Following the Map...

From kindergarten, I traveled to fourth grade.  Students in fourth grade are more fluent readers and read harder texts, but they still work on activities that transcend grade levels.  All students, regardless of age, need to spend time analyzing what they are reading and thinking critically about the information a text presents to you as a reader.  Some times it is about the structure of the text that requires analyzing, some times it is the characters or setting or other element of the story.  Any time a student analyzes or compares story elements, they are moving in to areas that are important to build higher level thinking skills that can be used across the curriculum.

In fourth grade, this analyzing skill came at the end of reading The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischmann.  It is the story of two boys and the way their lives intertwined and adventures the boys went on.  Once the story was finished, the students analyzed the characters.  They looked at the change of the character from the beginning to the end.  Once they knew what had changed, they created a map that showed how the character changed from beginning to end, sorting out events and sharing about what they each learned about the character.  These were then put in to large maps that tell the story of The Whipping Boy.  Take a look at their art work and examine how they analyzed the character.

So the next time you read together at home, talk with your student about how the character changed from beginning to end.  Why would the author write about that?  What about the character made the story interesting or uninteresting and why?  Challenge them to think critically about the story they just read!