Toliver's Secret Third Grade Reading Project

Funded Nov 4, 2024

Thank you so much for donating a class set of "Toliver's Secret" books to my classroom. My students were able to participate in a class book study using our "Toliver's Secret" books. Through our book study, I introduced important reading comprehension skills such as making predictions, making inferences, determining point of view, and making text connections such as text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. I was also able to use "Toliver's Secret" to help students determine the meaning of unknown words in a text. My students increased their knowledge of academic vocabulary and history vocabulary throughout this book study.

Reading in my classroom can look different depending on the day and lesson/skill being taught that day. Throughout our "Toliver's Secret" book study, we would spend most of our time doing shared reading where I would read aloud to students as they followed along in their own copy of the book. This allowed me to stop and check for students' understanding while we were actively reading the book. Students also read in small groups with about 3-4 students in each group. When students read in small groups, they would take turns reading and also take turns stoping and thinking while reading to share their thoughts or ask questions to check for understanding. My students also worked on a reading report about "Toliver's Secret" as we read the book. This helped students continue working on many important reading comprehension skills as well as improve their vocabulary.

My students loved reading "Toliver's Secret". Most of my students did not have previous background knowledge of the Revolutionary War and the late 1700's which is the setting of "Toliver's Secret". Students really enjoyed getting to research and learn more about the Revolutionary War as we read "Toliver's Secret". My students were also captivated by the thrilling story of Ellen Toliver, as we were on the edge of our seats during many moments throughout the book. They were sad when we finished the book, but all of my students said they would definitely recommend this book to other students.

Thank you again, for providing the opportunity for my students to read "Toliver's Secret".”

With gratitude,

Ms. Felder