Posted By: Lauren Fawcett
Posted On: December 1, 2014
Lauren Fawcett
6th Grade Math and Science
Founders’ Hall Middle School, McKeesport Area School District
A Single Shard
This novel would be appropriate for a fourth or fifth grade classroom. The content is easy to read, but obtains robust vocabulary which is a great way to expand students’ vocabulary skills. In addition, there are only a few characters within the story which keeps it simple for the reader. The novel is a page turner and gets to the point of the scenes within the chapters. The chapters are not lengthy which is great for a 4th or 5th grade reader, so he or she will not become discouraged if they are a struggling reader. In addition, this novel is great for a classroom because it states that it is set in the 12th century in Korea in the beginning of the novel. This brings in culture and geography if you were teaching about world history or about Asia in general by elaborating through a story what it was like during that time of Asian history. As an educator, I would want to know the ins and outs of this novel and about the author to make sure I can touch upon all the important details of the story and to connect it to the history of Asia and to the students’ prior knowledge.
The story is about a boy named Tree-ear and his passion and determination to learn how to throw pots. Tree-ear is an orphan boy who lives under a bridge with an old man named Crane-man. Tree-ear watches a potter named Min who throws pots. Tree-ear eventually gets caught by Min and starts working for Min for about a year and a half everyday mainly cutting fire wood and retrieving clay for free. Emissary Kim is a man from China who decides who gets a potter commission job. Emissary Kim analyzed Min’s pots along with a fellow named Kang. Emissary Kim asked that Min travels to China to show his pots one more time because Emissary Kim loved Potter Min’s creations. Tree-ear volunteered himself to travel from Korea to China with the two vases that Potter Min wished Emissary Kim to see; since Potter Min was very old he could not travel too far. On the journey, Tree-ear ran into a couple of robbers and the vases broke. Tree-ear found a single shard big enough to show Emissary Kim, so he did.
I did not want to spoil the end of the story, although, I would use this specific novel in my classroom multiple ways. One way would be to elaborate on how art and ceramics came from Asia; I would bring in clay and paint for the students to make their own pots and to practice their art skills. Another way would be for the students to make a timeline of the story to make sure the students understood the sequence of the story to build upon their comprehension skills. Also, this book would be a good way for students to understand who orphans or homeless people are if they did not already know and that this still happens today and what we as a community can do to help those in need. This book is a great way to connect to children who live in a more poverty stricken area as well because of the similar connection to Tree-ear. This novel is also age-related because children at the age of 10 are still curious about the world around them, just like Tree-ear was. My class can then begin a classroom project or food drive for the local community. Lastly, simply discussing about Tree-ear’s determination by wanting something so badly that he did whatever it took to do that even if that meant traveling for days alone to reach a different country.
In conclusion, I would recommend this novel to any reader. I feel it has a main idea of determination or passion like I previously stated. Students’ need a mixture of genres and this novel has many different emotions that run through it. It is exciting yet sad and that is why the novel is a page turner. I highly enjoyed it and I am sure you will as well.