It’s Throwback Thursday! I’m excited to spotlight one of my favorite anchor texts for Readers Workshop: Goal by Mina Javaherbin. This was always one of my go-tos when I was a literacy specialist, and one I still enjoy taking to classes to read aloud to my students now.
Goal is the story of a group of friends getting together after their chores are done to play football (or soccer as students in the U.S. would call it). Quick thinking saves their precious ball when they encounter the neighborhood bullies and the game can resume.
Students can connect to their own experiences playing soccer or playing in their neighborhoods with friends, and unfortunately some can also connect to running into the bullies. But the setting in a South African township makes this text great for teaching students how to ask questions and how to infer.
I also love the message that the book ends with and believe it is an important one for our students: “When we play together, we are unbeatable.”
