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Reading Strategies -
Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey
I Love You the Purplest has many
opportunities for using the 6 reading comprehension strategies.
Right away the reader can close his eyes and imagine a place that is
being described by the author. For Example:
Visualizing: Page 2 of
the text.
The lake slowed its thrashing
to a soft, even beat.
The mosquitoes dipped low to the water
and the water bugs skittered on top.
The moon glowed on one side of the lake
while the sun shimmered on the other.
This was the time when fishing was the best.
Giving
students the opportunity to draw what they visualize BEFORE seeing
the pictures is very powerful. They can compare their drawings to
the actual illustrations in the book.
Other
opportunities for Visualizing:
I love you the color of a dragon fly
at the tip of its wing.
I love you the color of a cave
In its deepest, hidden part
where grizzly bears and bats curl up until night.
The mist of a mountain.
The splash of a waterfall.
The hush of a whisper.
(Can repeat with the description on Max on the next
pages.)
Another
strategy that may present itself right away is Questioning.
Students may quickly wonder “Why is the book called I Love You the Purplest?” or “Where is the little boys’ father?” Remember
how powerful it is to have students question Before, During and
After they read. Making one of the BDA graphic organizers is a
great lesson for this book. Remember to discuss that some questions
may not be answered and others will.
Making Connections:
Most
children have siblings and can relate to the competition that is
felt in a family. Children can share and or write about connections
they have to Max and Julian and their competitive nature and need
for wanting their mother’s feedback, approval and love.
For the
intermediate grades, check Chapter 9 from Strategies That Work.
There are some strategy lessons you could use for students to
determine what is an important theme throughout the story.
For primary
grades or (intermediate could adapt), check out pages 145 and 146
for Synthesizing lessons. This story could be used to
help students begin to synthesize information through a brief
retelling of the story. This would be a good opportunity for
students to put together that Julian (bluest) and Max (reddest)
equal mom loving them the Purplest!!
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Writing Strategies - 6+1
Traits of Writing by Ruth Culham
I Love You
the Purplest is a beautifully written and
illustrated story about two brothers who wonder who their mother
loves best. Barbara M. Joosse uses wonderfully descriptive language
to create two very different young brothers named Julius and Max.
Each does things in his own way, with a touch of competition that
encourages them to ask their mother which way is better. At every
turn, the boys’ mother highlights the best that she sees in each of
them, celebrating their individual personalities.
Before you begin reading I Love You the Purplest, make sure
to preview these words with your students…
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thrashing
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burglars
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robs of the boat
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bountiful
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bobber
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reeled
* Teaching Word Choice and
Ideas*
Using Striking, Exact, and Beautiful Language to Elaborate on Ideas
“Descriptive writing makes an event, place, person, or situation
spring to life in a reader’s mind,” Ruth Culham explains. In I
Love You the Purplest, the author crafts her words describing
Julian and Max, and with each event, we see more of their individual
personalities emerge. On their way to the lake, “Max exploded from
the cabin,” while “Julian shut the cabin door tightly.” Looking for
worms, “Julian scooped the dirt,” while “Max jumped on the shovel
and flung dirt in the air.” Barbara M. Joosse doesn’t just tell us
what the boys did, but how and why they did
those things. We’re combining two traits with this story,
integrating the use of striking, descriptive words and phrases to
elaborate on the simple ideas in the story.
Ms. Joosse also carefully selects “colorful words and phrases” to
convey her messages. She writes that “the lake slowed its
thrashing” and “mosquitoes dipped low” when she describes the
setting at the cabin. The “moon glowed” and the “sun shimmered,”
Max’s worms were the “liveliest” while Julian’s were the “juiciest,”
they fished “until stars sprinkled the sky” and the “water turned
dark as night.” When Max catches three fish, his mother describes
him as a “bountiful fisherman” and we see him “hoisting his fish in
the air.” Over and over again, the author replaces common words
with more powerful and descriptive ones, making the story more rich
and beautiful.
Upon a second or third read, we begin to see that the
book is also an insightful study of two very different
personalities. Julian and Max are two brothers who do things very
differently, and the author does a wonderful job of describing the
boys’ actions precisely and without judgment. Julian, “the bluest,”
is the thoughtful, deliberate one who takes care to protect the
cabin from “burglars and bears” and waits patiently for the fish who
is hiding among the weeds. Max, “the reddest,” is the spirited,
exuberant one who “exploded from the cabin” and whose breath “came
out in a big, thundery laugh” when his mother explained how much she
loved him. The author crafts beautiful descriptions of the boys’
personalities, and her word choice is perfect!
Lesson Idea for
Ideas: “Tell Me Why!”
In this variation on the “Show Me, Don’t Just Tell Me” lesson, your
students will be asked to dig deeper into the why’s and how’s of
their characters’ actions.
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In pairs, small groups, or individually, have
students come up with a telling sentence and write it down.
You could also brainstorm a collection of sentences and have
your students/groups select one from your list.
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Then, ask your students to consider “why” that
idea is, or “how” it will happen. For example, if the telling
sentence is “I went to bed,” your students would need to tell
WHY or HOW they went to bed. “I was very sleepy from a long day
of playing in the sun, so I climbed upstairs and went to bed.”
Or, “After my father read the last chapter of my favorite book,
I finally turned out the light and went to sleep.”
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Ask students to rewrite their original telling
sentence, this time adding the new why’s and how’s.
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Share!!! Talk about the impact that the
elaboration has on the sentence, how much better it sounds, and
how much more informative it is.
(See the
Ideas chapter of 6+1 Traits for more teaching ideas!)
Lesson Idea for
Voice: “What Color are You?”
This lesson will help students discover their own voice, as they
consider the colors that are attributed to Julian and Max, and then
determine what color they are.
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Create a T-chart on chart paper or on the overhead, and label
the columns with “Blue - Julian” and “Red - Max.”
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Reread I Love You the Purplest, but this time, stop and
record the descriptions or actions that are “blue” and those
that are “red.”
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Blue – Julian |
Red – Max |
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* shut the cabin door tightly to keep it safe from
burglars and bears
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* exploded from the cabin, twirling the shovel in
front of him
* |
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Now, ask your students to describe each color, how it makes them
feel, what it reminds them of.
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Next, consider a few other colors – orange, purple, brown,
yellow. How do those colors make you feel? How would you
describe them? What do they remind you of? What kinds of
actions do you associate with those colors? You may want to
make additional charts for each color to record the comments and
connections your students make.
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Finally, ask your students what color they are. What color do
they associate with the most? Which one best reflects their
personality, and why?
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Have your students write about the color they chose. You could
give them a structure similar to The Important Book, and
begin with “The Important Thing about me is that I’m pink.”
Then ask students to describe why they are the color they’ve
chosen. They could write a poem describing themselves in
colorful phrases, or they could simply write a few paragraphs
describing their own personalities and how they relate to the
color they selected.
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Encourage them to recall their own personalities and colors when
they write stories later on. If they have an opportunity to
infuse their own personality and color their work with their own
favorite color, write on!
(See 6+1 Traits, pgs. 125 – 138 for more lessons on Using Voice in
your writing.)
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