Katie Woo Books Can Help Students Make Connections and Teach Text Structure

  Because of the challenges Katie faces, most students should be able to relate to her or her friends in one way or another. This style of writing can be used to teach text-to-self comparisons. Small groups can discuss how they compare to Katie and her friends as well. In this setting, one can then teach the compare & contrast text structure by simply asking how Katie solved the problem and follow up by asking if they would choose a different solution. Once students have a grasp on comparing the text-to-self, you can start to compare Katie to other characters the students have read about to teach text-to-text connections. Additionally, a lot of Katie's problems have an effect on her or the other characters. So I also loved the idea of making a downloadable worksheet that compliments the KatieWoo series. (Of course, you can use it with any series of books that suit your needs.) With this worksheet, students have the opportunity to write down the cause and the effect in any of the Katie Woo series. Finally, I believe it is important to bring art into the classroom. Since the illustrator of the Katie Woo series uses several patterns and sequences in her designs, I think it is an opportunity to talk about using different media to create patterns in our own work. I love the jumbo letters that Oriental Trading Company sells, so I thought it would be fun to create our own multi-media patterns with these jumbo letters. Students are able to use a plethora of craft supplies to create their own masterpiece. (pom-poms, chenille stems, self-adhesive jewels, flower jewels, paint, dip and dot painters, or any of our other craft embellishments) I hope you have fun reading and discovering the wonderful world of Katie Woo!