Strategies
This unit maps out a few months' worth of read-aloud texts, allowing us the time for an in-depth discussion about friendship and making inferences. I plan to begin in the month of October for this inquiry because it is centered on a topic that is integral to our everyday lives in the classroom. I don't want to jump start the year with it because I want to put in place the procedures of read-aloud with accountable talk. We must all be comfortable with the procedures that govern our time enjoying, questioning, and talking back to read-aloud text before we can begin to successfully explore one theme, such as friendship. Everyone has an assigned seat on the rug that allows her to sit next to her partner. In my classroom, rug partners are the same as our writing partners. For writing workshop I pair students who have similar strengths and needs in writing as writing partners. This partnership is fixed and may only change once during the year. This allows the partners to get to know one another as writers and as people in a very deep way, providing time to build trust. If writing partners sit together on the rug as well, they are given the opportunity to make connections between their writing work and our reading work.
After establishing seats on the rug, we work on what it should look like when partners "turn and talk." During any time we convene on the rug, I will ask partners to turn and talk about a part in a book or to try out something we just learned. When we "turn and talk" partnerships turn their bodies to sit knee to knee. This allows them to make eye contact and create a physical space that's divided from other partnerships. As students are talking, I float around the room listening in on their conversations and taking note of utterances I'd like to share out to the whole class. In this way, everyone feels heard and is actively engaged, and I am able to select what is shared in a more thoughtful way than by just calling on people with their hands raised or randomly selecting a child.
During read-aloud, the "turn and talk" structure is ultimately a way to support comprehension. Sometimes it opens a discussion about the message or theme of the text. Other times it provides an opportunity for students to discuss their connections or disconnections to the text. It can also be a time when students are allowed to share their emotional reactions. If there is a lot of blurting out or attempts to whisper about a certain part, I'll stop and let them talk about whatever it is that's engaging them. The infusion of multiple chances to talk/discuss/share within the classroom assures my students that their ideas/opinions/voices are valued. It creates a more democratic and less authoritarian classroom environment. We can work together to discuss ideas and draw conclusions. It also allows me the chance to teach how to listen to another person effectively and how to disagree respectfully. We will also record our ideas on charts, adding to them as we continue conversations across many sessions. These charts will provide us with evidence of what we've already discussed, as well as give us a jumping off point when we approach each new book. By the end of this unit we may end up with charts labeled "What is a friend?" or "What makes two people best friends?" or "What do we know about Frog and Toad's friendship?" These charts will help us refer back to ideas we've already had as we try to push our ideas about friendship to new places by making discoveries with each new text.
With all of these classroom procedures in place, we can begin to delve into growing ideas about friendship. Throughout the progression of texts we might approach each text in a similar way, by asking the simple, but provocative question – What makes these characters friends?
Frog and Toad: Best Friends
I would begin this series of read-alouds with the familiar Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. There are four books in the Frog and Toad series and each book has five stories within it. If I read one story a day, that would be twenty days of read-aloud or about a month. I'm not sure every story in each book will lend itself to our discussion of friendship, so I may choose two or three of the most relevant stories to read allowing for two to three weeks worth of read-aloud selections.
Frog and Toad have a simple kind of friendship, much like the friendships of my young six and seven-year-old first graders. In Frog and Toad Are Friends, the students might conclude that they are friends because they are neighbors and they like to do things together. In the first chapter, Frog is lonely and wants Toad to wake up and spend time with him. He wants to walk and swim and sit and look at the stars with his friend, and he can't do it if Toad won't get out of bed. As I read this book to the class, I might pause at the title and say, "This book is called Frog and Toad Are Friends so while I am reading it I want us to try to look for the answers to these questions (I would write the questions on chart paper): "What makes Frog and Toad friends? Why do you think they are friends?" We can continue to think about these questions as we read through the Frog and Toad series. We might also consider if Frog and Toad are "best" friends and why we might think that. What makes friends "best friends"? 1 4
In Frog and Toad All Year, we get the chance to also consider "What does Frog do to show Toad that he is a good friend?" This question will begin to help us think about how actions and words are powerful aspects of a friendship. Frog brings his friend things, helps him overcome his fear, works to calm his worries, and brings Toad a present. Toad shows that he is a good friend because he worries about Frog and tries to bring him ice cream. There are many actions that can be interpreted as displays of friendship throughout the chapters in this book. It will provide many opportunities to explore how we show our friends that we like them and care about them.
