Biography- Chapter Book

Title: Walt Disney

Author: Jane Sutcliffe

Grade Level: Third to Fifth

 Summary: This biography chronicles the life of the great Walt Disney. The story travels stage by stage through is life covering all the wonderful things he developed and made possible. The biography starts off as he is growing up and loving to draw pictures and illustrations. Followed by years of working at the Film Ad Company, Walt began a new adventure in creating a little movie called "Alice's Wonderland." Soon after, he married and developed his company called "Walt Disney Studio." The biography tells how through the years, Walk Disney continued to create more and more cartoons and movies. He then eventually went on to create a theme park for children and adults to enjoy called Disneyland. With the continued success of that, he decided he needed to also build a theme park in Florida. As the biography describes, he never lived to see Disney World finished, but he is and will always be remembered for the amazing stories, movies, and adventures he created and with the continued success of the Disney Company over all these years, its show how hard work and extreme dedication to something that you love pays off in the end.

Strategies for the Classroom: This book would be perfect for a lesson pertaining to Florida history and facts. It is a fairly short book that can be read over time and then be used to teach the history of not only such a successful person, but also one of the most successful companies in the world. Not only does this book focus on the history aspect but it also focuses on the business and professional side showing to the students that hard work will definitely pay off. This book would also be very successful and fun to read in a classroom, especially here in Florida because it is something that all of the students can relate to and understand on a personal level.

ESOL Applications: I don't know that I would necessarily use this book for any ESOL students. Although the text is fairly simple to read and is at a middle reading level, most ESOL students may not be able to comprehend the information and may not be able to relate to the idea of Disney World or Walt Disney because they've never learned about him or the company.

Read Aloud: Chapter 1 and Chapter 5; the beginning of it all and the finally projects that he completed (his success)

Personal Opinions:  I personally loved reading this biography because it was someone who was so interesting to me because Disney is something that I have grown up with my entire life. I felt that the layout of the biography was really simple and easy to follow and mapped out the key points in his life and career that led him to be the successful person that he was.