The Lorax is the Whole PIE (and a Freebie)

We are currently working on identifying the authors purpose and central message of a story. It is a concept we find very hard but one of my cutie patooties wrote as her goal for the rest of the school year that she would “Learn more about what P.I.E. means and how to do it.” (see their New Year’s writing on a previous post.)

The gauntlet has been thrown.

We WILL get this.

Here is what we did this week. During the first few minutes of Reader’s workshop time (new for me but I think I’m starting to get a handle on it) I read aloud the Lorax to my class (this took 2 days -it’s a long story). This chart was hanging up in front of my students while I read. Students were instructed to listen for the times when Dr. Seuss included story elements which persuade, inform, or entertain.

Then during subsequent lesson students and I went back through the story adding anything to the chart that we had observed about the Lorax.

Basically:

persuade – Please take care of the environment.

Inform – Mistreating the environment has negative consequences.

Entertain – Ryhmes, and great descriptions.

Then students were tasked with deciding for themselves what they believed was the central message (Big idea) of why Dr. Seuss chose to write this story. They were to write the answers to the question, “Why do you think Dr. Seuss wrote the story the Lorax? Justify your answer.” We shared our writing, and tallied them like votes and added a Big Idea Arrow to the chart for the answer that got the most votes. (Persuade)

Wonder what your class will decide is the central message?

Grab the arrows freebie here.

Also, I found this great resource for Dr. Suess ideas. Check it out!

On another note….

This past Sunday was Godparents sunday at my church. My 3 darlings made this painting and gave it to their Godparents in a frame. Didn’t it come out cute? 🙂 I was thinking a modified version of this project might be nice to make this year with my students for Mother’s Day so I thought I would share the idea with you all. 🙂