George is a book about a boy who identifies himself as a girl. She is aware of her gender dilemma but also of the assumptions and judgements that will come her way if she ever tells anyone about this secret. With the announcement of a school play based on the story of Charlotte’s Web, George decides to audition for it in hopes that if he plays the role of Charlotte then people will see her offstage as a girl too. Throughout George’s attempt to achieve her goal as Charlotte, she encounters sad moments with being misunderstood and being bullied. Her relationship with her older brother is kind of awkward because George feels she has to “try” to be more boy-like around him. Her male classmates pick on her for having cried when Charlotte died in the book, because boys aren’t supposed to have strong emotions. And finally, her school still has gender stereotypes where there are “boys line” and “girls line.” With difficulties like these, it seems throughout the story that George will never achieve her goal or more than that, be accepted as who she identifies as being. In the end, with the help of her friend Kelly, George is victorious and puts on a phenomenal act as Charlotte. After initial shock and confusion, George’s mother welcomes her as a girl but admits that they will have to take it one step at a time. A fabulous ending to the story includes George enjoying a picture-perfect day as “Melissa” dressed in clothing she’s always wished of wearing. The day was pure bliss and I could not have been happier for Melissa and all other girls and boys like her out there.

This text is very important and crucial in these modern times. The text wants readers to have awareness and have conversations about this very real issue that affects many children’s lives. The book does a great job of addressing the negative assumptions and stereotypes associated with this topic. The author could have chosen to show the mom as warm and accepting right away to George’s secret. However, in order to relate more closely to individuals in areas all over, the emotions and actions of the mother can guide and help parents who are also feeling similar emotions. As mad as I got in certain parts of the story, I understand that people reading this text may not all be from California and the necessity to make the story and it’s events as relatable and real as possible is important to show the relevance. Another point I think the author is attempting to make is the lack of education we choose to share with our children about LGBTQ. Still today boys and girls make assumptions or have certain gender ideas, but perhaps we should have conversations early on to help bring about awareness.

As I have mentioned before, I absolutely loved the series book I chose which was, Keena Ford. This book relates to the classroom setting in the way Keena writes about her class and family experiences. For this make I instantly knew I wanted to recreate “the journal” but in a unique way. My plan was this: I will read aloud, as Donalyn Miller emphasizes, and the students will have pre-stated phrases that they will journal about. However, my spin on this is that I will only read maybe 5-10 pages per day(maybe less maybe more) and I will pick a main point or situation that occurred and create the phrase that the students will write about based on what happened in those few pages. By doing this, the students will not feel the pressure of having to listen to a long read aloud and feel stress about remembering important events that they will be quizzed on. Instead, the students will create a text to world connection which will hopefully instill positive reading habits for future years to come. I will also emphasize that the students can draw instead of write in their journal. Symbols, pictures, sentences are all okay. Hopefully this will be a positive experience that will take no more than 20 minutes but will be a relaxing and enjoyable experience in their school day.

The series I have been reading is Keena Ford and the Second Grade Mix Up. The series is formatted in a first person point of view where the reader gets to read the honest and hilarious thoughts of the main character. Keena is a witty yet kind and spunky girl approaching second grade. This series instantly gave me nostalgia for a few reasons. One being that it reminded me of my childhood reads of Judie B Jones. I had forgotten about the ever so relatable characters and stories that helped guide me through similar school and family/friend scenarios. Secondly, it gave me cringe and warm fuzzy feelings of elementary school that included jealousy, friendship, and bullies. This whole book was very enjoyable and I sincerely liked that Keena was portrayed as girl who had a strong sense of self and who honestly does mean well but makes simple mistakes. Keena’s little white lies take her on moral rollercoasters but her sense of awareness and good intentions are endearing and relatable to young readers. I also enjoyed that this book had modern takes on family and gender roles. This book informed the readers that Keena’s parents were separated and that was something that really resonated with me because often times we read about characters who live in a picture perfect home with a white picket fence and are from a middle to upper class family. Breaking conformist ideas is also presented in this book by the way Keena mentions that she doesn’t like to play with dolls or like the color pink. Often times books highlight specific society accepted gender roles but Melissa Thompson, the author, creates a different style for Keena involving a dread for having tea parties and she also has a male best friend.

