Outside My Window by Linda Ashman

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Maureen Schlosser

Outside My Window Summary

Are you wondering how to open our world to learners? Just ask people from around the world to describe what’s outside their windows!

Linda Ashman, the author of Outside My Window, invites readers to see different landscapes from around the world. They’ll embark on a visual journey through American cities and faraway villages. Gorgeous illustrations, by Jamey Christoph, compel learners to soak in the scenery and wonder about different places. The rhyming text follows a lyrical pattern that is fun to read aloud. The end of the story lists the names of each of the locations described in the book.

What’s outside your window? This is what I see:

Just outside my window, blue hydrangeas thrive.

Seagulls drop shells on rocks and eat the food inside.

Now it’s your turn! How does your scenery compare to this view of rural Ethiopia?

Outside My Window Lesson Activity

AASL Standards Framework for Learners: Inquire/Think I.A.2 Learners display curiosity and initiative by recalling prior and background knowledge as context for new meaning.

Show the book cover to learners. Ask what they can expect to learn from the story. Invite them to create a mental image of what they see outside their windows. Explain that as you read the book, they should think about how the view from their window compares to the different views in the book.
Ask learners to describe a favorite illustration from the book. How does the scenery compare with what they see from their windows? What did they notice about the text? How did the text structure engage the reader?
Provide art supplies for learners to illustrate the outside of their homes. Learners may want to follow the rhyming pattern in the story to write a poem to describe their picture.

For more ideas based on this beautiful book, please read Do You Need Lesson Ideas to Make Global Connections? on KnowledgeQuest.