United State's Presidents Text Set: 3rd Grade Tierra Krause

Rationale

  • Standard aligned with the rationale: KCCRS: RI.3.10 – By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  • Most third graders should be able to read fluently by this point. I chose the theme "Presidents of the United States" because there are plenty of informational texts about the presidents in a wide range of text complexity.

Title: Abraham Lincoln (Visual/Illustrated)

Identification Information

  • Author: Ingri and Edgar Parin D' Aulaire
  • Illustrator Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire
  • Publisher: Original Publisher: Doubleday/ Current Publisher: Beautiful Feet Books, Inc.
  • ISBN: 978-1893103269
  • Pages: 64
  • Genre: Biography/ Children's picture book

Summary of text

This is an illustrated book that is also full of illustrations that tell the story of Abraham Lincoln's life and how he came to be the 16th president of the United States. The book talks about Lincoln's early life and how his strong sense of hard work helped him become the President of the United States. The images contrast between black and white to color to show the story of Abraham Lincoln. The story highlights his education, different jobs he worked(including law), as well as the most important thing, how he was an honest man with good morals, which is why we know him as "Honest Abe." The book was written clear back in the 1930's, so given the conservatism at that day and age, they failed to mention Lincoln's assassination in the book, probably assuming it was too much for young children to handle.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: Reading comprehension strategies.
  • KCCRS: RL.3.3 – Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
  • Language arts integration: Reading
  • Learning objective: Students will be able to recall and discuss events of Abraham Lincoln's life leading up to and during his Presidency.
  • This book supports student's reading reading fluency as well as comprehension. It can be a social studies/ELA crosscutting lesson since this is a historic book about a United States President.

Title: George Washington's Teeth (Visual/Illustrated)

Identification Information

  • Author: Deborah Chandra/ Madeleine Comora
  • Illustrator: Brock Cole
  • Publisher: Farrah, Strauss and Giroux
  • ISBN: 0374325340
  • Pages: 40 pages
  • Genre: Children's picture book, nonfiction, history

Summary of Text

This book is more of a simple read and would be good for lower-level readers in the third grade. The book is full of colorful illustrations and a story that shows a different side to George Washington than most children have learned in school. Most students know of George Washington as the first president of the United States but did not know about his battles with his rotten teeth. The book has a real-life application that not only tells a historic tale of George Washington but also teaches kids of the importance of taking care of your teeth. The book uses humor which will help keep the students engaged and also has rhyming which will help students who are just learning what rhyming is(younger grades pre-k/kindergarten), yet still informational enough for a third grader to read.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: Phonemic awareness(identifying rhyming sounds)
  • KCCRS: RL.3.2 – Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
  • Language arts integration: visually representing
  • Learning objective: Students will be able to explain events in George Washington's life as told in the story.
  • George Washington's Teeth is an informational text which is written in verse to help support student's understanding of rhyming words. The book also is based off of real letters written by George Washington as well as other historical records. The students can read these stories as well learn from the illustrations in this book to re-tell the main events/moral of the story.

Additional Resources

  • https://youtu.be/ArPE-Kvs0K0
  • https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/George-Washingtons-Teeth-2376110

Title: Who Was John F. Kennedy? (Non-Fiction)

Identification Information

  • Author: Yona Zeldis McDonough
  • Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
  • ISBN: 9780448437439
  • Pages: 112 pages
  • Genre: Biography, Nonfiction, History

Summary of Text

This story tells the tale of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. It is a very well-written informational text that summarizes some of the key events in John F. Kennedy's life leading up to his assassination. Not only does this story talk of John F. Kennedy's younger days (childhood sickness, large family, graduate of Harvard), but also events in history that were occcuring during the time of his presidency(immigration. The main idea of this text however is to inform the readers about the life of John F. Kennedy and his presidency.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First Component: Reading comprehension strategies
  • KCCRS: RI.3.10 – By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  • Language arts integration: Reading
  • Learning objective: Students will be able to comprehend and discuss the informational text then summarize key events from the text in a book review shared to the class.
  • This book is informational/historical so it aligns with the standard well. The language arts integration is reading which is stated in the standard: "by the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts." Then their objective just builds on to the standard by having the students read and comprehend the text then re-tell it in a book talk to their class.

