Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Alex Van Tol

Description

The Orca Echoes are lively, entertaining short chapter books aimed at readers between ages seven and nine. These popular classroom favorites are well suited for social responsibility and character building programs. The Orca Echoes Resource Guide helps teachers open the door for meaningful classroom discussion. Professionally written guides with curriculum connections, writing exercises, discussion questions and activities are provided for each title in the Orca Echoes series. With additional information on teaching ideas, reading levels, literature circles and assessment, the Orca Echoes Resource Guide is a valuable tool for teachers using Orca Echoes in the classroom.

Informations

• Publié par: Orca Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 6
• EAN13: 9781554693788
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Resource Guide Alex Van Tol ISBN 978-1-55469-2408 Price:$45.00

Contents

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

About Orca Echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A word about reading levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 How do I use this curriculum guide? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Classroom Teaching Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Literature Circles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Responding to Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Guided Reading Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Books Grouped by Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Book Titles with Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Book Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Index of Teachers’ Guides: following page

Cover illustration from Bruno for Real by Helen Flook. Used with permission.

orca echoes

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Index of Teachers’ Guides

A Bee in Your Ear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 The Big Tree Gang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 The Birthday Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bruno for Real . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Captain Jake. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Cheetah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Dimples Delight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Down the Chimney with Googol and Googolplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 A Frog in My Throat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 George Most Wanted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 George, the Best of All!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Ghost Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 I, Bruno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Jeremy and the Enchanted Theater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Jeremy and the Fantastic Flying Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Jeremy and the Golden Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Jeremy in the Underworld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Kelly’s Cabin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Marsh Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Maybe Later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Monster Lunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 A Noodle Up Your Nose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Out and About with the Big Tree Gang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Over the Rainbow with Googol and Googolplex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 The Paper Wagon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 A Puppy is for Loving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 The Raspberry Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Rhyme Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Sam and Nate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

orca echoes

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Sea Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Sharing Snowy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Theodora Bear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Timberwolf Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Timberwolf Chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Timberwolf Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Timberwolf Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Timberwolf Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Timberwolf Trap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 The True Story of George . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Under the Sea with Googol and Googolplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 What a Hippopota-Mess! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

orca echoes

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

orca echoes

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

What are Orca Echoes, and how do I use the books in the classroom? Written by outstanding Canadian children’s authors such as Jean Little, Becky Citra, Sigmund Brouwer and Karleen Bradford, the books in the Orca Echoes series are short chapter books aimed at readers between ages seven and nine. They’re lively, entertaining and, best of all, fun to read. With generous illustrations and easy-to-follow plots, these books tell engaging stories about believable characters.

Several strong thematic currents run through the Orca Echoes series. Looking for stories about friendship, courage or diversity? You’ll find them here, along with issues of responsibility, leadership and equality. Books in this series open the door for meaningful conversations about bullying, discrimination and peer pressure. A natural complement to your social studies curriculum, the books in the Orca Echoes series integrate seamlessly with concepts of personal and community identity.

You’ve got a few choices for how to use these books. They’re designed for your students to read independently. But they’re also great for reading in small groups or for sharing with a buddy. And they make fun read-alouds.

A word about reading levels I t’s always a challenge to choose a range of books The Guided Reading framework that students will enjoy and that are at that just-right assigns a level from A to Z reading level. There are myriad readability levels according to a variety of factors available, which can be confusing for educators such as content, book and print and librarians. We’ve done the hard work for you. features, themes, language and Orca Echoes are aimed at grade 2 to 3 children and literary features. correspond to Guided Reading levels L, M, N. Orca employs a stringent editing process that ensures linear storylines, clear context and understandable situations. Stories in the Echoes series have orca echoes a few characters, and we keep the vocabulary straightforward. Having books that span several levels makes it easier for you to select titles for groups of children with similar reading abilities. Offering a range of leveled books— a gradient of texts—allows you to assess your students’ progress over the course of the year too. As your collection expands, you’ll be helping your students hone their reading skills by exposing them to a wide variety of texts. When you bracket Orca Echoes books with titles in the Orca Young Readers series (levels N, O, P, Q, R) to serve your advanced readers and Orca picturebooks to serve your still-developing readers, you know you’re offering your students a satisfying variety of top-notch children’s literature.

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

1

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

How do I use this curriculum guide? Our goal in providing this curriculum guide is to make it easy for you to use Orca Echoes books in your classroom.

What you’ll find in the curriculum guide In this overview, we’ve provided you with a number of broad-scope ideas for how to use any or all of the books in the Orca Echoes series. Then we give you a quick- reference list of themes and a complete list of book summaries, alphabetized by title.

In addition, we’ve included a teaching guide for each book in the Orca Echoes series. Inside each teaching guide you’ll find: • a book summary • an author bio • information about the author’s process in writing the book • prereading ideas • discussion questions • suggested activities • other titles or related sources that might be of interest • awards and critical reviews

Choosing the right novels for your students The guided reading levels make it easy for you to select Orca Echoes books that are at the appropriate level for your students. All you have to do is decide how to choose those titles: based on a theme? an author? or maybe a particular subject? The lists and summaries in this resource guide will help you as you select books for your class.

Whole-class or group novel studies? A look at what’s grade appropriate Chances are, your students are at the grade 2 level—which means they’re new to novel studies. This is a good age to introduce a whole-class novel study using Orca Echoes. Many teachers find it helpful to do a couple of whole-class novel studies first before taking on the challenge of setting students up for teacher-supervised novel studies in small groups.

Regardless of group size, at the primary level your students are still reliant upon you to model for them the process of reading, discussing and writing about the stories they read. Starting with a whole-class novel study provides you with the opportunity to guide your students through every part of the novel study process. Because the whole group proceeds through the story at the same pace, you can ask questions, moderate discussions and model responses to the literature using the same book.

