Oh No! David teaches the students to think further than the story!

I really did try, but somehow this picture wants to stay laying on it's side!

David Shannon wrote stories about another little boy named David, based on a book that he had created as a little boy.  Throughout his book he wrote the only words he knew how to spell: no and David.  We looked at three of the books in this series.  There are few words, and wonderful illustrations, but we used the stories to learn about a comprehension strategy that we will be practising throughout the school year.

First the students made their own David, following both oral and visual directions.

They turned out so well!  The real learning happened as we looked at the illustrations again.  I asked the students what they could tell about the story, really what they were thinking, as I showed the pictures and read the words.  For example, on one page, David is chewing food with his mouth full....quite gross!

The students shared their thoughts, which I scribed in green.  All of their thoughts were not on the page either in word or illustration, but their ideas are very valid.  

They are learning how to recognize when they are 'inferring' which means that they are using what they  saw and heard to deduce information from the evidence.  Pretty cool for the 7th day of school!