Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for My Brother Charlie 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 a theme of appreciating diversity, this My Brother Charlie picture book by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete 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 My Brother Charlie Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of My Brother Charlie. 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 My Brother Charlie reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
MY BROTHER CHARLIE SUMMARY
Callie and Charlie are twins, which makes them very similar. They both have curly hair and brown eyes, and love hot chocolate with marshmallows. However, even when they were very little, Callie and her mother knew Charlie was different. It was difficult for him to say, “I love you,” and he was very quiet. They learned that Charlie had autism which makes some things more challenging for him.
Throughout the book, Callie teaches readers about her brother Charlie and what it is like having a brother with autism. She explains the things that are challenging for him, and the things that are challenging when your brother is autistic. Callie also teaches readers about all the wonderful qualities of her brother and how he shows his love to his family members. This heartwarming story about siblings is a great way to teach young readers about appreciating diversity.
MY BROTHER CHARLIE 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 My Brother Charlie, 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 My Brother Charlie reading comprehension questions focus on:
- summarize / retell
- comparing and contrasting
- analyzing character
- point of view
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- appreciating diversity
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- plural nouns
- suffixes
- compound words,
- contractions
MY BROTHER CHARLIE 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
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for My Brother Charlie?
- Lexile® Measure: AD540L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.9 – 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete. It was illustrated by Shane W. Evans.
What genre is My Brother Charlie?
It is a fiction 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.
