I love using literature to teach. It gives me a jumping off point to teach vocabulary and story grammar.
It Takes A Village by Jane Cowen-Fletcher Book Companion is a great story that is set in an African village. Yemi is given the responsibility of watching her younger brother Kokou however he wanders off. Read the story to hear what happens and how the saying, “It takes a village” is so true.
There are many Common Core standards that this unit covers over multiple days
Day 1: Cultural supports, Venn Diagram, Africa, African marketplace writing prompt and paper for prompt.
We have fun with the set up of the story as we reenact the marketplace. There is a great project using a Venn diagram
Day 2: Read through supports: story grammar visuals for story
It is helpful for the children to learn the structure of a story to assist them in learning how to both comprehend as well as how to do a retell of a story. While you are going through the story point out the story grammar. This set has the visuals to support the student.
Day 3: Re-read, act out, story retell (rubric included)
Day 4: Tier Two vocabulary: ways to teach it, visual supports both large size for classroom support and small size to either use in small group individual session or to put on a binder clip as a vocabulary review for a student
Extras: Parent letter, 5 Lotto Boards with questions for comprehension, Book report rebus, Book report paper
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