This module is based upon the novel Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. The staff development program introduces and familiarizes teachers with the content and teaching strategies specific to the novel. Teaching guides and procedures for implementing student programs and discussed. Student activities are presented and modeled. The five student programs are sequenced around the reading of Letters from Rifka. This book is a delightful, hopeful story in which the students read, enjoy and learn about the life and struggles of a young girl as she emigrates from Russia to America in 1919. As students become fully engrossed in the novel, active experiences help them become better readers, writers, and discussants.

This module is based upon the novel Patty Reed’s Doll: The Story of the Donner Party. . This book is a story about the life and struggles experienced by the Donner Party on their journey across the United States. The staff development program introduces and familiarizes teachers with the content and teaching strategies specific to the novel. Teacher guides and procedures for the implementing student programs are discussed. Student activities presented and modeled. The five student programs are sequenced around the reading of Patty Reed’s Doll, combining literature, history and geography States. Active experiences help students communicate their ideas as they become better readers and writers.

This module is sequenced around the reading of the novel Shiloh. On this staff development program the general philosophy of the series is shared. The program helps prepare teachers of the student programs in the module by sharing ideas for room arrangement, classroom management, pre-program preparation and pacing of instruction. Shiloh, written by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, was the winner of the 1992 Newbery Medal for the best in Children’s Literature. The book involves the reader in a universal dilemma confronted by a young boy in West Virginia when he befriends an abused dog. Throughout the four broadcasts, students in the classroom become better readers, writers and discussants as they help Marty with his difficult decisions and the possible consequences.