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VIII. STRATEGIES TO STRETCH MINDS FOR ANY NOVEL (Gr. 4-8)
© 2006 Nancy Polette
How Do We learn?
1. Beyond the Western Sea by Avi. Orchard, 1996.
A. Guess the answers
1. How many million immigrants from all countries came to the U. S. between 1840 and 1860._______
2. During this time how many million Irish came?_____
3. During the potato famines of the 1840s & 50s, how many million Irish died . _______
B. Concert Reading
Read aloud a short portion of Chapter One to mood music.
Debate: What should Maura do? Four moods: happy, sad, scary, quiet.
Good source, Movie sound tracks.
C. Individual Responses
(1). Summarize the plot of the novel in a song.
(2). Use the five senses pattern to describe a scene from the novel.
London is the color of ______.
It sounds like_______,
It smells like______,
It tastes like_________,
It looks like______,
It made Laurence felt like____________________.
(3).Write a riddle report about one of the settings in the story:
Killony, London, Cork or Liverpool. Begin your report with:
Let's go to long ago places and see the Earth's changing faces.
(List six to eight things one would see)
But that's not all....
(List six to eight additional sights)
Where am I?
2.THE CAY by Theodore Taylor. Doubleday © 1969
A blind boy and a wise black man are stranded on an island and must withstand a
hurricane after their ship is sunk by submarines in WWII.
Factual vs Literary Descriptions
Write one sentence.
A) Choose one: sea, waves, shore
B) Tell what it reminds you of: The ____ is a _____.
C) Tell what it does that a person does. The _____ is a _____ doing what?
D) Tell where.
(Use for various novel settings: desert, Arctic, mountain, city, farm, etc.)
3. The ABC Summary(Simple)
Retell the plot line of the novel in 26 sentences or phrases A-Z.
Try A Christmas Carol for practice.
A miser named Ebenezer Scrooge
B eheld Marley's ghost who
C autioned him about hoarding money.
D.
4. The ABC Summary(Advanced)
Show how an author and his/her work are related by following the model in D Is for Dahl
by Wendy Cooling.Viking, 2005.
A denoids sliced out when awake in 1924.
A frica left school in 1938 for a job in Africa
A lfhild Roald's big sister
A lma Roald's pet goat
A pple: Dahl's nickname at home
5. Problem Solving: Share: Stone Fox by John Gardiner.
How can Willie raise $500.00
| IDEAS |
FAST |
LEGAL |
CHEAP |
WILL WORK |
TOTAL |
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Score: 5=
yes 4=probably 3=maybe 2= probably not 1=no. Total the score for each idea.
VOCABULARY STRATEGIES
6. Categorizing Vocabulary
A. Place each group number in front of the word that belongs in that group.
1. people 2. places 3. equipment 4. aircraft 5. a defense or offense strategy.
Guess if you do not know.
| ___convoy | ___Axis | __Allies | __ RAF |
| ___Coventry | ___Dorniers | ___jerry | ___blitzkrieg |
| ___Blenheim | ___Jerry | __ Luftwaffe | ___Stukas |
| ___incendiaries | ___blackout | ___radar | ___lorries |
| ___spitfires | | | |
Read The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico or Blitzcat by Robert Westall.
B. Using vocabulary in a different context
Use as many of the words above as you can in a paragraph to describe a garden or a supermarket.
7. The Acrostic Book Report
Summarize Operation Clean Sweep by Doreen Beard (Farrar, 2003) using the title as an acrostic.
8. Predicting Action
The Whispering Road by Livi Michael. Putnam 2005
A)Read the first paragraph of the first three chapters. Students predict what will happen after each.
B. Pre-Reading Journal Sentence Starters
Chapter One:
A. You can't trust people in houses because...
B. Traveling a long and dangerous road...
C. If one has the gift of contacting spirits...
D. A strong desire to lead life your own way can...
9.USE MAGIC! Magic By the Book by Nina Bernstein. Farrar, 2005
Can a book cast a spell so strong that it actually transports its readers to another place and time?
Explore magic at Magic
A) Skills
Use sentences from the novel. Re-write the sentence keeping the same meaning but not
using any word with the letter E.
1)There on the yellowed page were their names and ages.
2)The girls found themselves alone in a fog- shrouded forest clearing.
B)How much is a sentence worth?
Nouns, adjectives, prepositions 5 cents each
Verbs, pronouns 10 cents each
Adverbs 20 cents each
How much are sentences 1-2 above worth?
10. Turning Jacket Blurbs Into Plays
A. Decide on two or three main characters.
B. Each character gets a narrator.
C. Anything said about the character is said by his/her narrator.
D. Any action the character does is said by the character.
E. No words can be changed. Maintain the integrity of the text.
F. Readers enter in character. Good 'guys' stage right, bad 'guys' stage left.
The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleischman. Greenwillow, 2005.
(N1) A swashbuckling pirate ship cuts through the early morning fog.
(N2) Crouching like a tiger about to spring, her figurehead is a huge,
ferocious rat with crooked teeth and gouged out eyes.
Her master, Captain Gallows had (G) had plucked a young boy out of the sea months
earlier and called the child Shipwreck!
(N2) When the ship reaches San Diego, Shipwreck wants only (S) to begin the
long journey home to Boston. (N1) However, Captain Gallows (G) plans to buy a ranch and retire.
(N1) But the peaceful life is not to be as Captain Gallows and Shipwreck encounter (S)
barefoot bandits (G) hairbreath escapes (S) duels (G) cunning barkeeps
(S) simmering revenge (G) secret identities (S) betrayals (G) Lost loves
(S) old enemies (G) new villains (G & S) heroic last stands
(N2) and the eyes of the Giant Rat, a treasure so well hidden that only
Shipwreck (S) knows its hiding place.(N1) Plucked from the sea by the
most notorious pirate in the Pacific, Shipwreck discovers
(N2) His adventure (S) is only beginning.
Resources: Books by Nancy Polette available from
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