Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer such as the Venn diagram,

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer,  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,  http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer, 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: learning to read

Characterization: use a graphic organizer to write all of the things we read about Mr. George Baker such as his baggy pants, his suspenders, his sweater, his Hershey’s kisses in his pocket, his lunch, his desire to learn to read, his drum playing, a hundred years old

Synthesis: I am synthesizing that Mr. George Baker wanted to learn to read even though he was really old.  When I learn to read, I want to read…….ask your students to fill in the blank.

List all of the things we couldn’t do if we couldn’t read.  Read a map, drive, order from a menu, enjoy library books, read close captioning on TV

The story is written as a modern day folktale featuring the Boo Hag from the Gullah culture of South Carolina.  The Boo Hag is a legendary spirit or shape-shifter that wants to live in another person’s body, or it is also described as  riding a person by using their skin and body as a form for it to use.

Presidents’ Day: at the very end of the story, the Boo Hag shape-shifts itself into a penny.  Precious is almost fooled, but just in time she realizes the penny has the image of George Washington on it instead of Abraham Lincoln.  Precious’ brother had told her that the Boo Hag was not too smart.

Author’s Purpose: It might be to share a cultural story that teaches a lesson about not opening the door to anyone when a child is staying home alone.

Sequencing: Sequence the shapes that the Boo Hag took each time it appeared to Precious.

Drawing Conclusions: What evidence does Precious find that leads her to draw the conclusion that each of the characters that visits with her is in fact a Boo Hag?

Examples: Drinking the water, frog-like tongue, getting apron color wrong, being a penny with the wrong image

The author is an African American making this an authentic choice to read during African American history month.

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.

Schema:  sticks, playing with sticks

Text-to-Text Connections: Over in the Meadow, an old rhyme about the animals in a meadow; the rhyme goes something like, “over in the meadow in the sand and the sun lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one…”  See the lyrics at:  http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/overinthemeadowlyrics.htm

Also a connection with the Gingerbread Man stories as the stick is running from animals and people.

Personification: the stick is personified

Predicting: Ask students to predict what the stick man will be used for next as you are reading the story.

Because a dog grabs him, the effect is that stick man gets farther and farther away from his home.  Every situation where Stick Man is taken can be used as a cause and effect example.

Because Santa Claus rescued the Stick Man, the effect is that he is taken back to his tree.

Organizational Strategies:  Create a flow chart showing the stick’s movement throughout the story.

Sequencing: the book goes through each season

Setting: Vermont

Characterization: Make a graphic organizer to show Darrell’s characteristics.

With Tommy he takes the time to let him play like he is driving his truck

With The Barretts he gives the firewood to them even though they can not pay him now.

He gives the Barrett children little birds that he has carved and offers to teach them how to whittle.

He offers to build a pond for the Murphys so Andy can play with the frogs.

Mental Images: Make a mental picture of “dirt roads…like chocolate pudding.

Cause and Effect: Because the roof was never repaired, the effect is that it completely blows off in a storm.

Because Darrell is so kind, the effect is that people want to help him when he is needing help with his barn.

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-Self Connections: taking something without permission, not wanting to get caught, getting together with relatives for the holidays,  seeing something and then remembering something you forgot about

Predicting: Predict what Maria is going to do when her mother leaves to answer the phone.

Drawing Conclusions: What conclusion does Maria come to about the whereabouts of the ring?  What clues from the story lead you to this conclusion?  First she thinks it is in a tamale because she thinks it fell off of her thumb and went into the masa.  Secondly, she thinks Danny swallowed it.

When did Mother come to the conclusion that Maria was playing with the ring? The clues from the story indicate that she found it in the masa since she “scraped off a flake of dried masa”  from the ring.

At what point do you think Maria’s mother found the ring in the masa?  Maybe when she sent Maria to get her father to help?

Synthesis: What do you think Maria synthesized from this experience?  to tell the truth immediately? to leave other people’s belongings alone?

Text-to-Self Connections:  sneezing for one of the reasons listed in the book; understanding how the brain works to make connections

Although this nonfiction book discusses the causes and physical reactions associated with sneezing, the book is an excellent source for showing how the brain makes connections.

Inventors:  At the end of the book, the author provides frames of the first moving picture taken by Thomas Edison.

Microscopes:  Many of the images are enlarged hundreds of times and shown in differentiating colors to show the paths that the brain makes as it makes connections.

Mental Images: The concept of the brain making a connection is illustrated to help young readers understand