Number the Stars

Our newest read aloud has been Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Lois Lowry is one of my favorite authors, having written Gathering Blue, one of my favorite books. Gathering Blue is set in the future, much like The Hunger Games, and society as we know it has disappeared - replaced with poverty, government rules, and fenced communities. The main character is also a female who is brave beyond her age and circumstances.

Anyway, back to Number the Stars. In this book, we meet Annemarie, a young girl living Copenhagen during World War II. Annemarie has a Jewish best friend whose life is in danger because of the Nazis. Annemarie learns that sometimes it is easier to be brave by not knowing all the details - such as when the soldiers come in during her "Great-aunt Birte" funeral night and ask her a question. Since she knew she was lying it was much more difficult to be brave and tell that lie then it would have been if she thought that was the truth.

Do you agree with her Uncle Henrik - Is it easier to be brave when you don't know all the truth? Why or why not?

Advocate

advocate - 


The definition of advocate:noun |ˈadvəkit|a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy :he was an untiring advocate of economic reform.• a person who pleads on someone else's behalf : care managers can become advocates for their clients.• a pleader in a court of law; a lawyer :Marshall was a skilled advocate but a mediocre judge.verb |-ˌkāt| [ trans. ]publicly recommend or support : they advocated strict adherence to Islam.

Being an advocate is something we all do at some point in our lives. I personally advocate for students reading EVERY DAY! I encourage this by having reading time in our classroom, bringing in books for our classroom, reading to my students, offering rewards to readers, allowing podcasts to be posted about the books we have read, modeling being a good reader, hosting read-a-thons, and much more. These are all examples of ways I try to advocate reading. Some ways are subtle - you may not realize that by offering reading time I am advocating reading - other ways are very obvious - a student is required to read 30 minutes every night!
What are you an advocate for and how do you advocate for that thing? Please watch your spelling and I expect AT LEAST 5 sentences describing the thing you advocate and how you advocate. Remember - it can be in small ways or big ways.

The biggest effect on Joey's life.

Of all the incidents that have occurred to Joey, which do you feel has changed his life the most? Be sure to support your answer with evidence.
(Hint: Think of the big events in his life such as cutting off Maria's nose, swallowing the key, jumping from the barn rafters, going to the Special Ed school, his mom coming back into his life, his grandmother leaving, his mom leaving when he was little, etc. These are just a few from the book so if you think of any others, go ahead and use that.)

Inference Lesson 2

Remember - an inference uses 2 things: schema (background knowledge) and evidence. You must have both (most students forget to use evidence) to understand what is going on in 1) a picture, 2) a song, 3) a situation in our lives, and 4) in text.

So far we have examined inferring in a picture, in a few stories (Wilma Unlimited  by Kathleen Krull, Zoom and Re-Zoom  by Istvan Banyai, and Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day), dug through a "garbage bag", and took a look at some artwork. Now we are going to use our senses to LISTEN to a fun song that should lead you to make some inferences.

Before you begin - I want you to focus on the main "character" of this song - What is he/she feeling? How can you tell (evidence)? What schema (background knowledge) helps you figure this out? Does his / her feelings change during the song? Again - use evidence and schema to support your answer!

Now that you are prepared - Listen to this song - Beep, Beep by the Playmates

 

Inference Lesson 3

So now we have been making lots of inferences - Remember, and inference is where you use schema (background knowledge) and evidence to help you understand the story (or picture, song, life situation) better.

Take a look at this music video. Listen to the words and how the musicians choose to represent the music. What inferences can you make about this song? Be sure to use evidence and schema when you write about the song.

Inference Lesson 1

To make an inference, or to infer, you have to have background knowledge  - also know as schema (this is what you know - it can be from your life, a movie you saw, an experience you had, a book you read, etc) and EVIDENCE!

Using these two things, you then create an inference about what is going on, try to understand why something is happening, finding the meaning of an unknown word, or even understanding the what the charters are feeling! We use inferencing every day in our life.

For example - My mom comes home from work and has a very grumpy look on her face. The grumpy look and the fact that she is coming home from work is my evidence. My background knowledge is that when mom comes home from work she sometimes has had a rough day. I also know if I have a bad day I don't want to be bothered. My inference is that I shouldn't bother mom because she is in a bad mood.

Art leads us to make inferences because the artist isn't here with us as we observe the picture. We have to use evidence from the picture along with our schema (remember that is our background knowledge) to try and figure out what is going on in the picture.

Look at this picture by Horace Pippin.

What kind of inferences can you make about this picture? What do you think the boy is thinking or feeling? What details in the picture do you notice? Write about this.

Meet the author - Jack Gantos