Spotlight Friday - Wolf in the Snow 1.13.17

Time to get ready for the weekend!

Kick up your feet and find a good place to read.

Sharing #booklove for your classroom or library.

Spotlighting a book or two because these books deserve the spotlight!

The value of wordless picture books in classrooms are severely underrated.  The complexity of wordless picture books and the close reading work that can be done around them is an asset that is not used enough.

Wolf in the Snow

by Matthew Cordell

published by Feiwel and Friends

I'm absolutely in love with Matthew Cordell's newest book.  If this is any inclination of what's to come in 2017, I'm very excited for this year!  The emotions in this book and the possible conversations around it will be so exciting for students.  The possibilities around the reading and writing work using this picture book are fantastic.  I hope this book finds a way into your classroom library!

Reading work:

• as novels grow more complex, there are often multiple story lines that readers have to navigate.  This picture book has multiple story lines.  By teaching readers to pay attention to them and notice when they converge, it's a skill they can transfer to longer texts.
• teach rising action?  Conflict?  Resolution?  Find those things in a picture book!

Writing work:

• notice the choice Cordell made to have the first few pages of the book come before the title page.  How does this set up the book?  What difference does it make?
• all of the writing that would be displayed in text, occurs in the illustrations.  Notice and discuss the way Cordell includes the feelings/mood/tone in illustration.  How would that be conveyed in writing?

Social/Classroom community work:

• have a discussion about the empathy the characters display towards each other - how do they overcome their initial fear and distrust?  How does this help?
• Discuss compassion.
• Talk about communication - ways different groups can positively communicate

Enjoy this book!  It's one I plan on using over and over again.