One student told us, Since her mother named her after a tree, and since trees are mentioned so much, maybe this is just a way of showing how much Sal is connected to her mother. We ve found that most students realize, even this early, that her mother and therefore perhaps Sal loved nature. Then we d ask why they think trees keep appearing again and again. If we have taught the lesson and students don t mention how often tree has appeared even by this point, we d probably stop and simply remind students to think about the lesson and ask them what image or word keeps reappearing. Trees will show up again on 122, 215, 257, 268, and 277, all of the references strengthening Sal s connection to both her mother and to nature. Trees will come up frequently throughout the book, but make note especially of pages, in which an entire chapter is devoted to The Singing Tree. Noticing this repetition, and watching for it as we read on, will enable us to learn something about Sal s character and her connection to her mother and to nature. Even this early in the book, Creech has already mentioned trees several times, first on page 1, and now, on page 7, she tells us that Sal s middle name is Tree. 237Ģ LOCATION: Chapter 2, Pages 7 8 Sal explains how important trees are to her. Don t confirm, just ask for evidence in the text to support their thinking, then keep reading. In this case, why would Creech say that Sal s mom was resting peacefully? Some might speculate that she has been ill and is recuperating some might say she s been injured and others might wonder if this means she has died. If you want, point out to students that when authors use words or terms that might mean more than one thing (the contrast between taking a peaceful nap and having died is stark), they should stop and ask themselves, Why would the author use this term/word. The author has used the euphemism resting peacefully with no suggestion that it might mean buried unless the reader has noticed the word buried in the previous sentence. Contrasts and Contradictions This is a sophisticated use of Contrasts and Contradictions. LOCATION: Chapter 2, Sal mentions that Gram and Gramps want to see Momma, who was resting peacefully in Lewiston, Idaho.
Signpost aha moment how to#
If we haven t taught the lesson at this point, then we wouldn t try to teach it with this as the example because the readers really won t be sure how to answer the anchor question. And once we see that, what are we supposed to ask ourselves? Now, let s talk about what this Aha might mean. Remember that the word realized is one of those words that shows us that a character has figured something out. Think about the we ve discussed, and if you need to, review what it is by looking at the chart up here. Here s what we d say to students who have learned this lesson but weren t reading attentively enough to notice the signpost: Let s reread this paragraph that begins at the bottom of page 2. This early in the book, we really don t know the meaning of Sal s Aha, so we ll have to keep reading. When authors use words such as realized or understood or figured out, we see that the character is having an and we want to ask ourselves how this changes things. We re barely into the book and we see a critical, though at this point, readers won t realize just how important Sal s words are: I realized that the story of Phoebe was like the plaster wall in our old house in Bybanks, Kentucky (p. 1 LOCATION: Chapter 1, Sal s father shows her a fireplace that had been hidden behind a plaster wall.
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