DRAFT
This unit is designed to help our students look deeper into books as they continue to read with their clubs. These plans were developed within input from Maggie Moon, Rob Ross,
Lucy Calkins, Beth Corrigan and the coaches with whom they work. The work was also informed by the work of Katherine and Randy Bomer in their book For a Better World,
Reading and Writing for Social Action and the work of Cathy Doyle and others. You’ll probably notice that the plans are not as detailed as those you have received in the past.
We hope and expect that by now, you will be comfortable developing your own minilessons. We are also helping your coaches to provide you with support.
Purposes:
 To learn how to read with a lens
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For students to think about issues in the world and to read to become more informed about them
To give students more time to improve their book club conversations
To help students build stamina and independence in their book club conversations
For students to make and revise interpretations
To make connections between texts
To have students better understand their own personal experiences and to reach out beyond just their own personal experiences
To help students see how this reading helps them to be stronger members of the classroom community
To encourage students to debate and work towards solutions to problems in their classroom, community and world
To help students plan authentic projects that make a difference in their lives and the lives of others (taking social action)
Some Issues that Clubs May Study:
 Bullying
 Fitting In/Being New
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Not having friends/Trouble with friends
Growing Up
Homelessness
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Poverty
Divorce
Family Issues
Racism/Discrimination
Peer Pressure
Animal Rights
Loss
Recycling/Environmental Issues
Building Community
Illiteracy
Read Aloud:
A day or two before the study begins, the teacher starts a new whole class read aloud text that has a clear and high interest ‘Social Issue’ inside of it for students to discuss. We recommend starting with a picture book like The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson,
Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen, or The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills and then moving to some shorter chapter books such as Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business or
Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on Me?
You might argue that these books are better suited to younger readers and it is certainly fine to select more complex ones; we only suggest the early chapter books but their brevity means that in short order, kids will be talking between texts. Because this unit of study is designed to encourage kids to see how one social issue plays out across several texts, it is important that the teacher reads aloud 3-5 texts across this unit. The unit spotlights talking about and between texts and so the teacher will want to facilitate her students in turn-and-talk partnership conversations in response to the read aloud, as well as whole class conversations about those books.
This unit is a good time to emphasize the importance of accountable talk. You may want to emphasize conversational prompts such as these…
Accountable Talk Social Issues
“I think this isn’t fair because…”
“Why do you think that?”
“I want to add on to what…”
“Another example of the same thing is…”
“I see what you’re saying…”
“What you are saying is making me change my first ideas because now I am realizing…”
“But couldn’t you read this differently and say…”
“I agree…”
“I disagree…”
At the beginning of the study, the teacher will probably want to help her students think about social issues that lie inside texts (for example, in The Other Side by Jacqueline
Woodson, we can pay attention to the divisions between groups, or in Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business we can pay attention to Junie B.’s tendency to bully. We can also help students see how there are often multiple issues inside one text (In The Other
Side we can explore other issues like peer pressure and people having power over other
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DRAFT people). As the study progresses, the teacher could help her students see how they can connect what they are learning about the social issues in the books to what really happens in the world.
The following teaching points can be used as minilessons, mid-workshop interruptions, and/or teaching shares. Your minilessons will probably begin with you reminding kids of what they’ve been studying. You will want to name what you plan to teach. You will probably use demonstration to teach a strategy you hope the kids use often, and you will often give them a chance to try this out in the minilesson before reminding them that the strategy you have taught that day, along with all the others they’ve learned, can become part of the readers’ ongoing repertoire. We know that by this time in the year, you can create your own minilessons.
Ideally across the unit, each club reads the same 3-5 texts around the same issue. For example, one club studying fitting in may all read Junie B. Jones First Grader At Last,
Marvin Redpost Why Pick on Me?, My Name is Maria Isabel, and Pinky and Rex across the 4 weeks. If there are not enough multiple copies of books for kids to read them at the same time, kids can swap books that address the same issue and talk even though only some members of the club will have read any one text.
In social issue book clubs, small groups of children will read a bunch of books that all highlight the same issue. For example, one group might read books about people who have trouble fitting in. Meanwhile, another group might be reading books about people who are homeless. The groups may not have multiple copies of books, and that is okay. They can read the books in succession, and talk together about the issue. You will need to decide if these are ability-based groups or mixed ability groups, and make sure that children have books they can read.
Different teachers come up with the issues and find related books differently. Some teachers find ways for kids to be part of the process of determining what the issues will be or of rounding up texts that address the issue. Other teachers create baskets of books that address a topic, and steer kids who read at a particular level toward the topic (and the basket) that will work for them.
