One of my favorite parts of Chapter 5 was discussing Community Conversations and Types of Reading Preferences. One of my favorite things about reading books is to discuss it with other people! Whether that be people who have read the book or have not, having that form of outlet in discussion is such a brilliant part of the whole reading experience. Although in a classroom, it’s difficult to manage when you have such a variety of students and their interests. Susan Kelley helps ease this fear by breaking down the different types of preferences, and providing suggestions for such. I definitely have learned more about myself as a reader throughout this semester, and how I will carry the importance of reading through my career. I would always try and read often, in between classes, while I was waiting in line for something, etc.; but I never thought about how much reading truly helps children in the classroom. This class has taught me countless tactics on how to not only incorporate reading and books into my classroom, but stress the importance of reading to my students, and how to get them excited about reading in school.

For my young adult novel, I chose “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas. For this blog prompt, I chose the main character, Starr. She is an African/ American teen, who wears mostly homely looking clothes, nothing to flashy- except her Jordans. She is reserved when it comes to anyone but her family, and is constantly struggling between the preppy, predominantly white high school she attends, and the ghetto, mostly black neighborhood she was born and raised in. She is finding her way in the world, especially when she is involved in a tragedy which such magnitude she is forced to speak up and determine her path. In the first chapter of the book, Starr attends a Garden Heights party, where she feels incredibly out of place, as she thinks to herself, “I slip my hands into my pockets. As long as I keep it cool and keep to myself, I should be fine” (11 Thomas). Through the book we can see the progression of Starr as a wallflower who just wants not to be seen, to a woman who says, “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in the moments you shouldn’t be? (252 Thomas). This might be one of my new favorite books, because I love watching a character grow into themselves, as well as being able to realize their purpose. I would absolutely recommend this novel, because of its ability to inspire people to use the voice they have, and to stand up for what they believe or don’t believe in.

I researched the resources the website Bookshelf from Diamond Comics and found so much help with how to read graphic novels, and especially ideas for lesson plans. I love finding ideas for lesson plans, because you can choose to tweak it for your teaching style, or the student’s learning style. Super helpful resource!

C.: Graphic novels use both words and images. Pick a page or a sequence from a graphic novel and think through what you learn from just the words. Then think about what you learn from just the images. Are they telling you the same information, or are they giving you different information? How do they work together?

In “The Best We Could Do”, by Thi Bui, depicted in the first and largest panel, Thi and her mother sit at a dining table while Thi begs her mother to divulge information of their family’s past, “…the war… and the country that once was HOME.” (Bui 37). Although drawn behind them is a small boat sailing an enormous ocean, indicating how Thi’s parents’ escape route from Vietnam years before. In the next two panels, the two women are back in the living room, while the narrator/ author, Thi, tells us how her mother usually disregards her pleads and instead asks, “What should we do for dinner?”. Depicted, you can see the body language of both Thi and Ma: Thi pleading for answers and Ma with her arms crossed and distracted. Through the similar correlation in the illustrations and words that are told, you can paint a picture of emotion and empathy for the character. I love how simple Thi Dui’s illustrations are, while simultaneously being so complex we can feel each character’s emotions. In some examples I’ve come across through the book, you can see where Thi chooses to say something in the word balloon, but the picture shown shows the sarcasm- and the true story. Graphic Novels are so beautifully interesting in this sense, because the emotions of the characters are impossible to ignore.  

For my verse book, I chose Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, which follows the author’s story growing up as a young African- American girl in the 60’s and 70’s in both the North and South. Having to deal with remnants of the civil rights movement, Woodson shares her childhood memories told through beautiful passionate verse. I am super excited to read this book, I have been flying through the pages and am already enthralled with her story. The unique versing and structure of her thoughts was difficult at first, but once I changed how I was approaching the reading, it has such a beautiful flow I can’t seem to put the book down. I personally love this style of writing, and because it is her own story, Jacqueline has the freedom to create whatever format she sees fit. The breaks in between the stanzas also make it so that I can go back and really resonate with her thoughts, and picture how she lived. I would love to incorporate these types of books in a classroom, to challenge the students and see how they do with a non- traditional formatted novel. My students would be exposed to all different kinds of books, and these verse books will only help to expand not only their reading skills, but their creativity as well. Although writing a poem seemed to be much more difficult than reading one…

 

So much depends

upon

 

The sun

rising

 

The birds

chirping

 

I depend

upon

 

Coffee

brewing