Responding to Literature with The Chocolate Touch

One of the fun books we read in third grade as a read aloud book is The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling. I have found that many of the common core standards for third grade can be covered while interacting with read aloud books.

I created a literature guide to use with my students during our focus on this book. My students this year love to draw and connect with the stories we read. We do a lot of "talking about books" in our room. This is achieved through Whole Brain Teaching and allowing my students to share their responses with the class. After each chapter we read, my students take 8-10 minutes responding to the text with a drawing and/or explanation of their thoughts. Then, I encourage them to share their responses with the class. We use a document camera and projector in my classroom for nearly everything. The students love to project their work for the class to see. I hand them the mic and they describe their response to the chapter. After they share we always make sure to applaud their work. I love hearing what they have to say!

This week I recorded a few of my students sharing their work. Enjoy these student examples from chapters 10 and 11 when we learn about "chocolatitis" and when John kisses his mother and turns her into chocolate.

You can purchase this unit and other literature guides in my TpT Store.

Some of the standards covered in this unit:

Key Ideas and Details

3.RL.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text.

3.RL.2 Recount stories to determine the moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.

3.RL.3 Describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

Craft and Structure

3.RL.5 Refer to parts of stories when writing or speaking about a text.

3.RL.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

3.RL.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story.

Comprehension and Collaboration

3.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

3.SL.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

3.SL.6 Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

Happy Teaching ~ Amber