As we explore this example of a simple or "stage one" friendship we will begin to compare and contrast our own friendships with that of Frog and Toad's friendship. "Do you have a best friend? What makes him/her your best friend?" Further, Frog and Toad are characters whose intentions, thoughts, and feelings are mostly understood without the need for inferring. They say what they mean and their actions are fairly straightforward. We know that Toad wants to bring Frog ice cream because he thinks it will make his friend happy. We know that Frog rakes Toad's leaves because he knows it is hard work and wants to do something nice for a surprise.
There is one story in Days with Frog and Toad that I will save as the last story we read from the series; it is called "Alone". In this story, Frog leaves a note on his door saying that he has gone out to be alone for the day. Toad assumes that his friend is sad and even takes it personally, "Frog has me for a friend. Why does he want to be alone?" 1 5 Toad rushes off to find Frog sitting alone on an island and decides to make him a picnic lunch to cheer him up. On his journey he says, "Maybe Frog does not want to see me. Maybe he does not want me to be his friend anymore." 1 6 When he finally reaches Frog on the island Toad apologizes for being such a silly and clumsy friend, to which Frog replies that he is in fact very happy. He says, "I felt good because I have you for a friend. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to think about how fine everything is." 1 7 This is a perfect example of how we often misattribute the reasons our friends do things. I will use it to start discussing making inferences about our friends' feelings and thoughts – our friends' states of mind. I can ask, "What made Toad think Frog was sad? Why does Toad think Frog doesn't want to be his friend anymore?" It is also a perfect way to start a conversation about how to communicate our feelings to our friends without hurting their feelings. I might ask, "Was Frog's note mean? What else could Frog have written on that note to make sure Toad didn't take it the wrong way?" 1 8
Exploring Friendships in Kevin Henkes' Books
After looking into Frog and Toad's friendship, we will move to looking at various works of Kevin Henkes. I will begin with Jessica, which is a story about a girl, Ruthie, who invents an imaginary friend named Jessica. Ruthie's imaginary friend goes everywhere she goes, does everything with her, and even feels the same feelings at the same time. This corresponds perfectly to the beginning conceptions of friendship young children have. A friend is someone who frequently engages in activities with you, just like Jessica. At the end of this book, Ruthie meets a real girl name Jessica and on the last page they are pictured doing many activities side-by-side. It will be interesting to see what similarities and differences my students find in this portrayal of friendship in comparison to that of Frog and Toad. It seems to me that these are very similar portrayals of friendships based on the willingness to do things together. However, my students might also point out that we get more insight into the nature of Frog and Toad's relationships, as we see them do "nice" things for one another – things that they think will make each other happier. In contrast, we never get such information about Ruthie and Jessica's relationship. 1 9
I will move next to Kevin Henkes' Wemberly Worried. Much as in the structure of Jessica, Wemberly worries for much of the book until she makes a friend, Jewel. Wemberly and Jewel are both worriers, and it is that commonality that brings them together. Once Wemberly and Jewel realize that they are similar in such a significant way, they end up "side by side" for the rest of the book. However, in this situation Wemberly and Jewel are the kind of friends who complement each other. They provide one another with enough comfort that they can worry a little less and enjoy school together. 2 0
Chester's Way provides us with the perfect chance to discuss further what makes friends so close that they are best friends. It also provides us with a glimpse into how difficult it can be to integrate someone new into our circle of friends. At the beginning of this book, Henkes writes that Chester and Wilson are best friends because they do everything exactly the same way. I will stop here to posit, "Is that what makes best friends – doing everything together and the same?" Many students might agree with that idea, while others might have developed more sophisticated ideas about what qualifies someone to be a best friend. We will add our ideas to the chart about friendship, and at this point we might even have started a new chart focused just on the concept of "best friends." 2 1
We will then read A Weekend with Wendell by Henkes. This story is about a girl, Sophie, who has to deal with the intrusion of weekend guest, Wendell. How Sophie feels about Wendell is not explicitly stated. Instead we have to infer from her facial expressions how she feels. This is the first place where I will model how to look at a character's facial expression and consider how she feels from those clues. Additionally, the interactions between Sophie and Wendell are more complicated and multifaceted. It's not automatically clear why Sophie and Wendell have trouble getting along. Some questions I might use for "turn and talk" discussions are "Why isn't it fun to play with Wendell? Is he thinking about Sophie when he decides what they are going to play? Is she allowed to voice her wants and preferences?" The conflict between these characters gets resolved rather quickly. I will want to pause in a number of places to tease out all the aspects of how Sophie and Wendell resolve their problem and to allow my students to voice their opinions about it. 2 2
Next we will read Chrysanthemum, our last selection written by Kevin Henkes. This book is about bullying, and not really about the tricky relationship between friends. However, it does provide us with lots of opportunities to infer feelings from illustrations. It also provides us with an opportunity to discuss what makes it hard for certain people to be friends. Why is it that we aren't friends with some people?
