LLED: Historical Picture Book Reading
Strategy
Valerie Wong #96087978
February 18, 2002
Title: A Dog for a Friend
Author: Marilynn Reynolds
Illustrator: Stephen McCallum
ISBN: 1-55143-018-5
Summary:
In the midst of the prairies on a farm, with no one for miles around except her family, Jessie longs for a friend. Not just any friend though; she wants a dog who will play with her, fetch a stick, roll over, beg for dinner, and sleep with his head on her lap. Life on the farm, however, is so busy that there is just no time to think about getting a pet. Though disappointed, Jessie continues to help out on the farm, while dreaming of how she would play with her dog. Time passes, and soon it is autumn. The sow in the barn had her litter, but one of the little piglets is small and too weak to help itself. Jessie manages to convince her parents to allow her to bring it into her room to sleep, and soon, Harold, the piglet and Jessie become fast friends. Harold grows to become healthy and intelligent, follows Jessie everywhere she goes and even eventually learns to play fetch with her. Harold grows to become the biggest pig for miles around, and eventually, Jessie also gets her puppy. Set in the 1920’s, this is a tender story of love and friendship.
Instructional Strategy:
The teacher should read the summary of the book to the children, read them the title of the book and show them the cover, so that everyone has a general picture of how the story will proceed. The class is then divided into groups of 4 (a team) and a ball is given to each team. The teacher prepares a set of envelopes containing words and punctuation marks on cards. These cards will make a complete sentence if placed in the proper order. The sentences chosen should be directly from the story. To make it more challenging, find complex and descriptive sentences.
After the sentence has been placed in the proper order, the whole team must get in a row, and starting with the first person, the ball must be passed from over the head, to the second person. The second person then passes it between his/her legs to the third person. The third person receives the ball, and passes it over his/her head to the last person. The last person then has to hold the ball over his/her head to signal that their team is finished, and they will then have the opportunity to read their sentence out loud, while all the other teams must listen. If they are correct, everyone puts back their cards into the envelope and comes up to the front of the room to get another envelope containing a different sentence. The winning team gets a point, and gives me their envelope (so it is not repeated again). If the team is incorrect, the game continues until one team gets their sentence “correct”.
After one “play” has ended, the positioning of the team line has to change. This way, every member has an opportunity to be the last person in a line and read out the final answer.
This strategy allows for students to work cooperatively, use oral language, and observe sentence structure.