Exploring Gary Paulsen's Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is one of my very favorite novels to teach.  I am always on the hunt for ways to pull in my struggling boys, and the male protagonist and survival theme really seems to suck them in.  The book is also one of my eleven year old daughter's all time favorites, so I can say with all honesty that the story is really appealing to adventurous young girls as well.

There is so much that you can do with this novel.  It makes a great literature circle book, as it pairs really nicely with other survival themed novels, such as Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, Jean Craighead George's Julie of the Wolves or My Side of the Mountain,  Shipwreck or Everest by Gordon Korman, Deathwatch by Robb White, The Cay by Theodore Taylor, or The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelsen.  The similar themes of these stories would make for some great class discussion and compare/contrast activities.  

Youtube has some great videos about the novel.  I usually use an interview with Gary Paulsen that I found on youtube to introduce the author.

I like the way he talks about his life as a writer and his reasons for writing.  To keep the kids focused while we watch, I like to handout a few quick questions for them to complete while watching.  We glue these in at the beginning of our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks, and discuss the answers as a class.  If you would like a set of the questions we use (with answer key and video link), you can download it for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store here.

As the theme of the novel revolves around survival, I like to introduce the novel by discussing some wilderness survival tips.  I have collected a variety of tips on a handout, and we go over the tips and discuss them as a class.  After discussion, I have the kids brainstorm and write about the tip they think is most important.  The kids always enjoy this, and I find it to be a fun pre-reading activity to get them excited about the book.  We usually get some pretty good class debates going on, as the kids like to argue over which tip is most important.

In the past, I have had the kids complete chapter questions when we complete each chapter of the novel.  I like these questions in particular because they include vocabulary words and opportunities for the kids to express their learning in an artistic way.  This has been a good way to work on their vocabulary and to make sure they are understanding what they are reading.  

This past year, however, I decided to switch things up a bit.  We had been learning about summarizing, and I really wanted the kids to get some practice with these skills while reading through the novel.   To do this, I decided to have them summarize and illustrate what happens in each chapter.  This was a nice break from chapter questions, and the kids like the opportunity to show their understanding in artistic form.  I also really loved how the completed projects looked!  We hung them on the wall outside our classroom for a bit, and then glued them into our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks.

  

The little image on the left of Brian with mosquito bites makes me giggle every time I see it.  The kids had so much fun with these and I really love how they turned out.

As we progress through the novel, we spend a significant amount of time brainstorming the ways Brian has changed from the beginning of the novel towards the end.  I have them do a compare and contrast organizer in small groups, which we then go over and add to as a class.  When we are done, I have them glue them into their Hatchet Interactive Notebooks, as they will need to refer back to them for the next activity.

For this activity, the kids are required to illustrate and discuss the changes that Brian went through during the novel.  It makes for a great visual representation of Brian before and after.  I like the way this assignment forces kids have to look at the changes that occurred in Brian both on the inside and outside.  Again, the kids loved being able to use art to show their understanding, and I love how they turned out.  Once they were complete, we glued them into our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks.

If you are interested in picking up any of the resources shown in this post, you can pick them up at my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here or on one of the images below.

Do you teach this novel in your classroom?  I would love to hear about some of the activities that work for you!

Text Mapping Adventures - and a Freebie!

Text Mapping is a technique that can be successfully used to teach reading comprehension, writing skills, study skills, and course content. As an alternative to books, Text Mapping is completed on large paper scrolls.  Students take their reading and tape the pages together, creating a scroll that can be rolled out onto the floor.  This lets kids see the text in its entirety, instead of flipping through multiple pages. Having the entire text visible at one time, instead of just two open book pages, helps students to make connections across the lesson that they wouldn’t normally be able to make. Students are able to see the text as a whole, instead of focusing on individual parts.

To begin the activity, the first thing you need to do is gather a few pages of non-fiction text.  I usually use a photocopied section of our Social Studies textbook, on a unit we are about to cover.  This is a great pre-learning activity, as it allows the kids to work with the text for a bit before we begin our unit.  This time, I used a few pages of informational text that I had previously typed up, relating to Archaeology.  Our textbook doesn't go into enough depth on this topic, so I usually use this as supplemental reading.  It worked perfectly for this activity.

After you have gathered the pages you want to use, simply tape them all together into a long scroll.  You can have your students do this, or you can do it yourself before class starts to save on time.

After creating their scroll, students use a variety of different colored pens and highlighters to mark up the text in ways that are relevant to their reading purpose.  The strategies students use to map the text are similar to the ones they would use while close reading.

A big perk of Text Mapping is that it is a reading strategy that is easy to learn and implement, and also requires very few materials.  All the supplies you need for a successful lesson are a few pages of photocopied non-fiction text, some tape, and some colored pens and highlighters.  

According to textmapping.org, there are 7 key benefits to using text mapping in the classroom.  

1)  Scrolls and Text Mapping are explicit - teachers can model comprehension strategies so students can see exactly what comprehension looks like and how it is achieved.

2)  Scrolls and Text Mapping teach students to be strategic readers.

3)  Scrolls and Text Mapping encourage students to develop active reading skills - students must move around the scrolls and mark up the text.

4)  Scrolls and Text Mapping enable comprehension to be linked directly, explicitly, and concretely to the text - this ensures that comprehension will be reliable, accurate, and complete.

5)  A text map is a traceable visual record of an individual's thought process - you can see exactly where the thinking is happening.

6)  Scrolls and Text Mapping accommodate a wide range of learning styles.

7)  Scrolls and Text Mapping can be particularly helpful to individuals who have learning disabilities or attention deficits - scrolls are more accessible to a greater range of senses and learning abilities.

If you are looking for additional information on this fun strategy, I highly suggest you check out textmapping.org.  There is a ton of great information!

Interested in trying this out in your classroom?  All of the resources I used to complete this activity are available for free from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  The package includes information on what text mapping is, a step by step guide for using it in your classroom, a non-fiction article with questions that can be used for text mapping, and several different variations of activities for students to use while text mapping, suitable for both elementary and middle school students.  If you decide to use it, please leave me a comment and let me know how it works for you!

Do you use text mapping in your classroom!  Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

Classroom Reading Groups - A Fun Activity to Set them up in your Classroom, and a Freebie!

In one of my last posts, I talked a bit about the reading groups I set up in my classes at the start of the school year.  As the new school year is approaching (yikes!), I thought I would go into a little more depth about the Reading Groups I use, how I set them up, and some of the ways we use them facilitate learning. In this post, I will talk about a fun activity I do to get my students divided into Reading Groups,while making sure all students are reading an at-level book that interests them.

In my room, I have several small class sets of novels (4-5 books each), at a range of reading levels.  I was able to pick all of these titles myself (hooray!), so I made sure to choose ones that I knew the kids would really love.  I also tried to choose some titles from different genres, and some that were a bit obscure (but still great!), so my super keen readers would not have already read all of them.  The images below and at the top of this post show some of our favorites.

If you are in the process of setting up a class set of novels for Reading Groups, I strongly suggest these titles. Some are certainly more difficult than others, but having a wide range makes it excellent for differentiation.

At the start of the year, and every time I introduce new novels, I have the kids do a round of "Reading Group Musical Chairs".  I choose 7 sets of books, and place a set at each table.  I then put a timer up on the screen, and give the kids 5 minutes to read the book in front of them.  They then fill out their "Reading Group Musical Chairs" sheet, and make note of how challenging the book was for them to read, and their interest level.  I then have the kids stand up and move to a different group.  They can go to any table in the classroom, as long as they have not already read that book.  We then repeat the activity for another 5 minutes.  We usually do this 2-3 times a class, until all of the books have been read and recorded.  If I have them read for much longer than that they tend to get a little antsy.

