What To Do About Alice?

By: Barbara Kelly

Kelly, B. (2008). What to do about Alice?. Scholastic Press: Scholastic Press.

Lexile Reading Level: 800L

Women’s Rights, Theodore Roosevelt office life and family, eating up and enjoying the world, exploring, mischief, love, history

Theodore Roosevelt has a daughter named Alice who is always getting into trouble and makes it difficult for Teddy Roosevelt to control her and be the President of the United States. Alice loves to explore new countries and make new friends. She is ahead of many woman of her time. Alice likes to live at the moment and not worry about what others think of her actions.

Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud
Electronic Resources:

Read Write Think Online Timeline:
This is an online timeline machine made just for students. The students can create a timeline of Alice’s life because they are so many of her father Teddy’s but not as many of hers.


Timeline of Teddy Rossevelt:

Students can learn more about Teddy Roosevelt’s life before after and during his term as President from this easy to read timeline. 

Key Vocabulary:

This vocabulary should be taught before reading the book.

Leg braces

Eat up the world

Unruly

Inconsiderable

Shriveled

Boarding school

Publicity

Inauguration

Trinkets

Reading Strategy:

Have the students make predictions of “what eat the world means.” Put this phrase on the word wall in addition to the other vocabulary words that students are not familar with. This will be done before reading the book. 

The students create a fishbone concept map on Alice’s adventures. This will be done after the students read the book.

Writing Activity that demonstrates Inferential Comprehension:

Have the students write a persuasive essay on how Alice “ate up the world” and changed Teddy’s Rooselvelts life for the better. The students should include tradition words and specific details from the story. This will be four paragraphs with a opening sentence which grabs the readers attention.

Because of Winn-Dixie

By: Kate DiCamillo

Candlewick Press 2002

Lexile: 610

          DiCamillo, K. (2002). Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge : Candlewick Press.

A ten year old girl finds the best in everyone. The real meaning of friendship, love, Don’t judge a book by its cover, Hardship, Sorrow, religious, understanding, misunderstanding

A ten year old girl, named Opal moves to a new town.  At first she does not know anyone, but meets some friends for life. Opal learns that one should never judge someone for their past or what they look like. Everyone has a hard time but the most important part is what you learn from it.

Suggested Delivery:
Read Aloud

Electronic Resources:

Interactive quiz

This is an interactive quiz. This will be good to quiz the students of their understanding of the text after they read it. It is graded and completed on the computer.  This will be used after students read the book.

Create a Voki
Students can create a talking avatar to represent a character from the book. They can pick from Opal, Otis, Preacher, or Glory  to create as a person. They can find quotes from the book and create their own lines that they believe the character would say and make the voki say them.

Key Vocabulary:

This vocabulary should be taught before reading the book.

Preacher

Naomi, Florida

Missionary

Sermon

Distracted

Suffering

Skidding

Applaud

Terrorized

Criminal

Reading Strategy:

 A small group of heteregenous group people will write a story using five vocabulary words from the selected text list.This will be done before they read this book in order to help enhance their knowledge of the vocabulary words after they were reviewed.

While reading this book, have the students pick a chacracter and work together in pairs to come up with a script for the character in a certain part of the story. Have the children act out what they believe the character was doing in that part of that book as well as the characters emotions. This will help the students really visualize what is happening in the text.

Writing Activity that demonstrates Inferential Comprehension:

Write a journal entry in how you think Winn-Dixie changed Opal's life or another character in the book.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

By: Lisa Yee

Yee, L. (2003). Millicent Min, girl genius. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books.


Reading Level: Lexile 800

Genius, Friendship, Family, Support, Being different

This is a humorous book which stars an 11 year old genius named Millicent Min. She is entering into her senior year of high school and taking a college class. Millicent is really intelligent but does not have any good friends so her parents sign her up for volleyball in order to meet people her age. What first seems to Millicent as torture transforms into being fun. She meets good friends for life through volleyball.

Suggested Delivery: Each student in the class reads this book independently


Electronic Resources:

Discussion Guide

This is a great reference for Teachers for ideas on discussion questions for using in small or large groups. It is also good for students in order to prepare their material for questions and also help them infer more information from this the book. These questions can be used during and after students read this book.

Meet Lisa Yee

This is Lisa Yee’s website. This is where students can explore this website in order to learn more about the author and why she wrote Millicent Min. Students can also learn about the other books Lisa Yee wrote. This can be used after the students read this book.

Key Vocabulary:

This vocabulary should be taught before reading the book.

Retentive

Compulsive

Accused

Hysteria

Optimistic

Cliques

Depressed

Reading Strategy:

 As a class or a as a small reading group on the board write down words or phrases which describe a genius. This will be used before reading this book. This will help in the predicting of what this book is about.

 Write on the board words that best describe Millicent, Emily and Stanford and compare them to the predictions of a genius. This would be used after the students read this book.

Writing Activity that demonstrates Inferential Comprehension:
Pick a character in the story that you can most relate to. Write a four paragraph essay describing who he or she is and how you can relate to the character.  

Recommended by my 12 year old sister Erin

Blood on the River: Jamestown 1607

By: Elisa Carbone

Carbone, E. L. (2006). Blood on the river: James Town 1607. New York: Viking.

Reading Level: Lexile 820

James Town 1607, the real story of Captain Smith and Pocahontas and John Ratcliff, Colonial Life, Adventure, Trade with the Indians

Summary:
This book captures the life of the first colonists at James Town and at Point Comfort. The story is told  first hand by young Samuel Collier. Samuel shares with us his adventure to  Jamestown as he travels on the Susan Constant as well as life in Jamestown. It also shows how Samuel grows as a person and realizes that he cannot be alone. He learns to really appreciate the friendship and people he has met. Captain Smith plays a large role in this book by leading the new settlement as well as teaching Samuel that everyone needs to work as a team. Samuel and Captain Smith's experience with trade and interaction with the Indian tribes gives a vivid image of the life of Indians as well as their relationship with the European settlers.

Suggested Delivery: Each student in the class reads this book independently

Electronic Resources:
Jamestown Online Adventure

This resource is interactive. It asks questions as if you were a settler and gives you choices on where you would settle and what you would do in certain situations. Then it tells you the outcome of your survival. This can be used during this book. When this is used during the students can answer the questions as what they predict will happen to the settlers.

Kid Info

This resource can be used after the students have read the book in order to learn more about the village life and the life of the Powhatan Indians which are portrayed  in this book. It also has very detailed and realistic pictures. 

Key Vocabulary

This is a list of vocabulary which will nee to be addressed by the Teacher before reading the book for better understanding of the book.

New World

Pawn Shop

Massacred

Rigging

Hull

Wingapo

Compulsion

Duel

starvation

bargain

copper

hatchet

trade

sickness that the Europeans brought to the New World

necut, ningh, nuss

Reading Strategy for Before and After Reading

Create 3 KWL charts on the board about the settlers in Virginia, life on the Susan Constant, and what European brought to new world.

Writing Activity which focuses on Inferential Comprehension

Have the students write the letter to a character in the book. Having the students ask questions and infer information from the text as they write to a character.

Recommended by my 12 year old sister Erin