LESSON STRATEGIES
Strategy 1: Hot Seat
Hot seat is a role-playing activity that builds students’ comprehension. Students assume the persona of a character in a story and sit in the chair designated as the “hot seat” to be interviewed by classmates. It’s called hot seat because students have to think quickly to respond to their classmates’ questions and comments as though they were the character from the story.
Strategy 2: Interactive Read Aloud
Interactive read alouds are the best way for teachers to share books with students. The focus is on comprehension, and interpretation is enhanced because students are engaged in the reading process before, during, and after reading. This book could be introduced and activate students’ background knowledge in outer space, cats, friendships and relationships, and making important choices before beginning to read. Next, the teacher could engage students while they read aloud through brief discussion and other activities. Then after reading, they provide opportunities for students to respond to the book. What’s most important is how teachers engage students while they’re reading aloud (Fisher, Flood, Lapp, & Frey, 2004).
Strategy 3: Guided Reading
This strategy involves introducing the book and then reading the book. The students then talk about the book, ask questions, and relate it to others readings about friendship, overcoming obstacles, and decision making. After reading other texts, revisit this book and ask the same questions to see how the students would respond to the reading after learning more about the topic.
Strategy 4: Sustained Silent Reading
Sustained silent reading would be an effective strategy for this book given that it is paired with the appropriate reading level of the student. This book may not be for everyone based on the vocabulary and length and content and so I think it would be best if it is self-selected based on reading level and interest.
Strategy 5: Double-Entry Journals
This activity would give students the chance to write quotes down in one column as they are reading. After rereading the quotes they have selected, they reflect in the second column and explain the importance and reasoning behind picking those quotes. By using double-entry journals it prepares students for discussion in class to talk about points in the story that they found interesting or important.
Strategy 6: Open Mind Portraits
Open mind portraits allow students to think deeply about a character and any events from the character’s view point. In this text they have the option of choosing any character from this book. They will draw the characters face on the first page and on the thinking pages they will draw the character’s mind. This will help students think about how others feel in friendships, overcoming challenges, decision making and more.
Strategy 7: Story Board
After reading the story as a class, the teacher will use the illustrations in the book and attach the pages on pieces of cardboard. Then as a whole class, the students will place the illustrations in the order that they appeared in the book. This will help students visualize the number and the sequence in which the numbers are ordered. For this book, I think it would be especially helpful to first have the students help the teacher number cards 1-20 and place them in order and then match up the pictures with the numbers to have even more practice with numbers. If there are 20 students in the class, each student could have a sheet to place in the correct spot. If there are more than 20 students, they could pair up and help each other determine the correct order
Strategy 8: Powerful Passages
Students go through a book that was just read and select a passage they found particularly powerful. The students then meet first in pairs and then in a larger group to discuss their selections. The students can then present the passage to the entire class. This strategy is a great idea because the students can come up with vastly different passages or several key passages. Either option allows the class to hone in on specific parts of the story. This strategy would tie in nicely with this book because there are so many different key points to choose from that present many lessons to learn and a variety of concepts that may strike a chord with students.
Strategy 9: Circle of Viewpoints
The students, either individually or in larger groups, pick a character and discuss how that character must have felt about certain events and occurrences throughout the book. The classroom then comes together and each individual or spokesman of the group gets the chance to share how the specific character felt during different points in the story. This is a great activity to start getting students to think about other perspectives (such as Felis, Morgan, Captain de La Lande, Morgan’s Parents, alley cats, Felis’s classmates, etc.) when reading through the text. By discussing the reasoning behind why different characters may choose to do something may be a way for students to understand that there is more than one perspective.
Strategy 10: Retelling Picture Books
This lesson assists students in retelling the story with the explanation of each character that is in the book. It can help students remember the setting and characters really well in the book and if a student is able to retell it, then it can help students understand the book concepts. This extra guidance with a book that has a fictional galaxy and characters would be extremely helpful for younger readers.
Strategy 11: Graphic Organizer
Graphic organizers are a visual way to display the relationship among ideas and events in a piece of literature. Graphic organizers help students to organize information and learn text structures. In this strategy, students would create a story map of the order events that take place such as Felis is sent on a mission, Felis is transported, Felis arrives on Earth, etc.
Strategy 12: Book Bits
Book Bits would be a good strategy for this book to get students predicting what will happen after hearing bits of the book. Students receive bits from the book which peaks curiosity, stimulates thinking, and promotes active engagement. This strategy also promotes curiosity because students would receive the book bits before reading the book. This also causes the students to make inferences about characters, the setting, and what is happening in the story.
Strategy 13: Making Words
This lesson would be a good strategy for this book because it involves words that may be difficult for young children that are starting to read. Students arrange letter cards to spell words. The teacher would pick the words form the book that demonstrate particular phonics concepts or spelling patterns for students to practice. Students would use the letter cards to spell words containing two, three, four, five, six, or more letters and list the words they can spell on a chart.
Strategy 14: Cover Clues
In this strategy, students hypothesize what the book is about based on the first image the students have of the book—the cover. In groups of 2 or 3 students ask the students to describe what their small group believes will occur based on the title (which is rather tricky seeing there is a neologism present (Emeowment)) and cover of the book. It may be a good idea to discuss the word “embark” prior to reading this book. After letting the students converse for several minutes in their small groups, ask each group to share with the large group what their small group discussed and what their prediction for the book is based on the cover and title. After reading the book, return to these predictions that the students made before reading the book to see if the students’ predictions were true to what happened in the book. I think it would be interesting to hear what the students would predict this book to be about because honestly I would not be too certain what it would be about based on its cover. After reading the book the students would compare and contrast what the book is about to what they predicted it to be about.
Strategy 15: Concrete Experiences
Teachers ask students to connect a theme of the story with something that has happened in their lives. For The Emeowment of Felis, teachers could ask students to connect with the Felis or Morgan. Students could tell the class how they have wanted a pet and asked their parents as Morgan did, have been confused or faced a hard decision like Felis.
Strategy 16: KWL
It would be nice for the students to think about prior knowledge before reading the book to get them thinking about what the book will entail and then write down what they have learned. K-what I know about cats, constellations, friendships, decision making, astronomers, etc. W-what I want to learn about cats, constellations, friendships, decision making, astronomers, etc. L-what I have learned about cats, constellations, friendships, decision making, astronomers
Strategy 17: Grand Conversations
This strategy allows students to discuss the story and reflect on how they felt during different parts of the story. Students are able to talk about their opinions and support them with details from the story.
Strategy 18: Cubing
First, students would describe on a worksheet the book after reading the book and then after learning scientific and historic materials regarding galaxies, constellations, and astronomers in another column on the worksheet. Students could then compare and contrast the factual material to the fictional book by looking at their worksheet with their ideas of each side by side. Students can apply their knowledge from both forms of the story and determine what can be done with this knowledge. They can then decide whether they like the fictional book or the factual material better or if they like them both equally and give reasoning as to why.