The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: Vocabulary Visuals (for ELLs)

This is a 68 slide PowerPoint with vocabulary visuals for the book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.

I made this to provide visual vocabulary support for English Language Learners in my classroom. I preview it before reading or assigning chapter reading to increase comprehensible input (a SIOP strategy). The slides also set the context (front-loading context) and spark connections and conversations between the story and the language. I absolutely love this read-aloud for grade 4, but some of the vocabulary can be challenging. I made this to make it accessible to all learners, both ELLs and native speakers.

For most words and phrases, I provide two different visuals so that ELLs don't latch onto the wrong meaning. Most words also include a simple, short definition. The words consist mainly of tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary.

The Powerpoint is divided into three chapter groups (as the chapters are quite short). For each three-chapter group, I've included 6 to 7 focus words.

Chapters 1-3:

china (porcelain), elegant, urine, annoyance, pocket watch, The Queen Mary

Chapters 4-6:

shiver, consequences, warthog, voyage, mortified, overboard

Chapters 7-9:

ferocity, pipe, North Star, "grizzled old man", dusk, horrified, pneumonia, constellations

Chapters 10-12:

highchair, ignore, the dump, despair, salvation, hobo or tramp

Chapters 13-15:

"unfit for consumption", muzzle, outlaw, recognize, restless, crows, ferocious

Chapters 16-18:

"dusk descended", harmonica, drunk, loathed, hunched over, protect

Chapters 19-21:

refuse, wept, Memphis, ache, pavement, diner

Chapters 22-24:

sorrow, flutter, "exceedingly well-made", mend, restore, option

Chapters 25-27:

shoo, vacant, century, courage, fragile, locket

I recommend gauging your students' level of need for visual support and then deleting/adding slides as you see fit. I teach a class of 4th graders that are almost exclusively ELLs, so I preview and discuss all of these words. We review each previous chapter (or chapters) before learning the new words for that day's read-aloud. You can print the slides for word walls as well.

**This Powerpoint is fully editable so you can add or delete words as you wish.