Readers Learn How to Study an Issue in a Text:
Session 1: Readers carry different lenses as they read.
In this session we can teach children that they can revisit books they’ve read before, looking at those books with new lenses. Specifically, they can notice that the stories in these books highlight social issues. The teacher could make this point by rereading an excerpt from one or two familiar books. For example, Charlotte’s Web is not just a story of an inventive spider. It is also a story about friends banding together to support each other, and about personal sacrifice.
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Perhaps on this day, children are sitting with their clubs but they do not have any one issue yet, nor do they have their club books. They can, as a club, get used to reading any book thinking, “What social issues are there hiding within this book?” They can do this by reading and rereading from bins of books we set on each table. They can ask themselves, “What big issues do I find in this story? What am I learning about this issue?” and post-it their discoveries as they read forward in their books. Then kids can talk during partnership time about what they find in their books. Out of this conversation, you (the teacher) can discover amazing issues that exist in these books, and construct baskets (presumably leveled baskets) of books that go together by social issue. For example, you might have a basket of LM books (with an easier one or two thrown in) that address Kindness and Unkindness to Animals.
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Session 2: Clubs begin to identify together what issue they are studying as they start a new book.
Today you will teach readers that if they find an issue in a book, it helps to read with that issue in mind, looking for aspects of the book that address that issue.
Session 3: Readers read with a lens in order to become more informed about that issue. They can ask themselves, What am I learning about this issue? and post-it their discoveries as they read forward in their books.
Session: Readers ask themselves, “Is this fair?”
We can teach students to notice when something isn’t fair in their stories. Children can post-it the parts that don’t seem fair and discuss those parts with their groups. For example, in Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, Junie takes things from her friends in exchange for letting them see her baby brother. Children might ask themselves,
“Is this fair?” When Junie gets in trouble with her teacher, children can ask themselves again, “Is this fair?”
Session 4: Readers consider how there are often two sides of an issue. One character’s perspective may be very different from another’s.
We teach students that readers recognize that anything that happens can be told from more than one point of view. Readers try to “put themselves in the other person’s shoes,” by thinking about one character’s perspective, and then switching and thinking about a different character’s perspective. This helps us understand the story.
For example, in Jamaica Tag-Along we can try to see things from the big brother’s perspective to understand why he treats Jamaica the way he does. In Junie B. Jones we can try to see things from her friends’ point of view to understand why it’s wrong to take things.
Readers Study Characters to Learn More about Their Issue and to Have Longer
Club Conversations
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Session 5: Readers identify the main characters and secondary characters and consider their roles in the story, as well as consider the problems faced by the characters in their books.
We teach students that often the problem that the main character faces is a problem that exists in the world as well. It is helpful to think about the groups that the character belongs to (abused kids, gender, farmers) and to think whether the character is encountering difficulties because of his or her membership in a group. Social issues are issues that people have because of the groups to which they belong.
Session 6: Readers consider character motivation and the interactions between characters, and how it connects to the social issue they are studying.
We teach children to try to figure out what motivates a character to make choices or do the things they do. We can ask children to consider the reasons behind a character’s actions. We teach children to put themselves in a character’s shoes by paying attention to and talking about the problems the character is facing and the conditions that lead to a situation. We teach them to ask themselves what would it be like if they were that character. They might have conversations that go, “If I were this character I would have done…” “If I were this other character I would have thought…”
Session: Readers are on the lookout for stereotypes .
One option: We teach children to mark places where we think one character is stereotyping another character. We teach students that a red flag should go up in their mind when a character thinks that all the members of a group are the same in some way.
We teach them to pay attention to the things that characters say to each other that show that they think all the members of a group are the same. We teach them how to jot down what the stereotype is and discuss it with their club. For example, in Dudley Pippin and the Principal from Free to Be You and Me Dudley says, “Only sissies cry.” We can teach students to notice when a character believes something is always true for a whole group of people.
Another Option: We also notice the places where the author has chosen to have a character act in a stereotypical way and we question the author’s choice. For example, in
Miss Nelson is Missing , the author chooses to have the nice teacher be the pretty, petite blonde woman, and the mean teacher is the teacher with a wart on her chin, black hair, and a big nose. We teach students to “talk back to the text” by jotting down questions about stereotypes to the author such as, “Why does this character…” “Why didn’t this character…”
Session 7: As readers move from one book to the next, they carry their thinking about the issue with them. (This teaching point should come right before most clubs are ready to end their first book and move on to their second.)
