Planning for Reading and Writing Instruction

As I am thinking about all the things that will need to happen during language arts time in my future classroom, I am kind of overwhelmed. I know that by the time I get there, I will have the skills I need to organize, plan, and construct lessons that will help my students reach goals, but right now, it scares me to death.

One thing I do want to make sure to incorporate in my class is a literature focus. I like the idea of centering all lessons on a piece of literature. One novel that I will consider for 3rd or 4th grade is Because of Winn Dixie. My mentor teacher and her students just finished this book. She bought them all a copy as their Christmas present and they have been reading it out loud since then. She doesn't use the book as a focus for ALL of her subjects, but bases a lot of her language arts instruction on it.

I think Winn Dixie will be a good choice because there is a lot to work with. The characters' voices are all very distinct and they all have different points-of-views. The author writes a lot of details and includes imagery that allows you to picture the scenes in your head. The family in the book is not perfect which is good because a lot of students in my class will not have "regular" families and will be able to relate to the book.

I think it will be tough to find ways to incorporate the book into other subjects like math or science, but I'm sure with a little creativity, it can be done. The characters walk a lot in the book, so maybe adding up miles walked or mapping where the characters walked would work. There is plenty to work with on the language arts/writing end. Theme, tone, point-of-view, detail, and symbolism are just some of the many topics that could be covered.

This little bit of brainstorming has me excited to think about other books and other activities that I can use in my classroom. If only I had the time to write them all down...