Title: Abe Lincoln's Hat (Visual/Illustrated)

Identification Information

  • Author: Martha F. Brenner
  • Illustrator: Donald Cook
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • ISBN: 9780385372800
  • Pages: 48
  • Genre: Picture book, history, biography

Summary of Text

Abe Lincoln's Hat is a colorful picture book that tells the story of Abraham Lincoln. Like other children's books about Abraham Lincoln, the moral of the story is how Abe Lincoln was an honest/hardworking man. The book starts by informing the readers that Abraham Lincoln was not always a rich president, but he was once poor. Once he saved his money, he went to the store and bought his large hat(aka why the story is called "Abe Lincoln's Hat." The story tells about his life as a lawyer and how he was sometimes forgetful but was always making people feel at home. The moral of the story is that hard work and kindness will pay off in the end.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: Reading fluency
  • KCCRS: RI.3.10 – By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2-3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  • Language arts integration: viewing
  • Learning objective: Students will summarize what they read in the story by creating a book report.
  • At this point students should be able to read fluently as well as comprehend informational texts. This is a historical text that is more simple than others but it has a lot of rich information in it about president Abe Lincoln. By reading the story and viewing images in it, the students will be able to summarize what they read and saw in their own book report.

Additional Resources

  • https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Abe-Lincolns-Hat-Comprehension-Questions-114246

Title: Our Country's Presidents (Nonfiction)

Identification Information

  • Author: Ann Bausum
  • ISBN: 0792272269
  • Publisher: National Geographic Children's books
  • Pages: 192
  • Genre: Nonfiction, history, politics

Text Summary

This book is a wonderful informational historical text that gives students a plethora of information on our 43 presidents of the United States of America. This would be a good book for students to use for a research paper/project they might be doing in social studies. This text provides a comprehensive set of profiles about each president of the United States and highlights their accomplishments and key contributions to the country.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First Component: reading comprehension strategies
  • KCCRS: W.3.2 – Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • Language arts integration: writing
  • Learning objective: Students will conduct a research project investigating one of the past presidents of the United States of America.
  • Students will be using this book as a resource to find facts on their assigned president that they are researching. They will then write a paper that summarizes their findings to convey ideas/information learned about their president.

Title: I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know (Nonfiction)

Identification Information

  • Author: Patricia A. Halbert
  • ISBN: B0068DF9HW(kindle edition)
  • Publisher: Reader's Digest
  • Pages: 144 pgs (kindle edition)
  • Genre: nonfiction, history, reference

Text Summary

  • Another great book that provides information about the 43 presidents of the United States. This text provides a lot of fun facts about each president that most children probably have not learned about in class. The book provides a brief overview of each of the president's presidency and states fun facts such as what dollar bills they appear on, the names of the First Ladies, and other fun facts Elementary aged readers might enjoy!

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: reading comprehension strategies
  • KCCRS: KCCRS: W.3.2 – Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • Language arts integration: writing
  • Learning Objective: Students will conduct a research project investigating one of the past presidents of the United States of America.
  • Students will be using this book as a resource to find facts on their assigned president that they are researching. They will then write a paper that summarizes their findings to convey ideas/information learned about their president. Since this is a similar learning objective to the last book, students could work in pairs to complete their research projects in mixed ability grouping if this might be above their level.

Title: Duck for President (Fiction)

Identification Information

  • Author: Doreen Cronin
  • ISBN: 0689863776
  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
  • Pages: 32 pages
  • Genre: fiction, children's picture book, animals

Text Summary

  • I love this book because it is a fun way for young students to learn about different things that happen to become the president, such as what you have to do to become elected for president. Reading about a duck who is trying to run for president might make this more interesting for young readers yet still educational by teaching them the moral that sometimes you should be happy with what you have and to appreciate things. The summary of the story is that there is a duck that lives on a farm and has to do tedious work every day(chores). The duck gets tired of doing this hard work and decides to run for the governor. He eventually is not satisfied with being governor so he runs for president and wins. He still is not happy as the president and ends up back at the farm.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: reading fluency
  • KCCRS:RL.3.2 – Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
  • Langauge arts integration: reading
  • Learning objective: Students will be able to explain the moral of the story and recall the steps in which you must follow to become a president of the United States.
  • Students should be reading fluently by this point. Since the students can read fluently, they should be able to read and point out the central message/moral from this story and explain what steps the duck took in order to become the president.

