58. The Pot That Juan Built, by Nancy Andrews-Goebel

 58. The Pot That Juan Built, by Nancy Andrews-Goebel


Andrews-Goebel, N. (2002). The pot that Juan built. NY: Lee & Low Books. 

This is a biography about Juan Quezada of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico.  As a child, he was fascinated by ancient potsherds he would find.  He set out to rediscover the process and materials used by the long-vanished Casas Grandes Indians to create the beautiful pottery.  Juan knew the pottery would have been made using only natural materials found in the area.  He began to experiment until he was able to create pottery like the ancient fragments.  After many years of perfecting his craft, he began to teach his family and friends the method to re-create the pottery. The result has been the transformation of his impoverished village into a thriving community of craftspeople.  Their pottery is now found in museums and art galleries around the world.

The book is structured differently than most picture books.  It has three parts.  The first is the informational part that tells the story of Juan Quezada recreating the pottery process of his ancestors and teaching it to the villagers. The second part is the interweaving poetry rhythm that restates what he says on each page in the informational prose.   The final section has pictures and provides additional factual and background information.   I found two teaching resources for this story.  The first would be great for an art class.  It includes showing pictures of the pottery and then actually making pottery in class.  Most non-art classes don’t have a pottery wheel. The second resource I found is a traditional lesson plan for a reading lesion, preview the book, set a purpose, discuss vocabulary. Then after reading use discussion questions then literature circles.

https://westonwoods.scholastic.com/products/westonwoods/study_guides/pot_that_juan_built.pdf

https://www.leeandlow.com/books/the-pot-that-juan-built/teachers_guide

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

83. I Am Neil Armstrong, by Brad Meltzer

Image
 8 3. I Am Neil Armstrong, by Brad Meltzer Meltzer, B. (2018).  I am Neil Armstrong. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers. Brad Meltzer has written an excellent biography series for younger readers called Ordinary People Change the World.  This volume tells the story of Neil Armstrong from his childhood on a farm in Ohio to a career as an engineer and pilot in the Navy and through his trials at becoming one of America’s first astronauts and how he eventually became the first person on the moon.  This series not only tells about their successes, but also their failures and how they never give up on their dreams.  They always include the hero’s childhood influences.  The series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great—the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves.  At the back are an excellent timeline and photos.  As a former elementary social studies teacher, I have to say these books are excellent for y...
Read more

73. Mirette On the High Wire, by Emily Arnold McCully

Image
  73.     Mirette On the High Wire, by Emily Arnold McCully McCully, E.A. (1992).  Mirette on the high wire . NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons.    Mirette was a young girl whose mother owned a boarding house in Paris in the late 1800s.   Famous acrobats, jugglers, actors, and mimes stayed at their boarding house.   One evening a sad-faced stranger, Monsieur Bellini arrived at the boarding house wanting a room.   The next day, Mirette found Monsieur Bellini walking across a tight rope in the courtyard.   She wanted to learn, and finally Monsieur Bellini said he would teach her.   With practice, she became very good. One night, Mariette found out that Monsieur Bellini was famous for his high wire stunts.   She asked him why he didn’t tell her about his adventures, he said he had become afraid. He didn’t want to disappoint Mirette, so he faced his fears and performed a show at the boarding house.   He froze on the wire but Mirette ra...
Read more