LBB Week One – ingredients for great lessons! September 14, 2007

We had a great week in Little BIG Books…  Our lessons were really varied and engaging - I’ve never seen a roomful of students work so diligently and so passionately over found poems – especially during WEEK ONE!  (that was so inspired, foxy!)  Superfox did a great lesson with images drawn from page one of the story, which also went off without a hitch.

Day 3 was also great – we had students practicing the analytical skills they traditionally have so much trouble with when it comes time to write their literary analysis papers.  We pulled 10 quotes from the text and asked students to first categorize them (does the quote describe Eddie’s environment, his friends & family or his options for the future?) and then explain the significance of the quote in at least one sentence.  During share-out, students who were extremely literal benefited from seeing how their classmates read between the lines to find the deeper meaning. 

for example:

2.  Still the babies cried, and their crying stirred up our frustration because we were like those strollers going back and forth, back and forth, getting nowhere (pg. 2).

Category: Eddie’s environment/Eddie’s future                       

Explanation: He compares the people in his community as “like those strollers going back and forth… getting nowhere.”  He feels as if the people around him get nowhere in life, and he will have the same fate.

Of course not all of the students got it.  Some just thought that Eddie was annoyed at the babies crying, but it was great to see the recognition in their eyes when they heard the deeper analysis coming from their peers. 

This is the type of lesson we need to do regularly – pick a skill we know kids will have trouble with when it’s time to write, and just have them practice.  The fact that we pulled the quotes for them was what made this work – all they had to do was analyze… after a few rounds of this, they’ll be ready to pick their own quotes!

Click here to see the lessons from the first week of LBB, and check out some examples of found poems from the kids.