Week of 11-18 through 11-22

This week we have done a smooth transition from historical fiction into biographies. Sometimes, I have a hard time differentiating between biographies and informational books - what is the difference, really? I feel like that is something we should discuss in class for the simple sake of confusion. In my eyes, reading a biography is gaining information on that person or a topic, so what is stopping it from being an informational text, and vice versa? Like I stated in class the other day, I am currently reading a book called "Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly, which talks about his researched theory about why JFK was assassinated and who was behind it all. That could possibly be an autobiography, but it is also an informational text because of the content. I guess all I really want to know is, where is the line drawn?  

I also picked a book from your collection that you had set up on the table on Wednesday, called "Ghosts of the White House" by Cheryl Harness. In this book, it sets up the story with a girl going to Washington D.C. and meeting all of the different presidents while touring the White House, therefore making it "haunted." It gives facts about the Presidents and even provides dates, important events in their lives, and personal information about them. It even gives a detailed list at the end of the book giving the dates and order of all of the presidents. It really is a cute book (I'm definitely putting it on my Functional Bib) and it presents the information in a way that would keep a child interested in what they were reading about. Honestly, history isn't a topic a lot of kids enjoy, and it is really important to know history, especially about our own country. I'm a firm believer in that (that, and I'm a bit of a history nerd) and I want to incoporate activities with history as well as good history books into my lesson plans for the classroom to get that information out to kids in a way that will make them as excited as I am about it. I mean, if a teacher is clearly excited about what they are teaching, it does make it about 10 times more enjoyable for the kids, at least from my experience. I'm really excited to read more biographies :)

Week of 11-11 to 11-15

This week we focused on historical fiction and how we can utilize it in the classroom. I have always been a fan of history and historical fiction, so I feel like this could be a strong suit for me as far as getting kids involved and excited about it in the classroom. The only problem I can see with historical fiction is if the information they present is not completely accurate. I feel like most historical fiction books are accurate with their settings and dates and such, but for the sake of writing sometimes they can alter and leave out things that make the information not entirely correct, therefore confusing a child when they got to learn about the real event later on. I did really like the thing we did last week and earlier this week with the post-it notes with time periods on it and having to remember all of the information that we were taught in middle and high school. It was a great way to make connections to literature that way, especially with being able to think of different books and series off of the top of my head from that time period. I feel like that could be a great tool for kids because they're actually putting the "boring information that they find pointless" to use and connecting it to something most people enjoy, which is literature. I'm excited to see what we do with the more current historical fiction books and I am really enjoying this "unit."

Week of November 4th through November 8th

This weeke we focused on Historical Fiction, which is awesome because I'm such a history nerd. One of my favorite books of all time, _The Raging Quiet_, is a historical fiction book and it's fantastic. It's about this girl who gets forced into a marriage to the richest man in town, and they move to a deserted, run down cottage in a new village away from home. It's a rough marriage and Marnie (the main character)virtually hates him. After an accident leads to her husband's death and Marnie befriends the town madman, she is accused of being a witch. However, we come to find that the madman (Rave) is not crazy at all, but rather he's deaf and gets frustrated that he can't talk or understand what others are saying. Marnie and him create a special language that he can use to communicate with her, she renames him "Raven," and they end up falling in love. Meanwhile, the townspeople want Marnie to be tried for witchcraft, so they put her through various tests and then they find out that she's indeed not a witch and her and Raven are married and move away from the cottage. It's a wonderful story. Anyway, this week we focused on the "Dear America" series with historical fiction and how to utilize discussions with historical fiction and how historical fiction can hook readers. We also utilized book pass, which is a technique used to find the hook in books within the first few pages and getting a variety of different hooks in minutes by passing books around. I liked the technique because it kept my brain working and I got to read a variety of different books within the class period, but at the same time I was kind of on the negative end of things since I got stuck with the book no one wanted. I ended up liking the book, but I know younger elementary kids wouldn't have been as willing to leave with quiet dignity and grace. Anyway, one thing I brought up in discussion on Wednesday when we talked about the Dear America books and the book pass was that maybe next time when you made the different groups of books based on the historical time line, use a variety of books instead of just the Dear America series. That way, there's more of a variety of literature to use and not just the diary format. I know that sometimes I get annoyed with that format, so it'd be nice to be able to switch from that format to a regular novel to perhaps even a graphic novel, just to add in that diversity. Kids love diversity, and so do us adults (well, sometimes). I liked the book pass idea and I would definitely use that in my classroom, perhaps in the morning to get the brain moving!

Gradient Texts and Guided Reading Levels - Week of 10-28 through 11-1

Last week into this week we discussed gradient texts and guided reading levels, and how and why we should or should not use them. I found that the class was mostly in the middle about it, although I thought we did a really good job as a class splitting into "never" and "would definitely use them." I felt like there were strong points on both. I can see how using the guided reading levels would keep a student on track and becoming a stronger reader, but they may not want to read if the books they want are higher or lower than their level and they're stuck with a small selection that isn't interesting to them. On the other hand, when you don't have guided reading levels, kids can read whatever they want (within reason, of course - we did discuss banned books and some that probably just shouldn't come into the classroom, like 50 Shades of Grey). Kids can explore the world of reading without having strict guidelines. However, is it the best way to make them stronger readers if they're not reading at their level? It's a lot of information to take in and it's a hard line to walk if you don't know how and why reading levels are used. I think reading levels should be used in a way that they're just guidelines, not strict rules, and they can help students look into their levels to try and read books that will boost them to the next level, yet if they want to choose a slightly more difficult book, they can. I know that when I was younger, I really wanted to read Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, but I was only in 3rd Grade. My teacher thought it was too high of a level for me, even though I was a strong reader for my age, but I went for it anyway. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to take a challenge and complete it that way, and I want students to have that feeling, because more kids should be challenged to go above and beyond, but at the same time, they need to practice reading where they are comfortable to build those skills. The main thing is if you get kids to read and read and read, they will become stronger, no matter what the level may be, there's always some comprehension to consider or a concept to understand, and we as teachers need to not only lead the way to help students learn, but encourage kids to take the next step and be there the whole way to guide them.

Week of 10-21 through 10-25

This week we focused on realistic fiction and gradient text ratings. I find it interesting how these ratings actually work. Some of the books I was really surprised with, especially seeing the books that I've read in the past and how they were rated. I was reading at levels v-z as a 5th grader! That makes me feel very good about my reading level. However, I know that it will very child to child. Every child is unique and different in their reading skills and interests, and that's something that is hard to adapt for everyone. I enjoy most books, but just because I don't like a book for its plot doesn't mean that my student wouldn't. Banned books was another topic that was discussed. I feel there is definitely a difference not only from state to state and school to school on what should be a "banned book," but also it varies on the type of town you live in and its size. I noticed that when we looked at the list of banned books in our groups earlier in the week that most of the towns that were in limbo over the issues were either huge cities or Southern towns. It seems like from the past, a lot of controversy is always feuded in the South. Anyway, I have enjoyed the unit on realistic fiction. I even challenged myself this past weekend and read the sequel to "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George, which was a book I absolutely despised when I had to read it in my accelerated reading group in the 5th grader. In fact, I remember all of my friends and I just read one chapter, put al of our information together at the end and then made our project together. That was the first tie I ever ducked out on a book, and I've had a bad view of that book ever since. However, once I read the sequel, things changed. I realized that 10-year old Olivia didn't like "My Side of the Mountain" because it was filled with nature and hunting terms that I didn't understand then. Now I understand them, making the book a lot more intriguing and deep than I thought it originally was. You find that Sam's parents moved away again and left Alice, and then chaos develops after the DNR takes away Frightful and Alice goes missing around the same period. I'm glad the book persuaded me to change my mind about the entire thing. Hopefully, I can do that in the future for my students!

Week of 10-14 through 10-18

This week we discussed all sorts of different things. We presented our presentations from "The World According To Humphrey" and I was so impressed with the creativity of everyone in the class. There wasn't one presentation where I thought, "Oh my God, just be done with it already." A presentation doesn't have to be funny to be a successful one, it needs to capture attention and be filled with information that is relevant to the topic in a manner that the audience learns from it and can ask questions and make connections when it's over. That's what I believe a successful presentation is. Anyway, we also started to get into different types of fiction, particularly cultural this week. I read "The Bee Tree" by Patricia Pallaco and it was about a Grandfather that shows his granddaughter through a fun adventure across the countryside that you can find adventure anywhere, especially in a book. It was a very cute story that I would recommend to anyone, especially in a unit with nature or tradition or something. My book was very much so a fable I think, though. What a week :)

Want To Reads

Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
The Complete Works of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne
Wake by Amanda Hocking
Wake (from the Wake Series) by Lisa McMann
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Vanished by Meg Cabot
Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
Tea for Ruby by Sarah Ferguson
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin
Boo to You! Lois Ehlert
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Way