When I was pregnant with my first child, I came across an article about “The Little Virtues,” an essay by Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg. It was a breath of fresh air. I’d already gorged myself on parenting advice by reading books on eating, sleeping and first aid. But I longed for something both deeper and broader, a template that cut to the quick of parenting. I found that template in “The Little Virtues,” which begins this way: “As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not…
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How to Teach Foreshadowing Using “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
By the end of The Girl Who Drank the Moon all the loose ends have been neatly tied up. This makes it an excellent jumping off point for a discussion about foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is best understood after the fact. So an easy way to discuss foreshadowing in The Girl Who Drank the Moon is to ask students how one of the big reveals at the end of the book was suggested by details throughout the beginning and middle of the book. Here’s an example… Using Big Reveals to Discuss Foreshadowing Big Reveal: At the end of the book we learn that the Protectorate was imprisoned by Ignatia’s greed for sorrow.…
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How to Celebrate Thanksgiving Without Losing Instructional Momentum (Reading Workshop)
If you’re looking to do something festive around Thanksgiving, but don’t want to derail your reading workshop with a giant interruption, you have some options. Here’s a look at my Thanksgiving mini-unit which aims to squeeeeeeze in some skills-based activities right before Thanksgiving break. 5 Thanksgiving Read Alouds for Elementary Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet, I LOVE this book. It’s beautifully crafted and it tells the origin story of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. I highly recommend this book. If you miss it in November, incorporate it into one of your nonfiction units later in the year. Turk and Runt by Lisa Wheeler, This one is a Thanksgiving Day comedy–so much…
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How to Teach Suspense Using “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a GREAT example of steadily growing suspense. The author uses multiple perspectives to keep the reader in the loop about impending danger. All of this culminates in a climax that is so straightforward it could be the quintessential example of climax. In short, you could use this book as your mentor text for both suspense and climax. Building Suspense Through Multiple Perspectives The reader is aware of growing danger for each character because we have access to multiple perspectives. The characters, on the other hand, are trapped inside their own perspectives, so they don’t see the danger coming, at least not as well…
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How to Start a Simple Commonplace Book
A few months ago I began keeping a commonplace book, and I wish I’d started sooner. It’s a great way to truly engage what you’re reading by jotting down notes, questions, quotes and summaries. What Is a Commonplace Book? A commonplace book is a notebook where you record notes and quotes from your reading. Here are some things I’ve jotted down in my commonplace book: Quotes Notes for Further Reading Chapter Summaries Outlines of an Argument How Is A Commonplace Book Organized? If there are any hard and fast rules, I’m unaware. Here’s how I’ve organized mine… Use Both Sides of the Notebook If you like to read several books…
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How to Teach the Italicized Sections of “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
A long time ago, I saw something on Pinterest titled “Beyond PIE: Teaching Author’s Purpose.” It made me laugh because, as much as I love PIE, it gives student (and teachers) the impression that the author’s purpose always fits into one of three neat categories: persuade, inform, entertain. Of course a nonfiction book can be entertaining, and a novel can do much to persuade, so PIE only takes us so far. It can also obscure what I want to talk about today: author’s craft. When discussing author’s craft, we’re asking students to see beyond the page and infer the author’s motive, or purpose. What is the author trying to say?…
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Check Your Students’ ‘Emotional Temperature’ with this Fun, Free Mood Ring Activity (RULER)
The concept behind mood rings is as strange as it is fun–do we need a device to tell us our mood, isn’t some mild self-refection a more direct route? Well, yes, but mood rings are FUN. And, recognizing feelings isn’t always straightforward. As part of my RULER bundle (RULER is a social-emotional acronym, you can read about it here) I created several feeling diaries for students. The most fun diary features mood rings. I thought I’d make a simpler version and post it on TpT as a freebie. It would make a great intro to the RULER acronym and the mood meter. If you’d like to give the RULER acronym…
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How To Discuss Multiple Perspectives In Your “The Girl Who Drank The Moon” Novel Study
In The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill uses multiple perspectives to develop suspense, foreshadowing, irony, and theme. So before we get to these big ticket literary devices, it’s worthwhile to spend some time on the seemingly humbler topic of point of view and perspective. The Girl Who Drank the Moon is written in third person omniscient, but the author’s use of multiple perspectives deserves way more attention than the typical “What’s the point of view?” discussion will render. The real treasure lies in analyzing how the author uses multiple perspectives to build suspense, theme, irony, etc. We’ll get into this more in future posts, but here are some…
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How to Celebrate Halloween Without Losing Instructional Momentum
Nearly every Halloween in the classroom has seen me running to the library during my conference period to beg the librarian for a book that would satisfy my student’s request that we do something “scary.” Coming up short on a day like Halloween is like looking into your kids eyes on Christmas morning as you explain that you just didn’t make room in your schedule for presents this year. So once again, I’ve armed myself with a holiday mini unit. This Halloween unit is flexible enough to blend easily with whatever I did in reading workshop on October 30, but festive enough to scratch that Halloween itch. Here’s a peek…
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7 Important Literary Devices in “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”
Some books present you with the best kind of difficulty: they are full to bursting with literary goodies, so rich that you can’t hope to teach the book for absolutely all it’s worth. Far from scouring the page to figure out something that will excite students and meet your instructional goals, these books require you to practice restraint–to pick out a few gems and leave the rest alone, so as not to belabor the reading. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is one of those books. I recently digitized my Girl Who Drank the Moon novel study, and was reminded of how well the author used multiple…
