Reading Sharon Creech as a beginning reader, I found it necessary to revisit her novels. Not only with a teaching lens but as well as a young student’s perspective and why I related as growing as a student. Reading Love That Dog, Hate That Cat and rereading a Walk Two Moons was another fulfilling learning experience.

For your enjoyment on this Gallery Gaze, I will present a short poem from our friend Salamanca Tree Hiddle as an adult. Bringing LTD, HTD and Walk Two Moons cohesively together using the form of poetry known as an ode. Originating from the Greeks an ode means to sing or chant sometimes accompanied by music and dance. Later adopted by the romantic poets to convey strongest of sentiments.

I would like to mention themes helpful to youngsters faced with real world awareness too soon in childhood. When one of your future students has a rough home life you can always tell in attitude and mood developments. Consequently facing adult issues early they must put her childish resentment aside. While”navigationally” interacting through life, understanding other people’s perspectives and lives both help inform us of our own experiences and increases compassion for others. Practicing consideration and respect with students encourages treating others with greater kindness and understanding.  Realizing where others are coming young struggling students must understand where they are coming from and going through. These tools for healthy maturity growth gives students a way to recognize and understand their own behaviors and pasts. “The mark of maturity is when somebody hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back.”

“There is Always Time” by Sal

No matter what happens, time remains consistent

Connecting us to the past, present and future

Keeping us all in common

How one uses time is the varying factor

Our mother earth keeps one grounded

This is a time when the sky stays blue while the grass is green and growing

How can we get this going

She is family

Time Flys

Released in September 1999, A Series of Unfortunate Events follows the adventures of the Baudelaire orphans. Violet Baudelaire, the eldest, is fourteen when the series begins and is an inventor. Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, loves books and is an extraordinary reader. Sunny Baudelaire is a baby and has a talent for biting things. She also develops a love for cooking later on in the series. The entire series is actively narrated Lemony Snicket who follows the turbulent lives of the Baudelaire orphans after their parents’ death in a house fire. The children are placed in the custody of their distant cousin Count Olaf, who begins to abuse them and openly plots to embezzle their inheritance. After the Baudelaire’s are removed from his care by their parents’ estate executor, Olaf begins to hunt the children down, bringing about a multitude of frightening characters.

This is a fun series to follow! Younger readers, 5th and 6th graders, will be interested in this series. There are thirteen easy-read chapter books to commit to! With a few detailed illustrations here and there Snicket’s does a wonderful job at keeping the reader thinking forward. Series books have another advantage-they generate excitement in readers!                                                                                        Some resource available found while researching for Gallery Walk:                                                         Copy & Paste this link:   http://files.harpercollins.com/PDF/TeachingGuides/0064410145.pdf                 For an amazing break down of vocabulary, character studies as well as developments. and research writing activities from Snicket himself!                                                                                                         “Dear Educator,
Teachers tend to be noble people, because there are few deeds nobler than
interesting a young person in a good book. Even in the noblest of professions,
however, there can be a few bad apples, an expression which here means “teachers
who would rather interest their students in something unpleasant.” The books in
A Series of Unfortunate Events, for instance, include man-eating leeches, large
vocabulary words, and a talentless vice principal who subjects his students to six-
hour violin recitals.                                                                                                                                              With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket”                                                                                                                                                This link:                                                                                                                             http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/whos-character-discussion-guide-slippery-slope      Also supplies lots of activities to do with developing readers and getting them to think in depth about literary language.                                                                                                                                                  In classroom, students are introduced to a character from a literature series. Over the course of the story, students read critically while learning about a characters development, growth, challenges and successes. Possibly in a guided activity, using interactive materials, students assist in mapping out the character throughout the story visually. On their own students can read another book from the same literature series and create their own graphic map, including symbols and descriptions of the character’s life. Use the amazing cover images on the book and discuss how the author is setting the stage. A Series of Unfortunate Events is a very interactive book, it catches the attention of the reader and involves them the whole way.

Reading in the Wild is a wonderful outlook and approach on teaching young people how to enter the reading world. Reading is a lifestyle instilled at a young age that becomes apart of standards and habits for life.  Some take-take away ideas from the text so far is fostering and encouraging a reading environment in the classroom. Lifelong reading habits develop as well as comprehension skills, young people should be taught to read between the lines ;) It is important to foster their capacity to lead a literate lives. I thought twice about promoting “a readding workshop classroom provides a temporary scaffold, but eventually students must have self-efficacy and the tools they need to go it alone. The goal of all reading instruction is independence. If students remain dependent on the teachers to remove all that prevent them from reading, they won’t become independent readers.” (xx) These ideas boost the likelihood of success. Dedicating time to read in the classroom inspires students to spend more time reading at home independently.

The challenges lay within the students themselves. A love for reading must be cultivated and kept up with. Building reading confidence through experience and classroom community stimulates positive reading culture. Each individual student should be guided at their pace, practicing more often than not to ensure by the end of the school year everyone will be at the same rate of reading. I am most excited about showing students how to transport themselves through text. Providing a classroom that looks at the details of a story, beneath the surface ideas and notions the author hides for only those who take the time to think about it. Practice is key! Read aloud at any age increases confidence and I do have to say at 27 I still love being read to. Reading is a delicate phase of learning for young people. As a teacher it is our responsibility to ensure students develop essential reading habits. You can not force someone to love anything, however you can teach the correct way to do something they don’t already like and leave it at that. Scaffolding and choosing interesting reading material will grab students attention.

Kissing the Witch is beautifully written in a playful first person (but not always sweet) perspective of a tale. I enjoyed reading these stories incorporated into one big fairy tale! In class we read aloud a favorite quote, I would have read this one as well;”As the years flowed by, some villagers told travelers of a beast and a beauty who lived in the castle and could be seen walking on the battlements, and others told of two beauties, and others, of two beasts.” (p 40). The Rose is a home run because it gives the reader the perspective of the times. Gossip between villages about the women who live their lives differently captures situations and standards women face today. When the beauty of this tale uncovers her beast is another woman she is likely relieved. The queen put on a mask to avoid the role, standards, and duties the status quo forced. These two women may have fallen in love or may have just found comfort in a best buddy and a safe castle. To be daring and out of the box challenges peoples ideas, hence the trash talk. These powerful women chose to ditch cultural standards likely leading to a more happily ever after in the end. Women today are given more of a chose to be independent but still looked down on if we ditch the babymakin-sunday-baking-house-keeping-hotcinderelly mantra. Women of today spin more plates than ever.

One of the many reasons Emma Donoghue entitled her book Kissing the Witch may have to provoke readers to consider the other side of a story. We often only consider the familiar tale passed on for generations when really there is always one more side to the story. The bitter sweet versions give us a glimpse of the “evil” character is coming from. Instead of picking sides we should hear one another out before judging or jumping to conclusions. The usual fairy tale has a happy ending and a handsome lover in the picture. However Kissing the Witch sets us up to embrace the so called “bad.” After listening a little longer and digging a little deeper into someones story, they might not be as rotten as you first thought.