Assumptions presented in this book are that children need to behave and be honest. Keena certainly does try her best to maintain an honest life but sometimes it’s hard to own up to a mistake and deny your most precious desires, such as chocolate cake. What her teachers emphasizes instead is that apologizing and being honest go a far way. The model student is an impossible goal but sorry notes and lessons learned are just as meaningful and important. This book could be read by first to second graders or by a teacher to her students. It gives great examples to us future teachers such as: creating a comfortable reading environment and allowing the students to help create rules. I also loved the idea of a homework hut and am currently looking for a place to purchase a bean bag!

From Donalyn Miller’s book, Reading in the Wild: I think that one of a teacher’s biggest fears is that their students won’t like to read. They may worry that the students will struggle with the keeping interest in reading. In this regard, Miller advises ideas on how to create reading habits for life not just for the current classroom. Miller states an interesting point that instilling this lifelong habit leads to students being able to recognize and meet their individual goals. I am excited to have the challenge of instilling reading habits. I have tutored students in reading before and being part of the positive learning rewards is exciting. Watching the growth and seeing how they are cultivating a reading habit is something that we hope will continue to expand and remain in their childhood, adolescent and adult lives. Miller’s book enlightened me on very useful tools that I will certainly incorporate into my future classroom. I thought that the way she described how she handled a “fake reader” was very useful. Making the reading process less of a bore and more of a progression system allows the student to see how they are able to read in different areas of their life and even 5 minutes a day is an accomplishment. I mostly liked that this book showed new ideas of reading. It is a vast difference from the system I had as a child in elementary school; which has been known to have been a failure. Therefore I am happy and excited to see changes being made due to the dedication to the students and education system!

As we discussed in class on Wednesday, we tell stories to make others happy, pass on tradition, encourage thoughts on a subject, or share a point of view, to name a few. Thus, we are recognizing that stories are more than just the “solutions” or “resolutions”. Instead, they bring about a greater purpose which is as Robert Coles, child psychiatrist, states “a broadening and even heightening of our struggles”. We can see this point being illustrated in the story of What Bugs Bunny Said to Little Red Riding Hood by Tim Seibles, specifically by the way Little Red is struggling with the unwanted attention and harassment that she receives from Bugs Bunny, like when he says “Say, good lookin, what brings you out thisaway amongst the fanged and the fluffy?” and “The noyve a’that broad sendin you out here lookin like a ripe tomata”. Therefore, this story proves that we are not reading to learn about how there was a happy resolution or how Little Red made it safely to grandmothers, we are reading this story to be cautioned of real world issues and to be enlightened on risky situations that we may encounter.

The many different variations of The Little Red Riding Hood can be each interpreted in their own ways with different morals, lessons, characters, etc but they all have a similar theme of highlighting struggles in the world so that they can be seen at the surface in order to warn and protect.

From the version by Italo Calvino titled, “The False Grandmother”, there are struggles of good and bad addressed and explored. For instance, the little girl symbolizes good when she is obedient by listening to her mother’s request of going to her grandmother’s to borrow her sifter. On the other hand, there is the ogress who metaphorically represents bad; as mythology says they eat infants and children. Another example of the good and bad struggle is when the little girl is trying to escape the ogress she arrives at the Jordan River and the Rake Gate to which the Ogress shouts to not let her pass. They both allow the little girl to pass and states that they do so because the little girl gave them her bread with oil and ring-shaped cakes. This example shows that because the girl was giving, kind, and obedient to their wishes, she is good and good prevails. The ogress on the other hand did not give them any goods and because of this she is considered bad and swept away in the current.

In Charles Perrault’s variation of the story, he refers to the wolf as the “neighborhood wolf” implying that he is not a stranger and he could even be seen as a kind non-predator figure to Little Red and others in the village. Little Red talks with the wolf with no sense of danger. By the end of the story, the wolf eats both the grandmother and Little Red. The moral of the story states that we ought to beware of figures like the neighborhood wolf because although they may not be loud, angry, or brutal in their attempts to do harm, they are still dangerous. The moral says that the “tame, pleasant, and gentle” wolves (symbolizing men) are the most harmful of all because their charming ways don’t ring many alarms and we may be more likely to fall into their plans. It’s important to heighten this concept because stories such like these have happened before where we see a calm and kind looking person be at the forefront of a devastating act.

The Little Red Riding Hood stories are a great example of how stories do more than just solve problems with happy endings. These stories show how generations, cultures, and people all over the world share larger actual struggles through fairy tales or stories in general so that the patterns are less likely to occur.