THE SALAMANDER ROOM
Introduction: You know how sometimes we just read books straight through
because we are so interested in what is going to happen? For a lot of books
that is the right way to read. But today we are going to read a new book. I
read it last week and as I read I found myself loving to linger on every page.
The words and the illustrations just made me want to slow down and use my
imagination. So as we share this book together that is what we are going to
do.
Let’s begin lingering with the author. The author is Anne Mazer . I wanted to
see if I could find out anything about her. I will tell you one thing that I
learned. When she was a kid she loved to spend all her time outdoors
collecting nature things. She still likes to be outdoors. I thought you’d like to
know this as we read this book because it is an outdoorsy kind of a book. I
can just imagine Anne Mazer wandering around outdoors as she was thinking
about writing this book.
Before Reading
Title: The title of this book is The Salamander Room. That seems like an
interesting title to me because I don’t usually think of salamanders being in a
room. (Show a picture of a salamander). Where do you think we would usually
find salamanders?
Title: There’s another interesting thing on this page. Do you notice anything
interesting about a rule the author has broken when she wrote the title? I
don’t think we will try to figure this out now but I do wonder why the word
‘the’ is written with a lower case letter at the beginning.
Back Cover: Let’s read the blurb on the back cover. Now let’s imagine the
perfect salamander room. We will take a couple of minutes to brainstorm a
list of what would be in that room. You know, I think that before we even
read this book we should just each make a picture of what we think would be
a perfect salamander room (Display the pictures around the meeting area).
There is one more thing I want us to notice. This book has two illustrators.
They are Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher. They have worked together for 20
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years to illustrate books. After we read this book we will talk about some of
the decisions they had to agree on. But let’s think about that for just a
minute. Let’s open to the title page. I notice that there are leaves and a bug.
I wonder why they chose to put that picture on the title page. What other
pictures might they have put on the page? It is so interesting to stop and
think about all the decisions the illustrators have to make. But let’s go ahead
and read the book.
During Reading: (the book is un-numbered but each new number here is a new
page of the book).
1: What does this page tell us about the habitat of a salamander? Why will
that be important for Brian to know.
2. What else is written about the habitat of a salamander that shows Brian
would know how to care for a salamander? How does Brian make the
salamander seem like a person?
3. Let’s read the page. Now let’s examine the illustration and see if
everything is included that the author mentioned. See, I told you this book
makes me want to linger. Now I want to turn back a page and notice if the
illustrators included everything in that picture.
4. I am going to read this page to you without showing the picture. I want
you to imagine you are one of the illustrators. Quickly sketch what you think
the illustration should look like. (After kids sketch--) Let’s compare our
sketches. See, ours are all different. If we were the illustrators we would
have to collaborate to decide which sketch would be on the page. I think we
will make a quote for this page and hang our sketches around it.
5. Now we will read the page together. When I read this page it was a little
confusing. I noticed that there are two people talking. Can you figure out
who is talking in the first sentence? And who is talking in the second
sentence? Good writers sometimes do this but it can be hard for the
readers. That makes us have to stop and think who is really talking.
Remember when we talked about metacognition? That means that we think
about our thinking as we read. I had to use that to stop and figure out who is
talking.
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6. Let’s name the insects in this illustration. Which other ones could have
been included?
7. I notice the illustration of Brian. It looks like he is thinking deeply. Let’s
talk about what he may be thinking about.
8. Oh, here it is again. What do you notice about the text on this page
(people are talking but it doesn’t tell who is talking). I think we will come
back to this page later and learn how to write the way people talk. But for
now I want us to think about all the things Brian does to solve problems.
9. (Same page as 8) Notice how Brian’s room has changed. Let’s look at the
illustrations to see all the things that were mentioned earlier in the book and
to see what is missing.
10. Notice the perspective in this illustration. Can you figure out what is
going on? (no ceiling but the room is still there)
11. This page has a very long sentence. How is Brian feeling now? How do you
know how he is feeling?
12. Readers need to feel satisfied when the book ends. Do you feel satisfied
with ending? What makes this a good and satisfying ending for the book?
After Reading (Lingering with the book):
1. This book has two illustrators. Let’s study the illustrations again and think
about all the decisions the illustrators had to agree on (i.e., title page—
leaves and a bug. Why did they choose that?). I looked at the website about
these illustrators and found out that they have worked together for 20
years. What do you think it would be like to work together with an illustrator
for 20 years?
2. Notice the structure of the book. Mom asks a question on each page and
Brian answers. Let’s think about how we might use this same structure in
persuasive writing (maybe do a shared persuasive writing for something the
kids want changed in the classroom).
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3. There were several pages in this book where two people were talking but
the author doesn’t say who was talking. Let’s find those pages and decide
how we know who is talking. (I would use this book for a minilesson on writing
dialog)
4. Rereading Purposes: (a) Let’s reread and make note of all the prosody
clues. Then we will practice our own prosody using those clues. (b) reread and
examine the structure (see # 2 for after reading). (c) Let’s reread the book
and then write a different ending.
5. Minilessons: (a) Why we like the book, (b) Decisions the author had to
make, (c) Retelling clues, (d) Vocabulary—words to describe Brian
6. Text innovation (shared writing): Choose an animal to live in the classroom
as a pet. Teacher raises the problem (like Brian’s mom did) and teams of
students write the solution and illustrate their page (will need minilessons on
collaborating as authors/illustrators)
7. Create a diorama of Brian’s room.
8. Author study (a) How her childhood prepared Anne for writing this book.
(b) Compare her writing tips to this book and see if she honored her own
writing tips. (c) Read other books by Mazer or other amphibian books and
compare. Website: amazingmazer.com and related links
9. This book could actually have a sequel. Plan and write a sequel based on
the salamander actually coming and living in Brian’s room.
10. Read tributes to the book. Do a genre study on tributes to books. Then
have students write tributes to books they have read. Notice vocabulary in
the tributes (transformed, yearning, rendered, woodsy hues, luminous) Note:
These tributes are on the back of the book. Interesting reviews can also be
found at Amazon.com
Krystal Bishop, Ed.D.
November 22, 2008
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