Upon finishing our structured CIA unit using the historical fiction text, Glory Be, I wanted our next read aloud in our Reader's Workshop to be centered around the development and relationship between characters. Our new read aloud, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, has become our medium for exploring how characters grow and change within a story while also having wonderful discussions around the wisdom of Ivan as he makes insightful and interesting observations about humans. To help structure and direct our inferential thinking, we are using discussion questions as conversation starters and to really dive into who these characters are on the inside.
The One and Only Ivan also has a very unique and intentional structure with some chapters just one sentence long! This then lends itself to understanding the power of a few well chosen words and has lead us, as readers to really think about the author's choice and reason for writing Ivan's story in such a way.
The One and Only Ivan also has a very unique and intentional structure with some chapters just one sentence long! This then lends itself to understanding the power of a few well chosen words and has lead us, as readers to really think about the author's choice and reason for writing Ivan's story in such a way.