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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This non-fiction book has been out for a while now and it lends itself beautifully to both non-fiction Common Core English Language Arts standards and 8th grade CC Social Studies standards. In addition, there are excellent free lesson resources available for teaching this book.
My son read this in elementary school, far too soon to do a full exploration of it and the CC SS standards don't address WWII until 8th grade. While the Lexile level is on par with 4-6th grade reading, which means it's easily accessible to even struggling readers in middle school, students benefit from waiting until they're a bit older and have built some prior knowledge of WWII to tackle this, or are re-reading after being exposed to it in the elementary grades.
It's also, quite frankly, a great book to teach because you don't have to buy all your class copies brand new, although many teachers prefer to do so. You can find lots of good, quality used copies for sale. The book's publisher, Scholastic, offers free Discussion Guide questions and suggested answers.
Code Talkers: Montana English Language Arts Unit
By far the best free set of lesson plans for teaching this book comes from the state of Montana. This unit is 59 free pages of all kinds of great teaching materials and resources for an ELA approach to non-fiction standards with this book. I highly recommend you peruse it and decide in advance what you'll use. It's absolutely astounding!
Spy Kids: Code Talkers, Eisenhower Foundation Unit and Lesson Materials
I taught this unit in 8th grade Social Studies, to meet CC SS WWII standards. My students absolutely loved this! In advance, I prepared and laminated special "Top Secret" manila folders for table groups of 4-5 students. Each table was responsible for decoding their message and presenting the contents and contextual information to the class. Then students took notes on each other's presentations.
I can't rave enough about the Eisenhower Foundation's educational materials. My only gripe is I wish they'd offer even more!
And of course, I offer an editable lesson plan, adapted from the above unit and using all of it's gorgeous materials. I reiterate -- my students LOVED this lesson!
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, these free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
My son read this in elementary school, far too soon to do a full exploration of it and the CC SS standards don't address WWII until 8th grade. While the Lexile level is on par with 4-6th grade reading, which means it's easily accessible to even struggling readers in middle school, students benefit from waiting until they're a bit older and have built some prior knowledge of WWII to tackle this, or are re-reading after being exposed to it in the elementary grades.
It's also, quite frankly, a great book to teach because you don't have to buy all your class copies brand new, although many teachers prefer to do so. You can find lots of good, quality used copies for sale. The book's publisher, Scholastic, offers free Discussion Guide questions and suggested answers.
Code Talkers: Montana English Language Arts Unit
By far the best free set of lesson plans for teaching this book comes from the state of Montana. This unit is 59 free pages of all kinds of great teaching materials and resources for an ELA approach to non-fiction standards with this book. I highly recommend you peruse it and decide in advance what you'll use. It's absolutely astounding!
Spy Kids: Code Talkers, Eisenhower Foundation Unit and Lesson Materials
I taught this unit in 8th grade Social Studies, to meet CC SS WWII standards. My students absolutely loved this! In advance, I prepared and laminated special "Top Secret" manila folders for table groups of 4-5 students. Each table was responsible for decoding their message and presenting the contents and contextual information to the class. Then students took notes on each other's presentations.
I can't rave enough about the Eisenhower Foundation's educational materials. My only gripe is I wish they'd offer even more!
And of course, I offer an editable lesson plan, adapted from the above unit and using all of it's gorgeous materials. I reiterate -- my students LOVED this lesson!
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, these free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
It was good to hear this side of the story of World War II. I would recommend listening to the audio of this book.
I enjoyed this history of a Navajo who was sent to boarding school and supposed to have forgotten his native tongue, but he didn't. When the war broke out, he was in the second group of Navajo who used their native tongue to send on coded messages to help his fellow marines.
I read this with my 6th graders as a literature study. It had a lot of good information and was interesting, but it drug on at times.