Chrysanthemum becomes self-conscious about her name at the beginning of school as a classmate, Victoria, points out how different her name is. There are a few chances where we can infer how Chrysanthemum feels from the illustrations. When the teacher takes roll call, "everyone giggled upon hearing Chrysanthemum's name." 2 3 I might stop here to ask, "Wow, look at Chrysanthemum's face. How do you think it makes her feel when the other students giggle at her name?" For the next three pages Victoria continues to tease Chrysanthemum about her name. There are many picture clues to show how Chrysanthemum feels, so I might pause again to ask, "Victoria is making Chrysanthemum feel badly about her name. How do I know that she feels bad?" Or I might ask, "Why do you think Victoria keeps pointing out differences in her name? Why does she say, 'if I had a name like yours, I'd change it'?" Later on in the story, Victoria gets Jo and Rita to join in on teasing Chrysanthemum. I might pause to discuss, "Does having people join her make her feel more special or powerful? Why do you think Jo and Rita join in? What does it give them? Are the girls jealous? Are they just thrown off by something so different that they decide to ridicule it?" At the very end of the story Chrysanthemum giggles when Victoria doesn't remember her lines. We could discuss, "Is that an appropriate response? Chrysanthemum never stood up to her classmates by herself. What could she have said to them?" 2 4
The More Complex Friendship of Houndsley and Catina
After our further investigation of friendship as it is illuminated in Kevin Henkes' books, we will move to looking at another series that portrays "best friends." James Howe's short series Houndsley and Catina gives us a view into a friendship that is more complicated than ones explored previously. We are also often given many opportunities to put ourselves into either character's shoes to consider what he/she is thinking and feeling. As we read this series we will be relying on our Theory of Mind skills to help us make inferences. Chrysanthemum gave us the opportunity to start using this skill, and we will continue to draw upon clues in illustrations and dialogue to infer thoughts and emotions.
In Houndsley and Catina we meet this new pair of best friends as they deal with Catina's desire to be a famous, award-winning writer in the chapter "The Writer." In this first chapter, Howe lets us know exactly what Houndsley is thinking by writing his thoughts directly into the story. After reading Catina's very lengthy chapter book, Houndsley thinks, "Catina is a terrible writer. What am I going to say?" 2 5 We could stop here and discuss the possible things he might say to his best friend without hurting her feelings. I might follow up with questions such as, "Is it okay to tell a white lie to your friend if it will spare his/her feelings?" or "How do you help your friend get better at something?" Throughout the rest of the book, we find that Catina encourages Houndsley to enter a cooking contest. She compliments his cooking abilities and shows that she is a good friend by believing in him. At the end, the two friends take a quiet walk during which they are finally very honest with each other. Houndsley admits that he doesn't want to be the best at cooking, but that he only wishes to enjoy it. Catina admits that she doesn't really like writing and only did it because she desperately wanted to be famous at something. It is in this last chapter that Houndsley and Catina show us many qualities of being good friends. They trust each other enough to have an open and honest conversation, they listen to each other without interrupting, and they comfort each other. This first book in the series allows us to identify what makes these characters good friends fairly easily.