Additional Resources

  • http://teachingmama.org/duck-for-president-activities/
  • https://youtu.be/6VQnfNvDbms
  • http://www.thehomeschoolvillage.com/duck-president-lesson-plans/

Title: If I Ran for President (Fiction)

Identification Information

  • Author: Catherine Stier
  • ISBN: 0807535435
  • Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
  • Pages: 32
  • Genre: fiction, picture book, presidents

Text Summary

I chose this book because it is a great multicultural book that shows children just how far their imagination can go when they think of themselves running for president. The book starts with the young boy saying how he wishes to follow in the footsteps of the preceding presidents and talks about how his decisions will affect him running for president. He talks about running a campaign to help him become famous and promote his candidacy. He also talks about political parties(democratic and republican) and what their symbols stand for. This book is very informational and even talks about caucuses, conventions, etc.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First Component: vocabulary development
  • KCCRS: RI.3.1 – Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
  • Langauage arts integration: vocabulary development
  • Learning objective: Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the steps involved in a presidential election(campaign, election, votes.)
  • This book works on students understanding of presidential elections and vocabulary development of presidential election terms. By reading this story the students will be able to ask and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding of presidential elections.

Additional Resources

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/If-I-Ran-for-President-by-Catherine-Stier-A-Complete-Response-Journal-2438563

Title: President of the Whole Fifth Grade

Identification Information:

  • Author: Sherri Winston
  • ISBN:0316114324
  • Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
  • Pages: 288
  • Genre: Fiction, children's book

Text Summary

President of the Whole Fifth Grade; another wonderful multicultural, higher level read for 3rd grade and upper elementary students. The book tells the story of a fifth grader named Brianna Justice. Brianna becomes empowered at school one day when a speaker comes and tells how she was once the president of her fifth grade class. Brianna becomes determined to become the president of her class but there are challenges along the way to be able to achieve this dream of becoming president. This book shows that dreams do not come true over night and that hard work must be done in order to achieve these dreams.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First component: reading fluency
  • KCCRS: KCCRS:RL.3.2 – Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
  • Language Arts Integration: reading
  • Learning objective: Students will develop their own presidential campaign after reading the story President of the whole Fifth Grade.
  • This book is larger than most of the other books chosen for this text set and will help develop fluency in children of this age. From reading this story students will understand the steps involved in a presidential campaign and will be able to develop their own campaign and then vote on each other's presidential campaign they think is best based off of what they learned for what it takes to be a good president.

Additional Resources

  • https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/President-of-the-Whole-Fifth-Grade-Unit-With-Literary-and-Grammar-Activities-1877226

YouTube Video: Presidents Song/Us Presidents for Kids

Identification Information:

  • Publisher: Kids Learning Tube
  • Genre: song

Video Summary

  • This is a 7 minute youtube video that starts with the first president of America and ends with the most recent. For each president there is a short summary of each president that highlights accomplishments as well as sillly fun facts (for example: George Washington's teeth. The song is fun and catchy and has a constant beat that goes along with the information to keep the kids engaged in the video while still learning about presidents.

Teaching Points

  • Reading First Component: Phonemic awareness (sound from video)
  • KCCRS: SL.3.2 – Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
  • Language arts integration: listening
  • Learning Objective: Students will be able to retell key information about each president of the United States after listening to this youtube video repeatedly over a period of time. (Every day they arrive to class, play the video)
  • Since this is a video, the students have to use their listening skills to be able to determine main ideas from the video to retell key information about the presidents of the United States.

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