Blog #5

Review 2 children's books and determine what components in the book might affect comprehension because of cultural aspects.

          The first book I chose was I'll Teach My Dog 100 Words by Michael Frith, because it is very reflective of American society and culural values. First, it shows the concept of caring for pets like fish, cat, pig and dogs. It also has animals that are not pets like a moose, bear, mouse, and goose.Finally, it has animals in a zoo. You could teach the difference between wild and domestic animals with a picture sort. Once they understood the concept of a pet, you could teach the care of animal with a web. I invision putting a picture of the animal in the middle, and they cut out from magazines or newspapers, items and actions used to care for a pet. The glue these around the images, and we write the matching vocabulary words underneath.
       The other domestic concept that is found in this book is the idea of an American houses with a fence, the need to paint it, roads, and the maintence of the lawn. Using a two column graphic organizer, the students could draw or post a picture of what their cultures housing is like on the left, and on the right, they can cut out, draw, or post pictures of what the American equivalent is. We can post the vocabulary words next to the images.
     There are societal concepts in this book as well like neighbor, mayor, occupations and hobbies/sports. I would teach these concepts with act it outs, because the movement involved and the location of objects really impact the understanding of the vocabulary word.

      The second book I chose was Olivia Saves The Circus  by Ian Falconer. In this book there are concepts around household living as well, which could be taught the same way or added on to the previous book. This book looks at the indoor living aspects of indoor plumbing and having your own bedroom. You could do a fun lesson around uniforms and accessorizing by having a paper doll and discussing the vocabulary as the students created, added and adjusted the styles. This book aslo had a scooter and sailing which I would teach the same way I did with the societal concepts of the previous book. Finally, and obviously, there is the concept of a circus with a trapeez, trampoline, tight rope, and the animals. Here you could do a compare and contrast chart with these vocabulary words. This part also lends itslef to the study of animals from the previous book.