A Dog's Life Teaching Guide

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Ann M. Martin takes readers on a journey with Squirrel through the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of the stray dog's life. Creatively told from Squirrel's perspective, A Dog's Life gives readers an inside view of the kind of life a homeless dog might experience and helps raise awareness of the responsibilities of pet ownership. The interactive elements of this Flashlight Readers session and the lessons in this teacher's guide challenge students to create stories from a first- or third-person point of view, make decisions to drive the plot of a story, and examine the author's writing process in order to apply some of her techniques to their own writing.

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

1. Use text, images, and dialogue to construct a sequence of scenes and then write a story about the scenes using a first- or third-person point of view
2. Reason through and make choices to steer a story's plot
3. Use a map of sequenced events to tell a story
4. View slideshows about Ann M. Martin's life as a writer and the process of creating A Dog's Life to learn about the author and her process
5. Use the author's writing process as a model to create their own stories

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: A Tale to Tell!
Lesson 2: Bone's Adventures
Lesson 3: Martin's Writing Model

REPRODUCIBLES
Sequence of Events (PDF)
Venn Diagram (PDF)
KWL Chart (PDF)
Organizational Outline (PDF)

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Books and Resources for Teaching A Dog's Life

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  Scholastic Transition Program - Level B Workbooks These eight Student Workbooks are an add-on component for the Scholastic Transition Program. This program places students on a path to excellence in English and bridges success from Spanish to English. This program consists of Levels A, B, and C, appropriate for grades 4-6. This level (B) is for students at the intermediate fluency level. Level A is for students at the speech emergence level in English. Level C is for students at the intermediate-advanced level in English. In the program i $41.60 You save: 25% Supplementary Collection | Grades 4-6

  
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This Unit Plan supports Flashlight Readers: A Dog's Life Additional Resources: A Dog's Life Discussion Questions A Dog's Life Vocabulary Boosters Teacher's Guide for Flashlight Readers

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