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READ ALOUD RECOMMENDATIONS YOU ARE SPECIAL Author: Max Lucado & Illustrator: Sergio Martinez Publisher: Crossway Books | 2000  Summary: In a small town called
Wemmicks, the wooden people spend their day sticking gold stars or gray
dots on one another. The gold stars went to the carefully painted
and talented Wemmicks, while the gray dots belonged to the rough and
clumsy Wemmicks. Punchinelle differs from others since he is
covered with gray dots. One day under discouragement he goes off
on his own adventure
and made a new friend. This experience helped him to learn more
about himself and his identity. The
story communicates to the heart of all children and even adults.
Recommendation: This book resembles the famous story of Pinocchio. Lucado uses an economy of words to touch the heart of both students, teachers, and parents alike. The story breaks away the complexities of life to narrow down to one's emotion. In a greater depth, the story illustrates diversity, acceptance, and tolerance. For Teachers: The story can be broken down into various sequences for oral or written discussion. Furthermore, students can also engage with the exploration of chain reactions focusing on the characters presented in the book. For younger students, prediction exercises will help keep their interest and attention into the story. Upper grade students can analyze the story under various themes discussed in class. From here on, students can relate their experiences with Punchinelle through written context. For English Learners: Since the book flow well in terms of introduction, middle, and end, teacher can discuss with students what happened in each segment. After the discussion, teacher can assign a fiction writing assignment that emcompass a story with a beginning, middle, and end. This would also be a good activity to teach students the process of writing while using their story map as a guide to construct their final draft. SHOW & TELL DAY
Author: Anne Rockwell & Illustrator: Lizzy Rockwell Publisher: Harper Trophy | 2000  Summary:
The story focuses on a thrilling school day as students prepared to
bring their best prop for show and tell day. The multicultural
kindergarten class brings their favorite possessions from different
parts of the world. While each student prepares to share their
object, the narrator also prepared a surprise to release at the end of
show and tell day.
Recommendation: With colorful and vivid illustrations, this book primarily appeal toward the younger students or English learners. The story illustrates the themes unity and friendship throughout the book and it serves as an ideal welcome back to school book. For
Teachers: Creative teachers can use this book to create a
storyboard to teach students of new words and have the pictures as
references. The easy storylines will hook the
students from the
start and perhaps you too can start your own show and tell day with the
students. Teachers can also divide the story among the
students for oral reading due to the variety of characters presented in
the story. This multicultural book also illustrate diversity
since all show and tell items signify a personal cultural background
and identity. Teachers can use this book as a gateway to a unit
on diversity with a specific focus on learning different international
holidays since the majority of the items presented in the book have
holiday references.
For English Learners: The vivid illustrations in the book also provide accurate representation of the textual contents for the students, especially for English language learners to follow. The range of realistic characters that Rockwell presented can easily relate with the students of all backgrounds. It would be definitely be a great read aloud with the students. |