American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Lexile Level: 530

Genre: Fiction

Summary: American Born Chinese tells a story of three seemingly unrelated characters whose stories come together with an unexpected twist! This story speaks to anyone struggling to find acceptance. Jin Wang is the only Chinese American student at his new school. He is bullied, picked on, and lonely. He feels isolated and excluded and finds his feels parallel the Chinese myth of Monkey King, who wants to find acceptance among immortals. The third character is Danny, the all-American, blond-haired, blue-eyed high schooler who is tormented by the annual visit of his Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee. When Jin falls in love at his high school, all three stories come together for a heartbreaking and honest conclusion.

Standards:

CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RL.7.6 Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text

CCSS: ELA-Literacy.RL.7.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text

CCSS: ELA-Literacy.RL. 7.3 Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).

Goal: Students will be answer the questions: Why do stereotypes exist? Are they ever accurate? Can a stereotype be positive? Are there connections between stereotypes and racism?

Objectives: Students will collaborate with others to compare their own understanding of cultural traditions and values using the text American Born Chinese.

Outcome: The students will be able to identify and share with the class different stereotypes present in the text and show how the characters resolved conflicts from these stereotypes.

The Girl Who Thought in Pictures The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin

Written by: Julia Finley Mosca

Illustrated by: Daniel Rieley

MLA: Mosca, Julia Finley, and Daniel Rieley. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin. The Innovation Press, 2017.

Lexile Level: 530L (Estimated by using another book in series)

Selling Tool: A girl who was labeled as Autistic ended up doing so much more. This is a biography of a girl who ended up being successful in the field of agriculture.

Lesson Activity Question:  Everyone thinks in different ways. How do you think to solve problems?

Learning Standards: IFC Standard 1 – Using Information to build understanding. (Grade 3)

Learning Goals: Students will learn to connect ideas to their own interests. Students will learn to formulate questions about the topic with little guidance. [Students will write a sentence or two of things they are interested in outside of school.]

Learning Objective: Students will connect with other students and prior knowledge including their interests. [Students will be in groups and share their interests with other students.]

Learning Outcomes: Students will use written form to express their interests and formulate their own questions about the topics discussed in the book.

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

530L

Summary / Book Talk - What happens when we ask for too much? What happens when we give too much of ourselves and don’t get enough for ourselves? She’s Silverstein’s book allows us to look into what both sides feel like, and what it means to love a place with all your heart.

Selling Tool - http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/ActivitiesGuides/0060256656.pdf - national poetry day sheet from the publisher. Personally I would use these activities to sell kids on poetry and then introduce Shel Silverstein as a poet.

Activity - students will use the book as a basis to write a small poem about their favorite place and why it’s important to them.

Standard - CCSS W1.5 - With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

Goal - students will be able to understand and use the style of the text to create their own piece of work

Objective - with guidance from the teacher students will compose an original poem about their favorite place

Outcome - students will share their poems with their peers in an attempt to better know their classmates

References -
http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/
http://assets.readcommoncore.com/resources/giving-tree-anniversary-tg-with-ccss.pdf
http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/ActivitiesGuides/0060256656.pdf

Superman: The Museum Monsters, by Michael Dahl

Dahl, Michael. Superman: The Museum Monsters. Mankato: Stone Arch, 2009. Print.

Author: Michael Dahl

Genre: Fiction, Comics

Lexile Level: 530L

ISBN: 978-1-4342-1157-6

Grades: 2-3

Summary:

The plot unexpectedly unfolds as Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent (superman) and Lois Lane (his fellow reporter) are covering the opening of the new Metropolis Museum. Suddenly, a gigantic skeleton of a blue whale comes to life plus Mr. Mxyzptlk has returned from the Fifth Dimension with dozens of troublesome tricks. But Superman got it.

Book Review:

I believe this book is very appropriate for the age level it is intended: the children at that level will probably be familiar with Superman Movies. The books as well as movies about superheroes are still relevant, as they were 10 years ago same as today. People will always want to experience that suspense, fear, that “yes!” and a feeling of victory. Plus, all of us are still fascinated by the impossible and magical so I don’t think these series will ever be outdated, especially when we made movies out of them.This book has that also a little bit of a mystery that goes along with it, so it is definitely bound to keep the students interested till the end.

Activity: The students will read the book and will talk about the aspects of a superhero, such as superman. They will talk and compare the other superheroes’ superpowers, clothes and names and brainstorm ideas of what a superhero must have to be considered a superhero. Then the students will be asked to create their own superhero character. They will think of the components that a superhero must have, such as the name, skill, clothes, superpowers, etc. The students will be using half-done example comic sheets as well as blank ones to create their character. The full lesson is found Here

Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7
Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)

Goal: Students will look at the make-up of a superhero

Objective: Using the book and imagination, the students will create their own superhero character; making sure to have at least three components: name, clothing and superpower or skill.

Outcome: Students will know the basic aspects that any superhero must have

Works Cited:

www.mashable.com

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Monsters-Superman-ebook/dp/B00E3SY3BM

https://teachers.theguardian.com/system/files/assets/54/8491/Suggested_Plan_1_Complete.pdf Superhero Lesson Plan