Speech Bubbles & Thinking Bubbles

When we are teaching our students how to infuse their writing with various craft moves, structure their texts in different ways, or use a variety of text features, there is no easier way to do this than with a mentor text.  Some of my favorite mentor texts are the Diary of A Worm/Spider/Fly books written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Harry Bliss.  These are great humorous books with so many teaching purposes you will have a hard time deciding which one to start with!  Because I read one of these stories at the beginning of the year with our reading series (Journeys), I start with a mini lesson that makes the most sense for my second graders at the beginning of the year.

In my classroom during writer's workshop, we write books.  My students often write fiction stories, and needless to say, it's not long before they are writing dialogue in their books.  I do get to the point where I teach them about quotation marks, but at the beginning of the year, I find that speech and thinking bubbles are a bit more accessible.

The Diary of . . . books are great for teaching this concept.  The stories are told like a diary with entries in order by date.  The illustrations take up the majority of each page, with limited text.  This focus on the illustrations really makes this book a great choice for teaching about speech and thinking bubbles because kids are concentrating on the illustrations--they are a big part of the storyline.  Additionally, the text in the speech and thinking bubbles adds to the story, so if the kids don't read it, they are missing out on some humorous dialogue.  

The mini lesson for this concept typically goes very well as the students are excited to share other examples of speech and thinking bubbles they have seen in other texts.  Modeling is not always necessary as kids have seen speech and thinking bubbles previously, and once you bring their attention to it, they look for them everywhere.  Second graders are typically very in tune to the slight difference between the two types of bubbles--the little circles vs the pointy part.  They enjoy practicing drawing them and incorporating them into their writing.  A good tip is to teach them to write the words first and then draw their bubble around it.

This is one of my favorite mini lessons to teach because the kids are so excited to utilize this craft in their writing!  What are your favorite books to use to teach thinking and speech bubbles?  Leave your favorite titles below.

Happy Reading!!

~Carrie

Diary Of. . . books