Top 10 Books for Comprehension Lessons

Are you ready to start beefing up that mentor book library of yours?  I thought this might help you get started!  All you have to do is click on the pic to go to Amazon and read more about these titles.  Every one of the books on this list is SUPER.  It would be hard to pick and choose, but if you have to, I would go for the book that helps with the skill that you have the hardest time teaching.  Just MHO!!

This book is great for grades K-3 when teaching inferring.  I wonder how that little guy off by himself is feeling??

This is one of my all time favorite books.  Not only is it great for summarizing, but it is another book that is great for inferring.  I wonder just WHAT the true story is?  Who is going to tell the true story??

This is a great book about MICHAEL JORDAN!!  I can remember watching him play basketball.  I remember learning that he didn't make the team the first time he tried out and thinking "Wow!  I wonder why he wasn't picked for the team?".  This book is great for teaching kids how to make connections to what they are reading.

This book was written for grades K-3 and is great for teaching visualization....do you see who the illustrator is??

I love this book!  I use it to reteach predictions.  My kids have heard that words several times by the time we get to biographies and/or realistic historial fiction.

This is another good one for teaching predictions!  What happened previously??

This book can be used in Grades K-3.  It is a great book to use when you need to compare 2 stories.  

The main character in this book is known for his controversy!  Written for Grades 3-6, this book can be used for making connections, inferencing, and summarization.  Maybe even some questioning after all, I know you are wondering who the main character is!!

Take a look at the author of this book!  He is better known for Chrysanthemum and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, but Kitten's Full Moon is a really sweet book.  It is perfect for visualization and imagery!

Eve Bunting wrote this book.  It is an awesome book to use when teaching questioning.  I have a question words poster pack and sort game that I use when I teach this one.

Christopher Columbus: His Jewish Story as a citizen of Spain

If you are like me, you have gone through phases in teaching about Columbus.  At one time he was a great guy that discovered the New World and made it possible for us to live here.  At other times, he pillaged and plundered the native peoples and brought European diseases across the ocean, ultimately killing many.

Well, now, scientists are discovering new facts about Columbus.  Did you know that scientists recently studied Columbus' will and that it had Hebrew letters on it?  Historians now believe he was a "Marrano" <swine>, or a secret Jew that acted as a Catholic to save both himself and his family during the Spanish Inquisition.  Many believe that his quest to the New World to find gold and riches was a cover for his real plan....to set up a new colony for other Marranos that were being forced out of Spain.  In fact, on March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain.  Information also points that the Colon <Columbus> family had lived in Italy, but were from Spain.  So, stories of Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer, are not true.

The following information was found by CNN and brings to light important information about Columbus' will:

Two of his wishes -- tithe one-tenth of his income to the poor and provide an anonymous dowry for poor girls -- are part of Jewish customs. He also decreed to give money to a Jew who lived at the entrance of the Lisbon Jewish Quarter.

On those documents, Columbus used a triangular signature of dots and letters that resembled inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain. He ordered his heirs to use the signature in perpetuity.  At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help).

According to British historian Cecil Roth's "The History of the Marranos," the anagram was a cryptic substitute for the Kaddish, a prayer recited in the synagogue by mourners after the death of a close relative. Thus, Columbus's subterfuge allowed his sons to say Kaddish for their crypto-Jewish father when he died. Finally, Columbus left money to support the crusade he hoped his successors would take up to liberate the Holy Land.

As children, I know I was taught that Columbus pleaded with Queen Isabella of Spain to finance the expedition, promising her untold riches.  But, it is now thought that the expedition was really paid for by 2 wealthy Jews who were being closely watched to ensure that they had renounced their Jewish believes and had indeed converted to Catholicism as ordered. 

If you would like to learn more about these claims, check out this website!