A River Ran Wild

This is the third book we've read by Lynne Cherry. We notice that she seems to like writing stories about the environment. Lynne Cherry’s book A River Ran Wild takes readers through the history of New England's Nashua River--how it was respected by generations of Indians, overtaken by early European setters, polluted in the wake of the industrial revolution, and restored in recent years through the efforts of concerned citizens. We read it a few times. The second time we paused to record burning questions. Using this list of question students were invited to create a paper blog post, sharing their thinking (not a summary) about any part of the story or issue that really stuck out to them. Students understood that their peers would be reading and commenting on their post, which made the audience real and immediate.

Here is Tenley's post:

Here are some of the comments Tenley received on her blog post from other students (and me!):

Repsonding to each other's ideas is getting us ready to have meaningful discussions about books when we get back after winter break. We are learning a lot about what it means to write someone a "thought provoking comment."