For my chapter book, I chose to read Flora & Ulysses. My make this week, I found to be quite exciting. Social media plays an important role in society, so I decided to ‘Tweet’ what three of the main characters would tweet about events that happened in the story. It was really neat to tweet from somebody else’s perspective. I fortunately found a Twitter template online and used that to input my characters thoughts: http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/jpcovais/2014/11/06/twitter-template-for-students/ I could definitely see myself using something of this sort in the future. I think students would really enjoy tweeting the characters from their favorite books thoughts and feelings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chapter book I chose to read was that of Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures. The book goes a little something like this, Flora is the main character and she considers herself a ‘cynic’ she claims to have no feelings and only worry about herself. She loves reading comics, something that her mother disapproves of. Her mother and her don’t have the best relationship, her parents are divorced and she gets along more with her father. In a weird sort of amusing way she meets what I would call her sidekick: Ulysses. A squirrel who acquired his superpowers by being vacuumed, a squirrel who can fly and write poems. Her mother does not approve of Flora’s relationship with the squirrel and pulls a stunt or two to try and get rid of it. Her reasoning is the following; Flora in her eyes is already kind of a ‘weird’ kid and she does not want others to see her as ‘weirder’ for being friends with a squirrel. When she goes missing one night Flora’s mother comes to a realization that she made a mistake. She has a heart to heart moment with Flora and tells her that she is the most important thing she has no matter who Flora might be friends with. 

This book did a really good job in portraying the world of the characters. I did not speak of all the characters in my summary but there was definitely more. For example, the Dad played in important role as he supported Flora and her friendship with Ulysses and he supported Flora’s mother even when Flora said she wanted to move out with her father and leave her mother’s home. William Spiver, the neighbors great nephew was a very accurate mirror of reality. It could honestly be anyone of us. William’s father passed away and his mother is with someone new who does not call William by his name instead calls him ‘Billy’ which eventually drives William to the brink and in act of spite; he drives his mother’s boyfriends truck into a pond. William is a child who still trying to cope with his fathers death and new people in your life can be scary. Flora is the same, Flora claims to be ‘cynical’ ever since her parents divorced and at the beginning of the story does not get along with her mother if at all. This book could be a very good book for any student who might be going through a similar situation at home. Using the characters problems instead of your own in a sense in order to connect and support your student during tough moments. 

With this weeks Series Book: Make I went with a word search. In this series there is a total of thirteen books and I like to be consistent with any type of work I do. Whether it be schoolwork, work and even in life. I feel it helps me stay organized and in a way prepared. Each book contains some new characters, places and important events that make it a page turner and a total thriller. 

My intention with the word searches is that they will be offered after we finish a certain book. Mine is based on the book I read: “Book the Seventh: The Vile Village” a small recap of important events, new characters, places as I mentioned before followed by a class discussion of things they found interesting. How they felt, were they upset about the results, could they relate, what major events defined certain characters and see where the conversation leads! 

I used an online website that allowed me to title my own word search, offered several blanks to insert my words and it was pretty easy sailing. Which is great because this seems like a great tool for the future when I have my own classroom. 

My series I chose was the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I read this series when I was younger in fifth grade and what I like about it is how suspenseful it is. There’s always something new going on with the main characters. The climax is intense.  The main characters consist of the Baudelaires: Violet, Klaus and Sunny. The horrible protagonist who follows them and pulls the most outrages stunts in order to get rid of the Baudelaires and keep their fortune is Count Olaf. 

This series is meant for adventure seeking readers. There is a new adventure and conflict that arises time after time in the series and although the adventures may not be ‘fun’ or nonetheless have an actual good resolution they are intense and they will keep you reading until you’re done. Some of the assumptions made in this series about childhood is that it’s rough, not everyone has it easy as many seem to think. As far as assumptions about children, the message I take from it now is that children are smart. They are not dumb, clueless and or powerless as society makes them out to be. Resources available are audio books and well maybe for an older audience the movie or the series on Netflix. Considering that I want to teach Kindergarten I don’t believe I would use this at all in my classroom. 

Miller has some amazing insights. Some of the resonating ideas that I drew from the reading so far is the idea of making time. As a full time college student, part time employee and full time sister I can definitely relate to that. There’s reading that I will make myself focus on but let me get my hands on a good book and you will catch me reading in every minimal time frame I have. Some of the challenges that I drew from our reading was how the students should be comfortable reading, they shouldn’t feel like they were not ‘born’ to read. They should always feel capable and willing to read for their interest. 

I’m excited about teaching reading for the fun, engaging lesson plans I’ll be able to make based on some of my favorite books. As well as seeing my students bloom throughout the year into comfortable, capable readers. I volunteer in my brothers first grade class and what scares me is the fact that not all my students will be at the same place in their reading and it would break my heart to not be able to recognize those students in my class who are behind. There is only so much time in the school day and not every parent is committed to their children’s education and with that comes more heart break because every student has an enormous potential and not being able to help that student flourish as reader terrifies me.