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#1: Poppleton
The Poppleton series is about a fictional pig character who moves from a city, and into a suburban town. This series follows his interactions with new friends and scenarios in his new living setting. These make for great mentor texts because they're engaging and can be used to teach numerous reading skills to students. This series in particular is a level J and is popular amongst 1st and 2nd graders from my firsthand experience.

#2: Mercy Watson
The Mercy Watson series is another popular book series amongst second graders. It follows a pig (who can't speak, unlike in Poppleton), and her mischievous adventures. These books are funny, witty, and can be used to teach numerous skills in reading and creative writing. Not only that, but both mentor texts teach valuable lessons in the end that we can have class or tutee discussions with.

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The second story I chose is called My Little Island By Frane Lessac, a personal narrative about a young girl visiting her home Island Montserrat with her best friend to attend her cousin’s wedding. A read of this book allows it’s readers to visualise the picturesque scenery that inhibits Montserrat; inhale it’s marvelous scents, from the food and from the wildlife; and feel two kinds of warmth, from the sun and from the people. The literary devices used are as colorful as it’s colorful illustrations. The author uses literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and sensory imagery to bring the book to life. My focused learner will benefit from learning the beauty of someone from a different culture’s heritage. She may also be able to make certain connections on her own, as many of the  Island’s  fruits and vegetables, mentioned in the book will be familiar to her. She will also be poised to pay special attention to the different types of fruits and vegetables she may encounter at a local marketplace.

Teaching Point: I will use this text as I teach revision and edition of a personal narrative to help it come to life.

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I chose two culturally relevant mentor texts for two very separate yet connected reasons. The first one I will use with my focus learner will be Grandma’s Gift By Eric Velasquez. This is a story about a small moment in Eric’s young life, where he spends the Christmas holidays with his Grandma. In this story, my focus learner will see that this was nothing new to Eric because he is used to spending school vacations with his Grandma, however, this one was memorable for Eric. His Grandmother would seldom venture outside El Barrio “East Harlem,” where she knew everyone and everyone knew her. However, on this occasion she had to, in order to take him to the Metropolitan Museum so he could complete his Christmas holiday project.The text shows that when stepping out of our comfort zones, we can find other points of comfort. It shows how connected we all are, and sometimes we find that out in the most unusual places. I think this will be an especially relatable and culturally responsive text because it teaches the importance of knowing your heritage and passing traditions on. In this text the narrator talks about helping his grandmother shop for the ingredients to make a famous dish from her homeland. He also translates the dishes in Spanish for his readers, as he also would have to perform many translations for his grandmother, as she spoke little to no English.

Teaching Point: I will use this text to teach young writers how to choose a small moment or memory and plan for and write a personal narrative, using a small moment graphic organizer.

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A Chair For My Mother By Vera B. Williams

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Mentor Text #1:

This mentor text will introduce personal narrative to my tutee. The story "A Chair For My Mother" by Vera B. Williams will help to use dialogue and their own experiences in a descriptive way in their writing. This story will introduce to my tutee beginning, middle and end. As beginning, middle and end is introduce my tutee will be able to distinguish the parts in sequence throughout his writing by incorporate these components of beginning, middle, and end to create his own personal narrative.

MENTOR TEXT #2:

As I continue personal narrative with my tutee, I will be using another story by Vera B. Williams. The story is called "A Chair For Always", throughout the story there can be some similarities as it is a story written about the chair. In this story Rosa wants to meet her baby cousin that will soon be born. Rosa is already thinking about how one day she will have her own and not be there always to see her baby cousin but one thing her cousin will always have is the beautiful chair for her mother that will always be there as a piece of her. Throughout the story, they are using descriptive language similar to "A Chair For My Mother" in mentor text one. This story incoporates sequence, dialogue and descriptive language that can be shown to my tutee to use in his narrative writing piece.

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The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo

This is another great text that shows how the traditional Cinderella story can be told from another culture. In this Egyptian version, Rhodopis wants to go court in Memphis to meet the Pharaoh . Like in mentor text #1, The Rough Faced Girl, the students will compare the Cinderella story elements found in this version. Building upon this, another key part I want to highlight is the idea of beauty. Looking at the pictures, what to the characters look like, how is beauty portrayed in this story? There is no blonde haired, blue-eyed cinderella, what does this Cinderella look like? What do the "evil step sisters" character look ? What are the characteristics of beauty seen in the prince/pharaoh?

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The Rough Face Girl by Rafe Martin and David Shannon

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The Rough Face Girl by Rafe Martin and David Shannon

This is a great text to show how to the traditional Cinderella story can be told from another culture and not just in the Western perspective. In this Algonquin Indian version of the Cinderella story, the Rough-Face Girl and her two beautiful but heartless sisters compete for the affections of the Invisible Being. What I want to focus on with the students is the comparison of this text to the traditional Disney version they are used to. What do they have in common/different? What are the elements of the Cinderella story and can we find them in this text?

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The Rough Faced Girl by Rafe Martin and David Shannon

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I think this is also a good mentor text for realistic fiction and something I plan to use with my learning lab tutee. This is a story of a young middle school aged boy named Karim, who lives in Ramallah under the Israeli Occupation. It is a very sad, but a very real coming of age story. This is recommended for grades 4-6, so I would use this in a read aloud as with my student who is reading slightly below grade level. - Nicole Azran

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Text #1: A Different Pond written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Thi Bui.
"A kid at my school said my dad's English sounds like a thick, dirty river.
But to me his English sounds like gentle rain."

This first text is a picture book about a young Vietnamese boy living in the US with his family. His father wakes him very early one morning to go fishing before he has to go to work so they will have food for dinner that night. Though descriptions and dialogue the reader understands that the boys parents are immigrants who lived through the Vietnam war, lost family, and are working hard to make a life in the US. I would use it as an example of figurative language and making inferences.

Text #2: Holes by Louis Sachar
"A man was sitting with his feet up on a desk. He turned his head when Stanley and the guard entered, but otherwise didn't move. Even though he was inside, he wore sunglasses and a cowboy hat. He also held a can of cream soda, and the sight of it made Stanley even more aware of his own thirst.

He waited while the bus guard gave the man some papers to sign.

"That's a lot of sunflower seeds," the bus guard said.

Stanley noticed a burlap sack filled with sunflower seeds on the floor next to the desk.

"I quit smoking last month", said the man in the cowboy hat. He had a tattoo of a rattlesnake on his arm, and as he signed his name, the snake's rattle seemed to wiggle. "I used to smoke a pack a day. Now I eat a sack of these every week."

Holes tells the story of Stanley Yelnats who was recently sent to Camp Green Lake to serve a sentence for a crime (stealing) that he didn't commit. There he meets a cast of characters and uncovers a secret that could end a curse that has been plaguing his family for generations. I would use this mentor text to demonstrate how multigenerational stories can be weaved together, the importance of a good ending as well as character and setting development.

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Mentor Text 2:

The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright

The Koala Who Could is a story about a Koala named Kevin who was scared to leave the tree and play with others. Kevin soon learns that the ground is not as scary as he believed it once to be. This resonated with my students writing piece with her overcoming her fear and inability to ride her bike. This text did a great job of building suspension, building a story line/plot, and having a successful and positive ending of overcoming a challenge. What I would want to focus on most would be the fluidity throughout the text and how through the progression of time, Kevin is continuing this ‘journey’ of overcoming his fear to leave the tree - similar to the students journey of learning how to ride a bike. The book supplies a sense of background which the student does not in her writing piece to emphasize why this accomplishment means so much to her and why it is such a big deal!

I also loved how descriptive this book is as well which works simultaneously with my mentor #1 text.

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Blackout by John Rocco

I chose this story because of the way it shows a small sneak peak into the different homes of an apartment building and how the activity taking place changes when a blackout occurs. It takes place in a city which is something many children can relate to. It also shows how families come together at a time in need to be there for one another and how it forces them to slow down and be in the moment, a concept that many struggle with nowadays. I really like the illustrations and how the story is sequenced.

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Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal

I love reading this book to my students because it sparks up conversation about a student's family history and culture. It also encourages them to feel confident about who they are. I would use this story to teach students about how traditions work within families and how a culture can have a larger impact on our life than just the holidays we celebrate. The story is also told by both her and her father when he shares about the different places she got her name from.

Alexis Roman

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This book does a fantastic job of showing students how to write about the little moments in their lives/within their families. Often students get stuck when they don't have anything "big" to write about. This text emphasizes that little moments can be turned into great stories too! This book also has a lot of descriptive language in it, which can be used as a teaching point for narrative writing.

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I would use this text in my classroom when introducing personal narrative because I really enjoyed the language used. I would use this as a model to teach my students how to write strong and impactful sentences. I am noticing that my students have a framework for sentence writing but definitely need to be pushed. I also enjoyed the repeating line used in the story that helps the reader see what is important in the story

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Mentor Text - A Series of Unfortunate Events

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Mentor Text - A Series of Unfortunate Events

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I think this is a great book for teaching suspense in realistic fiction. Even though the book blurs the line of realistic vs. unrealistic (it's not quite fantasy) it does a great job of developing character and keeping the reader engaged. In 4th grade, students are starting realistic fiction, but because my student seems to like writing fantasy, i thought this would be a good in between. This is also a great book for teaching vocabulary - especially word learning strategies!
- Nicole Azran

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Herbert The True Story of a Brave Sea Dog by Robyn Belton

This book talks about a dog named Herbert who was lost at sea in New Zealand.  This book talks about Tim, the owner's journey to reunite with his dog.  This mentor text is excellent for my student to write their personal narrative.  It is packed with character development and character feelings for the student to use as examples in their own writing.  There are also figurative language and dialogues used in this book.

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Herbert The True Story of a Brave Sea Dog ~Read With Me~ Story Time

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Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon! by Pat Cummings

This mentor text is great to help my student learn how to write a personal narrative text.  This book helps the student think about experiences using description and sequence of events.  It has dialogues and sensory details that allows students to use as an examplar when developing their writing.  After reading this book, the student could be asked to summarize what was read for reading comprehension.  Likewise, the student should be able to summarize what her writing was about.  This text also has a beginning, middle, and end; this allows the student to be able to develop his or her writing to also have a beginning, middle, and end.

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Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

It’s Rachel’s eleventh birthday but she doesn’t feel eleven. On this day she feels more like one. Her insensitive teacher wants to find the owner of a red sweater that’s been sitting in the coatroom for a very, very long time. No one in Rachel’s class wants to claim it. When Rachel is accused she doesn’t speak up for herself. The following writing skills are beautifully done in this short story:

Descriptive Language

Figurative Language

Inner Thinking

Repetition

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Brittain Altomare Mentor Text: The Mesmer Menace 

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Brittain Altomare Mentor Text: The Mesmer Menace 

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I will use this mentor text to teach writing Narratives.

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I chose The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli because it talks about a young girl trying to write a story. I think it captures a lot of thoughts students have when they are writing their own personal narrative. It is great mentor text to help students come up with a certain idea about what they want to write about. It also shows that it is important to write about what YOU want to write about and what you know a lot about. I am working with my tutee on writing multiple sentence. I think this will help her come up with an idea she wants to write about.

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One of my very favorite mentor texts is Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall. Cornwall does a great job giving readers the chance to be inside Jabari's head as he conquers the high diving board. I use this in my class every year during my personal narrative unit as an example of showing how you might feel during a moment without saying "I feel nervous" - show don't tell. Students are able to tell that Jabari is afraid to jump off the high diving board, even though he never says "I am afraid".

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Yard Sale by Eve Bunting

This text helps readers to learn how to incorporate descriptive language and showing not telling into their work. This text describes a family's downside into a smaller apartment and the yard sale that must take place in order to rid them of material things. Students can also hear this story and learn metaphors through this story, to be highlighted in this lesson. By the end of the story, the daughter learns that a home is not what you have, but who you have, perfectly demonstrated how to incorporate a moral of a story within a writing piece.

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Blackout by John Rocco

I chose this as one of my mentor texts because it utilizes a specific night in which a young boy's life/perspective is shifted in such intricate detail. This is the night of a blackout, which people may experience during a severe storm. This family's loss of power forces them to spend quality time together, playing board games and laughing under the stars. When the electricity turns on, the family does not necessarily want to return to "normal." This can help a child become inspired by a small moment that helped them changed their mind or point of view, sparking their own thinking during the writing process.

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Mentor text #1: Evelyn Del Ray is Moving Away

This text is about two best friends that live in the same apartment building. One of them moves away and they are sad to say goodbye to each other. The book ends with the girl looking at a box of letters and pictures of Evelyn, remembering the time they spent together. This text can be used to talk about what types of small moments make strong stories, zooming into the small moment of a larger idea, and storytelling details like feeling and dialogue. This text can also be used to teach strong endings.

Mentor text #2: The Proudest Blue

This text is about a girl whose sister wears a hijab to school for the first time. Others at school make fun of her sister, but she is in awe of her sister wearing her hijab. This text can be used to teach figurative language. This text can also be used to convey that stories can teach important messages and make the readers feel important feelings, so that the student can think about their own purpose as an author.

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New Shoes by Chris Raschka

Kids are always so excited to show off their new shoes. This story allows you to step into a child's pair of shoes as he shops for a new pair of shoes. This book shows how a personal narrative is one even and the details - in this case the processes of going to the shoe store, trying on new shoes, what fits and what doesn't, and the final pair picked.

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Stella Tells Her Story by Janiel Wagstaff

I picked this book because it’s about a girl who is writing her own personal narrative. I like this book because it shows the steps of the writing process. It is a book that can be read in parts to break up each part of the process and really show your student(s) what is done in each part of writing their own personal narrative.

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This text would be a model of how to write an informational writing piece. The student can see how to formulate chapters and how each chapter only includes facts pertaining to the main idea of that chapter. Students can also see the flow and how each chapter connects.

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This book will be used as a mentor text to highlight all the components in a nonfiction text. A child can understand how different text features aid a reader. Therefore, they will be able to translate that information into their writing.

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Mentor Text 2:
The Color of My Words
by Lynn Joseph

I plan to use this mentor text when my tutee is revising his narrative piece because this text has a lot of vivid imagery. For example,
"Saturday is wash day for Mami and me down by the river that flows to the sea. We carry the baskets high on our hips. We juggle the soap, the scrub board, and clips."
The story starts off with a poem written by the narrator where she describes in great detail how she and her mother do the laundry every Saturday. I plan to have my tutee read this excerpt of the story and ask him what is the narrator doing and to close his eyes and picture what is going on in his head. I will then ask my tutee if he was able to imagine what is exactly going on and if he is what word help him imagine what is being described. (Instead of just writing "We did the laundry." the narrator included explained how she and her mom went down to the river they carried baskets.) Using this excerpt of the book, I hope it will inspire my tutee to be more descriptive in his writing and many relative details to his writing piece.

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"My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother" by Patricia Polanco, is a great mentor text to turn to if your students are lacking inspiration. It is a realistic fiction story about a sister and her older brother. My tutee has 3 siblings and is a twin, I believe this read aloud will be perfect because she might be able to self-identify with some of the conflicts that arise in the story between sister and brother. I realized my tutee struggled with inspiration when we were braining storming topics on about her personal narrative. My tutee wanted to once again write about her summer vacation. With this story I am hoping that she will gain inspiration and come up with a new topic. As I read the book I will tell my tutee that reading can inspire our writing. I will also focus on the things the characters do in the story, this will encourage my tutee to add more characters when she begins to write her personal narrative.

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Mentor Text 1:
My Crazy Dog: My Narrative Essay
by Darcy Pattison

I chose this book as my first mentor text because it explains what a narrative story is and explains how the narrator is using the five senses to craft his story. It also shows the narrators completed story at the end of book, which I can present to my tutee and have him point out what he notices about the completed narrative essay. This text is ideal for introducing what a narrative essay/story is and I will use it when having my tutee write his first draft of his narrative piece.

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"Those Shoes" by Maribeth Boelts, is a great personal narrative about a boy who really wants something. I picked this story to help my tutee understand that authors write stories in sequence in order to make sense. My tutee struggles with writing in sequence as well as adding details to her writing. This week I have begun modeling how to plan for a personal narrative, with this story I will be able to demonstrate how the story moves through time. I will also be using metacognitive stems to prompt my tutee on how we should talk when we notice how the author writes the story in sequence. This mentor text will support my lesson as well as give my tutee an interactive example of what sequence writing should look like.

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Mentor Text 1:

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

The book Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt is about a girl and her grandmother working together in the garden during the change of seasons. The reason for picking this book is for the descriptive, sensory overload and juicy descriptions the author provides the reader to really emerge them in the story as if they were there in the garden too. The book shows students that to be descriptive does not mean you have to add extra words to describe what is happening but instead teaches the students to 'show not tell' by using their senses and action words. You see this skill various times throughout the book: “…honeybees, visit, legs loaded with pollen.”, “I’m jealous fo their cool, damp, dark.”, “bats swoop through the sunflowers..”, “They snuffle and dig, and gobble cutworms while I sleep”. These are all examples of descriptive language the author used without being too wordy and overwhelming the scene. I believe it is important for students to learn how to think outside the box when writing to make their pieces enticing to read and really emerge their audience in the scene that they are trying to portray.

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The second mentor text I've chosen to use in teaching my tutee personal narrative writing is Math Curse by Jon Scieszka. At a Level N for Guided Reading, this text perfectly matches with what I've determined to be my tutee's instructional reading level. Given her problems with math, I think that this book will help her to see math from a less anxious/serious and more silly/whimsical perspective. I would love to focus on the use of exaggerated, hyperbolic language to make light of a scary subject.

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Text #1: Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings by Francie Latour, pictures by Ken Daley

I am using this mentor text in tutoring as an introduction to a narrative story. Although my tutee is in fifth grade I like how accessible this text is for an introduction.

Teaching Point: Using your thoughts, in a narrative, to build up the story and give more details. Also personification (“singing bracelets”).
Excerpt:
“And when the moment comes, when I finally sit for my first portrait, I realize something. Wanting to be painted is one thing. Sitting still to be painted is another. I can feel my legs twitching. And then my arms. To keep my neck from tilting, I stop talking and my jaw lacks. For a while, the painting knife and my auntie’s singing bracelets are the only sounds in the rooms.”

Text #2: the short story “The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isiah Dunn” by Kelly J. Baptist

(from the collection of short stories called "Flying Lessons & Other Stories")
This is a higher level text, but I like that since it is a short story we can read and re-read/re-visit in one or two tutoring session(s).

Teaching Point: Including dialogue to make a story more dynamic.
Excerpt:
“You too good to have what we’re having?” Mama asks while I crunch on my flakes.

“No,” I say. “Just tired of always eating beans and rice.”

“Tired of the food we got?” Mama shakes her head, makes it seem like she’s not tired of eating the same thing, too. I don’t answer, but I feel my stomach start jumping around.

