Monday, October 29, 2012

Hip-Pocket Papa by Sandra Markle





Title:  Hip-Pocket Papa (Markle, S., & Marks, A. (2010). Hip-pocket papa. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge)
Author:  Sandra Markle
Illustrated by:  Alan Marks
Copyright:  2010 by Sandra Markle
Published by:  Charlesbridge, Massachusetts
Reading level:  Accelerated Reader level 4.4, Lexile: 1060
Suggested delivery:  Independent, guided reading, or read aloud
Description:  non-fiction

Charming, Inviting, Evocative, Fascinating, Informative

 Electronic websites to support reading:
a.      This is a website provided by the author to engage students in extensions of their learning after reading the text.  The students can take a virtual trip to Australia’s cool temperate rainforest to discover and explore independently the habitat of the hip-pocket frog.  Understanding the environment of the species will help students to visualize the frogs life, increasing comprehension of the text.
a.      This is a website provided by the author to provide students further engagement with the text by investigating the hip-pocket frog and additional fathers who play a major role in raising their offspring.

Teaching suggestions:
1.      Vocabulary:
a.      Glistening
b.      Studded
c.      Defends
d.      Burrows
e.      Prey
f.       Plunges
g.      Squirm
h.      Develop
2.      Teaching strategies:
a.      Before reading:  Students can write a few words down to aid in connecting prior knowledge to this text when given the following prompt:  Take a moment to reflect on an adult in your life who has played a major role in raising you.  Write down the things that you feel are important about being a good role model or things that you appreciate about that adult in your life.  Imagine your life without that adult- how does that make you feel?  Do you feel it is important for animals to have a role model like humans to teach  offspring how to grow into mature individuals? Why or why not?
b.      During reading:  This book identifies the importance of the father role in raising its offspring, a tadpole, through a sequence of text.  To increase inferential comprehension, students can create a timeline to jot down the order of events as the father helps to nurture and care for its offspring.  The timeline will help students identify the sequence of events and recognize the amount of time it takes to properly care for healthy offspring.  A timeline will also support learning in other content areas, such as science, by helping students understand the lifecycle of a frog.
c.      After reading:  Students can visit http://frogsaustralia.net.au/frogs/display.cfm?frog_id=3 to see photos, look at a map showing the natural habitat of where these frogs live, and find out additional fun facts about these unique frogs.  After gathering information from this website students can create a visual diagram of the frogs’ life and the role the father plays in the frogs’ life.  Students can further their understanding of this concept by comparing the Hip-pocket frogs lifecycle and relationship with between father and tadpole to other species of animals that are similar, such as penguins, where the father plays a pertinent role in the development of the offspring.
3.      Writing activity: Students can write an expository essay about a favorite animal of theirs and the role the parents play in the development of offspring.  The essay should include:
a.      An introduction of the species they chose and why
b.      General animal facts: natural distribution, lifespan, gestation period, and diet
c.      Role of parent(s) in raising of young, who plays a more involved role: male or female
d.     Conclusion (including a suggestion for conservation efforts for the habitat relative to the animal)

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