Alicia's Digital Literacy Narrative

Craft Lesson #1

CREATING MENTAL IMAGES

RESOURCE MATERIALS:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
Pencil, crayons or markers
Paper
Notebook

DISCUSSION
It is sometimes hard for students to create a mental image of a story. A mental image is an experience that significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but that occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. If children can create a mental image of the story they will increase their overall understanding of the story (comprehension).

HOW TO TEACH IT (1st or 2nd grade)
I want to talk to you today about creating mental images from stories we read or hear. By creating a mental image of the story you are experiencing something that is not present to your senses. In the story named Where the Wild Things Are the child takes his imagination to where the wild things are. I want you all to listen carefully, let your imagination run free, and think of mental images that arise from your listening. Then create a story based on the images that you come up with while I am reading you the story. I want you to put these mental images of what you think is going on in the story on paper and add a caption or a written explanation of what is going on in the picture. Some possible questions that you can ask yourself when you are trying to create mental images of the story may include: What do you think that looks like? What do you see in your mind? What image pops into your head when you hear that? We will then arrange these pictures in a notebook that will be placed in the classroom library to help you remember how to create mental images of stories.
By creating mental images of the story, you are becoming a good reader. Good readers make mental images in their heads as they are reading. Creating mental images will help you better understand what is going on in the story.

Craft Lesson #2

BEING DIFFERENT

RESOURCE MATERIALS:
Colorful World by CeCe Winans
Finger Paint, Pictures (magazine), Stickers, Glue Stick, Pencil, Markers, Crayons, Poster Paper

DISCUSSION
As individuals we are all unique, with our own talents and abilities. We are each gifted in an important way. It is up to us to discover our own light. We live in a diverse world where every individual is different. Once individuals start accepting that being different is not a bad thing and is a positive thing, they will be free to be themselves. Our world is a better place because we are not all the same.

HOW TO TEACH IT (K-2nd Grade)
I am going to read a book called Colorful World today. I want you all to pay attention to the different children in the story and how each child is unique and different in a positive way. After reading the story I will ask: What do you think is unique and different about yourselves? I then want you to make a poster of who you are, what you like, and what makes you unique. Some examples of this may include: what you look like, your favorite color, favorite sport, or favorite food. You will then start on your posters. The first thing you will do is place your hand in finger paint and then place your hand print on your poster. Then, you can start adding pictures, stickers, drawings, or written descriptions on your poster that correlate with what makes you unique. Once each poster is finished I want each of you to talk about your poster to the class explaining how you are unique and different.
This craft may take a couple a days so that children can prepare all the materials they want to add on to their poster. I will show the children an example of a poster I made of who I am and how I am different so that they can get an idea of what exactly I want them to do.

Craft Lesson #3

USING CONTEXT CLUES

RESOURCE MATERIALS:
Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes
Pencil and Paper

DISCUSSION
Some words in stories may be unfamiliar to the reader. The author will include words, phrases, or pictures that will help with the understanding of the new word. These counterparts in the story are called context clues. Context clues can help a reader fully engage in a story. Context clues will also help you better comprehend the story.

HOW TO TEACH IT (2nd or 3rd grade)
I want to talk to you today about using context clues in stories to understand unfamiliar words. Context clues are hints that the author gives to help define a difficult or unusual word. The clue may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may be in a preceding or subsequent sentence. Sometimes you can look at a picture to help you find out what the unfamiliar word is. Because most of your vocabulary is gained through reading, it is important that you be able to recognize and take advantage of context clues. By using context clues, you will be able to figure out any part of the story you do not understand. In the story named Los Gatos Black on Halloween, there are a lot of Spanish words that you may not be familiar with. However, by reading ahead, looking at the words around the unfamiliar word, or looking at pictures in the story you will be able to figure out the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Today, I am going to read you Los Gatos Black on Halloween. As we come across any Spanish words in the story we are going to stop and talk about what we think it means based on the context clues in the story. You may figure out the Spanish word by reading ahead, looking at the words around it, or looking at the pictures. For each Spanish word that we come across, I want you to write the word down and what you think the meaning of the word is based off the context clues. These papers will then be turned in after the lesson is over.Using context clues will help improve your reading skills. By using context clues, you can increase your vocabulary, save yourself a trip to the dictionary, and improve your overall reading comprehension.

Book Talk: The Name Jar

Journal: The Talented Clementine--by: Sara Pennypacker

I felt that The Talented Clementine sent out a really positive message. Every child is unique and has their own talents. It just takes time for some children to realize what they are really talented at. This book showed that even the children who seem to be the most untalented in the classroom can have talent if they just look deep within themselves. With Clementine's 3rd grade talent show on the way, she is nervous about not having a talent; however, her surprising hidden talent ends up saving the talent show in the end.

I love how Clementine is always herself and that her family is very supportive and caring. I feel that this kind of story will help children realize that it is always good to be yourself no matter what. It will also help children discover that everybody has a talent and that sometimes it just takes time to help children realize what that talent may be.

Journal: Made you look--by: Diane Roberts

I thought this book was a hilarious and filled with real life situations. This is definitely a must read for the middle grade readers because it's something that kids can relate to. Jason's journey to try to get on his favorite game show, Masquerade Mania, was very eventful. When Jason's parents surprise him with a trip to California he is very excited to fly there and get on his game show until he realizes that the family will be camping the whole way in a camper that looks like a sardine. Jason faced all the troubles that young boys his age would face such as: having to deal with annoying siblings, embarassment of his mother turning his underwear pink, and his mother leaving his allosaurus head behind. Everything finally buffed out in the end when Jason got on the show and won a trip to Hawaii and free movie tickets for the whole summer. This book is a great book. Not only does it talk about real life situations, but it also lets kids relate to the feelings of the characters. This book is funny and I feel that every kid will enjoy reading it.