The View from Saturday

The View from Saturday

By: E.L. Konigsburg

Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1996

Grade level: 3 and up

Fountas and Pinnell: U

Lexile: 870L

Accelerated Reader: 4.8

Suggested Delivery: Read Aloud/Small Group

Author: E.L. Konigsburg

Summary:

"The View From Saturday" follows the lives of four sixth grade quiz bowl champs and their paraplegic coach/teacher. Alternating their final quiz bowl championship match with short stories about the different journeys each kid has had to make, the book is adept at distinguishing between each individual in the group. We begin by listening to a story told by Noah.  A bit of a nerd, but pleased with his own inventive thoughts and ideas, Noah becomes the best man at an old couple's wedding. Then we hear Nadia's story about staying with her divorced father and newly remarried grandfather (hence the Noah connection) in Florida. This flows nicely into Ethan's story. His grandmother married Nadia's grandfather, and he overcomes his reluctance to interact easily with others with the help of his new friend Julian. Julian is the least troubled of the bunch, a boy of Indian heritage who is coming to America after living on a cruise ship. Together, the four band together into a group called The Souls. They are selected by Mrs. Olinski (though for a long time she doesn't know why) as her newest Quiz Bowl team and work effortlessly together in a group as friends and teammates.

Key Words/Phrases to Describe the Book:

1. The Souls

2. Friendship

3. Overcoming the odds

4. 4:00 is tea time

5. P.O.V.

Key Vocabulary:

Decline: process of losing power, strength, beauty, health, etc. growing worse

Accustomed: usual, customary, used to

Rabbi: Teacher of the Jewish law and religion, leader of a Jewish congregation

Corsages: Small bouquets of flowers, worn on the shoulder of a woman’s clothes or on her wrist

Native: belonging by birth to a specific nation or culture

Former: earlier, past

Resources:

The View from Saturday video is a youtube clip that gives a little preview of what the book is about.  It might be a fun way to introduce the book!

The View from Saturday inform is a personally made online tool to help get a simple understanding of what the book is about before reading. 

Teaching Suggestions:

• Have students make inferences after reading a specific selection of the text
• Create a character map of each character to help understand the background of each character
• Go over vocabulary that will be viewed in that portion of text

Comprehension Strategies:

Before: Go over the formatting of the book.  Explain what the three stars above a new paragraph mean.  Explain who is speaking in each chapter; whose point of view we are getting in that chapter.

During: A listen, read, discuss (LRD) would be beneficial after each chapter of the novel to make sure students are understanding whose perspective we are reading and what we learned throughout the chapter.

After: Students must write a RAFT as one of the characters mentioned in the book. (Role of the Writer: Who or what are you as the writer? A pilgrim? A soldier? The President? Audience: To whom are you writing? A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a newspaper? Format: In what format are you writing? A letter? A poem? A speech Topic and strong verb: What are you writing about? Why? What's the subject or the point?) 

Writing Activity:

Students must write a RAFT as one of the characters mentioned in the book. (Role of the Writer: Who or what are you as the writer? A pilgrim? A soldier? The President? Audience: To whom are you writing? A friend? Your teacher? Readers of a newspaper? Format: In what format are you writing? A letter? A poem? A speech Topic and strong verb: What are you writing about? Why? What's the subject or the point?) They will pretend that there is another chapter to the book from the character they choose to write about's point of view.

Bibliography:

Konigsburg, E. L. (1996). The view from Saturday. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers.