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Archive for the ‘Social Studies Connections’ Category

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Apr 25

The Miss Rumphius Effect: Poetry Makers - Lisa Westberg Peters

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Lisa: Guindon, the cartoonist, said: Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.

via The Miss Rumphius Effect: Poetry Makers - Lisa Westberg Peters.

This is a great quote on writing shared by Lisa Westberg Peters in her interview on The Miss Rumphius Effect. What a nice way to help students think about their purpose in writing and how we can use writing to clarify our thinking.

Lisa Westberg Peters also shares some of her poems from

Earthshake: Poems From the Ground Up

and I sure wish I knew about them back when I was teaching my earth science unit in 3rd grade! Great poetry to connect with science!

Nov 23

The First Thanksgiving (Hello Reader Level 3) by Garnet Jackson

Lexile Level: 430,Guided Reading Level:
L, DRA Level:
24-28

This non-fiction text takes the reader from the Pilgrims’ voyage on the Mayflower, through their first harsh winter in Plymouth, to meeting Squanto and Samoset, and celebrating the first Thanksgiving.

While the text is simple and low on details, it is a good source for helping younger readers determine importance. It is organized by the seasons of the year, and this text pattern activity would help structure students’ note taking on the important events that take place.

Download Text Pattern Lesson for The First Thanksgiving
Download Text Pattern Chart for The First Thanksgiving

If this is an introductory lesson to the time period, then questioning would also be a useful strategy. Student questions generated from this text could be a nice foundation for further study.

Nov 23

Sarah Morton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Scholastic Inc.

This is a fantastic resource for any unit on Pilgrims or Thanksgiving. The narrator, Sarah Morton, takes the reader through a typical day - from getting dressed in her many layers, to chores she does to help her family, school lessons, meals, and play time. Students learn vocabulary from the time as well as how different the lives of children were at this time.

Inference skills can play a key part in understanding this text. There are many words and situations that the reader can decipher the meaning of by using context and picture clues.

I wrote a strategic lesson for using inference with this text for one of my classes:
Download Inference Lesson for Sarah Morton’s Day

Download Inference Chart for Sarah Morton’s Day

Connecting is another important reading strategy to employ with this text. Students will be surprised at the hardships of Sarah Morton’s life, but they will also find many ways they are similar to Sarah. Further, if you are reading this as part of a unit on Pilgrims or Thanksgiving, they should make many connections to what they have already learned in this unit.

There is a companion to this book, Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy, which is in a similar format from a boy’s perspective. These are fantastic resources for getting kids to relate to the lives of Pilgrim children.

Nov 05

When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan

This moving picture book tells the story Marian Anderson, acclaimed vocalist from the early 20th century who fought discrimination because she was an African-American. Ryan uses lyrics from gospel hymns to highlight the emotions of Anderson's struggle.

I think connecting is the strategy students would use most readily with this text. Most students will have connections to Jim Crow Laws and the Civil Rights Movement that will help inform their understanding of the events she experiences. They also may have personal connections to the determination and perseverance she exhibits. Further, students could create text-to-text connections between this book and others about notable African-Americans.

Ryan provides great examples of using similes in her descriptions that students can study:

  • "As Viola sang the high part and Marian sang the low, their harmony blended like a silk braid."
  • "Her voice sounded like a steel door clanking shut."

Pam Munoz Ryan has a great Readers Theater Script featuring the text of When Marian Sang.

Nov 05

Guests by Michael Dorris

Michael Dorris relates the story of Moss, a young Native American boy who is searching for his self identity while his family is struggling to forge a relationship with the Europeans who have recently come to their land. The language in this short chapter book is poetic and beautiful. While a third grader could read it, the subject matter would be a bit over his or her head - much more fitting for 4th-8th graders.
I've got sticky notes bulging from all over this book:

  • Chapter 1 - Great for teaching questioning and predicting as Dorris slowly unfolds the details about Moss and his family.
  • Many opportunities to read this book from a writer's perspective as Dorris uses language to describe feelings, situations, and relationships:
    • p. 25 "My thoughts seemed to bounce into each other, to play tag with me when I tried to grab them."
    • p. 38 "A thought arose from somewhere in the center of my body and spread like the circles that grown in water from the splash of a rock: this was not a game I could stop whenever I wanted to."
    • p. 60 "From somewhere deep inside me, a laugh got started and fought its way up through my nose."
  • p. 77 - Second paragraph is a great example of sensory imaging, could also be a nice way to introduce a visualizing mini-lesson.

Scholastic has a nice Discussion Guide filled with questions of every type and level, as well as a Vocabulary Builder.

Nov 03

Encounter by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen takes you back in time to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, but tells the story from the perspective of a Taino boy as he encounters Europeans for the first time. The rich language and beautiful illustrations (by David Shannon) make this a book to read again and again.
There are many opportunities for teaching reading strategies in this book:

  • Questioning: The dream-like beginning provokes the reader to question what is happening, who the narrator is, and why his dreams are so haunting.
  • Predicting: Throughout the book, as the narrator continues to worry about the European's motives, readers can predict whether his tribal leaders will heed his warnings.
  • Inference: The narrator describes the Europeans as he understands them, which provides many opportunities for the reader to infer meaning.

Maureen Markelz

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