Session 8: Readers pay attention to and talk about the conditions that lead to a character’s situation. They also talk about how their character is facing or solving their problems.
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Session 9: Readers keep their post-its and their jottings (in a Reader’s Notebook) organized and with them during club conversations.
Readers Make Connections Across Texts
Session 10: Club members think about the issue in their book and in their previous books and compare what they are learning. Is it the same? Is it different? Are there patterns? Is the issue treated realistically?
Session 11: Readers consider how other issues relate to their issue in order to lengthen conversations. Club members also change their own mind often because of listening to someone else’s ideas that challenge their own.
We might mix up the clubs a little on this day and have children teach each other about the issues they’ve been studying. Consider putting two students from one club with two students from another club. We might give students a little time the day before to prepare what they are going to say to the other clubs. We also teach students that club members change their mind after listening to someone else’s ideas.
Session 12: Readers think about how their own life experiences relate to and help them better understand the issue inside their texts.
Session 13: Readers think about the author’s point of view and/or the author’s message as they read and they compare how different authors portray the same issue.
Session 14: Readers bring what they learn from other sources to help them understand their club issue more.
Readers Accumulate Their Thinking and Begin Final Projects
Session 15: Readers name their ‘Big Ideas’ about their issues and make
generalizations from reading across many texts.
In this session we teach children that readers often make a statement or claim about the issue by saying, “The idea I’m having about this is…” For example, after reading several texts on fitting in, a student might form the big idea, “It’s important to be yourself no matter what.” Students can have conversations about their big ideas, using their notes from the text as support for their ideas.
Session 16 -20: Readers often take action
In the last week or so of the unit, we can teach children that often readers decide to do something about the issue they’ve been reading about. The last part of this unit could go in many directions, depending on how much time you would like to spend on it, the resources you have available, and the goals you have in doing this project. The project could be short and to the point (posters, fliers, letter writing), or more involved (skits,
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DRAFT videos, presentations). It’s up to you to decide what you’re goals are for this part of the unit. The following are some ideas for teaching the last part of this unit:
Introduce the Project
To introduce the project, you might give students an example of something you’ve read a lot about and decided to take action (For example, you read a lot about homelessness and you decided to volunteer at a shelter, you read a lot about how important recycling is and so now you make sure to recycle). Tell students that one way readers take action is by teaching others about their issue, by telling the story of their issue to the world. Give students time to formulate a theory about their issue and discuss ideas for how they could tell the story of their issue to the world.
Possible Final Projects:
Art: Posters, Flyers, Brochures, Displays
Media: Commercials, Newsletters, Creating a Class Newspaper, Press Release
Internet: Website (go to Scholastic.com), Pen Pals, Research Presentation
Oral Presentations : Panel Discussion, Role-Playing Interviews, Debates, Speeches
Action: Students volunteer at a local homeless shelter or soup kitchen, students create a school food drive, write letters to politicians or newspapers, create a whole school assembly presentation, volunteer at a hospital, hospice or retirement home.
Develop a rubric for what will be expected in the final project
Using a blank rubric with various criteria, decide as a class what will be acceptable as far as format, presentation/participation, and content of the final project. Emphasize that the goal is to effectively tell the story of their issue to the world (or as many people as they can).
Children work on their final projects (could be more than one session, or take place outside/in addition to Reading Workshop)
Children present their final projects (could be more than one session, or take place outside/in addition to Reading Workshop)
Readers reflect on how their thinking has changed by reading, studying and talking together.
Children reflect by discussing what they’ve learned from their reading with their clubs and assess each other’s and their own project using the rubric they developed earlier.
Another option would be to mix up the groups and have them discuss what they’ve learned with another group.
Clubs talk together about how their thinking on a particular issue has changed and grown by reading, studying and talking together. They pay attention to how their thinking about the issue changes when the story is resolved.
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Bibliography for Book Clubs Around Social Issues
Bullying
Crash
King of the Playground
Priscilla and the Wimps
Riding the Tiger
Jerry Spinelli
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
U
Richard Peck
Eve Bunting
Betsy Duffy How to Be Cool in Third
Grade
Freak the Mighty
Junie B. Jones and a Little
Monkey Business
Rodman Philbrick
Barbara Park
N
M
Louis Sachar M Marvin Redpost: Why Pick on
Me?