“Shoot, when you get a job and start buying the groceries, then you can decide what you’re tired of eating!” Mama says.

-Meredith Pozzi

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I've chosen this book with my Learning Lab tutee in mind. Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco tells a true story of the hardship and struggle an Irish family faces upon immigrating to Chicago and how a family tradition with a tender, loving history keeps the family together and gets them through it. My student's independent reading level was determined by teachers to be a Fountas & Pinnell Level O, although I've determined with my own running records that she is only instructional at a Level N. Given this conflicting information regarding my student's reading level, I have determined that Fiona's Lace is suited to heavily scaffolded Guided Reading since it is a Level P.

With a Teacher Read Aloud and structured opportunities for shared re-reading to inform her own personal narrative writing, my tutee would be able to use a story that will likely be personally & culturally relevant to her as a first-generation Irish American. I'd love to use this text to teach her how to imbue an otherwise unsentimental object (lace) or practice (making lace and creating a trail with it) with deep sentimental meaning and symbolism.

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BOOK #1

The Day You Begin By Jacqueline Woodson

This book details the first day of school from the point of view of a young girl, who worries that herself and her summer experience are lacking in comparison to her classmates. This book is rich in cultural and socioeconomic diversity, with characters that vary in experience and appearance. This story is relatable to a wide audience, as most students can relate to the fears of starting new at the beginning of a school year, but also provides more intimate connections for students who feel isolated based on who they are as individuals.

I would use this text to encourage students to use and expand their descriptive language. Woodson does an incredible job at using simile and metaphor. For example, the author Woodson writes “your name and homeland sound like flowers blooming the first bright notes of a song.” The book is also an example of how to take something ordinary, like spending time in your hometown during the summer, and turning it into descriptive and exciting writing.

BOOK #2

A Bike Like Sergio’s By Maribeth Boelts

This book describes the highs and lows of doing the “right” thing. The main character, Reuben, finds money dropped by a woman at the grocery store. What he believes to be an insignificant $1 bill, turns out to be $100. This amount of money allows him to afford the bike that he desperately wants, which other kids his age own. The book is culturally relevant to Hispanic or Latino students, those of varying socioeconomic status, any students who have struggled to fit in, and even any person who has grappled with moral dilemmas.

The book spans two days and can be used as an example of taking a few small moments and turning them into a full story that details internal feelings, uses sensory description, and highlights a strong theme. Something as ordinary as finding money or an item on the street, or wanting a material item can be stretched out to create a well-rounded and captivating story.

I am currently highlighting this text with my Learning Lab tutee, to showcase how an every day event can turn into full written stories. We have been working on brainstorming through Heart Maps and we made a mock Heart Map for the author of A Bike Like Sergio’s, in order to create an association between planning, writing, and a final product.

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Emina Deljanin- Personal Narrative Mentor Text-#2

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Emina Deljanin- Personal Narrative Mentor Text-#2

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Roller Coaster captures the experience leading up to, during and after riding a roller coaster. It uses imagery and figurative language to depict the experience. This text focuses on small moments, it is a great mentor text for students who want to focus on depicting a small moment within their story.
The story also used the illustrations along with the text to further the story. This is a great example for those students that enjoy drawing and illustrations.

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The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (LVL L)

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Emina Deljanin- Personal Narrative Mentor Text #1

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Emina Deljanin- Personal Narrative Mentor Text #1

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The Relatives Came is a book I used with my Learning Lab student when I was discussing organization. There is also a clear main idea and small supporting details that students can identify. The story is told in first person point of view which is the perspective my student is writing in. I think it also clearly shows a story line (beginning, middle and end) which makes students who are having trouble organizing their thoughts. The story also includes vivid and clear settings and emotions for their characters.

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Text #1 Island Born by Junot Díaz

I selected this book that targets my learner about culture. This is a great book for all learners especially ELL learners to help with personal narratives. I can use this text to teach story structure and brainstorming just like the character in the book had to do.

Text #2 The keeping quilt Patricia Polacco

I would use this book to The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polaco to teach personal narrative in addition to the first book. It is a book that students can make connections to. This book shows about culture which is something that students can write about. This can help students write about holiday/cultural celebrations that they do with the family. Also learn about other cultures during class discussions.

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Denise Saavedra - Personal Narrative Text 

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Denise Saavedra - Personal Narrative Text 

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La Frontera: El Viaje Con Papa / My Journey with Papa is one of the options for my memoir unit because it focuses on the story of a father and child crossing the border to find a new home in Texas. I would use this book as a teaching point that shows family struggles can be written about beautifully. My hope in teaching this book is to encourage students to use writing as an outlet even if they don't want to get personal with their own memoir they can still journal more personal experiences. The second book I would use is El Deafo. El Deafo focuses on a young girl getting sick and eventually losing her hearing. The book is a graphic novel and focuses reclaiming your disability and making it your own.

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Thank you, Mr. Falker - By: Patricia Polacco (Level M)

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Karla Ortiz - Personal Narrative Mentor Text #2

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Karla Ortiz - Personal Narrative Mentor Text #2

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Personal Narrative Writing:

Another one of my favorite texts from Patricia Polacco is Thank you, Mr. Falker. For those who haven’t read this book, it tells teh story of Patricia Polacco struggling with reading and how she was diagnosed with dyslexia.

For our Personal Narrative Writing Piece Unit, all of our mentor texts for reading is usually a author study of Patricia Polacco. Patricia Polacco has a large selection of narrative writing with vivid imagery and experiences that students can relate to (esp. as an a Russian immigrant herself).

This personal narrative is told in First Person Point of View as these are the real life experiences of Patricia Polacco. This book also places emphasis on character feelings/actions and how they move the plot. The story also includes another narrative elements such as importance of setting, character study, plot, and solution. Most importantly this story has a strong theme of self acceptance and support of loved ones. Therefore, students can display a theme in their own personal narratives and what lesson they learned from their own experiences.

Book Summary (As stated in the text):

In this autobiographical story, Little Trisha, overjoyed at the thought of learning how to read struggles when she finds that all the letters and numbers get jumbled up. Her classmates make matters worse by calling her "dummy." Finally, in fifth grade, she is lucky enough to have a teacher who recognizes Trisha's incredible artistic ability, understands her problem, and takes the time to lead her to the magic of reading.

Although dyslexia is never mentioned in the book, this story will provide great reassurance to children who struggle to overcome learning disabilities.

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Thunder Cake - By: Patricia Polacco (Level M)

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Karla Ortiz - Personal Narrative Mentor Text #1

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Karla Ortiz - Personal Narrative Mentor Text #1

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Personal Narrative Writing:

Thundercake is one of my favorite texts from Patricia Polacco. I have used this text during my personal narrative unit to display STORY Elements in a Personal Narrative, the importance of setting, and problem/solution.

Thundercake is an excellent text for modeling Personal Narrative Writing. This book would be great for the prompt "tell a time in which you overcame a fear" since the main character tells about a time when she overcame her fear of thunder. This book uses detailed descriptions and visualizations that can be used for personal narrative writing. The author also uses figurative language (ONOMATOPOEIA) to visualize the setting and scene. An example of this is when the author states, " “A loud clap of thunder shook the house, rattled the windows and made me grab her close...It was dark and I was scared.” Lastly, the text uses lots of dialogue to bring the story to life.

Text Summary (as stated in the book):

A loud clap of thunder booms, and rattles the windows of Grandma’s old farmhouse. “This is Thunder Cake baking weather,” calls Grandma, as she and her granddaughter hurry to gather the ingredients around the farm. A real Thunder Cake must reach the oven before the storm arrives. But the list of ingredients is long and not easy to find . . . and the storm is coming closer all the time!

Reaching once again into her rich childhood experience, Patricia Polacco tells the memorable story of how her grandma–her Babushka–helped her overcome her fear of thunder when she was a little girl. Ms. Polacco’s vivid memories of her grandmother’s endearing answer to a child’s fear, accompanied by her bright folk-art illustrations, turn a frightening thunderstorm into an adventure and ultimately . . . a celebration!

Whether the first clap of thunder finds you buried under the bedcovers or happily anticipating the coming storm, Thunder Cake is a story that will bring new meaning and possibility to the excitement of a thunderstorm.

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I chose two fiction books to teach how to write a solid personal narrative to my 5th grader, whose reading level is level R.

Teaching point: I would use these two books to teach students how to write a story with a corresponding sequence of events to organize the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

The first book is named "The Best Worst Thanksgiving," The second one is "Lucia's New School" Both of them describe the topics with small moments and specific orders of events and insert the details of dialogues and characters' actions. The book "The Best Worst Thanksgiving" tells about the beginning of the story that the family plans to travel to their grandparents' house for Thanksgiving, then describe the problems they encounter during the trip, and extend to the story's ending. The book "Lucia's New School" tells about how Lucia experienced the new school from feeling sad of being does not speak English and begins making friends in the new school life. These two books show a clear idea about organizing the order of events with the beginning, middle and ending of stories.

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I would use "Picture Day" by Jill Sherman and "I'm the small one" by George Anthony Kuiz as my mentor texts for my tutee to write his personal narrative. I want to focus especially on Organization. Both mentor texts are successful and compelling examples of the Sequence of Events. Before writing, I would like to read the books with my tutee and analyze these books. I will provide the worksheets to respond to as he gets to know about the mentor texts.

After reading, I will ask him to answer the following questions:
1. What do you like or dislike about this text?
2. How does the text begin?
3. What kind of information or description is in the middle of the text?
4. How does the text end?
5. How does the organization of this text contribute to its impact on you as a reader?

Before my tutee shares his answers, I will model several examples using these mentor texts' read-aloud. Once my tutee is able to understand the questions and read and reflect on mentor texts on his own, I can see his readiness to follow the organizational strategies he finds most compelling in mentor texts.

"Picture Day" - School picture day is coming, and Poppy can’t wait! She has picked out the perfect dress, shoes, and necklace. When a series of unforeseen events occur, however, Poppy’s excitement turns to nervousness. It is a delightful story about the beauty found in our differences and what makes each one of us special. My tutee can make a personal connection with his picture day experience in school.

"I'm the small one" - is the story of Sophie, a second-grader who feels frustrated because she is so small. After hating her size and failing in her attempts to grow faster, she finally learns that being small has its good points. The reason why I chose this book is that my tutee told me he is the smallest in his class. So, I picked this book to tell him, everyone has different strengths, no matter you are fat or thin, tall or short, and so on.

Both texts are giving the message of "self-acceptance" and "unique" to students.

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At War Width Homophones by John Ficarra

I stumbled upon this poem serendipitously in a recent issue of one of my favorite comic books, Edgar Allen Poe’s Snifter of Death. In the poem, the author decries the presence of homophones in the English language while making multiple homophone errors in every line! I think this would be a clever and engaging tool to teach about homophone errors in writing, which I am focusing on with my tutee as part of a broader goal to build editing skills and self regulation habits. An excerpt: “Weather ewe are knew to English or have been speaking it your hole life, anyone can sea mastering homophones is a pane and a grate waist of thyme”

Math Curse by John Scieszka and Lane Smith

This is one of my favorite contemporary kids books, a layered text with elements that could appeal to a variety of grade levels. For work with my tutee, I would like to focus on the creative use of text elements of this story, particularly how the authors used creative plays on words. The main character’s misunderstandings of the world around them would be a great way to encourage my tutee to think carefully about their clarity and word choice when writing or editing. I think it could also be fun to attempt some of the math problems in the text, which get rather complex and convoluted as the text goes on-- this would be an engaging way to cross disciplines in our tutoring. Excerpt: “English is a word problem. If mail + box = mailbox, does lipstick - stick = lip? Does tunafish + tunafish = fournafish?”

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The second mentor text I chose is City Moon. In this story the boy and his mother go on a walk at night looking for the city moon. It describes the setting in great detail as well as the specific moment. I am working on setting with my student, and being that she lives in the city I think this is the perfect thing to use with her. She needs work on making her setting more descriptive and this will be a great example of how to do that.

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I would use "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen and "Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall for mentor texts when teaching personal narratives. Both stories take a small moment and expand upon it in detail to create a perfect picture of what is happening. The two stories have a clear beginning, middle, and end, thus allowing me to teach story structure. "Owl Moon" discusses a father and daughter going owling together, using very descriptive and vivid language to describe the scene. "Jabari Jumps" tells the story of a boy who finds fear in jumping off the diving board into the pool. Though this is only one small moment in time, this story shows how one moment can be used to write an entire book. Therefore, this text would be effective in showing students that a good story need not have many events, but giving all of the details to paint an image of one small moment can make for a very interesting piece of writing. I just introduced the concept of small moment writing with my HCLL student so I think both of these texts would be especially helpful!

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One of the mentor texts that I would use for my student is "Max Goes to the Playground". This story is very simple language and Max is explaining why he likes the playground. The people, the things, the place etc. I am working with my student on getting more details about one thing, currently her favorite place, so I think this is something that would be great to look at. Additionally, she doesn't have a wide variety of sentences structures that she uses, so the simple sentences in this story can help her.

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I would use "The Relatives Came" and "The Old Man and the Penguin" as my mentor texts for a personal narrative writing unit. I chose these texts specifically for my tutee. I want to focus especially on editing, and we will be using the SCOPE strategy for that. "The Relatives Came" focuses on relatives staying over. My tutee had mentioned to me that she and her family would have a road trip down to her grandparents in Florida. While this book focuses on a family in Virginia, I believe that my tutee would be able to relate to the same feelings and experiences. This book is a perfect text to signify a small moment and summer experience. The vivid imagery and descriptions correlates to the bright illustrations that will definitely grab my tutee's attention. They can also relate to a similar experience and see a concrete beginning, middle, and end.

The second mentor text that I would like to use is "The Old Man and the Penguin". My tutee is half Brazilian, so I really wanted to find a text that represented part of her heritage. I was also gravitated to this piece because it is written with some rhymes. Although my tutee is not expected to write using rhymes, I do think that this is a teachable moment. The rhyming is not extremely noticeable, but it is an added nice touch. Therefore, we should also be mindful of the words we choose to include in our writing. I also like how this text has meaningful, and "short and sweet" sentences. I plan to use this text to assist me during the "E" section of SCOPE that focuses on sentence structure.

I am looking forward to using these texts to assist my student in their writing journey.

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I am teaching a third-grade student how to write a personal narrative. I decided to create a lesson plan on pre-writing using the STORE (Setting, Trouble, Order of Events, Resolution, Ending) Strategy for planning. Thus, the two texts I chose are The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Jamaica’s Finds by Juanita Havill.

I chose The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant because this would be a great mentor text to help with the planning process, especially setting, order of events, and ending. This mentor text tells a story about a large extended family getting together during the summer and how they spend their days. As students are planning their personal narrative, they will get an understanding of where the story took place (setting), how a story is told over time (order of events), and how the characters feel at the end of the story (ending). This book exemplifies what a small moment looks like, which is helpful for students when developing a personal narrative of their own.

I also chose Jamaica’s Finds by Juanita Havill because this would be a great mentor text to help with the trouble and resolution part of the planning strategy. This mentor text tells a story about a girl named Jamaica who found a dog plush at the park and was conflicted about whether returning the plush to the lost and found is the right thing to do. As Jamaica decides to return the plush, the girl who lost the plush reunites with it with Jamaica’s help. As students are planning their personal narrative, they will get an understanding of a problem that takes place in the story (trouble), and how it gets resolved (resolution). Overall, these books would be perfect mentor texts to read when teaching the pre-writing phase of writing a personal narrative.

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Jasmine Seda: Mentor text 2-  Personal Narratives 

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Jasmine Seda: Mentor text 2-  Personal Narratives 

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I am teaching my tutee how to write a personal narrative. In her first personal narrative writing her ideas were slightly choppy. I wanted her to be more fluent, so by using mentor texts I can demonstrate how a story is supposed to flow together instead of saying.... I went to the park. I saw my friend etc.

"New Shoes" will help me do this by showing the moment of the child choosing his new shoes. It zooms into a specific moment and includes a lot of details, which my tutee also needs help including.

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Since it is Thanksgiving soon, I am teaching my tutee how to write a paragraph about a person she is grateful for. For this unit, we will be using two models of previously written paragraphs instead of two mentor texts. In order to introduce the topic though I will be reading Thankful by Eileen Spinelli.  (P.S. I wanted to post both the other model and the cover of the book but apparently Padlet only let's you attach one item..)

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I chose two short essays to use as I teach narrative writing to a 6th grade student. The first is "Fish Cheeks" by Amy Tan. I would use it to show how descriptive language places the reader in the story, allowing them to see what is happening rather than read an account of the dinner. It takes a small moment and shows how that small moment affects the author and teaches her deeper life lessons about herself and her family.

The second essay I chose is "Mississippi Mud" by Jessica Piper. Piper also uses descriptive text to convey the feelings she experienced one childhood summer. Like the first essay, the author shows rather than tells how she felt. I would also use her essay to compare focus in an essay. The first author focused on one evening, and this author chose one summer, but focused on just one aspect of that summer. Both mentor texts show how authors can use personal narratives to reflect upon how their experiences affected them.

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Mentor Text # 2 - Fireflies by Julie Brinkloe

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Mentor Text # 2 - Fireflies by Julie Brinkloe

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"I held the jar dark and empty in my hands. The moonlight and the fireflies swam in my tears, but I could feel myself smiling."

To teach how to start a story with strong lead and end with strong ending.
I would also use the book to teach how authors use descriptive word and/or sentences so that readers can visualize the story.

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I chose the books "Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen and "Island Born" by Juniot Diaz as my mentor texts to teach personal narratives. Both stories incorporate text features I can use as teaching point such as: story elements, story structure, descriptive language and more. I think both stories are great because one focuses on identity and the other focuses on small moments, showing my student that when it comes to writing a personal narrative, either direction will do.

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The two texts I have chosen to use to teach Personal Narrative are by Sandra Cisneros. One is from the book 'Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories' and the other is called 'Eleven'. They are short stories but I think they do a good job of showing a moment in time and using figurative language to zoom in on that very moment. I also think the short story Eleven is very relatable as my student is a sixth grader, and all sixth graders can feel how that person is feeling in that very moment. Even though these are short stories, there is still a story structure which is also important to show to my students. There is so much imagery shown in these stories and this is what I want to highlight as well to my students.

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I would use this text The Butter Battle by Dr.Seuss to teach 5th-6th grade. This text is about these two characters called Yooks and Zooks. They both have a love for buttered bread but enjoy it differently. Zook likes to spread butter on the bottom and Yooks likes to spread butter on top.  Overall the story teaches students how to respect what others like and should be respected.  The text also has rhyming words.
Excerpt:
"I marched to the Wall with great vim and great vigor, right up to VanItch with my hand on the trigger.
I'll have no more nonsense, I said with a frown, "from zooks who eat bread with the butter side down!"
VanItch looked quite sickly
He ran off quite quickly.
I'm unhappy to say he came back the next day in a spiffy new suit with a big new machine, and he snarled as he said, looking frightfully mean,"
Teaching point: This text can be used to teach students to respect what others like and also can be used to teach students to include rhyming words in their writing.

