Sarah, Plain and Tall Multi-Text
Assignment Rationale

Context

            The Sarah, Plain and Tall Multi-Text assignment was created for third grade classrooms.  The multi-text assignment was assigned at Appalachian State University under the advisement of Dr. Robin Groce, Elementary Education Block II instructor.  I completed this assignment as a requirement for RE-4030, Development of literacy for Learning.

            The multi-text assignment was to select a topic and a quality novel, informational text, and supporting texts for the topic appropriate for grades third through sixth.  I created a Internet Workshop using internet web site on Maine and Kansas, five literacy activities on the setting, plot, conflict, theme, and characterization of the novel, a vocabulary activity that explored fifteen words out of the novel, a reference list with 9 additional books related to my topic, I also included an additional book that can used for a modified verse of this multi-text set and showed how this text set aligned with the  third grade North Carolina Standard Course of Study (NCSCOS).  I chose two topic of expansion into the American West.  I selected Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan as my quality novel and America the Beautiful: <st1:State><st1:place><I>Kansas</I></st1:place></st1:State> by Nancy Masters Robinson.

Impact

This multi-text set would have a huge impact on third graders.  This would allow students to use the internet to explore and learn about <st1:State><st1:place>Kansas</st1:place></st1:State> and <st1:State><st1:place>Maine</st1:place></st1:State>.  Students would also learn literacy elements by completing activities that focus on setting, plot, characterization, theme, and conflict.  These activities and internet workshop will spark the interest of students in history and the American western expansion period.  The supporting text will show students what the living environment and migration was like for pioneers traveling into the Great American West.  The supporting texts also give students different perspectives of traveling and living in West.

Alignment

          This multi-text assignment aligns with following program standards:

Standard 8: Teachers design instructional programs and strategies that build on students’ experiences and existing language skills to help students become competent, effective users of language.

• Indicator 2: I met this indicator because the multi-text set includes numerous teaching strategies to help students monitor their comprehension of the Sarah, Plain and Tall and learn about the plot, setting, characterization, theme, and conflicts. 
• Indicator 3: I met this indicator because the literacy activities on plot, setting, characterization, theme, and conflicts encourages students think critically about what they read in Sarah, Plain and Tall and what they write.
• Indicator 4: I met this indicator because the multi-text set encourages students’ enjoyment of reading through class discussions, literacy elements activities and an internet workshop. 
• Indicator 5: I met this indicator because the multi-text set provides students opportunities to explore the uses of different genres of writing through a character stretch, internet workshop, illustrated plot chart, and a semantic map on the conflicts in Sarah, Plain and Tall.
• Indicator 6: I met this standard by modeling Standard English as I read sections of the informational text, <st1:State><st1:place><I>Kansas</I></st1:place></st1:State> and Sarah, Plain and Tall aloud to my students.