“Heroes and Twins” Week 13 Fourth Grade

Heroes and Heroines (Non-Fiction, Level 13, Stage 3) by Judith Hodge

Twins to the Rescue (Fiction, Level 13, Stage 3) by Noreen Cotter

These books were paired for this week’s kit to help students learn about all sorts of heroes, including kids like them. Heroes and Heroines is a non-fiction book full of facts and stories about mythical heroes, folk heroes, explorers, adventurers, heroines, change-makers, modern heroes and eco-heroes written in a way that will engage any fourth grader. Twins to the Rescue is a fiction book about young twins who act heroically to save an elderly person in their lives, showing that heroic acts come in all shapes and sizes, including that of fourth graders. My fourth-grader especially enjoyed reading about Ned Kelly and Bob Geldof, and he was shocked to learn some new facts about the heroes we had learned about previously this year Gandhi and Florence Nightingale. My favorite thing about this book was seeing Elijah’s eyes light up as he retold the new information he learned about Joan of Arc, Robin Hood, Anne Frank, and others, and seeing him engage with the national news, of all things, in a new way one night when Bob Geldof himself showed up in a news story about reviving his Band Aid effort to raise money for the recent Ebola breakout in West Africa. I love seeing my fourth grader get excited about the material he’s learning, but I especially love it when he sees how it relates to real life right in front of his eyes. I could see a new level of confidence as he proudly said, “Bob Geldof? I know about him!”

The activity I want to highlight this week is the Independent Assessment Booklet that accompanies these books. From context to vocabulary and narrative to analysis, they are extremely helpful tools to develop the student’s comprehension and interpretation of the text in multiple ways, and of course, they always provide a quick look at which concepts or skills need more work.

For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.