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The two mentor texts that I plan to use are “Earrings” by Judith Viorst and “I Wanna New Room” by Karen Kaufman Orloff. Both of these mentor texts focus on persuasive arguments. Using these books, I would ask the students to compare the arguments in them and think about who is more likely to get what they are asking for. The students will use this discussion to think about how strong their arguments are when writing their own.

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I would use “When Lola Visits” as a mentor text to teach personal narrative to third or fourth graders. The narrator in “When Lola Visits” uses sensory details to describe how she knows summer has come. The sensory details extend from personal moments that the narrator associates with summer, such as “. . . mango jam simmering on the stove - the first thing my lola makes after she flies in for her summer stay” and “It smells like chlorine from a million swimming lessons at the pool, like blue silence when I’m finally able to float by myself”. I would use this as an example to teach students how they can use senses to amplify a story and hone in on small details. Additionally, using senses can make the story more personal because the writer is describing their unique depiction of a scenario, event or occasion. I would help students think of a reoccurring season, holiday or special occasion where certain/specific foods, scents or decorations are prominent.

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I would also use “Jabari Jumps” as a mentor text for third or fourth grade to teach personal narrative. “Jabari Jumps” is the story of Jabari who is determined to jump off the high dive at the pool, but finds himself hesitating once he approaches it. With encouragement from his father, Jabari is able to overcome his fear, jumps off the high dive and ends up loving the thrill of it. I would use this book to show students how one moment can be used to tell an entire story and that writers don’t necessarily need a lot of events or details to tell a good story. I would encourage students to think of a significant moment from their lives that they can write about and suggest using elements, such as senses or dialogue, to lengthen the moment into a story.

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Queenie Cheng- Mentor Text 1 (CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER BULLY)

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Queenie Cheng- Mentor Text 1 (CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER BULLY)

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Confessions of A Former Bully by Beth Adams is a great mentor text when teaching narrative writing for students between 5th and 6th grade. This book is good for not only narrative writing but can also be used during respect for all to teach students about respect. One of the characters in the story called Katie got caught teasing other students in the class and had to meet with the guidance counselor later on in order to make better choices. This text is good for teaching narrative writing because there is a lot of dialogue, descriptive words, and the text is written in the first person. This text is good to start off with how to write personal narratives and whats needs to be included.

Excerpt:
The next day, when I was playing with Sarah, Katie grabbed my arm and pulled me away.
"Katie, stop it", I said. "I was talking to Sarah."
"f you play with her", she whispered into my ear, "I won't come over to your house tomorrow."
Then she let go of my arm and skipped away as if nothing happened. But something did happen. And it didn't feel right to me.
I wasn't sure what to do. I really wanted to get together with Katie. But I wanted to play with Sarah too. So I ignored what Katie said, thinking maybe she was having a bad day.

Teaching Point: I would use this text to teach writers writing in the first person and how to add dialogue/ descriptive words while drafting. It can also be used as a read-aloud during respect for all week and ask students if this behavior is appropriate and what would they do if they were the narrator?

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I would use “Enemy Pie” and “Peter’s Chair” as my mentor text because they both show  the different parts that makes up a story. I would focus on how clear the story is written out, in which they will be able to see the rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. These mentor text serve well when writing out a story mountain because it makes it easier for the students to point them out. By doing so, students will keep in mind that when they draft out their stories, they should include detail scenes and write clear thoughts so the reader can understand the flow of their story.

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Patricia Polacco is my favorite author and this book would maker a perfect mentor text. This book shares some experiences, feelings, emotions, and struggles as Trisha has a hard time learning in school. This would make a great mentor text for students because students can write about an instance where they felt like Trisha or write about a teacher that helped them in succeeding. All of Patricia Polacco's books teach great lessons and are perfect to be used as mentor texts to teach writing.

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The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant would be a great mentor text to teach to first and second graders. This text would be great to teach to this level of students because students would be able to make personal connections and remember a time when their relatives came over and share that experience. The vivid illustrations, expressions on the children's faces, and the hustle and bustle of the story make the story come alive. I enjoy reading this book so much and I know that when students read this book they will love it as well. This would be a perfect text to read when beginning the personal narrative unit for writing. The writing process can be taught step by step using this book as a model.

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I would use "Owl Moon" as one of my mentor texts to teach Personal Narrative because it focuses on one small moment. The story centers around a father and daughter going owling together. I would highlight that any small moment could be turned into a narrative. The text features that I would focus on are descriptive language and story structure, with a beginning, middle and end.

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I would use "The Name Jar" as one of my mentor texts to teach Personal Narrative because it has an important message. The main character, Unhei, learns to embrace her identity and be proud of her name. The text includes aspects of personal narrative, such as dialogue and theme, that I could focus on and teach to my student.

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"I am enough" by Grace Byers is a level J story about how others should embrace one another differences. The story is written in a poetic style that provides positive affirmations while showing each person’s uniqueness to indicate they will always be enough no matter their skin color, race, religion, disability, and interests. At the end, she states "Everyone is special!"

Teaching point: I will use this book to show my students that everyone is different, but we are all united as one. We should embrace and respect one another. Using the story "I am enough", I would have my students write a story using personal connections.

Excerpt: “I’m not meant to be like you; you’re not meant to be like me. Sometimes we will get along, and sometimes we will disagree.”

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Burn it Down Women Writing About Anger --Edited by Lilly Dancyger

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This book is composed of 22 essays written by women about their experience with anger and rage and how it has shaped their lives. I picked it up at a book store this summer and absolutely fell in love with it! I am not someone who reads leisurely because I don't have the attention span or the time, and as a writer, I am not very elaborate with my words so I enjoyed reading these essays about an emotion that we all feel but is perceived as negative when expressed by women.

Excerpt: "I want to light the trees on fire with my eyes. I begged for powerful, to have some magic in me. I wanted to lift a house with my fury. I wanted a heart full of vengeance, but what I got was a handful of tears."

Teaching point: I would use one or two of the essays to teach mood. Even though each author writes about their anger from a different perspective, the essays are constructed in a manner that evokes an emotional response as you read. The authors are vulnerable with their stories and their word choice makes this a great mentor text as students begin to write their own narratives or memoirs.

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Excerpt: “It's at six that grown folks don't think you're a cute little kid anymore, they talk to you and expect that you understand everything they mean. And you'd best understand too, if you aren't looking for some real trouble, 'cause it's around six that grown folks stop giving you little swats and taps and jump clean up to giving you slugs that'll knock you right down and have you seeing stars in the middle of the day. The first foster home I was in taught me that real quick.”

Example: I would use this text to help students discover the use of sensory details and how it can enhance a story. Students will be able to grasp how the description can influence the way readers visualize what is happening in a story and tell you about the character(s) or their environment. It can also be used to explore various themes like family, race, survival, etc.

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Something that students commonly struggle with is trying to pick a topic, problem, situation, etc. to write about. Ralph can't think of anything to write. His teacher tells him that stories are everywhere. Ralph sees that all of his classmates have no problems writing stories. His confidence is low and he is not sure he has the ability that his classmates do.

TP: Students will be able to come up with strategies to help them think of topics to use in their writing. Students will also come up with a who, what, where, when, why and how for their story.

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Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is a book by Chinese and Taiwanese American author Joanna Ho. The story is about an Asian-American girl who talks about how she notices people in her school have eyes that are all different from each other and then tells the story of her eyes through her family members. The book is all about how she loves her eyes that look like her mother's eyes, her sister's eyes, and her grandmother's eyes. I really like this book because it can be used with students to discuss identity and being proud of who you are.

Teaching point: I would use this book to show students examples of repetition in narrative writing. I would also use this text to show students examples of metaphors and similes in narrative writing.

Excerpt: "I have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea. My eyes are just like mama's. Mama's eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea crinkle into crescent moons when she gets home from work. She scoops me in her arms, eyes sparkling like starlight, and tickles me until we laugh ourselves onto the floor."

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I love this story because it teaches children the true definition of homelessness. I find that there are many misconceptions about what it means to be homeless, and it is important for children, especially children in NYC, to understand the real meaning. Although it is sad story about a young boy and his father who are homeless, we get an accurate depiction of what life is like for them.

Besides using this story to teach the meaning of homelessness, it could also be used as a mentor text for writing personal narratives. This text could be used to show the importance of dialogue and descriptions in narratives. In this story, the dialogue and descriptions help us as readers understand the story more clearly. I would also use this story to teach that not every narrative has to be a positive story. Students might want to write about something that they struggled with or currently struggle with. This might be a way for students to express themselves and share what is going on outside of the school environment.

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This is one of my favorite texts of all time. It is an excellent culturally responsive to talk about culture and identity. As a Dominican-American, I greatly connected to this book. I wasn't born in the Dominican Republic and only visited a few times, so I always felt disconnected from my Dominican identity. This book helped me connect with my own identity and I hope it helped my students connect with theirs.

