I really enjoyed this week’s presentation of Blood on the River. My daughter read this book after her teacher used it as a read-aloud in her 4th grade class, but I wasn’t quite sure how this book fit into the elementary social studies curriculum.
After hearing the presentation, I will definitely be using this book in my classroom if I am teaching this level. I would love to use this in a reading group or literature circle, depending on the level of my students. If necessary, I will use it as a read-aloud but i think students would gain more from the content in a group discussion.
I don’t know that I would pair the nonfiction text but would rather have that book as a resource in the classroom, as Lane said. I wonder if I did pair the two texts, if students would become bored with the content (especially considering that the two books were so similar, according to Lane and Molly).
Overall, their presentation introduced me to another book to add to my classroom library.
Hi Chandley, Yes, Blood on the River is a great literacy tool for teaching about Jamestown. Even though both the fiction and non-fiction are similar that is actually a good thing. Preparing a lesson for students to compare and contrast fiction and non-fiction and then asking students: What did you find out when you compared the fiction to non-fiction? Why is this important? Ask yourself these two questions and decide for yourself if using both books would be valuable. Also, I will remind you that students may not read the non-fiction book in the same way they read a fiction book. What are strategies for reading each type?