Salt In His Shoes: A Comparative Analysis

In order to create an activity where students can compare and contrast two books, the books must have at least one thing in common. This could be having the same author, characters, themes, cultures, or plots. Comparing and contrasting has many benefits for students. Comparing and contrasting can strengthen a student’s ability to remember, help create higher-order thinking skills, and enhance a student’s comprehension skills. (Silver, 2010)
The two books I chose to compare and contrast are Salt in His Shoes by Deloris and Roslyn M. Jordan and Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Salt in His Shoes is written by Michael Jordan’s mother and sister and is about Michael Jordan as a young boy. It is the story of how Michael used to play basketball with his older brothers as a child and how an older boy who was much taller than Michael always daunted him. The book goes on to tell how Michael followed his dream by practicing basketball everyday and saying a prayer every night. With

all of his hard work, Michael eventually made his dream a reality and became one of the most talented basketball players in NBA’s history.
Snowflake Bentley won the 1999 Caldecott Medal and is the story of Wilson Bentley whose passion and dream is to capture pictures of snowflakes. Bentley dedicated his whole life to taking microphotographs of snowflakes. Although many people thought he was foolish for being so fascinated with snow, Bentley started taking photographs of snowflakes with a special camera his parents bought him. He took hundreds of pictures of snowflakes and was never discouraged when he failed. When he was older he was known as the world’s expert on snow and many colleges and artists bought his photographs. Even after his death, Wilson Bentley is still well known in weather research and has a monument in his hometown recognizing all of his work and contributions to science and art.
I chose these two books to compare and contrast because they are both about people who follow their dreams and never give up, even if others do not believe in them. They also talk about determination and hard work. I think students will be able to find many similarities and differences between Michael Jordan and Wilson Bentley and how they both worked hard to reach their dreams. Students can create a graphic organizer along with using technology to compare and contrast the characters and details in both books.
The two Iowa Core Standards that my activity would target would be to compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic (RI.2.9) and to describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges (RL.2.3).
There are many similarities between these two stories.

Some of the main similarities are that both Michael and Wilson had a passion for a certain hobby and never gave up that passion because of others. They both worked hard and practiced all the time to better themselves. At the end, they both end up achieving their dreams and becoming famous. Some of the differences in the two books were that in Salt in His Shoes Michael’s passion is for basketball and he had a long career in the NBA and is a well-known professional athlete. Wilson on the other hand in Snowflake Bentley had a passion to capture microphotographs of snowflakes and to share his findings about the uniqueness of each snowflake and how no two snowflakes are alike with the world. Wilson Bentley wasn’t able to experience being famous due to his death. He did have several fans before he passed, but his legacy lives on long after his death. His research and findings continue to teach students and adults all over the

world.
If I would teach a lesson about these two books in my own classroom, I would use several different tools to ensure that my students understood the stories and could make correct distinctions between the two. I would start by having the students work in pairs or small groups. I would give them a graphic organizer in which they would write the similarities between Michael Jordan and Wilson Bentley. I would also have the students write down the differences between the two men. The students should be able to recognize the differences between the two characters and the contributions both men had to our society. I would also have the students use iPads to incorporate 21st Century Skills into my lesson and to make it easier for the students to collaborate with one another. In order to assess my students, I would have them work in groups to create a short slideshow to present to the rest of the class. The students would have to describe how each man achieved their goals and dreams and how they differed in this process. I would also have the students do an activity where they create biographies where they state their lifelong dreams and write about the hardships they had to overcome to achieve them.
Overall, I think these activities are important for my students’ development because they will be able to see how everyone’s story is different and what troubles people go through during their lives. I think it would be good for students to see how much hard work they have to put in to achieve their dreams in real life and that it won’t just happen. Comparing and contrasting Salt in His Shoes and Snowflake Bentley will help students think more deeply about how two stories about two different people and entirely different dreams can be similar, yet differ when it comes to the plot and the characters’ experiences.