Post date: Sep 24, 2012 8:1:23 PM
We're starting a new series of lessons in our reading work. Students are being asked to develop ideas or thesis statements to follow in their reading. As an example we were reading Number The Stars today and I suggested a thesis statement "Living through a war made people resourceful and creative" as evidence we found references in the story to people in Copenhagen sewing their own clothes, finding wood or coal to burn in small ovens that could be used for heating as well as for cooking and in the story two sisters sleep together to conserve heat. This is the kind of ideas/thesis statements students will be developing and following or researching. The "ideas/thesis statements" should be in the form of a statement. For example, "The main character in this book hates girls" could be a thesis statement, or it could be a broader idea like "We should take care of the environment" (if a student was reading The Lorax) We'll be assigning some homework as well for books students are reading at home in the near future.