2

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

orca echoes

Classroom teaching ideas Reading aloud to your students As an educator, you understand that young children love being read to. An adult who reads using a variety of voices, tonal inflections and good pacing will captivate even the most wiggly carpet worm. What better way to get kids fired up about reading literature?

When you read aloud to children, you’re doing the decoding for them. This frees up a fair amount of brain space for your students to simply listen…and imagine. Because you’re doing all the hard work, you can even read a slightly more sophisticated book—one that might otherwise be out of reach for some children if they tackled it by themselves. Be sure to leave plenty of time to discuss the selection after you’ve finished reading.

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

“Reading aloud is a commercial for reading... Think of it this way: McDonald’s doesn’t stop advertising just because the vast majority of Americans know about its restaurants. Each year it spends more money on ads to remind people how good its products taste. Don’t cut your reading advertising budget as children grow older.”

--author, artist and journalist Jim Trelease, from The Read Aloud Handbook (now

Reading aloud to your students helps them build their literacy skills. Even though they’re not reading actively, listening to the story helps them to better understand the structure of written language and to learn new ways of using language. At the same time, listening to read-alouds expands your students’ vocabularies. Even after children have learned to read on their own, reading aloud to them offers many benefits. Keeping kids hooked on reading is one of them.

Independent silent reading Offering a regular period each day for reading silently helps your students develop into orca echoes well-rounded readers. Silent reading and oral reading each activate slightly different parts of the brain, which in turn develops a wider network of pathways and creates a stronger reader overall. Whether you call it DEAR (Drop Everything and Read), SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) or something entirely different, children love silent reading time in the classroom or library. It’s an opportunity Research shows an upward for them to read something of their own choosing; a trend in overall achievement chance to decompress and focus attention; a time to in schools with the greatest snuggle up in a special “book nook” in the classroom. amount of free reading time Encouraging children to read for pleasure helps to (Elley, 1992). develop a lifelong love of reading.

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

3

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Buddy reading Almost every child loves to read with a friend. In many schools, buddy reading programs pair older students with younger ones, encouraging both readers to share works of literature that are special to them. But sharing a story is equally satisfying when children of the same age are buddied up too. All that needs to be done is to put students in pairs, give them a great book (or two) to share and have them take turns reading aloud. They might even enjoy reading a selection out loud simultaneously. The value of shared reading can’t be overestimated: your stronger readers will serve as powerful models for your developing readers; in turn, developing readers have a chance to make mistakes and take risks in a relatively safe social setting.

Guided reading Educators know there’s a wide range of reading The guided-reading approach to ability within any age group—and you also know teaching helps your students learn that in order for children to develop into powerful effective strategies for making readers, they have to have access to books at the right sense of what they’re reading. level. By matching your students to developmentally appropriate books, the guided-reading technique helps students develop robust reading skills. Working with small groups of about three to six students, you provide support for readers as they practice various reading strategies like analyzing word structure, predicting, using context clues, visualization and working through letter/sound relationships.

Independent reading is the goal of guided-reading instruction. To lead students toward a place of greater independence and to help them gradually move toward reading increasingly difficult texts on their own, offer books which your students can read with about 90% accuracy. This way, your students can enjoy the story without too much interference from unfamiliar words or phrasings. Reading a book that’s at an appropriate level for learning offers your students some challenges and opportunities for problem solving but still allows kids to feel competent since they can read the story with relative fluency. When students do come up against a challenging construction, they can apply various reading strategies (i.e., sounding words out, using context clues, etc.) to get a handle on the meaning. Working with a small group means you’re there to assist your students in applying those reading strategies, and to help them work through those road blocks to comprehension.

4

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

orca echoes

Orca Echoes Resource Guide

Here’s a snapshot of how guided reading works with books in the Orca Echoes series: • Sessions should be short, between 15 and 25 minutes. • While you’re working with a small group of children with similar needs, you’ll want to have your other students engaged in literacy centers. Depending on the nature of your class, you may wish to have another adult present to facilitate supervision. • Begin by introducing the book to your students. Show them the cover, say the title and invite them to predict what the story might be about. • Invite students to talk about what they already know about the subject. This instills confidence in your students that they already have some background in the subject. Brainstorming together also provides your students with information that will help them apply problem-solving strategies as they read. • Choose selections that will help students build upon their existing strategies. • Have your students read the selected passage quietly in their own book, or have them take turns reading to their small group. Observe, assist and encourage where necessary. • After reading, guide the students in a discussion of the words and ideas in the selection. How did they use their problem-solving strategies to make meaning? • Refer back to the book to provide students with a chance to practice a range of comprehension strategies.

Want to know more about guided reading? A quick online search will turn up numerous articles and how-tos that will help you bring this powerful teaching strategy to your classroom.

Literature circles Lit circles, you say? At the grade 2 level? Well, yes. This is the right time to introduce your students to literature circles, by orca echoes guiding them in an exploration of the different jobs involved. Literature circles are small, temporary discussion groups that offer students the opportunity to apply the literacy skills they are learning. They provide a new way of exploring literature. Literature circles support an inquiry-based method of learning, allowing for plenty of choice. At this age, it’ll be a hands-on process, with you modeling for students the various jobs inherent in literature circles and giving them plenty of time to practice. You won’t divide children into groups to read and analyze books by themselves; rather, you’ll acquaint students with each role as a whole-class activity (i.e., one day, everybody is the Word Master; another day, everybody is the Investigator). When your students do begin to participate in lit circles in the upper grades, they’ll enjoy the advantage of knowing what’s expected of them.

Orca Book Publishers • www.orcabook.com • 1-800-210-5277

5