The Great Advice of Origami Yoda

 

I am reading the Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger.  So far I am loving it. It is a funny and sweet story with intriguing characters.  It is easy to get sucked into this story, I found myself wondering along with the children if origami Yoda is real.  This book is written as a collection of stories gathered and narrated by Tommy, a boy who is trying to find out the truth about origami Yoda.  I feel like this book paints a pretty accurate picture of 6^th grade.  This book is full of problems that children can relate to such as how to avoid embarrassment, what to do if you like someone, and how to own up to your mistakes.  Despite the humor Yoda’s could be applied to a variety of real world situations to help children deal with the social aspects of school.  I really like how this book is laid out.  I enjoy how you get to listen to a variety of children as they talk about their own experience with origami Yoda. The different narrators keep the story interesting by changing up the voice and tone of the story every chapter.  I also like how there are doodles on every page which makes the story seem more real and gives children something to look at without being a picture book.

I think this book would be well liked by a wide spectrum of children.  It is written in a way that it would be just as intriguing to the science minded as the fantasy lover. With the range of different narrators it would be easy for almost any child to find one they could relate to.  The themes of this book of friendship and faith in the unexplainable are ideas that children in any grade can enjoy.  Another great plus to these books are the inclusion of star wars references, because who doesn’t love star wars?

This book series has great resources related to it.  The author has a website filled with fun activities and discussion boards.  My favorite activity he has on his site is instructions to help children make their own origami characters.  Children can submit their creations to him and he will upload pictures on his website so everyone can see their work.  This seems like a fun lesson to try in a classroom to engage children with the reading.

 

Chapter two of Donalyn Miller’s Reading in the Wild focused on how to select good reading material.  She had many great ideas for how to help your students choose books that they will enjoy.  I thought it was smart that she always gave students lots of options in their preview stacks when they asked for her for help choosing a book.  That way they still got to practice their decision making but they had her help getting there.  I really likes how she talked about abandoning books.  I remember throughout my elementary experience picking books I didn’t like but stubbornly refusing to give up on them and thus creating lots of frustration on my part.  It is good for students to know that it is ok to leave a book they dislike or are having trouble reading.  Miller also gives lots of good tips on how to create excitement over books.  The idea of having a drawing to win first reading rights for a new book would create lots of enthusiasm for students reading that book.  I’m glad Miller was not strict about Lexile reading level for her students because sticking to one level greatly limits a child’s reading options.