Getting Tidy While Drawing Conclusions

One of the toughest comprehension skills to teach and help students understand is drawing conclusions. So many times students struggle with this not so easy skill. We call it all kinds of things, like reading between the lines, author and me questions, and figuring it out. Yet, we need to find a way to make it easier for our students to understand.

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Using picture books leads students of all ages to new concepts they may not have understood before. The Virginia Readers' Choice selection, Tidy by Emily Gravett is perfect for helping children draw conclusions about what happens in the story.

In the book, a badger named Pete loves to clean up everything around him. He can't stand the leaves on the ground or anything laying around. But what about nature? That's how it is. He proceeds to "clean" the entire forest, making sure that everything is out of it. Finally, he puts down concrete, covering up the hole to his own home. Then he realizes the mistake he has made. What will Pete and his friends do to make things right again in the forest?

The book Tidy is perfect for helping children understand so many concepts. One of the most prominent comprehension skills is drawing conclusions and predictions. Throughout the book, students have to figure out why the animals are doing things and what will happen once Pete has cleaned everything up.

I had read the book a while back, but it really hit home for me once I went back "home" to Louisiana over Spring Break. There were a ton of new roads and shopping centers everywhere with concrete on every corner. And then I thought about the flooding. In the book, Pete covers the forest with concrete to keep it clean. Children who have lived through floods can draw a conclusion about what will happen to the forest if it should rain.

With Earth Day right around the corner, Tidy is a great a book to help students of all ages understand the implications of what happens when we change our earth.