From Little House to My House: Exploring History and Family Roles

Overview

Featured Resources

From Theory to Practice

 

OVERVIEW

Read-aloud sessions with emergent readers encourage learning and are one of the best ways to ensure later reading success. Historical fiction helps students learn about the past and connect it to their own lives. This lesson for first- and second-grade students features two read-aloud sessions of a picture book adapted from Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. A picture-walk preview invites students to make predictions about the characters and plot, and leads to a definition and discussion of historical fiction and memoir. Following the read-aloud, students hear some background information about the author, and compare these facts with situations and events in the story. In a second class session, discussion helps students compare the characters and events in the book with people and experiences in their own lives; students then create a T-chart to record their comparisons.

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FEATURED RESOURCES

The Deer in the Wood by Laura Ingalls Wilder (HarperTrophy, 1995)

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Johnson, D. (2002). Web watch: Picture book read-alouds. Reading Online, 5. Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=webwatch/picturebooks/index.html

• Reading aloud to students motivates them to learn. It nurtures language development; teaches concepts about print; and helps develop comprehension, understanding of story structure, literacy, and real-world knowledge.
  
  
• Following read-alouds with discussions helps students learn how to respond to literature and participate in literary discussions.
  
  
• Memoirs or realistic fiction encourage students to make connections to their own lives; to make these connections they need to talk about the book.

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