in the story.

Symbolism: cows symbolizes life

Synthesis: The Maasai leaders synthesize that to make the U. S. feel better, they must be humane and give something from their hearts to the U. S.  The U. S. diplomat synthesizes the great sacrifice of the Maasai to give this many cows and it moves him to tears.

Text-to-Self Connections: things you are afraid of, being called a chicken

Cause and Effect: Because the chickens were frightened by the wolf, the effect is that they knocked themselves  out of the hen house.

Because they were locked out of the hen house, the effect is that they run into the woods to hide.

Because of their clumsiness and inability to stay calm, the effect is that they end up in one bad situation after another.

Because they act so panicked, the effect is that they scare the wolf.

Drawing Conclusions: What evidence from the story supports the idea that the wolf drew the conclusion that the chickens were scary?

Point of View: Through most of the story we see the chickens’ point of view, but at the end, we see the wolf’s POV.

Read the note at the back of the book so the students can understand the problem better before you begin the book.

Text-to-self connections: doing a project with a sibling, feeling sorry for the birds, seeing problems that wild birds cause

What city animals help keep the balance of nature in our area?  Some insects and birds eat mosquitoes, coyotes eat rats, and ladybugs eat aphids that harm our roses

Text-to-Text Connection: Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre

Organizational Strategies: the cycle of the story begins and ends with Ming-Li as a wise one about  farming.

Mental Images: “Scratching at her thoughts like a monkey.”

Cause and Effect: Because the sparrows were eating the grain from the fields, the effect is that the rulers want to scare the sparrows away.

Because Ming-Li felt so much empathy for the sparrows, the effect is that she rescued some of them.

Because the food chain is broken with the absence of the birds, the effect is that the locust, worms,  weevil, and grasshopper  population grew and devoured the crops even more than the sparrows did.

Voice: Ming-Li’s voice is the strongest one in the book.

POV:  The story is told from Ming-Li’s POV.

Author’s purpose: Historical fiction is a way to teach history in a way that readers can relate in a personal way to the events of the period in history.  The characters make the story more passionate.

Anne of Green Gable

She runs away from  her latest foster home to stay with a distant relative that she has never met, but while there bonds with  childless Augusta, an older widow woman, whose husband was taken by the sea thirty years earlier. The Prince Edward Island  story begins just after a big storm at sea.   Tango, a small Yorkshire terrier is found tangled in a lobster trap almost frozen.   Tango’s story begins in New England, where is is taken from his mother and sold to a pet shop in Manhattan.  He is bought  by a rich woman, who lives in Manhattan.  He lives a life of luxury and feels very loved.  His owner takes him on a sailboat  which was caught in a storm and Tango is washed overboard and later found frozen and wet in a lobster trap on Prince Edward Island.

Jack, a veterinarian, and Augusta feel a kinship with the lonely McKenna, who has been allowed to live temporarily in a small room  behind her uncle’s house until the end of the summer.  McKenna is allowed to paint the shed-like building and use it as a place to sell candles during the summer tourist season.  Augusta and Jack provide McKenna with the tools and supplies she needs to make candles to sell to the summer tourists.  McKenna had found a recipe for  “enchanted candles” in an old Bible and had wanted to make them to earn enough money to go to Toronto to find the only foster mother that she had loved, but who had moved away saying she was unable to take McKenna with her.

In a parallel fantasy storyline, Tango, Beau fox, and a gang of evil cats are communicating in their own language about turf wars, and general meanness.  Beau, a fox, saw McKenna abandoned as a baby and left alone wrapped in a fishing net  in the marshy brush.   Beau pulls the baby out of the water and closer to the road where she is found by a young woman who cares for her until she is killed in a car accident when McKenna was two.  The uncle that McKenna goes to stay with on Prince Edward Island is not her blood relative but related to her adoptive mother. Uncle Cody is  good man, but does not have the resources or a wife who will allow him to give McKenna a home.   McKenna knows the truth about her true background by looking at her folder during a visit with her social worker, but does not tell her uncle because she needs a place to stay.    Beau  follows McKenna from one home to the next always keeping watch over her.  Beau is all alone in the world too since his mate, Tawny, was run over and killed by the man that was married to the woman who found McKenna wrapped in the fishing net.

