One of the course books I chose this year was
Kira-Kira, a realistic fiction novel by Cynthia Kadohata, written from a young
girl’s perspective. The narrator of the story is Katie, the middle child of an
immigrant family in rural Georgia in the 1950’s. The writing is beautifully
simple and the author does an amazing job of allowing the reader to see the
world through young eyes. From the moment we cracked the cover to the final
page, the whole class (myself included) were hooked.
From a literary standpoint, the novel offers a
lot of opportunity for discussion and analysis. It touches on all kinds of
issues from racism to loss and is a good entry point for having difficult (but
necessary) conversations. I loved it and can’t wait to teach it again to future
students.
Aside from reading specific chapters in class as
a group, I assigned partner read-alouds and reading homework so I wanted to
make sure everyone was on the same page with comprehension, vocab, etc., so I
created some online reading questions as chapters were assigned. Google Drive
has definitely revolutionized the interaction I have with students. If you’re
not using some of these amazing features, you are missing out my friends! Click here to see my short tutorial on creating these snazzy forms and check out the
links below if you’re teaching this book and need reading questions… Any other
good tween novel recommendations are always appreciated. Cheers!
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