Chris Van Allsburg

My two favorite Van Allburg books are The Stranger and The Sweetest Fig. The Stranger is a great book to use when teaching inferring. You can see from my poster that I start with: I think the stranger is.... and Here are the clues (details) that helped me:  I put a sticky over the answer. As we read the book I had the children make their thinking visible on post it notes and then stick them to the page.We developed the list on the anchor chart together. Many children are able to understand that something unusual or magical is happening but they don't have the background knowledge to come up with the name Jack Frost. My other favorite Van Allsburg book is The Sweetest Fig. It gives the reading teacher lots to work with:                                      A main character you love to hate, an interesting setting and a terrific ending that makes the reader think. Christine