Next, we will read Houndsley and Catina and the Birthday Surprise. Before I begin to read, I will prompt the students, "We found out that Houndsley and Catina are really good friends, maybe even best friends. What is a best friend? How do best friends treat each other?" Houndsley and Catina find out that they don't know when their birthdays are, and they go off to surprise each other with a birthday party. Throughout this book these two friends are dedicated to thinking about and guessing how the other person feels. It offers a great example of misinterpreting another person's feelings and intentions. Houndsley runs into Catina in town after she has been distant for a few days and she runs off as if she is avoiding him. Houndsley decides that she does this because she is sad and sets out to arrange a birthday party to surprise her. He finds out at the end of the story that Catina was not sad, but instead was avoiding him because she was also planning a surprise birthday party for Houndsley. We will have a great discussion throughout this read-aloud about the mix-ups these characters have in trying to guess at what the other one is thinking. 2 6
So far we have read stories in which Houndsley and Catina do everything together and do nice things for each other – qualities of stage one and two concepts of friendship. However, in Houndsley and Catina Plink and Plunk Houndsley reveals that he does not like canoeing with Catina. Before reading this book, one might prompt the students to consider, "Do best friends have to do everything together? Is that what makes a best friend – doing everything together?" A few pages in Houndsley reveals that he doesn't like canoeing with Catina because she talks the entire time and ruins the experience of hearing the noises of canoeing. At this point it might make sense to stop and ask, "Is it ok that he doesn't like doing this one thing with Catina and would rather do it with Burt? Does that mean that Catina is no longer his best friend?' In the last chapter of the book we find out that Houndsley never thought about why Catina talks so much when they go canoeing. Catina says that she is willing to go canoeing with Houndsley because it is something he likes to do but it makes her very nervous. She talks so much because she is nervous. She even says, "I didn't want you to feel bad. You are my friend, and I wanted to do what you wanted to do." 2 7 This is the perfect place to stop and discuss, "Is that part of being a good friend – being willing to do things you might not want to do for the other person?" I might follow up that discussion at the end of the story with, "Houndsley and Catina are the kinds of friends who help each other overcome their fears and try new things. Is that part of being a good friend?"
While the focus of our discussion of this book is based on what makes Houndsley and Catina best friends, there are also many opportunities throughout the book to consider what Houndsley and Catina are thinking. There is also the very critical moment when we find out that Houndsley never considered why Catina acted the way she did. I would point this out to the students and follow up with, "Sometimes we think we know why someone acts a certain way and we are wrong. Sometimes we need to ask the person to explain their actions or feelings to us, just like Houndsley and Catina did."
Reading and Interpreting Facial Expressions with Piggie and Elephant
Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggie series is perfect not only for a discussion about friendship, but also for practicing the art of reading facial expressions. These books are deceptively simple as the story line of each book is presently solely through dialogue and fairly sparse line drawings. However, despite the minimalistic approach to the words and illustrations in these books, Willems portrays many complex dynamics between friends and aspects of how young children experience the world. The number of books in this series is constantly growing, so this unit will only use a few selections to focus in on interpreting the facial expressions of Piggie and Gerald (the elephant) as we also continue to consider our focal question: What makes the main characters friends?
We will begin our journey considering Piggie and Gerald's friendship with Watch Me Throw the Ball. Before reading the book one might say to the class, "Today I want to teach you that you can use the pictures to get ideas about a character's thoughts and feelings. One way to do this is to look closely at a character's facial expression. Watch me as I do that in this book – I'm going to look carefully at Gerald's face to get an idea about what he's thinking and feeling." This will set us up for the work we are about to do, in which I will model this strategy for my students first, before asking them to try it themselves. This book begins with Piggie skipping on to the page and finding a ball. Gerald comes running into the scene declaring, "You found my ball!" 2 8 At this point the reader can stop and say to the students, "I'm going to look closely at Gerald's face and describe his expression. He is smiling. His eyes are wide. His eyebrows are up. He looks happy! I wonder why he is happy. Maybe he's happy that Piggie found his ball."
Gerald then goes on to explain to Piggie that he is a very good ball thrower. At this point in the story I would stop and say, "Here I'm looking at Gerald's face and the way he is holding his head. He's got a small grin on his face, with his eyes closed and his head held high. Have you ever seen someone look like that? I have. My friend Kat does that sometimes. She sort of smiles and holds her nose up in the air like that when she thinks she's right – like when she's really proud of something. Maybe Gerald is proud. That would make sense because he's telling Piggie that he's good at throwing a ball and he should be proud of that."
Now that I have modeled for my students twice, I will give them the opportunity to try out mind-reading using Gerald's expression with their partners. When Gerald says, "Do you know the secret of throwing?" and Piggie answers, "Sure. 'Have fun.'" Gerald has a shocked expression. 2 9 The teacher can stop and ask, "Now stop and think to yourself: How does Gerald feel? How do you know that? Once you have decided, turn and tell your partner what you think and why."
