[MOSAIC] comprehension text set

[Stephanie Ann Vander Voort]

A book I love that would be great to use in an immigration unit is  
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. This book is about a girl and her  
family as they leave Russia to go to America to escape religious  
persecution. Rifka?s family is forced to leave Rifka behind and she  
must continue the journey on her own.  You could teach or review a lot  
of strategies with the book. There are many places where students  
could make predictions and later verify them, many questions can be  
raised based on feelings, historical relevance, ect. Also, there are a  
ton of connections to be made with the book. Text to world connections  
can be made between the text and World War II, text to self  
connections can be made by relating the feelings Rifka is having(such  
as loneliness, being afraid, ect..) to themselves and if you are using  
Esperanza Rising as a read aloud many text to text connections can be  
made between that and Rifka since both are about young girls  
immigrating to America. The book also talks a lot about Ellis Island  
which is a great topic pertaining to immigration. :)