At the end of the activity, I collect all of the "Reading Group Musical Chairs" sheets, and read them over.  I try to put the kids into groups with a book that has a high interest level for them, and is at their proper reading level.  I love that this activity prevents kids from choosing a book simply because their friend wants to read it.  The kids really like this activity, as they feel they have an actual say in what book they are going to read, and are therefore more engaged in the activities we do with them throughout the year.

If you would like to try this activity with your class, you can download the recording sheet (with instructions) for free by clicking on the image below.  I will take you directly to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, where you can download it for free :)

Interactive Notebooks: Resources for your Classroom (and a freebie!)

One of the big struggles I had when first setting up Interactive Notebooks in my classroom was finding appropriate resources.  When I first started a few years ago, there were very few resources available, and gathering them was a constant struggle.  I felt like I was constantly having to hunt out and prep different resources, and desperately needed some sort of system for organizing everything.

Since then, with teachers discovering how effective Interactive Notebooks can be, the market for resources has exploded.  I have had mixed success with the resources I have purchased... some have been incredible, and some not so good.  Because of this, I decided to put my knowledge and experience with using Interactive Notebooks to good use, and create my own resources.

Next year I will be teaching a Reading Intervention class for the first time, so I have been really working hard on creating resources to use with my students.  I plan to focus a good chunk of my instruction on targeting specific reading comprehension strategies - I want to get the kids summarizing, asking questions, visualizing, inferring, determining importance, and making connections.

A few years ago, our administrator purchased each Humanities teacher a variety of novel sets.  Each set has 5 books, and I have about 10 different sets.  The best part was that I got to choose the novels for each set; I am a big fan of young adult lit, so picking out the books was super fun for me.  Yes, I am a huge nerd.  Anyways, next year I plan on dividing the kids into groups based on reading level, giving each group a novel, and then having the kids work on different Interactive Notebook activities revolving around the targeted reading comprehension strategies.  Because of this, I created this resource:

The package of resources is common core aligned for grades 1-4, but I am actually planning on using it with a group of grade 7 struggling readers. The great thing about the resources is that they can be used with ANY text - this makes it super easy to differentiate instruction with your students.   You can see some of the resources included in the package in the picture.  For more detailed information about what exactly is included, you can click on the picture and it will take you directly to my Teachers Pay Teachers store :)

If you are interested in checking the package out a bit further, I have created a free sample package.  It includes a few resources to go along with each of the different reading comprehension strategies, and is a great starting point :)  If you click on the image, it will take you directly to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, where you can download it for free :)  Don't you just love free stuff?!

If you like these resources, you may want to check these out as well :).  All of the units are specifically designed for use in Interactive Notebooks, and include foldables, detailed instructions, handouts, and worksheets.  As before, clicking on the image will take you directly to the product in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store :)

Are you planning on using Interactive Notebooks in your classroom next year?  I would love to hear about how you plan on getting started!  Leave me a comment in the space below :)

Back to School Freebies and Mini Books!

Yes, I admit it, it is not even July yet and I am already thinking about Back to School...

Part of the fun of the summer for me is having the time to sit back and actually do some planning for September.  Once school hits, I feel like I am going a mile a minute, and I tend to fall back on lessons that have worked well in the past instead of creating new stuff.  Summer, however, allows me the time to reflect back on the school year, think about what did and did not go well, and think about new ideas I want to try out...

To get things started, I created a few back to school mini books to help you get to know your students when they first come in in September.  If you have the opportunity, you could even pop these packages in the mail in August, and have the kids complete them beforehand.  Either way, they are a fun way to get to know your kids at the start of the year.

I have also created a matching class sign to go along with the package.  To celebrate the start of my new blog, these signs are currently available for free from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  If you have not had a chance yet, pop by and check it out - I frequently post free stuff!  Click on the sign you are interested in below, and it will take you directly to my TPT store, where you can download it for free :)