In the last half of the book Piggie starts to brag about how she is super at throwing a ball because she believes she threw it all around the world. Gerald responds with multiple different facial reactions, and we can consider how Gerald feels throughout this interaction, making sure to reference what we see in his facial expressions.
Next we will read My Friend is Sad because on the very first page there is another opportunity to practice interpreting facial expressions. Willems begins with an illustration of Gerald sitting with his eyebrows raised, his eyes wide, and his mouth in a frown. In the next illustration, Gerald has his shoulders hunched and the same expression as he sighs. Piggie peeks in from the corner of the page and says, "My friend is sad." 3 0 I will stop there and ask, "Piggie thinks Gerald is sad just by looking at him. I think she sees that Gerald's mouth is frowning and that his body is hunched over. These are usually signs that tell us that someone is sad. Can you show me what it looks like when you're sad?" We would then take a minute or two showing each other our sad expressions and trying to name what it is we see. "Now turn and show your partner your sad face. Try to describe your partner's sad face. How do his/her eyes and eyebrows look? How does his/her mouth look?" Piggie spends the rest of the book trying to make Gerald happy and Gerald continuously alternates from extreme bodily expressions of happiness to sadness. We will flip back and forth between Gerald's alternating emotions and work to compare and contrast how the happiness and sadness are shown through Gerald's body. Towards the middle of the book Piggie begins to get angry, and you can see it on his face. We will also stop to consider how we know he is angry.
The next selection from this series will be Should I Share My Ice Cream because this book will allow us to continue interpreting emotions through the characters' illustrated body language while also allowing us to consider if Piggie and Gerald are best friends.
It's a hot day and Gerald runs in to an ice cream cart. He goes through a roller coaster of emotions as he tries to decide whether or not to share his ice cream with his best friend, Piggie. These emotions include happy, contemplative, elated, confused, apprehensive, mischievous, worried, determined, proud, shocked, sad, disappointed, surprised, and happy. We will not try to decipher every one of Gerald's myriad emotions, but will focus on the ones the students might be most familiar with. Gerald also grapples with wanting to keep the ice cream all to himself versus being a good friend and sharing it with Piggie. He tries to convince himself that perhaps Piggie wouldn't want any of his ice cream – justifying his urge not to share it. With a look of inspiration and joy Gerald says, "Maybe Piggie does not like this flavor! Sharing a flavor Piggie does not like would be wrong. I will eat the ice cream!" 3 1 This scenario will set us up for a discussion about how hard it can be to do something nice for another person if it means we have to sacrifice something for ourselves. Some questions to spur conversation might include, "What do you think Gerald should do? Should he share his ice cream? How does it feel when you really want something all to yourself, but you know deep down that it would be nice to share it?"
Next, we will read I Am Going!, which is about Gerald getting upset when his best friend, Piggie, declares, "Well, I am going." 3 2 Gerald responds with panic, fear, disbelief, and anger. He tells Piggie that she may not leave him because he doesn't want to be alone. Finally Gerald asks Piggie why she has to leave and Piggie calmly explains that it is lunchtime and she is going to eat her lunch. Gerald responds with a clear look of embarrassment and asks if he can join her. Now that we are in our third book of the series, we will have started to make a chart of facial expressions that show the feelings we have deciphered from Gerald, such as sad, happy, and shocked. We will now be able to add fear and embarrassment to our chart. (See Classroom Activity One for a longer description of this extension.) This selection will also allow us to discuss how we feel when we have to leave our friends. I might say something like "We often feel a less intense version of Gerald's reaction when our friends leave us. What does it feel like when you have to say goodbye to a friend after spending lots of good time with him/her? Why is it so hard? Is it that you don't want the good feelings to end?" We will add our ideas to our chart about friendship, or make a new one entitled: "How does a good friend make us feel?"
Finally, we will reread Watch Me Throw the Ball to consider how it feels when our friends brag and gloat. We might try to answer some of the following questions: At the end of the story Piggie starts to brag like Gerald did at the beginning. How is their bragging the same and how is it different? How does Piggie respond to Gerald's pride? How does Gerald respond to Piggie's gloating? What is the line between feeling proud of your accomplishments and bragging? How does it make you feel when your friends brag and brag about how good they are at something? What can you say to your friend if their bragging makes you feel bad? We might start a chart entitled, "What to say to a friend when he/she hurts your feelings." This chart may also be relevant to some of the books we read by Kevin Henkes.
Comments: