Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages, A PDF and/or Digital Novel Study

Perfect for use during baseball season as well as for creating greater awareness of women's rights and the history of U.S. baseball including the Negro Leagues and Women's Leagues. This is a ready-to-use, CCSS aligned packet intended for use with a book club group, literature circle, or even an entire classroom. It can be downloaded as a PDF and printed and/or it can be downloaded as a digital Easel product and assigned via Google Classroom. It is designed for students in grades 4-7 who are reading Out of Left Field by award-winning author Ellen Klages.

Included are 29 student pages (which can be printed and used to create booklets or digital to be assigned, completed, and turned in on any device), an answer key, an optional vocabulary bookmark, and a list of common core standards supported.

The student workbook divides the text into 6 reading assignments (consisting of about 50 pages each) with 4 or more pages of questions and varied activities to accompany each assignment. The questions and tasks in this booklet reinforce the skills that good readers and writers need to master and maintain. These activities support CCSS. Skills practiced include:

• comprehension
• visualizing
• point-of-view
• connecting to the text
• writing crafts: simile, hyperbole, idiom, metaphor, idiom, alliteration
• identifying setting
• noticing theme
• identifying character traits
• defining vocabulary
• writing to explain thinking
• demonstrating understanding

The student booklet is designed as independent work so students can work on this in class while the teacher is meeting with another group. Students are typically responsible for completing one reading assignment with the accompanying activities each week. They meet once a week with the teacher (or an aide or a parent), along with the other students reading the same book (I call this a book club meeting) to discuss the book and review the assignments. Depending on the reading skills of your students they may need more, or less, time to complete an assignment. The student booklet could also be used as a project to be completed at home or it could be used with a whole class rather than a smaller group.

OUT of LEFT FIELD in a nutshell:

This is timely and compelling historical fiction that gives a realistic snapshot of life in America in the 50's with a focus on civil rights, baseball, and the space program.

Fifth grader, Katy Gordon, is not your typical girl. Unlike the other girls in her school, she loves to play baseball…weird according to most kids. She’s such a skilled pitcher that even the Little League scout has taken notice. She also has a growing conscience of fairness and doing one’s best. This book will capture the attention of your students and will teach them a lot about history, baseball, civil rights, standing up for one’s principles, and the potential costs of following one’s passion in the process.

Appropriate for students in grades 4-7. Reading level is approximately 5-6th grade.

If you are interested in having several baseball themed novel studies, you might want to consider my Baseball Bundled packet which includes this book plus six others for the price of just 4! Check it out here or see individually by clicking the links below.

1) Babe and Me, by Dan Gutman

2) Heat, by Mike Lupica

3) Keeping Score, by Linda Sue Park

4) Shoeless Joe and Me, by Dan Gutman

5) The Big Field, by Mike Lupica

6) The Boy Who Saved Baseball, by John H. Ritter

7) The Lucky Baseball Bat, by Matt Christopher.

8) Out of Left Field, by Ellen Klages

9) Safe at Home, by Mike Lupica