The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

Konigsburg, E. L.. The view from Saturday. New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1996. Print

 Newberry Medal Book 1997

 AGES: Scholasitic grade level equivilent: 4.8, 870L

 SUMMARY:
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg is a Newbery Medal Winner that tells the amazing story of a 6^th grade academic bowl team. Not only does Konigsburg give the story of how the team is able to beat the 7^th grade and 8^th grade too, E.L. also tells the stories of each individual student on Mrs. Olinski’s team. Nadia, Noah, Ethan, and Julian each have unique stories that show how finding the kindness in others helps them to find themselves. This confidence and kindness leads to ultimate success. E.L. is really able to pair 4 short stories and one main tale together in a way that allows the reader to enjoy the journey. (Nadia compares divorce to turtles and has to adapt to the back and forth and find happiness and kindness in divorce, Noah gives away presents at Nadia and Ethan’s grandparents wedding, finding kindness in his mistakes, Ethan meets Julian and in his kindness saves Julian from getting beaten up, Julian brings the Souls together for tea and saves the dog in the school play, Annie, from getting sick.) This kindness allows the team to work together and ultimately beat everyone.

VOCAB:
Superintendent, benevolently, calligraphy, incandescently, feeble, inevitable, exaggerated, ecological, suburbanites, chanteuse


TEACHING STRATEGIES: (Small group instruction)
Before: Set up of the story, this story is composed on one main story and then four individual stories. Work with students to understand the structure of the novel before teaching.

During: Schema map or graphic organizer so they can plot the relationships developing in the story. Also, have students pick out vocab they didn’t know in each section they read. Then have them look up the vocabulary words and then read. 

After: Discuss how the four smaller stories related to the main story line. Also, discuss overall moral of the story. Use the online resources below to further enhance discussions.

ONLINE RESOURCES:
http://www.sdcoe.net/score/view/viewtg.html- great lesson ideas
 http://www.enotes.com/view-saturday/q-and-a - lesson plans/ study guide/ discussion questions
http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides-view.html - great discussion questions