Odder
By Katherine Applegate.
Published in 2022 by Feiwel and Friends.
Embedded Files
Silly, Playful, Heart-warming, Quick read, Poetry.
Silly, Playful, Heart-warming, Quick read, Poetry.
You might like this book if...
You might like this book if...
You are interested in marine life and animal rescue.
You like reading poetry.
You want to learn how to read free verse poetry.
You enjoy books with themes about family.
Summary
Summary
Explore the life of Odder, a sea otter, through free-verse poetry. Learn about Odder’s life in the ocean and with humans, who rescue her on more than one occasion from the dangers of the ocean. This story also tells the tale of Odder’s best friend, Kairi, and how they can make a positive impact on the next generation of sea otters by acting as surrogate mothers to pups who need them.
CCSS Standard
CCSS Standard
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.4.4.b
Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
Recommended Delivery
Recommended Delivery
Read Aloud
Read Aloud
Why read this book aloud to the class?
Providing a model of fluent reading is beneficial for students, and will help them when they select a poem to read orally.
Appropriate prosody, including intonation, expression, and how phrases are grouped together increases students' listening comprehension.
Poetry is excellent for reading aloud, given the rhythm and rhyme.
Comprehension Strategies
Comprehension Strategies
Before
Before
Build schema.
Students will learn about sea otters on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's website. They will share one main idea that they learned about sea otters that they did not know before. They can share verbally, or on a website like padlet.
Then, deliver this mini-lesson from readwritethink.org. The lesson teaches students the differences between poetry and prose. Extend or adapt the mini lesson to specifically discuss free verse poetry. The main identifying qualities of free verse are:
Organized to convey the musical effects of rhythm and sound,
BUT without sticking to a set structure. Lines can be of different lengths, and each line does not have to rhyme.
Often uses repetition, alliteration, assonance, imagery, and some rhyme.
During
During
Comprehension monitoring: metacognition.
During the read-aloud, explicitly model and guide students to practice comprehension monitoring, as described on the Reading Rockets website.
Where is the difficult or confusing part? Identify a page number, paragraph, or line.
What is difficult or confusing? "I don't understand..."
Restate the difficult part. "When the author says... they really mean..."
Look back through the text to search for a forgotten detail, or to re-read a pertinent section of the text.
Read ahead when the answer does not seem to be in the section of the text that was already read. Look for headings, titles, and other text features to get an idea if the confusion can be cleared up by just continuing to read.
After
After
Students read aloud.
First, students will practice reading the poem out loud before performing it in front of an audience. Listed below are strategies and ways to practice.
Read in front of a mirror.
Read to a pet or a stuffed animal.
Read to a friend, parent, or teacher.
Audio or videotape while reading and then listen back.
Look up the meaning and pronunciation of unfamiliar or unknown words.
After practicing a few times, students will be ready to perform their poems!
Repeated oral reading improves fluency, which, in turn, improves text comprehension. Additionally, performing a poem for the class is an authentic reason for students to practice oral reading.
Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt
Using Odder as a model text, students will write a free verse poem about an animal of their choice. The poem must have a title, and should include at least 4 out of 5 of these elements:
Imagery to describe the habitat or the animal's behavior.
Rhyme or partial rhyme.
Repetition of a key word or phrase.
Alliteration or assonance.
A musical sound; a sense of rhythm.
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