Description:
The main character of the text is a Dominican girl named Lola who was born in the Dominican Republic and came to America as an infant. In school, Lola's teacher asks the class to draw a picture where their parents came from and this worries Lola. She doesn't remember Dominican Republic (the Island). To recreate this memory and complete the assignment, Lola gathers memories about the Island through the stories of her family and people in her community. This helps her connect to her Dominican Heritage and identity. As her grandmother states in the story, "Just because you don't remember a place, doesn't mean it's not in you."

Literacy Skills:
- STORY Elements (Setting, Talking Characters, Conflict, Resolution/Solution)
- Character Traits/Feelings/Motivation/Change
- Point of View
- Theme/Central Idea
- Author's Purpose

Student Centered Learning Activities:
- Book Clubs
- Literature Circles
- Socratic Seminar
- Cultural Stories: What is your cultural story? Students will tell their own cultural story (such as where their family is from, values and traditions of their culture). Students may have written stories, oral story telling, or use of technology apps

- Central Idea: Determining the Central Idea using text evidence - students will work together in groups to determine the central idea of the text and provide 2-3 text evidence.

Writing Lesson:
- Personal Narrative: I would use this book to model a Personal Narrative, as Lola writes a personal narrative in this book and talks about how she solvesa a problem. A great prompt would be to discuss students' cultural identity.

STORY Elements: Students will include the STORY elements in their personal narrative (Setting, Talking Characters, Conflict, Resolution/Solution)

Sequencing (Beginning, Middle, End)

Use of sequencing and Transition Words

Descriptive Language

Dialogue

Examples in the Text:

1.  Story elements (Conflict): "Everyone was talking about their drawings...everyone but Lola. Ola, you see, loved to draw, but she had left the island when she was just a baby so she didn't remember any of it."

2. Descriptive Language: "Colorful cars, colorful houses, flowers everywhere. Even the people are like a rainbow- every shade ever made."

Karla Ortiz
SPED 724,02

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The book I chose for a possible mentor text is Bird by Zetta Elliot. While this books is a 3rd grade level, the interest level is from grades 3-8 as this book deals with more mature topics. In this book a young boy named Mehkai, also know as Bird, talks about how drawing allows him to create things just how he wants them to be, because in life this isn't always true. While he idolizes his older brother, Marcus, who is also an artist, but who struggles with drug addiction, Mehkai wishes he can fix his brother.

I would use this book as a teaching point for writing specifically, to show students how the author uses Mehkai's perspective to talk about the members of his family and the struggles they have. It also is a good example for students to discuss something they love. The author does a beautiful job of describing how important art is to Mehkai through the use of metaphor, allowing readers to maker connections about why art is so important to Mehkai.

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A Bike Like Sergio’s by Maribeth Boelts

Teaching point: This book is to help teach kids how to present an emotional conflict in a story. Ruben saw money fall out of a lady’s purse at the store and kept it, realizing it was enough to buy a bike like Sergio’s. When he thought he had lost the $100 bill he was so upset that he wouldn’t be able to buy his bike. When he runs into the lady again, he felt guilty - he chased her.

“And like a hot blast, I remember how it felt for me when that money that was hers — then mine — was gone. I leave the juice behind. And this time. I follow her. She walks down one street, then another and passed the bike shop. My mouth is dry. “Excuse me” I say. She turns. And we are face to face. I breathe fast, and the words burst loose like they’ve been waiting. The lady says yes, she lost a hundred dollars and has been looking since. She tips her head, “Why?” I uncurl my fist. “I found it,” I say, holding it out to her stilled folded. Her face changes from surprised… to joyful… to soft. She take my hand in both of hers like a sandwich and asks my name. “Thank you, Ruben,” she says. “You have blessed me.” I am happy and mixed up, full and empty, with what’s right and what’s wrong.

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The Day You Begin tells about overcoming fears and being true to yourself. Children from different backgrounds describe how they feel different. From spending the summer babysitting a sister, to new schools, to different lunches, this book shows that our differences connect us and make us better.

Teaching point: I would use this book to help students reflect on who they are and how they can express themselves without the expectations of others.

-Fimo

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The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Kelly DiPucchio

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The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania Al Abdullah and Kelly DiPucchio

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The Sandwich Swap is a level L book that highlights the differences in cultures between two friends through food.  The story shows how two best friends find each others lunch food weird. This causes a rift between the two friends. The food disagreements led to a food fight which made the two friends recognize their wrongdoings. After trying each others sandwiches they both realized how delicious their foods were. The two friends then proposed and held a school-wide cultural lunch where all students brought in different foods to share.

Teaching Point: This book is a wonderful book to read especially in a diverse school system like in New York City. It celebrates diversity and differences while recognizing that differences can be found in the littlest of things even with the best of friends. It is a book that could be relatable for all students especially those in grades 1-2. The story line is also easy to follow and the illustrations are beautiful and enjoyable.

Emina Deljanin

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Monika Mulart: Thank you, Mr. Falker - Patricia Polacco

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Monika Mulart: Thank you, Mr. Falker - Patricia Polacco

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This is an autobiography by Patricia Polacco. She found it hard to read; the words and numbers get all mixed up for her. Her classmates made fun of her for not knowing how to read well. When she got to 5th grade, she has Mr. Falker as a teacher who used her strengths to help her become a better reader. I love this book because it makes students feel better about any subject areas they may struggle in. It also hints at students with learning disabilities being able to learn the same things as other students can, without saying Polacco had dyslexia. This book also reassures students that there will always be someone in your life who believes in you.

My teaching point would be show students how personal narratives recount a specific event, or short series of events AND how they use details and dialogue to describe actions, feelings, and feelings. (Show not tell)

"But it was not long after that night that her grandma must have let go of the grass, because she went to where the lights were, on the other side."

"She threw the sponge down and tried to run."

"She didn't notice that Mr. Falker and Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes."

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TEACHING POINT: I like how this passage expands on such a small moment (a teacher encouraging a student to write about themselves) and provides a great example of how to use both dialogue and the narrator's inner monologue to create the setting and introduce the characters.

From Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt.

It’s always there. Like the ground underneath my feet.

“Well, Ally? Are you going to write or aren’t you?” Mrs. Hall asks.

If my teacher were mean it would be easier.

“C’mon,” she says. “I know you can do it.”

“What if I told you that I was going to climb a tree using only my teeth? Would you say I could do it then?”

Oliver laughs, throwing himself on his desk like it’s a fumbled football.

Shay groans. “Ally, why can’t you just act normal for once?”

Near her, Albert, a bulky kid who’s worn the same thing every day—a dark T-shirt that reads Flint—sits up straight. Like he’s waiting for a firecracker to go off.

Mrs. Hall sighs. “C’mon, now. I’m only asking for one page describing yourself.”

I can’t think of anything worse than having to describe myself. I’d rather write about something more positive. Like throwing up at your own birthday party.

“It’s important,” she says. “It’s so your new teacher can get to know you.”

I know that, and it’s exactly why I don’t want to do it. Teachers are like the machines that take quarters for bouncy balls. You know what you’re going to get. Yet, you don’t know, too.

“And,” she says. “All that doodling of yours, Ally. If you weren’t drawing all the time, your work might be done. Please put it away.”

Embarrassed, I slide my drawings underneath my blank writing assignment. I’ve been drawing pictures of myself being shot out of a cannon. It would be easier than school. Less painful.

“C’mon,” she says, moving my lined paper toward me. “Just do your best.”

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Jamie is Jamie by Afsaneh Moradian - Penelope Marte  

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Jamie is Jamie by Afsaneh Moradian - Penelope Marte  

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This book is about Jamie who does not identify as a boy or girl, simply Jamie. This book teaches young children about gender equality and how your gender should not determine what toys you play with. Jamie arrives at preschool and plays with everyone and every toy, the children at first are confused because Jamie plays very well with dolls and action figures. Some of the kids are certain Jamie is a boy and some are certain Jamie is a girl. The next day everyone is playing with all the toys regardless of what "gender" the toy corresponds too. This is a great book to use as a read aloud if you have students who are gender neutral in your classroom or to simply raise awareness, in my class I have a boy who identifies as a boy but enjoys wearing dresses. Teaching Point: I will use this book to discuss with my student's that they are free to play or be who they want they to be. This will encourage my students to write freely when writing a small moment of their life that perhaps consisted with them having a tea party with their baby sister. It also provides a safe place for that one student in my class to write about how much he has wearing dresses.

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This is a story I am currently reading with my class. My school is about 97% Chinese. Many of my students can relate to the main character Pacy (Grace/Her American Name). Their faces light up everytime I need to read a chapter for our next reading lesson and it has made teaching reading so much fun.

It is about a girl named Pacy who had celebrated the year of the dog which symbolizes friends, family, and "finding yourself". Pacy has a difficult time finding out who she truly is and this story follows her along throughout the year on her year of discovery.

Each chapter has a part where the students can relate to, and it makes them laugh which is also a plus.

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I chose the story Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It is the story of a 26 year old woman who feels that her life is falling apart due to major unexpected life changed and she decides there is nothing left to do but to hike the Pacific Coast Trail, a hike that takes months to complete. She has no hiking experience, only saw a guide to this hike at a shop one day and it caught her attention. This book later becomes her holy grail to the hike, which she finds out she does not even need. Cheryl uses this hike to find herself in a world in which she now feels lost. Readers follow her on her path to self discovery with vivid detail and insight to her deepest thoughts and feelings.

Teaching points: I would use this story to have students reflect on major life events that have affected their perspective and life view. The story demonstrates character development, inner conflict, plot, and dialogue.

