On Monday, we finished reading Goodbye, Vietnam, so we opted to explore another text today that also connected to Vietnam. As we read, we tried to make connections between the two texts, comparing and contrasting the struggles the families in each book faced.
The embedded video below is an excellent interactive read aloud of A Different Pond. While designed for a slightly younger audience, Mai models a number of wonderful strategies that scholarly readers do including:
- making predictions.
- using text and graphic features.
- envisioning (picturing the scene in your mind).
- pausing to check for understanding.
- using context clues to tackle tricky words.
- making inferences.
- connecting to self, text, and world.
- questioning (inquiring).
- empathizing (putting self in the shoes of the characters).
- reading with expression and fluency.
- summarizing (SWBST).
If you are interested in doing the craft shared at the end of the video, check out Mai’s website.
Multiple Source: Mai Storybook
In class, we challenged our thinking by analyzing the author’s craft. Specifically, we looked at the author’s use of figurative language. As we examined quotes excerpted from this and other texts we’ve read, we determined whether each was a simile or metaphor, provided evidence for our thinking by annotating the quotes, and provided a explanation of what the author meant.
While we realized similes and metaphors are commonly used by authors to enable readers to visualize more vividly and experience emotion more evocatively, our challenge now is, can we, as authors, do the same?
Peruse this previously-posted padlet and consider sharing examples of figurative language found in books you are reading or adding YOUR OWN original figurative language examples.
