If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know I LOVE picture books (see Author’s Purpose blog post). I love the message that they can give to the students and that they are building up so much imagination with the pictures. I fully believe that picture books are extremely important in any readers journey. With that being said…I am going to show you my *HANDS DOWN* favorite picture book that I use for chronological order.
Chronological Order
If you don’t know what Chronological Order is, it is the structure that the writer writes the book. A lot of times the books have a chronological order in it but maybe not so in-depth. The book “You wouldn’t want to sail on the Titanic” is a FANTASTIC book to use while teaching Chronological Order.
How to use this book
This book is seriously amazing. I do try to introduce the topic to the students prior. Usually the kids know a little about the Titanic so I don’t have to explain a lot. Try not to explain TOO much because the Chronological Order will take care of that.
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Step #1
First- you need to make sure that you pass out a “schedule” to the students. This is great because the kids can see exactly how the night went.
Step #2
Next, you will want to make sure that you are showing the students the book by using a document camera or using this during small group. Either way works but pick one. I usually like to display the schedule as well. Then we work through the dreadful night and read.
Step #3
As I am reading, I am telling the kids what I notice about the book. I am showing them the first thing that happened. I am showing them that the Captain went to sleep at 9:04 pm. They were getting calls all night about iceberg sightings. Identify why this is important during the reading but make sure you are verbalizing your thoughts. It helps students recognize what is actually happening in the book and the importance of it.
Step #4
By the end of working through the night, you should have the entire night’s events including when the next ship picks them up. You will now be able to make a timeline with your students using what you wrote. You can make the timeline based on the times or the events. I love putting this on sentence strips and then attaching it to an anchor chart. Throughout the year the students are able to refer back to this as often as they need to.
Extra Tips
I don’t usually read the entire book to the students. (I know that a lot of teachers do but I don’t have the time for that.) However, I do let them read it after I finished with the specific skill. If we are zooming in on a specific skill- I want the mini-lesson to work around the skill. I also don’t want to waste the entire week reading a book when the skill itself is all about the Chronological Order. The whole book isn’t Chronological Order- just one part. This obviously would be your choice but I have recognized that it just doesn’t work for me or my class.
Another super quick idea is that you can also refer back to this book when you are comparing and contrasting. You can compare and contrast the different levels on board.
Chronological Order
You can sum up your main takeaway here in one or two sentences. You may also choose to link to other materials you’ve created about this topic.
Picture Book Checklist
We know that not all of the picture books are perfect for each skill. I am giving you my picture book checklist that I use with very single picture book that I use. This checklist is my way of identifying if it is a book if I should bring into my classroom or not.