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Same Same But Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw -Jessica Perez

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Same Same But Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw -Jessica Perez

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This book is about Elliot who lives in America, and Kailash lives in India. Elliot and Kailash are pen pals. By exchanging letters and pictures, they learn that they both love to climb trees, have pets, and go to school. Although their worlds might look different, they are actually very similar. I chose this book because it offers different views on how two boys that live in different countries share the same activities. Being that classrooms are diverse this will allow students to relate  to others in their classroom. What I love most about this book is that students are able to make connections to every part of the story because they can relate to Elliot and Kailash in what they do in their everyday lives.

Teaching Point: I would use this book to discuss with students about being socially diverse and  respectful to each other’s backgrounds. Students will write about their personal connections to the story. Using a graphic organizer students will write about their culture traditions, foods, clothing, holidays, music, art, languages etc. Students will be able to pick a small moment within their culture, so they can write to a classmate to share more about their background.

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Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee - Jasmine Seda

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Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee - Jasmine Seda

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Roller Coaster is a book about a line of people waiting to ride a rollercoaster and riding the rollercoaster. It has a lot of descriptive words and shows how to use details to stretch a small moment. It contains a ton of onomatopoeias which students love and will teach students to use them properly. If it was not a picture book it also has a ton of imagery in it. It is a guided reading level K and is suggested for grades K-2.

I choose this book to use as a narrative writing mentor text because it has a lot of details in the text. I believe it will help students stretch a very small moment and help understand the importance of details in a narrative story. I also like the idea of being able to picture the scenes in the story and almost feel like it you are in the story.

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“Leaving Home” is a story that I first encountered when my son, who is now in high school, was in elementary school. This Fountas and Pinnell text level gradient Y book was one of the challenge books my son selected to read when he was in the 4th grade over the summer  break that year. I, not yet in the field of education was challenged ensuring that he read all 5 books and choose one that he could relate to and write his first solo book report using the reading strategies he leant that year along with the conferences notes given by his teachers, which included him highlighting some of the most important components of the book. The book was about a boy named Desmond who moved from the Caribbean island Jamaica with his parents, leaving behind his friends, the only home he knew, his school, the warmth, the levels of comfort he once took for granted. I think my son chose this book to write about because he felt connected to it because I myself am an immigrant. In the story Desmond talks about awkward he felt being forced into all the strange new experienced at once. However, as the book progressed, he slowly began to make distant connections between his old home and his new home. He even made new friends and began to look forward to his new life in a new country and his new home. Truth be told, initially the reason for my love for this book was because it presented someone like myself—and immigrant, as the protagonist in the story, something not seen every day in children’s literature. Here we had a culturally diverse children’s book, that were not surrounded by a particular holiday or event similar to books like “My Eid al-Fitr” by Zainab Jabbar, or “The Golden Flute” retold by Robert Morgan, or “Ruby Bridges” during their month of celebration. However, as a few years have passed and I’ve come to understand this story as an amazing personal narrative, one that can be used to teach various writing strategies. One strategy that leaped out to me was transitioning. I would love the opportunity to explore the seemingly effortless, yet strategic manner the author transitions from paragraph to paragraph. I think teaching students how to transition between sentences, ideas, or paragraphs is an important teaching step at this reading level.

Excerpt: “Chapter 3 cont’d: ‘What’s cricket? I thought absolutely stupefied that not one of them knew about the most perfect game in the world. I looked at the nameless strangers in my class and felt a strong need to tell them all about the game I loved so much. Bit I didn’t get the chance to share my knowledge. The bell rang, signaling the end of class and the start of lunch, and I immediately lost everyone’s attention…just when I was starting to enjoy it. Chapter 4: The class erupted into complete mayhem as everyone tried to exit at the same time through the single door at the front of the room, anxious to meet up with their friends and already discussing topics other than cricket. Within minutes, the chaos was over and I was left standing in a quite classroom with Mr. Tidewell.”

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Kindness is my Superpower by Alecia Ortego

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Kindness is my Superpower by Alecia Ortego

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“Kindness is my Superpower” is the story of a boy named Lucas who learns about kindness from his mother who gently explains it to him after he teases one of his friends at school. Lucas then decides to be more polite and show kindness and the next day demonstrates acts of kindness at school, at home and in his community. Lucas finds that he enjoys helping others and is happy to see others be happy as a result of his actions.

Here is a small excerpt from the book:

“I no longer do the mean things I had done before.

I don’t tease others and I don’t slam the door.

I stopped being selfish and I shared my toys.

I don’t shout around or make disrespectful noise.

Kindness is something you can quickly learn:

when you give and ask for nothing in return.

Helping others is the least you can do.

If you are kind, kindness will come back to you.”

I really love the message of this book and I think it is important to introduce these ideas to students this age because they are developing and observing social interactions and this book can help guide them toward appropriate behavior and decision making.

The main ideas of this book address kindness, empathy and compassion, however, I like the idea of kindness being a superpower and that is how I would approach introducing narrative writing to students. I would prompt students by asking what their superpower is and ask them to think of characteristics that describe themselves, which characteristic could be considered a superpower and how it can be used as a superpower. For example, “Just as Lucas uses kindness as a superpower to help others, what superpower or characteristic do you use to help others or make others happy?” Once this is identified, I would ask students to write about any experience in which they used their superpower. I think this would be a fun way to get students to think creatively while building social emotional awareness.

This author, Alecia Ortego, has similar books titled “Gratitude is my Superpower” and “Acceptance is my Superpower” which I think could also be very useful in the classroom!

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Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx

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Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx

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Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx is a book about the first Hispanic woman to sit on the supreme court. I grew up in a neighborhood near Sotomayor in the Bronx and teach in a neighborhood in the Bronx near her neighborhood too. I enjoy reading this book with my students because it talks about a neighborhood near their own home that is often looked down on but shows that where you are from does not define you.

The book tells the life story of Sonia Sotomayor and how hard Sotomayor worked to get into law school. It also focuses on the culture of the Bronx. The book focuses on Sotomayor working hard to get into Princeton to become a layer and the challenges she overcame due to cultural differences and how she had to work even harder than her classmates because she was not raised under the same circumstances she did.  The book emphasis how her experiences growing up in the Bronx made her an empathetic judge which eventually got the attention of former president Obama who appointed her to the supreme court.

Excerpt: Judge Sotomayor was known for much more than this. Unlike many judges she had grown up in poverty, a child of Puerto Rican parents and had seen things many judges had not.

- Denise Saavedra

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Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola is a book that I continuosly use in my lesson plans for the past few years. It is such an engaging book that students can relate to as well as enjoys every time I use it.

Strega Nona is a story about a witch who helps her fellow villagers with their troubles (worts, love, etc.). In search for help around the house she employs Big Anthony. When explaining his chores, she informs him of her one rule.. 'don't touch her pot'. One day, he observes her singing a spell to a magic pasta pot to produce large amounts of cooked pasta.   When Strega Nona leaves to visit a friend, Big Anthony uses the magic pasta pot to feed the villagers but was unaware of her special ending to the song to stop the pasta from growing. Soon, a great flood of pasta begins to overflow the entire town as a result. It was not until Strega Nona’s returned home and blew her three kisses did the pasta stop growing and she saved the town.

Teaching Point: The overall lesson in this story is about punishment, authority and trust, a concept all students can relate and connect with in their own personal ways. As a result, this would be a great book for a writing assignment targeting a time that the student experienced a similar situation to either Strega Nona or Big Anthony. This will give students a chance to be the narrator in their own writing piece, used detail to set the scene, work on their sequencing skills (beginning, middle, end) and provide insight on a time where they 'learned' from a mistake or experience.

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Auntie Luce's Talking Paintings by Francie Latour

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Auntie Luce's Talking Paintings by Francie Latour

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This is a Fountas & Pinnell level P book that I would love to use with 4th grade students in a Shared Reading experience followed by some literary analysis/appreciation and personal narrative drafting. Haitian American author Francie Latour masterfully paints a picture (no pun intended!) of the vibrant beauty of Haiti through the eyes of a little girl whose mother immigrated to America before she was born.

I love how the gorgeously rich and colorful illustrations of this book match the beautiful descriptive imagery of the text itself, and I think students will appreciate this as well and find themselves deeply absorbed in the narrative's unfolding.

As a teaching point, I would take time after reading this story to my students to get them to start thinking about how they can write their own personal narrative using colors to bring the people and places of their story to life, much like how Auntie Luce uses colors to animate the subjects of her paintings. Their narrative can be about a personal experience of their choosing, but they must incorporate colors into their writing to create descriptions and/or comparisons. I will use examples from Latour's book to show them how they can use color as a type of descriptive detail that will make their stories shine.

Some examples from the book that I could use in this capacity:

"My face fills the frame, so big and so close that if you look long enough, it starts to look like a whole land--brown hills melting into yellow valleys melting into red riverbeds..."

"In my face, I see colors I've never seen in a mirror--the caramel in my great-grandmother's skin and the deep berry in my grandfather's. I see the colors of metal roofs over houses with no upstairs or downstairs. I see the ash of earthquake dust, from that time the ground shook and opened up."

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TEACHING POINT: I would use this passage to expose students to writing focused on identity, and to then encourage students to write a perspective narrative on their own. For example, how his/her cultural differences affected his/her American identity. And, I would like students to express their own family and cultural ideas in a short story. For example, the food culture. Students were to use this passage as an example and a guide to write their own narrative.

FISH CHEEK by Amy Tan

I fell in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister's family over for Christmas Eve dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived – the minister's family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and his family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. "Amy, your favorite," he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. "It's a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied," explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking down at his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me, "You want to be the same as American girls on the outside." She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame."
And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening's dinner. It wasn't until many years later – long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert – that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.

