Winner's Never Quit- by Mia Hamm

My team and I  have been working hard to develop Close Reads on one story in each unit.  This past month we wrote a Close Read for Winners Never Quit by Mia Hamm. 

If you haven't read this book, you should.  Mia (the main character in the story) has to learn a very first grade lesson-- that you can't always win. 

If you want more info on Close Reading, check out the Utah State Office of Education resources from Core Academy.

We structured our Close Read like this:

Day 1-
Read the entire story.  (I like to tell my kids that we can't stop when we are doing a close read because we want to hear the story exactly the way the author thinks we should... so that means no questions or comments until the end!) They LOVE it!
Then we do a retell. I write it on sticky notes-- that way we can sequence them on another day.


The next day we read the story again.
Then we discussed Characters. 
We wrote (on a different color of sticky note) all of the characters we could think of. Then we asked ourselves "Would this story still make sense if this person wasn't there?" If the answer is "yes" then they are not a main character.  If the answer is "no" then they are. :) We sorted them and then wrote adjectives for each character-- always looking for evidence from the text and pictures.

Then we looked at setting.  It is important to ask them "What evidence in the text tells you where this story is taking place?" we made a list (on a different color or sticky, of course!).  Then we discussed what that evidence helps us conclude.  This was my favorite discussion! They were so engaged!

  

 

After we have figured out the setting, we are ready to tackle problem/solution.  We discussed it and then I had my kids complete this story mountain, courtesy of USOE Core Academy.  My kids understood it SOOO much better than I thought they would-- it was very natural to them :)

We then focus on vocabulary. We want them to define the words-- USING evidence from the text. (Am I sounding like a broken record?  Am I sounding like the SAGE assessment?!) :)

 

 

  As a class we added thought and talking bubbles to our book.  They were so cute in thinking of what to say!

 Then I gave them pictures to add thought and talking bubbles to.  They had to write HOW they knew that is what was being said/thought.  (Sorry, that's not in the pictures!)

 

 

 

The final writing project was for them to write two reasons why it was okay for Mia to lose and two reasons why it is important to work as a team.

My kids love this story! Anytime we do a Close Read they fall in love with the book.
It really has been an awesome strategy this year!!
Happy Friday!
Sarah