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Book Study: Encounter

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Encounter by Jane Yolen is a wonderful choice for your classroom on or around Columbus Day.

Encounter by Jane Yolen Book Study

This is another free resource for teachers from The Curriculum Corner.

Encounter by Jane Yolen has long been a favorite of mine when teaching my children about European explorers. 

If you aren’t familiar with the book, it is a book about Columbus landing on an island told from a young Taino boy’s point of view.

I believe that this is a book that could lead to rich class discussions. This book study does include pages for students to write down their thoughts. However, this might be one of those books that you choose to do more talking about than writing about. It gives many opportunities for you to discuss viewpoints and how history in textbooks can leave out key points.   

Book Study: Encounter by Jane Yolen

Anchor Charts There are two. One has the title “Reflections” the other is blank. These can be used how they best fit your students. One thought is to share a reflection question for students each day of the week. Students can then write directly on the poster with their thoughts or use Post-It notes so that you can reuse the poster. 

Sketch Notes This is an open ended page for students to share their thoughts as they are reading or listening to the story. If your students are not familiar with this idea, it can be helpful to model your expectations. The idea is that drawing pictures and adding words or phrases can help students learn to share their thoughts while reading or learning a new idea. 

Reflection Pages Choose from the assortment of pages to have students respond to their reading in writing. Includes pages for students to respond about the setting, characters and other story parts. You will also find pages that ask students to look deeper into the story and think about historical aspects of the events.

Let’s Get Social Have students take what they have read and turn their ideas into social media posts from a character’s point of view.

Reading Response These half pages can be a quick check to see what your students are thinking.

Blank Pages Lined and decorated pages that fit the theme of the book study.

Reflection Questions There are 18 question cards that will encourage your students to dig deeper in the reading. There are a range of questions so you can choose the ones that fit your students. These can also be partnered with the anchor chart. You can post a question next to the anchor chart and have students respond on the poster. These are provided with a colorful background and on white.

Encounter Book Study

You can download this Encounter by Jane Yolen book study here:

Book Collection

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Native American Literature

Genre Focus: Historical Fiction

As part of your study of this book, encourage students to learn more about the author. You will find her website here: Jane Yolen.