JUNKO TABEI MASTERS

I introduced this book as part of a unit looking at character traits for third graders. I wanted some historical fiction, because the unit before this one was biography, and it was a nice way to transition from nonfiction to fiction--and the difference between a biography and a fictional account built (however heavily) on truth. It was a really nice way to show how real life provided the bones of the story, and the author(s) imagination filled in everything else.All but five of my 32 reading students speak and read English as a second language, so I also chose this book because the character was not born in the U.S. (Because of Winn-Dixie is also in this unit, so that background is taken care of). I had them read along in the text while we listened to the book. The pace is a little fast for third grade English Language Learners to keep up, so I slowed the pace to .9 (.8 at points where we were reviewing a section to look for specific language or details) to help with that. Any lower than .8 and the sound starts to suffer. The pace at 100% is pleasant to listen to, but too fast to read along with for students this young, and with less fluent English language proficiency.The class loved the story of Junko Tabei. They liked comparing her to themself, to other characters they had read thus far in the school year, and it was easy to identify character traits from the text. The narrator was engaging and I will definitely use this book again in my class. We were largely remote at the time of this reading. Presenting the cloud reader through Google Meet made it easy for students to hear the book clearly.

Wonderful story. We learned a lot. We really like the whole series. Rebel Girls, Yeah!!