Shiloh

December 16, 2016

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This year we decided to introduce our students to a new novel as one of our reading units. We chose the book Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Here is a brief summary of the book:

Marty Preston is exploring the hills behind his family's home when he chance upon a beagle - and that's when the trouble begins.The dog is thing and skittish, but comes right to Marty's whistle. He licks Marty's hand and follows him home, and just like that Shiloh has squeezed himself into Marty's heart. But then Marty begins to suspect that Shiloh is being mistreated by his owner, and Marty's dream to keep Shiloh becomes a mission. What is the right thing to do when a dog is being abused - and belongs to someone else? What about when that someone else owns a gun? These are big questions that Marty finds himself facing, and he soon realizes he faces them alone. But when he puts his courage to the test, he discovers that it is not always easy to separate right from wrong, and that sometimes, all you can do is try to save the ones you love.

Throughout this three week long unit, we have covered many reading topics and strategies. My 4th grade students are now able to describe in depth round and flat characters, four types of conflict, themes found in stories, 1st and 3rd person point of view and create a "story mountain." These new skills will be added to our reading toolbox and help students with future reading lessons.

One of the major themes we discussed was if/when is it ok to lie. Most students were able to understand why the main character, Marty, was lying to his family. However, they still thought lying was wrong. We had several very interesting conversations about this topic. For a final project, students are working on writing a persuasive essay answering that question: Is it ok to lie? Why or why not? I'm excited to have this novel span across different content areas.