By Jennifer L.Holm
Blog Reference: http://teachingstarstudents.blogspot.com/2012/06/4th-grade-chapter-books-set-in-florida.html
113.16 (B(8)) Social Studies Grade 5
The student understands the location and patterns of settlement and the geographic factors that influence where people live.
113.16 (B(9))
The student understands how people adapt to and modify their environment.
Summary:
The story is set in 1935 in Key West, Florida. The main character in this novel is a young 11 year old girl who is called Turtle. She has to move to Key West to live with her relatives while her mother gets her life together. The protagonist has been through a lot of obstacles in her upbringing and has a very skeptical view on life. The time period of the book is the Great Depression, where many people are struggling during that time. The book uses a lot of cultural references to that area in that time period, and it is written from Turtle’s perspective.
I believe that because this chapter book is written from the protagonists perspective a good strategy that could be utilized would be the letter writing strategy. I think that I would even tailor this strategy so that the students write a letter to Turtle. I know that the students would benefit from having to write a letter to her because she is the same age as them; so it would be as though they are talking to a peer from a different time period. My intention for using this strategy with this book would be to have students critically think about how to communicate with the protagonist in this book who may or may not be experiencing similar life situations and feelings as the students in my classroom.
Turtle in Paradise sounds like a very powerful book, especially with it being written from Turtle’s perspective. This book would be a great resource to use within the classroom. I agree with the grade level and TEKS that you choose to pair the book with. With Turtle being eleven years old and speaking from her perspective of view of life during the Great Depression, students will be able to gain a lot of appreciation and knowledge of the struggles and culture during that time period. I like the activity you suggested to use with the book. I think students could relate to Turtle or some aspects of the book and responding to their reactions through letter writing would be a great activity. Maybe the book could also be used or applied to other subjects as well. I have yet to read Turtle in Paradise, but I would like to read it sometime in the future. Thank you for introducing it to me!
This sounds like a great book, and the connection you made with the TEKS and how you would teach adaptation based on geographic location sounds appropriate. Even moreso, I appreciated your idea of having students write letters with Turtle in regards to how she feels and reacts while connecting their own personal experiences. I think this sounds like a meaningful way for students to process and learn from what they are reading. The strongest thing about using this text is all of its possibilities for connections to different content areas including writing, history, geography, and science.