Madame Pince and the School Library

For libraries and librarians just west of Hogwarts

The Giving Tree and The Taking Tree

May17

Click here for lesson plans adapted to the computer lab. 

Okay, so I’m being subversive with my lesson plans for 2nd and 3rd grade this week.  Instead of using the traditional Mother’s Day books, I’ve decided to read one that questions what we should and can ask of the women in our lives.

I like Shel Silverstein.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve had a copy of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” since I was in college.  It was a Christmas present from my parents when I was a student at Eastern Michigan University.  It went with me to Manhattan, moved with me to Queens and then to Brooklyn, to Manhattan again, back to Brooklyn, and finally came with me when I returned to Michigan.  Both the audio cassette and the hard cover are sitting on a shelf in my home office.

When it comes to Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” I am not one of the those people who get all dewey-eyed and choked up about how it speaks to me.  Just the opposite.  The book trips my gag reflex.  What’s worse, I think it gives the impression to young boys and girls that a woman’s purpose is defined by how much she gives to men and she is expected to make sacrifices until she has nothing left.  I can’t say that I think the book is misogynistic, because the boy doesn’t come off too well, either.  He’s a flighty, self-absorbed schmo who ends his days like a lump on a stump.  The only reason to put this book in a children’s library is because it’s got some pictures in it.  However, I bet you’ll be hard pressed to find a children’s section that doesn’t house at least one copy.

This week, I’m doing a conventional Venn diagram to compare and contrast “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein with “The Taking Tree,” by Shrill Travesty.  I’m also introducing the concepts of “classic” literature and “parody.” (Including the meanings of the words “shrill” and “travesty.”)

Materials:

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“I Hate My Brother Harry” OPACs, Using Computers

May9

Week 32, originally used Week of May 9, 2011

 

Click here to find a lesson plan that’s printer friendly and adapted for use in a computer lab.

Note: this lesson was taken from

I modified the lesson plan to fit my building’s SIOP format.

Grade/Class/Subject:

  • K-3/Harrison/Media Skills

Unit/Theme:

  • Parts of a book

Standards

American Association of School Librarians, Standards for the 21st Century Learner:

  • 4.1.5, Connect ideas to own interests and previous knowledge and experience.

Content Objectives

Dearborn Public Schools Department of Media Services, K-12 Information Literacy Media Curriculum, 2004:

  • Students will demonstrate their understanding of the elements of a book.
  • Students will list the variables needed to include in a bibliography (3rd grade).

Language Objectives

Michigan Department of Education, K-8 GLCE English Language Arts:

  • R.NT.[00].05 respond to individual and multiple texts by finding evidence, discussing,illustrating, and/or writing to refl ect, make meaning, and make connections.

Key Vocabulary:

  • Review: author, title, publisher, place of publication, copyright date, bibliography, title page

Supplementary Materials:

Preparation:

  • Links to past learning
  • Strategies incorporated

Scaffolding:

  • Modeling
  • Comprehensible input

Group Options:

  • Whole class

Integration of Processes:

  • Reading
  • Speaking
  • Listening

Application:

  • Meaningful
  • Linked to objectives
  • Promotes engagement

Assessment:

  • Group
  • Written
  • Lesson Sequence

Transition:

  • Review the vocabulary above.

Anticipatory Set:

  • Ask students, how old are the children on the cover of the book, “I Hate My Brother Harry?” Direct students to the girls face. How does she feel? Discuss the title of the book and show her drawing on the title page.

Instruction/Check for Understanding:

  • Show the cover of the book. Indicate the elementary of print, the author and the illustrator.
  • Read to the part of the story in which Harry tells his sister he put chopped up frogs in the frosting. Ask students: Why does Harry tell his sister this? How does she feel?
  • Read to the point in the story in which the sister say that someday she will spit in her brother’s pudding. Ask students: Why does she say this? What could she do instead?
  • Finish the story. Ask students: Why does the sister say hateful things to Harry? Does she really mean the things she says?

Preview for Next Week:

  • Tell students we will read more books about families next week.
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