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On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl one Beautiful April Morning - Haruki Murakami

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On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl one Beautiful April Morning - Haruki Murakami

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What caught my attention about this short story was that the author was Haruki Murakami.  This author frequently uses the theme of the parallel universe theory to explain how two people or events co-exist in different worlds.  Similarly, this story talks about a male who encounters the perfect female, and speaks out all the possibilities of the two being together.  However, the two never end up together despite the author explaining how they were a perfect match for each other.  Murakami is able to perfectly capture a person's feelings of disappointment upon realization of things that can only happen through a miracle.

Teaching Points:
-Character, setting, conflict, plot, and theme

-Theme: Desires/Expectations Versus Reality, Fate, Regret

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ON SEEING THE 100% PERFECT GIRL ONE BEAUTIFUL APRIL MORNING

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by Haruki Murakami
One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo’s fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she’s not that…

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One of my favorite authors growing up was Patricia Polacco. The Keeping Quilt is just one of many books that I love to read and will soon introduce to my class. The Keeping Quilt is a level M book and is such a humbling story about an immigrant family, traditions, and customs that allow families to join together and talk about the wonderful memories of the past but also creating new ones for future generations. This story shows many generations of women and I find it so beautiful. I love how the story is told by the narrator with such vivid and meaningful illustrations. This would be a great book to consider for narrative writing because the author is narrating her life and reminiscing how she came into the world, how her parents got married, the customs and traditions her family shared, and how the narrator brought a daughter of her own into the world to be a part of the many generations of women. What I love about this book is that the narrator reveals herself as the narrator at the end of the story which is a great surprise for students.

Teaching Point: This book can be used during more than one subject and used in many ways. One way I would use this book during narrative writing is to have students write their own family story or family history. Students can have the freedom to bring in photos, interview family members, bring in family heirlooms, videos, and whatever else students would like to share their family’s story. I would also have students pay attention and understand why the quilt was only colored in bright colors compared to everything else in the story so students understand how much importance the quilt holds to the narrator’s family.

~ Mahfooza Choudhury

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Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say is a Level N book recounting his grandfather's journey to America from Japan. I love that this book is an unconventional personal narrative-- the narrator Say does not appear as a character until later in the book!

As a teaching point, I would ask students to consider where they fit in to the story of their family. As a kid, I was fascinated by my own family's immigration story. I would love to use this text to launch a project of students interviewing a family member to write their own family's story. As this text contains so many vivid emotional details, I would ask my students to find emotion words to describe how their family members felt at different points in their lives.

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I love how in the story the protagonist Unhei learns to accept her Korean name. This can be uplifting for anyone who does not have a typical American name whether they are Korean or not. I personally relate to Unhei in the beginning of the story when kids on her school bus failed to pronounce her name correctly even when she tries to correct them: "'Ooh-ney?' the girl asked scrunching up her face. 'No, no.' Unhei corrected. 'It's pronounced Yoon-hye.'" Most people usually cannot pronounce my name correctly and I get tired of corrected them every time they say it wrong.
Through this book, one can teach students about theme. For example, one theme in The Name Jar is acceptance of oneself (in Unhei's case it was her name).
Additionally, one can teach students about conflict resolution: "What is Unhei's problem?" (She does not what to tell her classmates a name and wants to choose a new name for herself.) and "How is her problem solved?"(She is inspired by her grandma's letter to inform her classmates of her Korean name.).

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Excerpt:
"I went to the door.
It was dark.
It was still.
The night air was warm.
I didn't want to frighten the deer, so quietly I went in and sprinkled some salt into my hands."

Salt Hands by Jane Chelsea Aragon is a small moment story that details an interaction between a young girl and deer in her backyard. The story takes an event that would be less than 2 minutes in real time, and transforms it into a captivating story that details every single moment, thought, and feeling the character experiences. Kitchen Dance (mentioned by Rachel) is another example of an author taking a small moment and transforming it into a captivating and heartwarming story, showing students how to share their simplest memories.

Teaching point:
Oftentimes, students feel devoid of experience in saying “I don't have any stories, I don’t know what to write.” Salt Hands proves that there is no story too small or unimportant. It is the way we tell the story, not the story itself, that will draw in a reader. The story allows teachers to highlight the use of descriptive language, how to detail action, and how to express personal emotion. Stretching out a story to share specific details allows the reader to feel as if they are stepping into your mind and body. The simplicity and clarity of Salt Hands provides accessibility to writers of varying levels.

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Book: Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

GR level: M

I love this book because it is a powerful and topical story about a single mom coming to America without knowing the language or culture. It has gorgeous artwork and celebrates books and libraries. I also really like it because it incorporates Spanish words into the story.

Teaching Point: Building up to a reveal. I like how the author builds up anticipation in revealing what the mother and her son found. You can tell by looking at the pictures that they are the library, but it isn’t fully revealed for a few pages that books (in the library) are what changed their life.

Excerpt: the anticipation is built over a few pages…
“Thousands and thousands of steps,

We took around  this land,

Until the day we found…

A place we had never seen before.
Suspicious. Improbable.

Unbelievable. Surprising.

Unimaginable.

Where we didn’t need to speak, we only needed to trust, and we did!”

-Meredith Pozzi

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How Tia Lola Came to Visit Stay by Julia Alvarez

I was introduced to this book when I was substituting in a fifth-grade classroom. It is a story told from the perspective of a boy who moved from New York City to Vermont with his mom and sister after his parents divorced. As if that wasn’t life-changing enough, their aunt, Tia Lola comes to stay with them form Dominican Republic. While at first, he is very embarrassed by some of her customs, he becomes fond of her and realizes how much of his culture he loves. I quickly connected to this story, since I am also Dominican from New York City and have had very similar experiences to Miguel.

Teaching Point: While this book can be used to teach many things, one way that I would use it is to teach literary elements such as symbolism. Specifically, there is one passage in the book that speaks about a blue bowl which lends itself to this very well:

Miguel shoves his can of chips over to Juanita- anything to avoid his mother bursting into tears again. She is staring down at her bowl as if she had forgotten it was there underneath her food the whole time. from that blue bowl, Miguel’s mother and father fed each other spoonful’s of cake the day they got married. There is a picture of that moment in the white album in the box marked ALBUMS/ATTIC that their mother says they might unpack sometime later in the distant future maybe.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6gQ97oigQo

Teaching point: I would use this book to teach students about the power of figurative language, detail, and repetition and how all of these combined are used in stories to help readers to visualize what is happening in stories. There are great smilies in this story so I would definitely use this book as a way to introduce this type of figurative language to my students.

Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
"Then the jar began to glow, green, then gold, then white as the moon. And the fireflies poured out into the light. Fireflies! Blinking on, blinking off, dipping low, soaring high above my head, making circles around the moon, like stars dancing."

-Sydney Bibicoff

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Hair Love: Ally Kaplan

I recently discovered the book Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and love that not only can it be used to teach writing, but also the message of self-love and confidence it spreads. I think this text can be used to teach many different writing lessons. I love the descriptive language Zuri uses to describe her hair and could use this to teach students to show, not tell as they write. I also think this text would be good for teaching students about expanding on a small moment in time to write a personal narrative. This story depicts one small moment in Zuri’s life as she and her dad work together to style her hair.

My name is Zuri, and I have hair that has a mind of its own. It kinks, coils, and curls in every which way. Daddy tells me it is beautiful. They makes me proud. I love that my hair lets me be me! In funky braids with beads, I am a princess. And when my hair is in two puffs, I am above the clouds like a superhero. My hair even does magic tricks. One day Rocky and I were playing outside when along came the rain. From large to small it went. Presto! Just like that! Today I woke up extra early all by myself. I was too excited to sleep. It’s a big day! Daddy was still sleeping. “Shh,” I said to Rocky as we tiptoed past him. Lately Daddy has been worn-out! He makes me breakfast, takes me to school, goes to work, picks me up, and yesterday we went for a bike ride around the park. I think he needs a break. Because today is a special day, I want a perfect hairstyle. This calls for a professional’s touch. “Paws off, Rocky!” Daddy heard the crash. “Zuri, what on earth?” He asked. “I was only trying to help,” I said. Daddy smiled. “Can I help, too? It’ll be a piece of cake, Zuzu.” The first style was a big no way. The second was no better. “No, Daddy.” Then Daddy tried slicking my hair back into two puffs. “Ouch!” Daddy yelled. “Wait a minute” Daddy said as he reached into the drawer and pulled out a pick. “Ta-da!” Daddy, really?” I said. “I’ll be right back,” he promised. “Now. How’s that?” He asked, pulling a hat down over my eyes. “Daddy, come on. We can do better than that.” “I really need my hair to be special.” “Don’t worry,” he said, “we’ll figure this out.” Then I had a great idea. Daddy gathered all the tools we needed, and we were set! Watching carefully… Daddy combed, parted, oiled and twisted. He nailed it! Funky puff buns! Pretty, pretty, and so much fun. Rocky approved, too! I put on my superhero cape as the final touch to a perfect look. “Where’s my Zuzu?” Mommy called from the door. She could not get in the house fast enough. “You’ve got to be the prettiest supergirl I have ever seen,” she said. “And your hair is beautiful, Zuri. Who did it?” I looked at Daddy and beamed. Mommy smiled. “Very nice.” “Thank you. We learned from the best,” Daddy said as he gave her a big hug. My hair is Mommy, Daddy, and me. It’s hair love!