Writing for Olive

Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes reminds adults about the struggles that students around Martha’s age encounter. Martha finds out that a girl who was in her grade, Olive, thought that she was one of the nicest girls in class. When Olive is killed in a car accident, her mother stops by Martha's house and gives her a note from Olive which talks about how she wants to see the ocean one day and she wants to become a writer. When Martha reads this she decides that she is going to become a writer for Olive. While she is on vacation at her grandmother's house she starts to write. Eventually she learns that she doesn't really need to become a writer but she does try to bring the ocean to Olive since that was one of the goals Olive had written in the note that Martha received.  

This book is definitely a coming of age from her struggles Martha has with her parents to her first experiences with boys as more than just friends. I think that any 6^th grader could easily relate to this story, whether they can relate to knowing someone around their age who died, having their first crush, or the sibling relationships.  

Web sources for teachers:

Activities and Review- Has activities, things to point out to the class, similar books, and a review.

Scholastic Discussion Guide

Author's page

Grade Level: 6-8

Lexile: 680L

Reading level 4.8

Vocabulary:

Despondent, elicit, pollarded, gamboled, trinkets, intersected, whorl, buoyant, conspicuous, condescending, dappled, cryptic, mulled, abandoned, diatribe, cherubs, composure, comprised emblazoned, sallow, sheen, melodic, insidious, materialized, labyrinthine, writhing, unmoored, galumphing, cryptic, filaments, paltry, roiled, reproving, splayed, blather, tethered, syndicated, scrutinized, encampment, materialized, solidarity, melodic, alleviate, furtively, and gargantuan

Before:

            I would tell the students that the book we are going to read is about a girl who had a life changing experience and the story is about her life changing event.  After telling them this, I think that a great pre-reading activity would be to have the students brainstorm big life changing events. Then have the students write in their journals about a life changing experience they had, or at least something significant that happened to them in their life.     

During:   

            Since there are so many vocabulary words, it would be hard to pre-teach them all. I think that a great way to make sure the students know the vocabulary before they get to the section is to find the words before they read the section and have them keep these words near them while they read. Then they should write what they think the meaning of the word is from its context, affixes, or roots. Then after they read the word they should look up the word in the dictionary and write it down next to what they thought it meant. Finally they should use it in a sentence.

After:

            To conclude the book, I would have the students write a couple of paragraphs on how they can relate to Martha. This is a great way for students to make text-to-self connections, especially if any students are having trouble doing so. This would also be a great time to give students a 45 minute time limit, so they know what 45 minutes feels like when they have to do the writing section of the CMT.