Dr.+Seuss-Fifth+and+Sixth+Grade

=Dr. Seuss- Fifth and 6th Grade=

Lesson 1 Materials: a copy of __The Cat in the Hat,__ and __The Boy on Fairfield Street__ __The Cat in the Hat__ and __Green Eggs and Ham__ use to teach students about purpose in writing by relaying the story about Seuss writing of the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham (as related here from the Wikipedia Article about Seuss or possibly __The Boy on Fairfield Street__ by Kathleen Krull)

"At the same time, an important development occurred that influenced much of Seuss' later work. In May 1954, //[|Life]// magazine published a report on [|illiteracy] among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, Seuss' publisher made up a list of 400 words he felt were important and asked Dr. Seuss to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words. Nine months later, Seuss, using 220 of the words given to him, completed //[|The Cat in the Hat]//. This book was a //tour de force//—it retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Seuss' earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary could be read by beginning readers. A rumor exists, that in 1960, [|Bennett Cerf] bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was supposedly //[|Green Eggs and Ham]//. The additional rumor that Cerf never paid Seuss the $50 has never been proven and is most likely untrue. These books achieved significant international success and remain very popular.