Deeper Comprehension: Duck! Rabbit!

One of the benefits of reading picture books my kids love many times is I get all kinds of ideas about how a book can be used to develop reading and thinking skills in an elementary classroom. Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krause Rosenthal is a powerful book. It doesn't have many words, but it is full of meaning and the humor that made AKR my new favorite author. 

Duck! Rabbit! is an excellent book to use to teach kids how to identify the author's central message--a Common Core State Standard at just about every grade level.

Before we walk through the comprehension lesson, look at the cover.

Do you see the rabbit? 

Do you see the duck?

Duck! Rabbit! is engaging and thought-provoking for all ages!

Young children like its simple pictures, and if you read it with good expression, they are highly entertained by the debate. Is this picture a rabbit or a duck?

Beginning readers will enjoy reading and rereading this book themselves--making it a sneaky way to help them develop reading fluency.

The book gets interesting when you begin to look for the author's message. There is a basic framework you can teach kids to use to identify the author's central message. It's also a great framework for summarizing and retelling. You can get a printable sign with the four prompts for free in my TPT Store.

Let's walk through the lesson so you can see the magic of the framework.

What is the problem in the story?

Answer: The characters (who exist only as voices) disagree about which animal they see in a picture.

Taking comprehension deeper:  Students can usually figure out the problem, but they struggle to put their thoughts into words. Students will probably say, "'They' are fighting over whether 'it's' a duck or a rabbit." Try to push them to identify the pronouns more specifically. The voices don't have names or faces, which will be a point of interest. It might be challenging for students to identify "it" as a drawing or picture. They will tend to want to call it a duck or a rabbit, and trying to decide what to call it will make them think critically.

What do the characters do about the problem?

Answer: They each give supporting reasons for their opinion.

Taking comprehension deeper: Students should be able to tell that the characters are arguing, but I find they have a hard time using the higher-level vocabulary to more accurately describe what is happening. I usually have to suggest words like reasons and opinions. We work together as a class to get the statement as clear and concise as possible. It helps to write down the words (or type them onto a SmartBoard.

What do the characters learn?

Answer: They learn that the picture could be a duck or a rabbit. They realize they are both right.

Taking comprehension deeper: Students should notice that the characters begin to see each other's perspective. It will be hard for them to recognize that both characters are correct. Some might be completely convinced the drawing is a rabbit, so they'll think that one character was right in the beginning and the other one was right at the end. In my experience, once someone points out that they can both be right most of the class will agree.

What does the author want you to learn?

Answer: There can be more than one correct answer to a question. What you see depends on your perspective.

Taking comprehension deeper: It's going to really difficult for young students to get to this point. This is why I think this text could be used with much older students than the ones I teach. To try to get primary kids to this point, I would emphasize that the drawing is what the characters learned about, but the author want's us to learn about LIFE. Using "in life" as a sentence starter will probably get most groups to something like: "In life, different people think different things about stuff." I dislike the word stuff, so I  push them to try to think of better words like situations or events.

 To help them understand, provide some relatable examples: 

Climbing trees: kids think it's fun, but parents are scared the kids will get hurt.

Rainy days: Some people are sad because they don't like going outside in the rain, but farmers are happy because they need rain for their crops.

Honestly, I think high school students could probably benefit from this discussion, but I doubt high school teachers I using Duck! Rabbit! (unfortunately). 

Lessons like this are my favorite part of teaching! It takes extreme patience to guide a conversation like this, but I think every kid in the classroom can get something out of it. It's totally worth it.

I'd love to learn about some other apparently simple picture books that can get pretty deep. Share your favorite in the comments.

Visit Reading Toward the Stars to learn about other fantastic books! 

If you found this post to be interesting or fun, I'd love for you to connect with me!