from the text, their background knowledge, and/or an outside source
The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland is the story of a Vietnamese family forced to flee their homeland when a devastating civil war breaks out in their
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F I G U R E 9 . 1 The
“Thinking about Questioning” chart
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country. With soldiers clamoring at their door, they’re allowed only a few possessions before scrambling onto a crowded boat and setting sail in stormy seas for America.
Sound familiar? I knew the children, too, would make connections from Eve Bunting’s How Many Days to America? to The Lotus Seed. And I knew they’d have many questions about the content of the story, which would give me a chance to demonstrate that while some answers would require us to infer or consult an outside source, others could be found right in the text.
I record the children’s questions before, during, and after reading.
Over the next several days we work through them, rereading the text (it’s short) and thinking aloud about how we answered many of them. Coding answers with a T for those found in the text, an I for those we needed to infer, and an OS for those requiring an outside source helps make the process visible and increases children’s awareness of how and why readers use a variety of strategies to find answers to their questions.
I’m in no hurry for us to get through the questions, nor is recording the answers my primary goal. I want to show kids that thoughtful readers, readers like themselves, not only take the time to ask questions, but also are compelled to seek the answers, even (especially?) when it takes a bit of doing.
At the end of the third day, our chart looks like this:
We are learning that readers figure out the answers to their ques-tions by rereading and looking for clues in the text (T), inferring (I), and/or using an outside source (OS). When we read The Lotus Seed, we asked these questions and coded how we figured out their answers.
Where does this take place? T
What’s a lotus seed? OS (Hollis brought one in!) What is a dragon throne? T (author’s note)
Who stole it? How did he lose it? T (author’s note) What’s an altar? T (picture in text)
Why did her parents choose her husband for her? OS (Mrs. Miller’s schema)
Why did he march off to war? Did he die? I
Why did she take the lotus seed, but not her mother-of-pearl hair comb? I
What does scrambled mean? OS (Brendan)
What will happen to them? T
Who’s throwing the bombs? What war is this? T/OS (author’s note and Mrs. Miller)
Where are they going? T What city is this? I
Why did they all live together? I Who is Ba’? Why did she cry and cry? I What does “it is the flower of hope” mean? I
Why doesn’t the author give us more information? I Where is Vietnam? OS (globe, pull-down map)
Postscript: One would think that after three days of delving into a book, children would be ready to move on. Most are, but there are always some who can’t seem to get enough of one book or another. Four days later, Hollis, Tate, Olivia, and Emily were still poring over The Lotus Seed.
They fashioned a response sheet by connecting five pieces of 12-by-18-inch construction paper lengthwise with tape; then they covered it with sticky notes that recorded their thinking. Entitled “Our Thinking about The Lotus Seed,” the sheet bears evidence that these four are using strategies flexibly—they are on their way to learning how readers pur-posefully use a variety of strategies when they need them to construct meaning.
They had asked questions, such as
Why did her parents get to choose her husband? We still don’t get that.
Why didn’t the little boy just ask to see the lotus seed?
Why did he hide it?
When Mrs. Miller was reading us The Lotus Seed, we didn’t know what the River of Perfumes meant, and we still don’t.
Who is the new emperor?
Where did they go in America?
How many kids did she have?
They had created mental images, drawing pictures of the lotus flower
red bombs exploding everywhere an ao dai
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grandmother shouting (her mouth one big circle) when she couldn’t find the lotus seed
an altar
They had drawn inferences, such as
We are inferring she ended up in New York because of all the tall buildings and the twinkling blinking lights.
We’re thinking she has two or four other kids because in the picture there might be some in front of her and some in the back of her holding onto her hands.
They had made connections, such as
When I feel lonely or sad, I cuddle up with my blanket or pillow, and then I feel safe.
These soldiers are just like the ones in How Many Days to America?
They gave opinions, such as
We don’t ever want our parents to pick our husbands!
We think The Lotus Seed is the best book we’ve ever read!