Why a good book is a secret door

G+ Community

We will share most of our work in a Google+ Community. We can upload images, respond to each other’s ideas, and share links and artifacts here.

Calendar

Course calendar can be found above and HERE.

Author: Brittany

Brace Face

Brace Face

Smile was a scary relatable, and I could see it being relatable to kids as well.

This story is about Raina going through unfortunate struggles of being a middle schooler–from getting her teeth knocked out, to braces, to first crushes, to losing and gaining of best friends. This book is so hilarious and real. I was getting flash backs of my brace face days and awkward crushes.

It’s a book that shows that things like what Raina goes through, happens to everyone even though at the time you might feel alone. I just wanna hand it to every kid going into middle school/transitioning to high school to show them everything is gonna be okay, despite how awful it may seem in the moment!

Being a graphic novel, I think this book is great to give to a kid who may not like reading or someone who isn’t a confident reader. It is a short read, and doesn’t even feel like you are reading a “real book” but in fact you are. The pictures throughout the whole book give a great sense of the character and match the emotions of the text.

One thing about graphic novels is that you can’t create your own world of characters and scenery, which kind of ruins the fun of having your own imagination. It’s almost like reading a book and then going to see the movie–things don’t match up the way you created it.

But it is still cool to be able to have pictures to go along with the words as a visual, especially for kids that can’t paint their own pictures in their heads.

Following reading this book, I think it would be fun for students to create their own pages to a graphic novel/their own comics. It would give them a chance to be creative and create illustrations to go along with their words.

I also found two sites that had lesson plans people created to go along with this book that I thought were cool:

http://cbldf.org/2013/12/using-graphic-novels-in-education-smile/

http://www.scholastic.com/graphix_teacher/pdf/Scholastic_GrphxWebCast_RTelgemeier.pdf

Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming

This is an absolute magnificent piece of writing. But I had doubts when I started it; written in free verse, not necessarily my favorite type of reading. I absolutely hate poetry. It frustrates me because I feel like I can never understand the meaning that the author wants us to see through their words.

I only see the concrete, basic meaning–which never makes sense to me in the first place. Reading poetry I feel dumb. I feel like everyone else gets it and I don’t.

But with that in mind, don’t let your hatred for poetry stop you, this book can (and should) be read by everyone.  This is a history lesson, told through the eyes of a young girl, what she experienced, what she thought, and how it shaped her life.


Free verse was the perfect way to tell this story. All the poems are short and beautifully written. It was such an easy read and I didn’t want it to end. It’s hard to find any fault with Brown Girl Dreaming. Read it, you will love it.

 

While poetry is not my favorite, I do think that it is important. I think that I would like it more if my teachers would have touched on it more. I went through almost all of elementary, middle, and high school reading only a couple poems–only because it was the “poetry unit.” Poetry shouldn’t be its own unit, I think that it should be incorporated into every subject and can be very helpful. Using content knowledge from other subject areas to create our own poetry is the best route to making it apart of our permanent record.

 

I think one of the easiest poetry types to create are Haikus–in elementary schools it may be the best one to start out with. I created a lesson/powerpoint in a previous class of how to introduce haikus and incorporate it into a classroom:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qaB-qZ3d-4Gwk-s3gxoRdDZ6hhR3sI-KpQAY7S-Qbig/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

 

CENTO: Lines created from Brown Girl Dreaming and other book titles from our classroom

 

I believe in one dayFullSizeRender

and someday

and this perfect moment called

now

 

If you catch a dandelion puff

you can make a wish

Is there any way that two people

from far away places

can ever really understand each other’s daydreams?

Stop daydreaming, my mother says

We have a right to walk and sit

and dream whenever we want

 

Gotta start ’em young ;)

Gotta start ’em young ;)

After reading this chapter I’ve learned that children’s book selection is so very important. In order to get children to start habits of a wild reader, they need to be able to enjoy and want to read whatever they are reading. I think that it always starts out the same though—when were not sure what book to read we always go off of recommendations.

Me not being as much of a reader, that is the only way I know how to choose books. I can’t trust just reading the little book flap synopsis or just by looking at the cover. I need to hear what book titles my teachers think are good, or I take notes of when my friends are reading something they say is awesome—and ON TOP of that I still have to check the reviews for all of those books for some extra help on my final decision. I’m always afraid to start a book and not like it and have to ditch it. I just don’t want to feel like I wasted my time and money for no reason.

But, that’s what I absolutely admired about some of these children that Donalyn talked about. There was that one student Shelby that even despite all of the bad reviews and what everyone said about the book Wildwood—and even about her own thoughts on the book…she still stuck with it. She was determined to finish it and give it a chance. Definitely something I could never do. And I thought it was so cute, her comment after finishing the book was “One star, Mrs. Miller. I give it one star because any author who writes a book deserves one star.” Like how cute is that? Which by the way I am trusting her opinion and probably will never read the book Wildwood or recommend it to my kids. Thanks Shelby! (;

Speaking of ditching books, I love how Donalyn had her children make reading lists of all the books they read. I thought that was such a great idea for keeping track of not only the book it was and whether they liked it or not, but keeping track of WHY they chose the book, WHY they liked this book, or WHY they decided to abandon it. I think it’s really important for the students to recognize these things and experiences for their future reading selections. This way they can see the trends of what types, genres, or artists they are interested in.

ALSO—totally stealing the book drawing idea. What a great way to get kids excited about reading. I even started highlighting all of the different titles and artists she mentioned during this chapter so I have some ideas of books to start off with.

Each time I read a new chapter of this book I wish I had a teacher like Mrs. Miller. I think a teacher like her really can impact a child in their reading.

Maybe I would have saw reading as fun instead of a chore.

Maybe I’d be that person that would get lost in books for hours and not want to put it down.

 

That encouragement can make all the difference.

 

Guilty Fake Reader

Guilty Fake Reader

My biggest take-away from the reading is to take a book everywhere you go. You can always break it out when you have some downtime—waiting in line, in the car when a friend goes into the store, on the plane, at a doctor’s appointment, on the bus, etc. Reading just a little bit every once in awhile helps you capitalize on the “edge time” in our days. There’s never an excuse for “not having time to read,” you always have some time.

Another take-away I got from reading this is that you can’t build wild readers without finding the perfect books for kids that actually spark their want to read during their free time or “edge time.” Once you find that book series/author that gets them hooked, that’s what will encourage this new thought of wild readers.

I would definitely consider myself as a fake reader. I always have been since I can remember. Back in my elementary school days, I was the kid that pretended to read during silent reading time. I would even move my eyes left to right to make it look super legit and turn the page at the appropriate time. Sometimes I would judge my timing based on when the person next to me turning their page.

As a high school/college student I don’t think I’ve ever truly read a text book. I never felt it was necessary. I was able to get by with A’s by knowing the bare minimum or just studying my lecture notes. But like Donalyn states—it has definitely backfired on me. I wish I was a reader and actually retained the knowledge. Most subjects I remember and study for the test and then it wipes out of my memory forever after. I’m going to have to play a lot of catch-up now, and since I never was into reading stories and novels my vocabulary and comprehension is a lot lower than it should be as a 3rd year college student. It is very discouraging and I always feel like I am dumb because I don’t understand things or write well. I’ve got a lot of work to do now if I want to become a teacher. Fake reading is NOT the way to go.