Saturday, October 4, 2008

How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis & Clark by Rosalyn Schanzer

Drawn from the actual letters and journals of Lewis and Clark, it begins with two letters from the men as they decide to embark on the expedition together. The rest of the text is written in journal format about the people and places that the two men encountered as they traveled west of the Mississippi.
Making Connections
This text can be used at the beginning of a unit on Lewis and Clark. Since it is written in journal format, it lends iself nicely to making connections. Use it as a read aloud and model for students how to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. Provide a graphic organizer and model for students how to display your connections on the organizer. Allow students to practice making connections to other texts using the organizer as a guide. Eventually, you want students to be able to make connections without the use of an organizer.