I have also used many of the titles already mentioned; however, one that I love that has not been mentioned is Terrible Things: An allegory of the the Holocaust by Eve Bunting. I teach 8th grade and have found it to be a very, very powerful complement to our study of WWII and the Holocaust. Allegory has always been a difficult concept for my students to grasp and this book provides an anchor text for their understanding of an allegory as well.
Sherry ________________________________________ From: mosaic-bounces+scourie=chatham.k12.nc...@literacyworkshop.org [mosaic-bounces+scourie=chatham.k12.nc...@literacyworkshop.org] on behalf of beverleep...@gmail.com [beverleep...@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, February 18, 2012 1:29 AM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Literature Suggestions for Teaching World War 2 AND PHONICS ISSUES Let the Celebrations Begin (Vivas) is a powerful book, a picture book, and the discussions it will prompt among your fourth graders will be incredible. One reviewer writes, "The book is a testimony of the triumph of the human heart." It certainly is, but nevertheless, it draws your young readers into a time which it refuses to oversimplify. As an endnote, I'd like to mention the phonics discussion on list lately. This book is a prime example of a great vehicle to talk about comprehension and deep structure as discussed in To Understand. It probably isn't as closely related to Mosaic imho, although a case could be made that it is. Of course, decoding isn't an issue here, so you're wondering why I brought up the topic. This list will probably always have "multiple personalities." At its most pure, it's probably best used as teachers share and discuss how they teach comprehension, of course. The trick is that there are so many talented teachers on this list with resources, ideas, and techniques at their fingertips, coupled with teachers who want to enhance their comprehension instruction and need recommendations from list members. That is what just happened above. There has so far not been an extensive discussion on how to use either of these books to teach comprehension, but I hope the recommendations contribute to the original query. This sharing is one of the personalities of this group. It's probably not the original intent of the group, but it's certainly consistent and congruent with that intent. I'm a big fan! I've used info from this group many, many times. I don't mind the split personality at all, but I'm relatively new to the group. Now, here comes the rub. While it's so tempting to ask for information, knowing the richness of knowledge among this group's members, to me it seems reasonable that the questions and answers match the focus of this particular group. For instance, probably what triggered the Hot Topic this time was the scripted phonics program issue. Saxon, or any other scripted, whole-class, direct-instruction phonics program is mutually exclusive to the kind of literacy program typically thought of as comprehension-based and discussed on this group. Maybe this summer this group could read and discuss what embedded phonics looks like and how it relates to comprehension. We alsohave a graceful invitation by Jennifer to respond now. As an aside, I'm wondering if all our smartphones and kindles and ipads have handicapped the deep, meaningful discussion than used to be more common here. God knows, Keith has tried to wake us up, and Jennifer always rises to the occasion. But it seems sometimes that we have devolved into Sesame Street-paced replies because we are typing our post on something far-less easy to use for our word processing than...well, our word processors. Hmmmm. Bev from Nebraska Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless -----Original message----- From: Nan Lafferty <mnlaff2...@yahoo.com> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Sent: Sat, Feb 18, 2012 04:22:47 GMT+00:00 Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Literature Suggestions for Teaching World War 2 How about The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco? Here is a link to her website: http://www.patriciapolacco.com/books/butterfly/butterfly_navigations.html Nan -----Original Message----- From: mosaic-bounces+mnlaff2002=yahoo....@literacyworkshop.org [mailto:mosaic-bounces+mnlaff2002=yahoo....@literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of rascal...@aol.com Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 9:42 PM To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Subject: [MOSAIC] Literature Suggestions for Teaching World War 2 Hi Everyone, I'm searching for some great picture books that I can use to teach World War 2 to my fourth grade class. We just started Number the Stars and their interest level is running very deep. I'd love to expand on their curiosities! Thank you in advance for your help. Ali/FL _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive ****This Message was sent through the Chatham County Schools E-Mail Server**** All e-mail correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
