Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco is about a girl named Trisha struggles to read. Her classmates make matters worse by calling her "dummy." Finally, in fifth grade, she is lucky enough to have a teacher who recognizes Trisha's incredible artistic ability, understands her problem, and takes the time to lead her to the magic of reading. Although dyslexia is never mentioned in the book, this story will provide great reassurance to children who struggle to overcome learning disabilities.

Guided Reading: Level M

Classroom Activities: 

Have students work with a partner to write "thank you" pages for a class book. Each student writes one page about an important person in his or her life, beginning with the phrase "Thank you, __________ (name of person)." You could combine these with photographs or portraits of the students as well as student drawings of the person they have selected.

Have students make a chart entitled "Things You Can Say To Make People Feel Good About Themselves" to post in the classroom. Have students add to it as they think of suggestions.

Ask students how the story would change if Trisha's family did not move. Would Trisha learn to read? What would the other characters then have to do to make her feel good about herself? Would anything happen to the bully? Give them time to talk about this in small groups and write a brief story outline.

Have students do a Readers Theater presentation of Thank You, Mr. Falker. Readers Theater is a strategy in which students take a text and interpret it in dramatic form. It develops deeper comprehension, as students summarize a piece of text, write their own script, and perform their interpretation of the story.

Thank You Mr. Falker is book based on a true story of the authors struggles with dyslexia and how a great teacher believed in her and helped her learn how to read. An activity that teachers can use in the classroom is to use it as a lesson to discuss bullying and how not everyone learns the same and is different. Students could also write about a time a teacher believed in them or helped them. Students who have dyslexia can also connect to this book and know they are not alone. This book is a level 24 on the DRA leveling system.

Trisha loves to read just like the rest of her family. When she gets into school she realizes she isn't that great of a reader. Like many students Trisha was left behind and fell many reading levels behind her class. When she moves schools Trisha gets the help she needs from her new teacher Mr. Faulker. She and Mr.Faulker would practice every day he even saved Trisha from a bully. Trisha loved to read again all thanks to Mr. Faulker. 

This could serve as an anti-bullying book during the first few days of school.

Lexile: 650L

Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco is a great story about a young girl named Trisha who struggles to read all throughout elementary school.  The book describes the frustration of not being able to keep up with other students and being bullied in the process.  Trisha makes it all the way to the fifth grade where her teacher, Mr. Falker, realizes that Trisha is dyslexic and needs extra help with reading.  The book ends with Trisha being able to read and growing up to be a children's book author (the author of this book).  Thank you, Mr. Falker could be used as a way to introduce students to dyslexia and the struggles some of their fellow classmates have.  It would also be a great bullying prevention and/or self-confidence book for students.  After reading this book, students could write about a time they have ever felt bullied or have ever been insecure and what the student did or will do to overcome his or her struggle. The reading level of this book is the middle of grade 1 to the end of grade 2 with a 24 level according to the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). 

This books tells the story of a young girl who is so excited to learn to read, but soon realizes that she struggles to read the letters and numbers because they all get jumbled together. Finally in fifth grade, Trisha meets a teacher who recognizes what she CAN do and enlightens her to the magic of reading. This book never directly mentions dyslexia, but it would be great to have for students that can relate to this problem or have learning disabilities. This book provides hope and encouragement to struggling students! I would love to read this to my students and then analyze how Trisha overcame her problem of not being able to read. 

Lexile: 650L

Fountas and Pinnell: M