Activating and Connecting to Background Knowledge

Fred Stays with Me, by Nancy Coffelt and illustrated by Tricia Tusa
This story follows a little girls life who is changing because her parents are recently divorced. The one thing that stays common in her life through out the changes is Fred, her beloved dog. Fred goes with her to different houses, sleeps with her in different beds, and celebrates different things and events with her. Fred never leaves her. Fred is the stability and the happiness in her life at this time. Fred becomes her constant family. Even though this book is very simple, it reflects such a tramatic thing like divorce in a light and happy way.

Strategy: Text to World

Even though not all children can say that they have parents that are divorced, I bet that they all know someone that has divorced parents. Because of this overwhelming change in society, its something that students may be curious about and ask questions. Not only is this book great for discussing divorce with children, its also great to help them see worldly connections. They can put their post it by a page that reminds them of something they have seen from friends or on TV and movies.

I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting off a Little Self-Esteem, By Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell

This book was given to me by my cooperating teacher when I took a course called Cadet Teaching back in high school and I think its a book that every parent or teacher should read to their kids at one time or another. This book describes every day common things that kids can like about themselves even if they aren't the most popular and likeable things. Big toes, being slow, dressing yourself, sharing with friends, eating new foods, and the list goes. These examples are just some of the things discussed in this cute and colorful book about liking yourself.

Strategy: Text to Self

I guarantee that this book has at least one thing that a student can relate to. Whether its having big feet or being chosen last to be on a team at recess. Because every student has some sort of insecurities and times when they can remember overcoming them, I thought this book was perfect for them to make text to self connections by once again placing a post it note when they remember that one time they felt the exact same way as the characters in the story. Hopefully by making this connection to themselves they will see they aren't alone in being scared on the first day of school or trying a new food at dinner.

Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella, By Susan Lowell, Illustrated by Jane Manning

Cindy Ellen is a lonely and over worked girl who's dad married a scary women with two scary and evil daughters. They constantly make her clean the ranch and take care of the sisters. One day a big "Bing Bang" happened and her fairy godmother appeared with a golden pistol that turned her into a beautiful queen that she is on the inside. She then went off to rodeo to try and win the rancher's son heart, while her evil step sisters watch on with disgust! I'm sure this story is starting to sound familiar, and I even bet that you can guess what happens in the ending. This is such a cute and creative way to expand on the typical Cinderella story that we are all used to.

Strategy: Text to Text

I picked this book for the text to text connection because I thought it was a very obvious connection that could clear up any confusion in the class about what exactly a text to text connection is. This story has a very similar story line to the classic Cinderella with just a few changes here and there such as having a golden spur instead of a glass slipper. I also thought that this book would be a good introduction to the concept of Text to Text in the classroom because the connections are very apparent and in your face. As you read this story out loud to your students, or they read it to themselves, sticking a simple post it note to areas that they make connections to really drives the point home of how easy and fun connections can be.