LITERATURE

  The 5 th graders use literature books, which provide a richer exposure to language and vocabulary, and influence their writing ability. The students choose a book from a selection of three and then meet on a daily basis in small groups to discuss the previous night's assigned reading. The following is a list of themes I have chosen for this year's literature circles.

Courage and Adventure surviving in different environments:

Call It Courage – whole class book

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Sign of the Beaver

Hatchet

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Brian's Winter

A Single Shard

Different types of families:

A Lion to Guard Us – whole class book (historical fiction)

Summer of the Swans

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

The Great Gilly Hopkins

Sounder

Because of Winn Dixie

A Year Down Yonder

Pictures of Hollis Woods

World War II and the Holocaust:

Number the Stars – whole class book

Independent literature based on the Holocaust

The Classics :

Where the Red Fern Grows

Summer of the Monkeys

Old Yeller

The Secret Garden

Fantasy:

The Giver

Tuck Everlasting

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Among the Hidden

Good Literature:

 Walk Two Moons

Belle Prater's Boy

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