This is the second year I have read the Hunger Games with my students…it is a favorite. Today was the day we got to the part of the feast. Clove scared the pants off of everyone, and Thresh is a new favorite character…
I LOVE that my students just want to read “one more page, one more paragraph, one more sentence?!” Even better, they BEG to take the book to their next class. Sorry teaching teammates!
Our learning target this week is using context clues. We have been focusing on that concept/skill since day one, but this book offers a ton of opportunities for students to use context clues to determine meanings of unknown words. Today we came to words like scant, incoherence, tethered, plummeting, poised, etc. My students were using context clue strategies like crazy. It was exciting to observe.
Identifying meaning of unknown words using context clues is an important skill for young readers to develop. Over the years I have used several instructional approaches to context clues. One tool I developed myself are context clue task cards. These have been very helpful and easy to integrate for my needs. Click the image below to learn more…
With a day full of “context cluing” I thought it might be fun to share some songs from the movie that they could continue to practice their strategies with. While this song doesn’t possess many words that require using context clues, I thought it was a really cool video that my students will enjoy.
Last year we had the opportunity to take the students to see the Hunger Games movie after completing the novel in the theater the day after opening day. We were a bit bent on giving this year’s crew the same learning opportunity as one aspect of common core is comparing and contrasting print and non-print text.
This year a local theater is giving us the opportunity to rent out one of their theater rooms so that the students have the chance to see the movie in the theater setting at a fairly low cost… PRETTY COOL! Don’t ever be afraid to ask…people love to help out teachers!
