The Gruffalo

• Students will learn and understand vocabulary terms throughout the entirety of this novel. • Students will understand the lessons and world views presented through this novel. • Students will understand the importance of relationships. • Students will identify literary terms and understand the importance of them within this novel. MN ELA Standards ELA-Literacy.

Furthermore, the effectiveness of the language techniques utilised throughout the story and the relevance the novel has on contemporary audiences will be highlighted.

One of the first things that this author would do is to teach students how to make connections while reading. When students make personal connections with what they are reading by using their prior knowledge, it helps them to retain information. There are three main types of connections we make while reading text; we can make connections to what we are reading and our own experiences in life, we can make connections from one book to another (like reading a Nancy Drew book and reading a Trixie Belden book), and we can make connections to what we are reading and things that are going on in the world around us. By helping Jose learn to make connections while he reads, Jose will be able to more readily remember what he has read and make sense of it (Comprehension Strategies, n.d.).

Book Summary – Big Rain Coming is a lyrical story, told by Katrina Germein, set in an isolated Aboriginal community. It is a story about waiting for rain to come to their community and the tension that builds in the community as the rain clouds spread and darken. Whilst waiting for the rain, they wonder, when will the rain come? Author/Illustrator Bibliography – The author, Katrina Germein, was raised in Adelaide, South Australia. In the remote Aboriginal community of Minyerri, Northern Territory, she began teaching in 1997.

Choose passages that speak to you. Consider the parts of the book that made you stop and reflect on what was read. Consider what you may highlight or annotate. Consider the text that may lead to thematic, character, or literary convention analysis. Make connections to the text (text-text, text-self, and text–world). Analyze the style of the text—reflect on elements like symbols, imagery, metaphors, point of view, etc. Apply the different literary critical approaches with which you are familiar.

This learning activity has the students looking more deeply into their chosen book using a more critical mind rather than just enjoying the book for its basic story line. It has them taking note of what is happening at each stage of the book and why these events are taking place, then taking this information they have gathered and developing a written report to convey their thoughts and ideas in the book along with developing the skills necessary to produce a piece of writing that is easy to read and understand for the reader. This activity also has a lot of hidden features to the task, such as using the correct grammar, development of sentence structure and use of creative thinking to make the piece interesting to the reader.

Race and gender are revealed in the text by the uses of imagery, characterisation, plot, stylistic techniques, and language.

The essential literacy strategy goes along with the standards and learning objectives by using context clues to help the student figure out unknown or unfamiliar words. Students will build reading comprehension skills by using context clues for figuring out unknown or unfamiliar words while they are reading. Then the students will perform the strategies individually. The related skills address the use of prior knowledge of synonyms and antonyms during the hook and transition portion of the lesson. The reading and writing connections go along with the learning objectives, because the students will read their assigned book and picking out words they do not understand. The students will have to write the sentence with the unknown word in it, and use context clues to figure out the definition of the unknown word. The central focus for this unit of study is for the students to use context clues to better their comprehension of what they have read in their assigned books. The students will be able to use context clues within sentences to determine the meaning of unknown or unfamiliar words. These lessons deal with comprehending text by using context clues to help figure out unknown words. The lessons build off each other by adding more detail to learning about context clues. As the lessons progress the students will be more independent when using context clues. The first lesson is learning about what context clues are. The second lesson will focus on using context clues to figure

Encourage students to think back to this lesson when they are reading text. “If you come across one of these words or a new word that you do not know, use the sentence or sentences around the word to figure out the meaning.”

Critical reading for this class comes easily. Reading the chapter, highlighting certain points and writing notes helps to understand the content. The topics mentioned thus far have all been fairly easy to grasp, especially since they are familiar topics but as time progresses and the reading become more in depth, this strategy will be increasingly more helpful. Critical reading is always a struggle but hopefully this class, with all of the assigned reading, will help teach how to properly read a textbook, fully understanding each and every phrase mentioned. While reading a textbook, it is easy to get distracted and forget everything that was just read, by taking notes and highlighting while reading, it is easier to grasp the information given. Being able to stay focused and be more insightful throughout this class is a definite growing

Fictional world . . . The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, settings, style dialogue and tone are literary techniques shown, through a selection of words, diction, one of the important literary elements, identify themes convey as part of the writer’s technique. For instance the author style, imagery is conveys vivid descriptive text: “Their manes were braided with streamers of sliver gold, and green.” Narrative, narrator first and third person, but what I read, interesting, the writer starts sentences with a prepositions and transitional words… As a writer, I will differently incorporated the author’s style in my writing . . . for example: “Or they could have none of that: it doesn’t matter”. “For more modest tastes I think there ought to be

1)This student is a little bit more advised at this level. The student should read everyday but one thing to help the student is to have this student look up a word in a children's dictionary. Once the student finds the word then the student should read the definition.

Students are asked first to read the reading passages provided within the textbook. Then, they analyze the passage to underline, highlight, or select the most important information. This can also be through the use of paraphrasing (summarizing) each paragraph and/or applying the KWL(S) reading approach after reading. Afterwards, students will need to find ways to relate what they have learned from the text to their lives in order to connect to the readings and comprehend what they have read.

I like the fact that when she asked the question about what happened to her sweater, her students immediately raised their hands. They were all into the story. They wanted to know more about the story. She taught her lesson very well. After telling her story and giving clues that defines main idea, she asked her class what they think main idea means. I think that it is a brilliant way to make your students think and connect. Her students were able to use context clues, and they were able to come up with their own definition of main idea. I noticed that Ms. Bannon used a projector to project the pages of the book so that her students can read along. It is a good way of getting student involved. It also allows for students to practice reading, while Ms. Bannon’s reading out loud. After that, she made her students communicate with one another. It is important to let students communicate with one another. Students interacting with one another is a positive learning technique because they can learn from one another. Also, that way Ms. Bannon is not the only one doing the talking, and that way there wouldn’t be so many teacher to student

Students having hard times in comprehending the thought of the text and what the author implies. It seems to be reading by words but not reading between the lines. It is important to know how comprehension plays an integral part in a manner of thinking and conceptualizing facts and ideas from the