Why?

Now, the big question: Why did we chose to focus on the book "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss... well, we chose this book for a variety of reasons:

• The curiosity it inspires! It allows children to see that it is not scary to explore the unknown and ask questions, because even if you end up somewhere you didn't expect, or necessarily want to be, it is a lesson of some sorts

• The book is colourful and engaging in design
 

• The book has rhyming! This keeps children interested and helps introduce them to poetry 
 

• This book engages students in cross-curricular connections. For example, geography, social studies, and history
 

• This book can lead off into a wide variety of lesson plan activities! You can use this book to teach all 4 Language Strands

• Our mentor text = "Oh The Places You'll Go" By: Dr. Suess

• Our supplementary text = "Roster's Off To See The World" By: Eric Carle

• Our media resource = www.360cities.net

• Our lesson plans are multi-modal because we have the following activities: use of media literacy by researching places on the computer, reading aloud, analyzing, critiquing, and comparing two texts with Venn Diagrams, creating acrostic poems, and reflecting on the mentor text with visual and written aids

• As mentioned above, we have digital technology with lesson #1. In this activity students are going onto a website and going on a virtual field trip to places around the world

• Our lesson plan includes critical literacy through lesson #2 and lesson #4. In lesson #2, students are critical in reading by predicting what will happen at the end of the book based on what they have read at the beginning. In lesson #4, students are critical in reading by creating a Venn Diagram to compare 2 books: "Oh the Places You'll Go" and "Roster's Off to See the World"

• Our lesson plan includes traditional literacy through all the lessons. Particularly, through lesson #3 and lesson #5. In lesson #2, students are writing an acrostic poem, and in lesson #5, students are drawing a picture and writing a 2-3 sentence paragraph on where they want to go and why 

 We can justify that we used the 4 Resource Literacy Model because:

• 1. Code Breaker --> we use code breaker in lesson #2. During the read aloud, the teacher pauses throughout the book to engage students in "code breaking" questions such as: What letters make the ___ sound? How is this word used in this context? What colours have been used in the pages?"

• 2. Meaning Maker --> we use the meaning maker again in lesson #2. In lesson #2, the teacher also asks meaning maker questions like "can you predict what the text is about?". We also use meaning maker in lesson #1 when the teacher asks the students to connect the title of the book (Oh The Places You'll Go) to their real life experiences by asking this question: Does this text remind you of something that has happened to you?" 
  
• 3. Reader as text user --> we use reader as text is used in lesson #3. In lesson #3 the teacher answers to question "How would the language/structure change if you were to use these ideas in a poem?". Students are asked to create an acrostic poem in this lesson. In lesson #4, the teacher has students answer the question "How is this text different from/alike the last one we read?" by having student compare 2 books with a Venn Diagram.

• 4. Reader as text critic --> reader as text critic is actively used in lesson #2. The teacher probes students with engaging questions to critique the text. Such questions are "Who does the text represent" and "Why do you think the author chose the particular word/title/illustration?. Furthermore, lesson #5 has students answers the question "What does this text to to me?" via reflecting on a place they want to travel with an activity sheet.