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For the storytime portion of Bigger. We read Columbus for biography. Now biography and autobiography I get. What about adventure. That's what I need to read now. I don't have Carrie's package and I have so much on our shelves that we have not read. I'm sure we would have all of the genres. What are some books you have enjoyed reading in the adventure genre. If it one suggested in HOD or not. How do I know if its adventure or not.

Are you using Drawn Into the Heart of Reading? The teacher's manual gives great descriptions for the 9 genres. (That's where I'm learning from this year. It's our 1st with Bigger and DITHOR.) You could look at some of HOD's suggestions in the "book shop" here... http://www.heartofdakota.com/book-shop.php I've read Snow Treasure to my kids. We loved it! Currently we're reading Guns for General Washington and really enjoying that as our adventure. My son is also reading adventure books for DITHOR right now. He read Stone Fox and was begging to read ahead during it. The last chapter made me cry. He's reading Dolphin Adventures now (1 chapter in).

I don't think you could really tell which genre a book goes in without reading it...unless someone who has read it tells you which genre it fits. I guess sometimes a book says "filled with adventure" or something in the teaser on the front. Maybe this would help?

Kathleen

No we are using Beyond. That is what I thought that if i hadn't read it I wouldn't know. Maybe some of you can keep suggesting books and telling me what genre they are. Maybe I should just go to my book shelf and pick out what I think might be adventure and see if anyone here has read them and would know.

misty316 wrote:Maybe I should just go to my book shelf and pick out what I think might be adventure and see if anyone here has read them and would know.

If you want to use books from your shelf, I'd try this. It can't hurt. Someone may be able to help. (Probably not me though...there are a lot of books I haven't read, and we're going with Carrie's suggestions this year. So if the web site doesn't help, I probably can't.) But...there are a lot of helpful moms here.

Good luck!
Kathleen

misty316,

When looking to see where books fit within the various genres, I often will start with the genre definitions that are summarized on one sheet in the back of the Drawn into the Heart of Reading guide. That helps me narrow down what genre a book might be. Then, if I'm still not sure, I'll go to the more specific overview sheet for each genre in the DITHR Student Book and/or Teacher's Guide. Reading the summary on the back of the book that you're considering can really help, and then reading the opening chapter will give you a great idea about what it's about and where it will fit best.

Books can often flow between several genres for placement, so you'll rarely make a mistake on placement that will affect your teaching.

In the Beyond guide, we list 4 selections (or more) for each genre. I'd highly recommend that you try reading one of the listed books if at all possible. They were carefully chosen for the target age range of the Beyond guide to teach listening skills to that age-level and to be good books for reading aloud.

If you have to substitute your own titles once and awhile it's no big deal. But, on the whole I'd say the books listed in Beyond and Bigger are excellent literature worth owning or at least worth going the extra mile to check out at the library or to borrow from a friend or get at yard sales, etc. All books are (sadly) not created equal, and the read-alouds on the list are very living, CM-style.

Blessings,
Carrie