Wildwood Weekend -- Creating a Novel Study for Wildwood by Colin Meloy

This is the view from my backyard window and that tree in the middle is the one that swings wildly during strong storms.  We had a lot of weather this weekend and we chose  to just stay inside in the Pacific Northwest where we are, admittedly "snow wimps."  When I took this photo the rain was beginning to fall on the snow, creating this gorgeously atmospheric mistiness that reminded me of the cover of Snow Falling on Cedars.   

The weather made me really thrilled to have an amazing novel to focus on.  The book is Wildwood and it is by Colin Meloy, the lead singer and songwriter for the Decemberists, a Portland art rock band. It features two unlikely heroes, Prue and Curtis who follow Prue's infant brother into the Impassable Wilderness in Portland after he is kidnapped by a murder of crows.  Who knew that this impassable wilderness was actually hiding a whole civilization complete with an evil queen, an avian crown prince, soldiers who are coyotes and bandit heroes.  All within a stone's throw of the Willamette River. 

Sounds a little like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis? You would be right in thinking that.  

This book is very easy to like and it is quickly becoming a favorite of my fifth and sixth graders, who like quirky adventure stories with compelling heroes that are just average kids thrown into fantastic situations. The fabulous illustrations have been done by Carson Ellis, who is the wife of the author.  She's also known for illustrating The Mysterious Benedict Society. 

I created a novel study so that teachers could start to use this book with their classes and small groups.  It is available for download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Right now, I've got it discounted to $2.00 because I'm hoping that people will take a look at it.  There are 43 pages worth of student activities, vocabulary builders and comprehension questions. The first 26 pages are a student packet suitable for guided reading. This novel study focuses on vocabulary building as well as analyzing story elements. The novel Wildwood has some great vocabulary! If your school is using NWEA MAP data, this lesson plan is suitable for students with RIT score levels 210-220 and 221-230. 

The multiple choice reading comprehension quizzes which are a part of the novel study are also available for a separate download at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

The assignments include an informational text feature called “EVIL IVY" which talks about the problem of invasive English ivy destroying some of the prettiest forests in the Pacific Northwest, including the one that I live near.  Here's a photo of some evil ivy close to my home.  

This assignment is available for FREE download from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

 

All in all -- a great weekend with a great book! I heartily recommend Wildwood to anyone who needs a good curl up read!

Also, in surfing around in the blogosphere, I found a cool looking Readability Calculator from Joe's Web Tools.  Worth a second look!

Pedro's Journal Google Earth Lit Trip

I'm thrilled that my Pedro's Journal Google Earth Lit Trip is now available on GoogleLitTrips.com.  Jerome Berg, who runs the site, did a great job helping me to edit it and make it even more useful.  Check out the Vimeo that he made for it as well!

GLT Pedro's Journal from GoogleLitTrips on Vimeo.

This Google Earth lit trip can also be used as a part of my Pedro's Journal novel study which is available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. This novel study features work on words for historical fiction and can help work on skills for students who have NWEA RIT scores in 191-200, 201-210, and 211-220.

RIT scoring the novel study -- The Maze Runner by James Dashner

 

This is the first year that my school is using MAP data from NWEA.  We are all working really hard to understand and apply the data.  In addition to attempting to create a links page of free online games that target different RIT scores, I'm also looking at many of our literature circles and novel studies to see what RIT scores they target.  

This one for the Maze Runner by James Dashner works well for students with RIT scores 211-220 and 221-230.  The reason for this is because it helps students analyze character and make inferences.  It's available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

Making Sense (and peace?) with NWEA MAP Data

Two weeks ago, my world was rocked by the fact that I had to make certain that everyone in my school of 518 5th and 6th graders took an online assessment called MAP.  And not only took one online assessment, but did so THREE TIMES!  MAP,  which stands for Measures of Academic Progress, has been created by the NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association). 

Administering the MAP can be a logistical nightmare that involves signing each machine in to a separate student since the students cannot log themselves in.  But we worked through it in two weeks with two computer labs set up specifically for MAP. 


And now we are onto the data evaluation and use portion of MAP.  All of my kids in all of their classes have been assigned RIT scores and ranges.  Each range has goals and objectives that students should work towards.  The idea is that teachers can create groupings around the RIT scores so that they can differentiate instruction and tailor each student's learning to their strengths and deficits. 


So I decided to see how this would work by taking a novel study that almost all of my social studies teachers use in the fall.  

That novel is Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad.  
This is a short journal form novel that imagines that Christopher Columbus had a ship's cabin boy named Pedro who could read and write and had many opinions about their first voyage together.  He was also given great access to the "Captain" as he calls Columbus.  
 



Firstly, let's talk Book Metrics: How do we measure whether a book will work for a reader?

My perception has been that this book is not all that difficult to read, as I look at the numbers, I may  be mistaken, however.  The LEXILE level is 1030L, the DRA level is 40 and the Accelerated Reader level is 5.8.  The high AR level and Lexile must have much to do with some of the vocabulary that helps set the historical setting: like bonaventure and mizzenmast.

Secondly, let's talk RIT Levels:  

The vocabulary list generated from this little book is huge!

As are the inferences that can be drawn about the conflict of the two main characters, Pedro and Columbus.

Here's what I think can be taught with Pedro's Journal.

RIT GOAL STRAND: Read for a variety of purposes.

·         Classify Text as Historical Fiction (201-210)

·         Identify Characteristics of Historical Fiction (211-220) 

RIT GOAL STRAND: Text Components

INFERENCES (191-200)

·         Infers a character's feelings in simple literary text       

INFERENCES (201-210)

·         Infers the conflict (term not used) in a literary text

·         Infers the conflict in a literary text

·         Analyzes to determine the problem presented

INFERENCES (211-220)

·         Infers the reason behind a character's actions

·         Evaluates character development in literary text

·         Infers the qualities (emotional and/or physical) of a character based on information found in literary texts

·         Infers the reason behind a character's feelings/emotions

And since both are on a journey, one can take kids on a great GOOGLE EARTH journey.

So I've created a novel study for my teachers to use that fits all of these objectives.  It is for sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  

A freebie that allows people to use Google Earth to understand this story can be downloaded at my Teachers Pay Teachers store as well.  

I really wish that I knew how other people were using and hopefully enjoying their MAP assessment data. As I was watching the students take their test, I could see how hard many were working.

I am also discovering that there are many school districts out there that are aggregating games based on RIT scores.  Here is one example: from the Belle Plaine in Minnesota.