Connecting To the Text - Identify Theme, Details, & Onomatopoeia (Day 1 of 2)

• Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee
• I'm Dirty Kate and Jim McMullan
• 'Connecting Overview' worksheet
• Lesson vocabulary words from the Reading/Writing word wall: connecting, theme, key details, onomatopoeia, figurative language, literature, point of view/perspective, tone, rhythm
• whiteboard set up

This lesson uses several reading strategies, including connecting, to identify literature text elements, figurative language and point of view. I have taught several connecting lessons in this unit so far, so my students have learned a variety of ways to connect to the text, themselves, and the world. Those lessons include: I’ve Read Something Like This Before, Let’s Summarize and Act It Out , Go Deeper and Make Connections, Connecting To The The Theme With Elmer,  Key Details and a Theme-Make a Connection.  

I used this lesson and the next, Connecting to the Text-Compare 2 Stories (Day 2 of 2) as assessments for this Connecting unit, although you could use them also as an overview to connecting. If you teach other lessons (included in my 'Connecting' Unit), it would be possible to have students do these independently so you could see how well students connect.  

Underlined words below are lesson vocabulary words that are emphasized and written on sentence strips for my Reading & Writing word wall. I pull off the words off the wall for each lesson, helping students understand this key 'reading and writing' vocabulary can be generalized across texts and topics.  The focus on acquiring and using these words is part of a shift in the Common Core Standards towards building students’ academic vocabulary.  My words are color coded ‘pink’ for literature/’blue’ for reading strategies/’orange’ for informational text/'yellow' for writing/’green’ for all other words.

Get students excited: 

• “I have a video about a tractor ride and a video about a roller coaster ride to show you that will give you an idea of what we’ll read about today.  Think about what sounds you hear when you watch these videos; think about what sound you would hear on these rides."
• "Is there a similar theme between these 2 topics?"  Take ideas - fun, screaming, speed ... These authors address a similar theme to help us learn more about ways to have fun, but the books take a different approach."
• "What would be the point of view or perspective of the people on the rides? What are they thinking? What do they see and hear?  The books we'll read are full of onomatopoeia to help us. We look at these to identify how the author shows the people on each ride feel and sets the tone of the story."
• "We have been connecting to stories - Do you think you could connect to stories about these kinds of rides?"

Explain Task

• "I'll show you how to identify the story elements, theme, figurative language, and point of view of the 'tractor' story. You can help me make some connections to the stories to help deepen our understanding."

Modeling & Guided Practice with tractor book 

• Read the book to the class. I wrote some words on the board to prompt ideas (dirt, backhoe, garbage dump)
• Use the hand visual and literature text elements to identify the key details.
• "I'll identify the setting - a junkyard. I think the characters were the tractor. Can you help me with the problem? Can you name some events? What is the solution?" Take ideas- guiding them toward 'he has a messy area to clean, he takes care of the tires, it's all clean at the end
• "What's the theme of the book?" Take ideas - fun, getting dirty, joy
• "Can you connect with this theme? Have you ever had fun getting dirty?"  Most of my kids of course identified with this theme, but a few did not because they hadn't played in the mud or didn’t like to get dirty.
• "Let's identify some figurative language in the book. What onomatopoeia did you hear?"   Take ideas- "What is the point of view of the tractor?"  Sketch an idea on the board.
• Here's my completed whiteboard.

As students acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters (RL.2.6), they are assessing how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of the text.  This is a focus on the Common Core Standards toward regular practice with complex texts that encourage students to look at author's purpose, characterization, tone and meaning.

Explain the task

• "Now it's your turn with the roller coaster book."
• "Listen as I read - you will be identifying key details and a theme, identify the onomatopoeia, and sketch a picture about the point of view of the characters."

Independent work with the roller coaster book  & comparison 

• Read Roller Coaster
• "Now I'll give you a few minutes to identify key details and think about a theme." 
• "Add a connection to deepen your comprehension of the story. I bet there's at least one way that you can connect to the events, characters, problem, or setting."  Give kids time to work.
• "Now let's write some onomatopoeia from the book-are any words that same?"  (I reread several pages and showed them to the kids- whee, zoom, zip, woosh)
• "What about the point of view of the people on the roller coaster? Can you think of what they might be feeling, seeing, smelling, or hearing?  Take a minute to sketch their point of view."
• Here's one of my student's completed worksheets.

Some students may need prompting, but allow them to at least put down a few ideas before you step in. As you walk around helping, ask them about their reasoning and see if they are using details from the text.