1. Sounder by William Armstrong Terms to Know

2. Connections To unite, bind, or join Students make literary connections in 3 ways. 1.text to self: a personal connection the reader has between a reading selection and a life experience. Example: “This story reminds me of a trip my family took to visit my cousin’s farm.”

3. Connections Students make literary connections in 3 ways. 2.text to text: when a reader is reminded of another reading selection he/she has previously read Example: “This character has the same problem I read about in a story last year.” **You might connect Stray with The Market Square Dog.

4. Connections Students make literary connections in 3 ways. 3. text to world: things the reader has learned through television, movies, magazines, newspapers, etc. Example: “When I was watching Shrek 2, Shrek changed into a human and it reminded me of Greyling changing into a human also.

5. Inferences Through the observation of facts presented in a particular pattern, one ultimately sees different or new interpretations and perspectives; logical deductions Example: What can we infer about Doris’s father when he brought the dog home from the shelter in Stray? He is a kind man with a good heart; he is a dog lover.

6. Visualization (Imagery) To see or form a mental image of a character or setting through the information provided in the text Example: “As I sat in the cabin staring at the glowing fireplace, I heard the wind howling and the tree limbs cracking from the heavy weight of the snow and ice. The power lines had collapsed hours ago, and I was beginning to get worried…”

7. Summarizing To give a brief overview of a reading selection including the main points Example: In The Market Square Dog, a vet saved a stray dog’s life by performing surgery. The stray was then adopted by a local policeman’s family.

8. Synthesizing To synthesize is to combine two or more elements to form a new whole. In the literature review, the “elements” are the findings of the literature you gather and read; the “new whole” is the conclusion you draw from those findings. To synthesize literature: compare & contrast, critically evaluate, interpret, so that you can draw conclusion

9. Determining Importance Determining importance is a strategy that readers use to distinguish between what information in a text is most important versus what information is interesting but not necessary for understanding. Example, if you could ONLY take 5 items on a camping trip, what would you take?? A tent, a flashlight, a grill, a fishing pole, a bow and arrow, a book of matches, a can of bug spray, water, etc.

10. Daily Reading Journals Label the top of your paper with: Sounder pages __-__. Then fold your paper to make 3 equal sections. The first to the left should be titled VOCAB. The middle section should be labeled SETTING/DATES THE STORY. The last section should be labeled CONNECTIONS. **You will need a DAILY READING JOURNAL each day.**