Relating to the World

During our author study on Bill Peet, we have been reading many of this stories and seeing the connections between not only his stories, but our lives as well. Despite the fact many of his books are fantasy fiction stories, we learned how to relate the feelings, situations, and experiences to our lives and the world around us.

In a recent lesson we studied how to make a text-to-world connection. Text-to-world connections are made when readers relate topics or situations in a book that they know from the world around them through things from the television, movies, magazines, and newspapers. An example of a text-to-world connection would be when a reader says, "I saw a program on television that talked about things described in this book."

Text-to-world:What does this remind me of in the real world?How is this text similar to things that happen in the real world? How is this different from things that happen in the real world? How did that part relate to the world around me?

Here are some sample paragraphs relating a Bill Peet book of their choice to the world!

The writer related to idea that many people farm in the world just how the make believe dragon Doofus did.

The writer related to the problem of pollution that the fantasy story mentioned. The writer gave details and supported her idea with specific references to the text.

The last writer made a text-to-world connection with the story Ella. The writer discussed the similar events in the world such as the circus and trains. Next, the writer connected to the feelings people can have that were similar to the character's feelings.

Keep up the superb connections young writers!

Vivid Vocabulary

Our room has been bursting with new and advanced vocabulary words lately. Students have been challenged to apply all the recent words we have learned from our last read aloud, Bunnicula.

During each reading, we would stop, predict, and search for clues for those unknown words. This skill is VITAL in their vocabulary development as well as reading comprehension. As students reach higher reading levels, it is up to them to stop and decide the meaning of unknown words. Often, students will read right over them and keep on going. As a result, they end up missing part of the story or this affects their comprehension of the plot.

Each day as we read, we'd make sure to signal if we heard a word we weren't sure on. They learned the fact that not knowing what a word means does NOT mean you have to be embarrassed. There should be about 2-3 unknown words per page if the book they are reading is a 'just right' book.

A common game we have started to play is called, "I have.....who has?" During this game, students are given a card with a vocabulary word on each side. A student first describes the word. Another child in the class has that match and says, "I have..."and then they say the word. Next, they flip their card and ask, "Who has the word that means...." and describe the other word.

For example, if I had a card that had the word "tranquil" and "obliged". I would respond when someone asked, "Who has the word that means peaceful?" I would respond, "I have tranquil. Who has the word that means thankful?" Finally, the child who had obliged would answer, "I have obliged. Who has...and so on and so on. The students LOVE getting active practice seeing, applying, and forming clues with these words. Check the newsletter weekly for the new words we are learning and play some, "Who has..... I have" yourself!