Turtle Island Voices

Connecting to the voices of the past, present, and future.

Specs

Grades 1–3: 6″ x 8″, 16 pages (Grades 1–2), 24 pages (Grade 3)
Grades 4–6: 6″ x 9″, 24 pages and one 32-page novella per grade
Grades 7–8: 9″ x 12″, 48 pages

Teaching Resource:

The easy-to-navigate teacher’s guide for each grade of the Turtle Island Voices series includes detailed, guided instruction for each Student Book. Along with extension activities and reproducible masters, the resources offer background knowledge that will help teachers easily incorporate Aboriginal perspectives into their classrooms.

TURTLE ISLAND VOICES is a groundbreaking series of levelled readers designed to foster awareness and understanding of Aboriginal cultures for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in Grades 1 to 8. Each grade in the series offers traditional stories, modern stories featuring Aboriginal protagonists, and informational texts on a variety of engaging topics. Integrating TURTLE ISLAND VOICES into the classroom not only helps to foster a sense of identity among Aboriginal students, but it also enriches all students with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives. Now available in English and French.

Highlights

TURTLE ISLAND VOICES honours the histories, cultures, world views, and knowledge of many Aboriginal peoples of Canada. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students will delight in seeing themselves, their cultures, and their traditions reflected in the books. The memorable stories and characters in each book will allow all students to connect to the text, encouraging them to respond by sharing their own stories and experiences with one another.

Levelling: Each student book is carefully levelled using an extensive list of criteria; the series addresses individual readers’ abilities, allowing reluctant and struggling readers to grow with the program as their literacy skills improve.

Curriculum Links: Across all grades, the topics in TURTLE ISLAND VOICES offer many opportunities for teachers to link Aboriginal perspectives to existing curriculum in many subject areas, including Social Studies, Language, Science, and the Arts.

Variety of Genres: Fiction, modern, informational, and graphic texts, coupled with unparalleled high-interest graphics, give students the opportunity to access information in a variety of ways.

CD-ROM: A CD-ROM at each grade includes projectable pages that will help teachers incorporate TURTLE ISLAND VOICES into their shared reading plan.

Features

For All Students

Turtle Island Voices honours the histories, cultures, world views, and knowledge of many Aboriginal peoples of Canada. First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students will delight in seeing themselves, their cultures, and their traditions reflected in the books. The memorable stories and characters in each book will allow all students to connect to the text, encouraging them to respond by sharing their own stories and experiences with one another.

Levelling (1-6)

Each Student Book in Turtle Island Voices is carefully levelled using an extensive list of criteria. The series addresses individual readers' abilities, allowing reluctant and struggling readers to grow with the program as their literacy skills improve.

Teachings (1-3)

Each Turtle Island Voices traditional and modern story is accompanied by a Teaching from Turtle Island, which is a value that encourages students to become more empathetic. Students will learn about character education as they read stories that teach about respect, wisdom, honesty, love, bravery, humility, forgiveness, kindness, compromise, and determination.

Reflecting on the Story (4-6)

AEach Turtle Island Voices traditional and modern story is accompanied by a Reflecting on the Story page, which allows the students to discuss what they have learned from the story. It also includes information about the history of the story or its setting.

Turtle Island Circle (1-6)

Each student book in Turtle Island Voices includes questions about the theme or teaching in the book. These questions invite students to reflect on teachings in the book.

Curriculum Links

The topics in Turtle Island Voices offer many opportunities for teachers to link Aboriginal perspectives to existing curriculum in many subject areas, including Social Studies, Language, Science, and the Arts.

Variety of Genres

Fiction, modern, informational, and graphic texts, coupled with unparalleled high-interest graphics, give students the opportunity to access information in a variety of ways.

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM at each grade includes projectable pages that will help teachers incorporate Turtle Island Voices into their whole class and shared reading plans.

Circle In and Circle Out (7-8)

Each selection in Turtle Island Voices begins with a Circle In activity and concludes with two Circle Out activities. Circle In activities are designed to prompt students to preview the text, access prior knowledge, or make predictions. Circle Out activities take students beyond the selection, making text-to-text, text-to world, and text-to-self connections.

Team

Series Editor

Advisory Board

David Bouchard

Series Editor

David Bouchard is a well-respected speaker and educator and a bestselling Métis author. A former teacher and principal, David is an award-winning author, having written over 35 bestselling books. Through his keynotes and presentations, David champions literacy and promotes Aboriginal culture. His book If You're Not From the Prairie is included on Maclean's list of the top 20 children's books in the history of Canada. This book and two others, entitled Qu'Appelle and The Song Within My Heart, all appear on a Southam News list of 25 Canadian Children's Classics. David Bouchard was named to the Order of Canada in 2009.

Robert Cutting

Series Editor

Robert Cutting has been an educator for over 34 years. Prior to his retirement in 2006, he was a Program Consultant for the Durham Catholic District School Board, with responsibilities in ESL/ELD, the Arts, and Teacher/Librarians. He has been an author of educational books since 1973, publishing over one hundred titles, from award-winning textbooks to stories for children of all ages. Robert is of Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) ancestry and is also a member of the Aboriginal Education Advisory Circle for the Durham Catholic District School Board.

Robyn Michaud-Turgeon

Series Editor

Robyn Michaud-Turgeon is a teacher, curriculum author and consultant specializing in ESL and Aboriginal Education. She has worked on several provincial and national projects for various major stakeholders to promote Aboriginal perspectives across the curriculum, as well as create safe and culturally-relevant spaces for Aboriginal students within the public education system. Outside of her consulting work, she currently teaches for the Thames Valley District School Board and the University of Western Ontario.

David Booth

Literacy Consultant

David Booth is Professor Emeritus in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, where he is Scholar in Residence in the Curriculum, Teaching, and Language Department. For over 40 years, he has been involved in teaching children and teachers, as a classroom teacher, language arts consultant, professor, speaker, and author. David has written several teacher reference books and textbooks in all areas of language development.