The Dreamer
Written by: Pam Muñoz Ryan Illustrated by: Peter Sís
Published: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Reading Level: 3.7
Lexile Measure: 650L
Suggested Delivery: Independent reading
Awards: 2011 Pure Belpre Author Award
Fantastic book for Diversity
Summary: The Dreamer follows young Chilean Neftali as he struggles to thrive under the authoritarian ways of his father. To Neftali father dreaming, reading, and other lazy activities are just a waster of time and shouldn't even be considered to achieve success. Yet, Neftali is a Dreamer. He loves to read stories, play with his surroundings and just observe the nature around him. He dreams to one day be a famous poet and writer. Read as Neftali fights to have his way and time and time again be pushed back by his father's strict aspirations for Neftali to become a doctor. The book highlights and pays tribute to the life of poet Pablo Neruda. The book tackles such themes as dreams being pushed away, unfair treatment of native people, and child abuse.
Words to Describe The Dreamer
http://www.fundacionneruda.org/es/cronologia-biografica
This is a good website to highlight the life of Pablo Neruda, which The Dreamer is based off of. This is a good before or during reading website as you can look the pictures of the different times in Neruda's life. You can also use this website to show the students what life was like in Chile during his time.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/
This is a good website to introduce students to writing poet or if you need help with poetry in the classroom. This book offers the opportunity to have some lessons with poet and this website will help you achieve these lessons. The website offers poems you can read writing by children and resources to help you get starting, like learning labs.
Key vocabulary Terms
Before Reading Activity
A good before reading activity would be to research the native people of Chile. The book often refers back to the native people in the setting that were being pushed out by Neftali's father's company. Neftali often thinks about them and how they are being treated. A good way to start this lesson would be to learn more about the native people who lived in chile and what happened to them. Here is a good website for this research: http://www.beingindigenous.org/index.php/en/
During Reading Activity
A believe a good during reading activity for this is to focus on poetry. Neftali loves to read and write poetry, so this activity will be a good way for the students to connect to him. You can use a Padlet for this activity so the students can share their poems with the whole class. I have set up a Padelt with an example assignment in the middle. The activity here is to create a found poem, where the students take words from the writing and create a poem out of them. The poems themselves should relate to nature someway as Neftali loved and often wrote about nature. http://padlet.com/priceer/apa38ky8xo29 The students will be able to share their poems and have the rest of the class read them.
After Reading Activity
In the book the main character Neftali keeps a small box/drawer full of vocabulary words that he finds that are interesting or he doesn't know at first. A good thing you can do with this activity is to have the students keep track of vocabulary words they find interesting and put them into a book. Once the students finish reading the book you can take tbe words out of the box and display them in front of the classroom. You can take these words and put them into a wordle. This will create a beautiful poster of the vocabulary words found throughout the book. Some words will definitely be up more than once so they will be more prominent.
http://www.wordle.net/create
Writing Activity
In this book the titles of each chapter always had one word with it that had to do with nature. I found a good writing assignment for The Dreamer was to take the title of one of the chapters, could be your favorite one, and write a short story revolving around that title. For example, the first chapter is just title 'Rain.' So you will have to take that subject and write a short story that included rain or could be about rain, there are lots of possibilities. The main purpose is to explore nature, the use of descriptive words, and some figurative language concepts.
Written by: Pam Muñoz Ryan Illustrated by: Peter Sís
Published: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Reading Level: 3.7
Lexile Measure: 650L
Suggested Delivery: Independent reading
Awards: 2011 Pure Belpre Author Award
Fantastic book for Diversity
Summary: The Dreamer follows young Chilean Neftali as he struggles to thrive under the authoritarian ways of his father. To Neftali father dreaming, reading, and other lazy activities are just a waster of time and shouldn't even be considered to achieve success. Yet, Neftali is a Dreamer. He loves to read stories, play with his surroundings and just observe the nature around him. He dreams to one day be a famous poet and writer. Read as Neftali fights to have his way and time and time again be pushed back by his father's strict aspirations for Neftali to become a doctor. The book highlights and pays tribute to the life of poet Pablo Neruda. The book tackles such themes as dreams being pushed away, unfair treatment of native people, and child abuse.
Words to Describe The Dreamer
- Beautiful
- Captivating
- Emotional
- Curious
- Eloquent
http://www.fundacionneruda.org/es/cronologia-biografica
This is a good website to highlight the life of Pablo Neruda, which The Dreamer is based off of. This is a good before or during reading website as you can look the pictures of the different times in Neruda's life. You can also use this website to show the students what life was like in Chile during his time.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/children/
This is a good website to introduce students to writing poet or if you need help with poetry in the classroom. This book offers the opportunity to have some lessons with poet and this website will help you achieve these lessons. The website offers poems you can read writing by children and resources to help you get starting, like learning labs.
Key vocabulary Terms
- Protruding- To stick out
- Attentive- Thinking about or watching something carefully
- Feeble- Very weak
- Vigorous- healthy or strong
- Methodical- done by using a careful and organized procedure
- Day Dreaming- Pleasant thoughts about your life or the future that you have while you are awake.
Before Reading Activity
A good before reading activity would be to research the native people of Chile. The book often refers back to the native people in the setting that were being pushed out by Neftali's father's company. Neftali often thinks about them and how they are being treated. A good way to start this lesson would be to learn more about the native people who lived in chile and what happened to them. Here is a good website for this research: http://www.beingindigenous.org/index.php/en/
During Reading Activity
A believe a good during reading activity for this is to focus on poetry. Neftali loves to read and write poetry, so this activity will be a good way for the students to connect to him. You can use a Padlet for this activity so the students can share their poems with the whole class. I have set up a Padelt with an example assignment in the middle. The activity here is to create a found poem, where the students take words from the writing and create a poem out of them. The poems themselves should relate to nature someway as Neftali loved and often wrote about nature. http://padlet.com/priceer/apa38ky8xo29 The students will be able to share their poems and have the rest of the class read them.
After Reading Activity
In the book the main character Neftali keeps a small box/drawer full of vocabulary words that he finds that are interesting or he doesn't know at first. A good thing you can do with this activity is to have the students keep track of vocabulary words they find interesting and put them into a book. Once the students finish reading the book you can take tbe words out of the box and display them in front of the classroom. You can take these words and put them into a wordle. This will create a beautiful poster of the vocabulary words found throughout the book. Some words will definitely be up more than once so they will be more prominent.
http://www.wordle.net/create
Writing Activity
In this book the titles of each chapter always had one word with it that had to do with nature. I found a good writing assignment for The Dreamer was to take the title of one of the chapters, could be your favorite one, and write a short story revolving around that title. For example, the first chapter is just title 'Rain.' So you will have to take that subject and write a short story that included rain or could be about rain, there are lots of possibilities. The main purpose is to explore nature, the use of descriptive words, and some figurative language concepts.