Taylor Manrique

Text Analysis
Tch&Lrn 413
11/6/19

Building a House by Byron Barton

Barton, B. (1981). Building a House. Carmel, CA: William Morrow & Company.

1. Major Concepts, Ideas, and/or Events from the Material

 There are many different steps to building a house
 There are many different kinds of workers needed to build a house
 There are many different kinds of materials needed to build a house
a. Supporting Concepts
 Workers build the house so that someone has a place to live
2. Experience and Knowledge
 Students live somewhere that had to be built first
 Student’s parents or someone they know may have a job where they help build
houses
 Students pass construction sites where a building or house is being built when
they are in a car or on the bus
b. 3 Pieces of Knowledge for Connection
 Every building we see has to be built- what are some buildings you know of?
 Everything built requires materials- what kinds of materials?
 Everything built requires workers who have a different job- what kinds of jobs
are those?
 Everything built costs money- where does the money come from?
3. Barrier Identification
 Vocabulary may be unfamiliar to lower grades
Ex. “cement”, “carpenters”, “chimney”, “plumber”, “electrician”
 All students may not live in a house- they may not understand the process of
building a house or what it looks like
 The setting where the house is being built in the story may not be the same
setting that they live in- country vs. city
c. Vocabulary and/or Materials ELL Students may struggle with
 The names of the materials used to build the house may not sound the same as
in their native language
Ex. “machine”, “hammer”, “saw”, “cement”, “roof”, “house”
 The job names of the workers may not sound the same as in their native
language
Ex. “carpenters”, “painters”, “plumber”, “electrician”
  The setting in which the house is being built in the story may not look the same
as where they may be from
 The traditional look of the home that is being built in the story may not be the
same as the homes where the student(s) may be from
 The concepts of the house that is being built may not be included in traditional
homes where the student(s) may be from
Ex. Wooden floors, a roof, inclusion of a chimney, plumbing with running water
4. Reflection
 Considering that this book is at a lexile level of this book is at 100 (1 st grade
level), some of the vocabulary within the text may be unfamiliar or difficult for
students to understand and/or pronounce. Because of this, it would be
important as we read the story to identify the unfamiliar vocabulary, practice
sounding out the word, writing it down on a word wall, and defining the word as
we go. At the end of the story, we will have a full list for our word wall containing
the unfamiliar vocabulary that we found in the story, that way students have it
to refer back to when needed.
 Because the concept of building a house and then living in it may not be a
familiar concept to all students, we would need to have a discussion on why this
concept is included in the book (because it is traditional American culture), and
what other kinds of living situations there may be around us (ex. Apartment
complexes) and in other places (ex. Teepee tents are traditional living in Native
American culture).
 To better understand the concept of the people who help build houses- because
students may want to have a job/have a job like that one day- we can complete a
mix & match game that students can match the materials that would go in a
home with the appropriate worker (ex. Carpenter with wood floors).