Salt and Syllables: read-along
Salt and Syllables as a read-along for the projector: 16 pages, 1893 words, level 13, grade 8.
Page 1 of 16
Pop Alcide, my mother's father, taught me the weather before he taught me my letters. I think now that he considered the two the same sort of reading. We sat on the back step of the gray house, with the harbor spread out below us like a plate of beaten tin and the boats lying on it like small, patient, sleeping animals, and he held up one brown finger to the wind. "Mackerel sky," he would say, when the clouds lay in rows like the scales of a fish, and mares' tails, when they were drawn out high and thin as hair, and sundogs when the sun had two pale cousins, one on either side. Each was a word, and each word was a promise about tomorrow. I learned them the way I learned my own name.
Keys: ← → or Page Up and Page Down turn the page, Space starts and pauses the voice, Home and End jump, F fills the screen. Tapping the right side of a page goes on; the left side goes back.
How to use it
- Press Full screen (F) to put the book on the projector.
- Press Read to me (Space), or read it yourself and turn pages with the arrow keys or a tap. Pick the Pace that suits the class.
- After the last page, three questions come up to talk about.
About this book
- Level 13, Grade 8
- 16 pages, 1893 words, about 14 minutes aloud
- A story, gentle
Related
About Salt and Syllables
Tamar Boudreau grows up on a fishing island off Nova Scotia, between a fiddler grandfather and a mother who writes lists, and she is not sure which of them she takes after. Told in short chapters from age seven to twelve, it follows a girl finding her voice by learning what to leave out.
Words to preview
- sundogs (SUN-dawgz)
- bright sky spots
- barometer (buh-ROM-uh-ter)
- pressure gauge
- overdue (OH-ver-DOO)
- late
- squall (SKWAWL)
- sudden storm
- notebook (NOHT-book)
- writing book
Questions that fit any book
- What happened at the beginning, in the middle and at the end?
- Which page was your favorite? Why?
- How did the main character feel at the end? What tells you?
Questions
How long does Salt and Syllables take to read aloud?
It has 16 pages and 1893 words, so about 14 minutes at the Steady pace and a little less at Quick. If you stop to talk on the way, plan for more.
What reading level is Salt and Syllables?
Level 13, Grade 8. The library numbers its levels from 0 to 18 and puts the level of a book on its cover; level 13 sits at grade 8. A level is a guide for choosing, so look at the pages yourself.
Whose voice is it?
Your browser's own. Read to me uses a speaking voice already on the computer, so it sounds like that computer and works without a sign-in. Voices differ: some light each word as it is spoken, and some do not, in which case the highlight follows a steady pace instead. Some browsers use an online voice; if yours does, the browser, not us, sends the words of the page to its speech service. If no voice is installed, turn the pages and read it aloud yourself.
Do students need an account?
No. Nothing is asked of anyone and nothing is sent to us. Project the page, or share the link and let students open it on their own screens.
Where does this book come from?
It was written for Peabody's library. It is not copied from a published book.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. The voice is your browser's own. No sign-in, no ads.