Teaching Theme and Main Idea

Getting caught up on the overflow in my Google Reader while I wait for this baby to arrive! Earlier this month, Stenhouse’s Quick Tip Tuesday focused on Finding the Main Idea in fiction texts. It showcases ideas from Amy Greene and Glennon Doyle Melton in their book Test Talk: Integrating Test Preparation into Reading Workshop.

I like the explicit way Glennon introduces the main idea to her students while reading Thank You, Mr. Falker (what a tear-jerker, by the way). And it immediately brought to mind another teacher’s way of teaching theme in her classroom.

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!

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

When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz Ryan

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.