Fitting In/Being New
My Name is Maria Isabel
Little by Little
Flip-Flop Girl
The Hundred Dresses
Loser
Maniac Magee
The Monument
Freckle Juice
Freak the Mighty
Chalk Box Kid
Blubber
Marvin One Too Many
Fame and Glory in Freedom,
Georgia
Alma Flor Ada
Jean Little
Katherine Paterson
Eleanor Estes
Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli
Gary Paulsen
Judy Blume
Rodman Philbrick
Robert Clyde Bulla
Judy Blume
Katherine Paterson
Barbara O’Connor
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Growing Up
Knots on a Yo-Yo String
The Giving Tree
Just Us Women
Eleven
Fig Pudding
Jerry Spinelli
Shel Silverstein
Janette Caines
Sandra Cisneros (from
Woman Hollering Creek)
Ralph Fletcher R
U
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W
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DRAFT
The Last Kiss
Friendship
The Other Side
Junie B. Jones series
Accidental Lily series
Yoko and Friends series
Ralph Fletcher
Jacqueline Woodson
Barbara Park
Sally Warner
Rosemary Wells
Mr. Putter and Tabby series Cynthia Rylant
Henry and Mudge series Cynthia Rylant
Poppleton series
Minnie and Moo series
Cynthia Rylant
Denis Cazyt
Because of Winn-Dixie
Homelessness
Fly Away Home
Kate DiCamillo
Eve Bunting
Slake’s Limbo
Monkey Island
Felice Hoffman
Paula Fox
The Family Under the Bridge Natalia Carlson
Poverty
The Most Beautiful Place in the World
Tight Times
J.T.
Sidewalk Story
Sable
Just Juice
Out of the Dust
Bud, Not Buddy
A Year Down Yonder
The Most Beautiful Place in the World
Divorce
Arthur for the Very First
Time
Accidental Lily series
My Mother Got Married (and
Other Disasters)
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Zachary’s Divorce
Ann Cameron
Barbara Shook Hazen
Jane Wagner
Sharon Bell Mathis
Karen Hesse
Patricia MacLachlan
Sally Warner
Barbara Park
Beverly Cleary
Linda Sitea (from Free to Be You and Me )
V
R
M
J
J
J
J
O
Karen Hesse
Karen Hesse
Q
X
Christopher Paul Curtis T
Richard Peck
Ann Cameron
Q
N
O
Family Issues
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Pinballs
Tangerine
Betsy Byars
Edward Bloor
The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros
Felita Nicholasa Mohr
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Skylark
Baby
Walk Two Moons
Racism/Discrimination
The Other Side
Iggie’s House
White Socks Only
Mouse Rap
Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan
Sharon Creech
Jacqueline Woodson
Judy Blume
Evelyn Coleman
Walter Dean Myers
Peer Pressure
Holes
Stargirl
Wringer
Fourth Grade Rats
Blubber
Tales of a Fourth Grade
Nothing
Riding the Tiger
Louis Sachar
Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli
Judy Blume
Judy Blume
Eve Bunting
Animal Rights
Every Living Thing
Shiloh series
Tiger Rising
Cynthia Rylant
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Kate DiCamillo
Loss/Loneliness
Bridge to Teribithia
Mick Harte was Here
Katherine Paterson
Barbara Park
A Taste of Blackberries
Flying Solo
Doris B. Smith
Ralph Fletcher
An Angel for Solomon Singer Cynthia Rylant
The Island of the Blue Dolphins Scott O’Dell
Charlotte’s Web
E.B. White
Love You Soldier Amy Hest
The Graduation of Jake Moon Barbara Park
Missing May Cynthia Rylant
Recycling/Environmental Issues
Hoot Carl Hiassen
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The Great Kapok Tree
Who Killed Cock Robin?
The Lorax
A River Ran Wild
Building Community
The Other Side
Donovan’s Word Jar
Seedfolks
Aunt Chip and the Great
Triple Creek Dam Affair
Chicken Sunday
Gracie Graves and the Kids from Room 402
How to Live Forever
The Memory Box
Something Beautiful
Illiteracy
Thank You Mr. Faulker
The Most Beautiful Place in the World
Just Juice
More Than Anything Else
The Wednesday Surprise
Lynne Cherry
Jean Craighead
George
Dr. Seuss
Lynne Cherry
Jacqueline Woodson
Monalisa DeGross
Paul Fleischman
Patricia Polacco
Patricia Polacco
Michael Paraskevas
Colin Thompson
Mary Kay Shanley
Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Patricia Polacco
Ann Cameron
Karen Hesse
Marie Bradby
Eve Bunting
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