What's It Like, Being a Wolf?
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

Take a look at the long list of titles she has published, and you know that this author loves animals and nature.  Take a look at the photograph with this Minute and you know that  in addition to being a gifted writer, she’s a pretty fabulous photographer too!  Animals are always a high-interest way to teach some pretty important skills and concepts.  And reading about wolves in the second person will make every child close their eyes and imagine growing up as a wolf.

English/ELA
Explore lead sentences - questions

• File this one with using questions as leads!  Use this as a mentor sentence and invite students to try out questions as lead sentences in one of their own pieces of writing.

​Explore the possibilities of second person voice

• Author Patent has given us a stellar example of second person voice in a narrative nonfiction text.  Use this as a mentor text to teach students what great second person voice sounds like.  Have them try it out using this as a model.

​STEM
Explore the biology of wolf behavior

•  This Minute gives students a great starting point to explore pack behavior in animals.  Use this Minute as a jumping off point to explore the behavior of other pack animals in nature.  Have students look for the relationship between animal traits, environments and survival skills.

Explore the importance environmental balance

• ​Use this Minute to take things further and get yourself a copy of Dorothy Hinshaw Patent’s When the Wolves Returned:  Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone.  Read about the problems faced in the beloved Yellowstone National Park when wolves were nearly wiped out due to unrestricted hunting.  Use the conditions that resulted as a way for students to hypothesize and brainstorm ways to rectify the consequences of human interaction with the environment, then continue reading to discover the outcome of scientists’ intentional reintroduction of the wolves.

Research Skills
Introduce or reinforce good note-taking practice

• Author Patent has written a high interest article that is tailor-made for extracting factual information.  Have students practice pulling information from text and organizing in graphic organizers, outlines, bullet lists, fact fragments, or other note taking formats.

© Karen Sterling, 2017 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission