Reading Without Walls Challenge, Part 2

We began our Reading Without Walls challenge with a "topic" challenge.  (See my previous post).  This week had us digging in to the "character" and "format" challenges.

We discussed how a character might look different:
  • Hair or eye color
  • Length of hair
  • Skin color
  • Clothing - it could be from a different country or period of time
We discussed how a character might live differently:
  • The story takes place in a different time.
  • The character has a different culture and celebrates different holidays.
  • We don't play the same things.  For example, I am an indoor kid and like to play video games.  I am not like kids that like to run around outside and play.
  • We speak different languages.
  • The character isn't human.
  • The character has an accent.
  • The character lives in the forest.
  • The character is homeless.  I have a house.

1st and 2nd grade students looked for a character challenge book and brought it to the rug.  On the rug students shared their choices and reasoning:

I don't run around in underwear and I don't have super powers.
I have 2 brothers and Greg has 1.
It takes place on an island.  I don't live on an island.
My Nana doesn't live in the city
I draw better than he does
He doesn't like broccoli and I do.

In 3rd-5th grade we also discussed what the format challenge was.  We talked about how we were going to challenge ourselves to read in a format that we don't usually read in.  For example, we talked about how if we typically read nonfiction books, we would try a graphic novel or a fiction book.  We talked about our options - everybody books (picture books), biographies, or even a magazine.

3rd-5th grade students were then directed to locate a character and a format challenge book and decide which one they would take home this week.  They brought these to me and I took their picture with their book of choice.  They told me which kind of challenge book it was.  This served as a great check-in and assessment - did they understand what they were looking for?  For the most part, yes, they did.

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