My Brother Charlie activities and lesson plan ideas

Our My Brother Charlie Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Holly Robinson Peete's book. Read aloud the diverse picture book then use the printables or go paperless with Google or Seesaw to practice standards-based skills.

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH: 

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ summarize / retell

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ point of view

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ appreciating diversity

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ plural nouns

☐ suffixes

☐ compound words

☐ contractions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Callie and Charlie are twins, which makes them very similar. They both have curly hair and brown eyes and love hot chocolate with marshmallows. However, even when they were very little, Callie and her mother knew Charlie was different. It was difficult for him to say, “I love you,” and he was very quiet. They learned that Charlie had autism which makes some things more challenging for him.

Throughout the book, Callie teaches readers about her brother Charlie and what it is like having a brother with autism. She explains the things that are challenging for him, and the things that are challenging when your brother is autistic. Callie also teaches readers about all the wonderful qualities of her brother and how he shows his love to his family members. This heartwarming story about siblings is a great way to teach young readers about appreciating diversity.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social-Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list-making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables