In exploring our Historical Fiction books, both our classroom books and student selected books, we are continuing to focus on the point of view of main characters in the stories. In doing so, students gain insight into the story, events, other characters, and increase comprehension. They also gain knowledge that allows them to INFER, or make “smart guesses” about thoughts characters may be having, opinions on an event they may have had, or motivations for actions.
A frequent activity after reading is for students to take the perspective of a character or even make up a fictional animal or person in the story to discuss how they felt and thoughts about the story.
Some of the roles students have taken on recently are: Sacagaw
ea, Seaman- Lewis’ dog on the Lewis & Clark expedition, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son James. And look for more to come! You can view scanned journal entries form the students as their character’s identities under “Reader’s Workshop Journals” at the top of the blog. Enjoy!