Once on the island, Tango does everything he can to find a silver heart that had his I.D. information on it so Augusta will see it and call his owner in Manhattan to come for him.  This involves fighting a rat and battling an evil gang of cats who all have names and talk to each other and the other animals too.  Tango agrees to fight a big white rat to the death of one of them in order to win the prize of his name tag which was found by one of the cats, Nigel called Stumpy, a cat with only three legs.  Nigel is one of the cats in the gang, but he doesn’t fit in with the rest of them.  He goes along to get along.  At the end, the mean cats turn on him and try to make him fight Tango.  Suddenly a huge storm overtakes the cat’s hideout called The Pitiful Place and washes it out to sea.  Just before they are washed away, McKenna  finds Tango and Nigel and rescues them.

Augusta is healing from a fall, and during this time McKenna has taken care of her.  Augusta  realizes that she can risk loving again after all her years of hurt over the loss of her husband.  She has come to love Tango and McKenna.

McKenna tells Augusta about the charm that Tango had in his mouth after fighting the rat just before the storm.  When Beau realizes that Tango, who he was also protecting along with McKenna, is going to be ok, and that McKenna has found someone to love her, he passes on to join his mate, Tawny, who has been calling to him in his old age.  When he dies, it is not sad because he has lived a long and good life.

When Tango is reunited with Augusta after fighting for his i.d. charm, he comes to the realization that he loves Augusta and Mckenna, and he feels he would not like living in an apartment in Manhattan anymore.  He loves his leash-less freedom.   Augusta  goes to sleep with the charm under her pillow to “sleep on it” and will decide whether to call his owner the next day.

This is a wonderful book for all ages, but so special because it is a great story without any curse words making it a solid addition to any young child’s library.  It is assigned a level of 4.8 in the A.R. system.

Point of View:  The story goes back and forth between the voice and POV of  Tango, McKenna, Augusta, and Beau.

Cause and Effect: Because Tango was washed overboard, the effect is he begins a new life on Prince Edward Island.

Synthesis: We can synthesize that introducing love and the feeling of being wanted into a person or animal’s life, makes them both feel contented and settled.

Author,  Eileen Beha, has a teacher’s guide for Tango on her website.

Persuasion: This book is a fine example of a persuasive writing.  Use a graphic organizer to graph the persuasion terms.

Al has references; how do the references help him?  They give him credibility.

Text-to-text Connections: Sleeping Beauty is mentioned in the story.

Cause and Effect: Because the fox compliments his audiences outfit and says he likes you, he hopes the effect will be that you____.

Text-to-Self Connections:

Commercials that are the infomercial where they throw in some bonus items if you call right now and order their product.

Building a fort, using duct tape

Seeing the sign in a store that says, “you break it, you buy it”

Reader’s Theater: This book would lend itself well to a reader’s theater performance;
Students could  could write similar skits about some other product too.

Sequence the different types of tactics the fox uses to sell the book such as introducing it, complimenting the buyer, sharing the uses, offering bonus items.

Synthesis: The big idea the author is sharing is trying to persuade someone to buy something.     Students could  could write similar skits about some other product too.

Text-to-Text Connection: Heroic Afghan Dog Reunited With a U.S. Soldier

Author’s purpose: The author is sharing his journey with Nubs because it is a miracle that he was able to get the dog from there back to his home in San Diego.

Because Nubs did not give up on finding Major Dennis, the effect is that Major Dennis did not give up on him.

Characterization: Make a graphic organizer and write all of the traits that would describe Major Dennis from the text evidence.

Drawing Conclusions: We can conclude that Nubs is a smart dog with the text evidence that he learned new tricks in five minutes. Nubs was the leader of his pack.

We can conclude that Major Dennis grew to love Nubs from the text evidence that he took care of his wound, waked up to check on him,  prayed for him, and eventually adopted him.

We can conclude that Major Dennis is a compassionate man from the text evidence of how he worked to get Nubs to his home and kept checking on him until he knew he had made it.

We can conclude that Nubs was determined to stay with Major Dennis from the text evidence that Nubs walked 70 miles go to Major Dennis.

Point of View: This story is told from Major Dennis’s POV using his e-mails and narrative to tell us the story.