Addison Schmidt

Berenstain, S., & Berenstain, Jan. (1995). The Berenstain Bears and the Green-eyed
Monster. New York: Random House.

Task 1

 List major concepts, ideas, and/or events from the material.

o Jealousy
o Envy

 List supporting concepts (important details), ideas, and/or events.

o Birthdays
o Presents
o green-eyed monster
o Bikes/cars
Task 2: Experience and knowledge

 List three experiences that would help your students connect the key concepts to their lives.
o Wanting a game or toy when someone else is playing with it
o Going to a birthday party and wanting what the person got
o Wanting to play with a group of people and noting being able to join in

 List 3 pieces of knowledge that would help your students connect the key concepts to their
lives.
o Knowing what it meaning to be jealous and to have envy
o What is looks like to be jealous and envious
o Knowing why people get jealous and envious

Task 3: Barrier identification

Answer these questions as specifically as possible:

 Is the material presented in a register that students are familiar with, or is it more or less
formal than they are used to? Give two examples.
o The book is in a form of narration and dialog
 Narration: It was a happy time in the big tree house down a sunny dirt
road in the Bear Country.
 Dialog “I’ll go downstairs and get us all some warm milk,” said Papa.
“It’ll help us get back to sleep.”
 With what specific language structures or grammar might students have difficulty? Give 2
examples and explain why.

-One structure that students might have difficulty is that the book goes between dialog
and narration. They might have a hard time understanding that a character is having a
conversation.
-Another structure that students might have difficulty is that throughout the book there
are many hyphenated words
 Good-bye, green-eyed, junior-size, super-sport, warm-up, I-gotta-have-it

 From whose point of view is the material presented? What difference might this make to
comprehension?
- The story is told by a narrator from the point of view of the sister bear. Students
might find it hard to comprehend when the book is changing from dialog and
narration.

 What vocabulary in the materials might ELLs have trouble with? Give three examples and
explain why.

- Green-eyed monster: This might be a challenging word for ELL due to the fact
the monster is a presentation of greed and jealousy.
- Rode: This might be a challenging word for ELL due to the fact that this is in the
past tense to which some languages do not have past tense words
- Pedals: This might be a challenging word for ELL due to the fact that in this
context the book is talking about pedals on a bike but it can easily be interpreted
as the pedals of a flower because they sound the same and are spelled the same.

 What cultural aspects of the book might ELLs find challenging? Why?

The idea of greed and jealously is are represented/symbolized by a monster, particularly a

green-eyed monster in American literature.
Task 4: Reflection
What might you as the teacher do to help students who face challenges with the material you
selected? List at least 3 strategies that might help, for what issue they might be helpful, and how
you could tell (assess) whether they helped.
 In helping students make connections within symbolism, I will be using visualization. I
will show students objects and explain what meanings that are connected on a deeper
level.
 I would also find books and stories in students' cultures that are examples of symbolism.
 I would also use a Picture word wall to have vocabulary words from the text defined and
in picture form.