Teaching Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction by David Macaulay


One of the recommended Common Core Explemplar Texts is Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction by David Macaulay. Since it is the end of the school year and standardized testing is over, and our school library had a classroom set of the book, I decided to have my seventh graders partner read this text with each other as one of our daily lessons. I had no other plans in mind, other than introducing this interesting YA picture book to my students and give myself a chance to read it myself. I'm so glad that I did.

Published in 1973, this award winning book tells the story of a fictional cathedral in France. The story progresses from the idea for the cathedral and goes through its detailed construction to its finished product. This book may sound boring for middle schoolers, but it's anything but boring. 

The reluctant readers (mostly boys) were interested in the detailed drawings, while many of the girls loved learning new vocabulary ("flying buttresses" was a big hit). The text is definitely complex; you will need to make sure you frontload some of the material for the students. The French words and phrases were special buggers for the students.

Melissa Reese Etheridge




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