Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Martin’s Big Words will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of perseverance and advocation, this Martin’s Big Words picture book by Doreen Rappaport is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Martin’s Big Words Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Martin’s Big Words. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Martin’s Big Words reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
MARTIN'S BIG WORDS SUMMARY
Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport is a nonfiction picture book that teaches children about the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Students will learn what life was like for Martin growing up and how he became a leader in the fight for equal rights.
Throughout the book, the author includes actual quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. This book explains how Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged people to use their words to make change and the impact he had on the country. This story follows Martin all the way from childhood through the end of his life.
MARTIN’S BIG WORDS LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Martin’s Big Words, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Martin’s Big Words reading comprehension questions focus on:
- ask and answer questions
- analyzing character
- identifying genre
- author’s purpose
- sequencing
- figurative language
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- perseverance
- advocation
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- quotation marks
- action verbs
- commas
- compound words
MARTIN’S BIG WORDS ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
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BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Martin’s Big Words?
- Lexile® Measure: AD610L
- Guided Reading Level: O
- DRA Level: 30-34
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.3-3.5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Doreen Rappaport. It was illustrated by Bryan Collier.
What genre is Martin’s Big Words?
It is a nonfiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
