Richard Wright and the Library Card

It's the last week of the semester, before finals.  My brain is running like crazy trying to keep up with everything I have to do.  It's been a rough week being sick, and with other chaotic things happening, but I think I am going to get through it!  This week I decided to read, "Richard Wright and the Library Card" by William Miller.  I was not really sure what to expect when I picked up this book, but by end of it, I realized that it would make a great book to read to my future students.

This is a story of Richard, a young man who loves to read and is seeking a new life for himself.  When he was growing up, his family never had much money, so he was never able to afford to buy books.  Being black, he was made fun of for even entering into a library.  As he works to earn enough money to move North, he meets a man who lends him his library card.  At first, Richard reads in the safety of his own bedroom, because he does not want to be made fun of.  However, as the story progresses, Richard does not care who sees him reading, because he absolutely loves it.

As I was reading "Richard Wright and the Library Card," I could not help but think about all the times that I take reading for granted.  This book reminded me that I am fortunate to be able to read and that I should not look at it as a chore but as a gift.  I think that this would be a great story to read with my future class, to help them view reading in a different light.  If I was to include more individual reading time in the day, I could see students complaining because they have to read so much.  However, I think that by reading this book, we could have an open discussion about why we should enjoy reading, instead of dread it.

This book could even be used to discuss Black History and the changes that have taken place since the Civil Right's Movement!  There are so many avenues that I could take with this story, and I cannot wait to incorporate it in my classroom.

Until...well, someday,

Ashley

Back Home

I cannot believe that the semester is almost over!  I have really enjoyed getting to immerse myself in children's literature.  This week I read "Back Home" by Gloria Jean Pinkney.  This was another lovely find at my local library!

"Back Home" is the story of a girl named Ernestine.  Pinkney takes us through Ernestine's adventures and realizations as she, a city girl, goes back to the place where she was born, and visits her family down South.  She wants so badly to be liked by her cousin, Jack Avery, but all he does is tease her.  She tries to fit in and help around the farm, but nothing seems to work.  One morning, after church, Ernestine and her family go and visit her grandmother's grave.  This was a great bonding moment for the two cousins, and later on, Jack even decides to name his new kid goat Princess, which was Ernestine's idea.  Before she heads back home, the two cousins end up being great friends, leaving the reader feeling happy for Ernestine.

As I was thinking about ways that this could be connected to the classroom, I realized that this could be a great story to help talk to students about different lifestyles, cultures, or communities.  Since Ernestine is a city girl, she is experiencing a completely new atmosphere than what she is used to.  There are new sights and smells, and through getting to know her family she is learning what it is like to live on a farm and the responsibilities that they have.  I think that it would be fun to find a variety of stories with different community settings, like "Back Home," and read them with my students and discuss the similarities and differences of the stories.

I really enjoyed reading "Back Home" by Gloria Jean Pinkney.  I would definitely recommend this story to my future students.  As they read, I would tell them to put themselves and Ernestine's shoes and see how they would feel in a new place.

Until next time,
Ashley

Shrinking Violet

You know that feeling when you find a good bargain?  Well, I definitely felt that way the last time I was at my local public library.  I bought 10 children's books for only $2!  Needless to say, I was extremely excited.  The book I chose to read this week is one of my amazing finds.  It is called "Shrinking Violet" by Cari Best.  Though this book is illustrated, I think that it would be a great book to read with students in the 2nd through 4th grade in an interactive read-aloud setting.

In "Shrinking Violet," Cari Best introduces us to the main character, Violet.  Violet is a very peculiar girl.  She absolutely hates attention.  Whenever anyone looks at her she cannot help but fidget and itch, especially when Irvin takes it upon himself to embarrass her in front of the whole class.  No one really knows the true Violet, except for her good friend, Opal.  Opal knows that Violet has so many amazing talents, but Violet is too shy to be herself, that is until she gets a part in the class play.  Violet must overcome her backwardness, and save the classroom play when everything goes amuck.

The story of a child having to come out of their shell, and not be afraid to be who they really are is a great life lesson to teach our students.  Though this is not a typical education lesson, it is something that needs to be taught.  As teachers, we need to make sure that each one of our students feels valued for their strengths and talents.  We must work to encourage students to be themselves, and show that each unique individual in the classroom is what makes our classroom community so great.  By doing this, we are able to combat the fight against bullying and strengthen the bond between our students in the classroom.

Though I am sure that there is an educational lesson that could be compiled from "Shrinking Violet," I could not help but see a teachable moment of helping our students build their self-esteem.  I cannot wait to read this book with my future students and help them realize just how special each one of them is.

Until next time,
Ashley

Aliens Don't Wear Braces

This week I chose to read "Aliens Don't Wear Braces" by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones.  I believe that this is the second book that I have read in The Bailey School Kids Series, and I once again absolutely enjoyed the adventure that the authors create in the story.  Unfortunately, I just found my "Among the Hidden" book, so maybe next week I can continue to blog about my progress in that book.

Dadey and Jones take us on a mysterious adventure with the Bailey School Kids as they work to figure out who this new substitute art teacher is, and why she is so strange.  They begin to notice some odd things happening throughout the school.  First, the lights go out and their art teacher is MIA, then the pictures in the hallway are losing their color, and so are their clothes and hair.  They begin to think that the new substitute teacher is the one behind this strange phenomenon.  The children eventually work up the courage to follow her home, only to discover a strange spaceship looking object that is holding all of the colors that are missing from the school.  Well after they are discovered by the substitute teacher, one thing leads to another, and a wrong button is pushed.  Needless to say, the next day everything is back to normal.  The color has returned and so has the art teacher, but the substitute teacher has vanished.

One thing that I love about The Bailey School Kids books is that the authors always to appeal to the adventurous side in their reader.  They come up with clever characters and story plots that will catch the attention of young readers, and keep it.  They incorporate friendship, school, and mysteries all into one book.

As I thought of ways to correlate this story into a classroom, I realized that through the exaggeration and adventurous fiction aspects of the story, it would be a great way to teach students to write their very own fictional pieces.  I believe that having students write stories of their own is a great way to not only build writing skills but also get to know your students.  You can find out things that interest them, through topics they choose to write about, and this can help you build better relationships with your students.  By giving students the ability to come up with their own crazy stories to write about, it helps engage students in writing.  Just like anything, writing takes practice, and I think that having students create stories similar to The Bailey School Kids books, could be a great way to make them want to write.  You could create a unit in class reading these books, and then have students brainstorm possible story ideas that they have.  This could even be incorporated into a Writer's Workshop!

As I work to add to my future classroom library, I hope to be able to find more Bailey School Kids books to add to my collection.  I cannot wait to start recommending them to my students!

Until next week,
Ashley

Among the Hidden-Read Like A Writer

This week I decided to pull a book off of my shelf that I read during fifth-grade Battle of the Books.  I am reading "Among the Hidden," by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  I am only about a third of the way through this book, but if I was not so busy, I definitely would want to just sit down and read this book without putting it down.

This week I have been asked to "read like a writer."  I was not really sure how to go about this, but as I began my journey of learning about Writer's Workshop, and watching a video about a teacher implementing this in the classroom, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of reading that I had never really deeply thought of.

In "Among the Hidden," Haddix grabs the reader's attention right away from the very first two sentences.  The author says, "He saw the first tree shudder and fall, far off in the distance.  Then he heard his mother call out the kitchen window:  "Luke!  Inside.  Now." (p. 1).  As a reader, this automatically made me begin to question, why are the trees falling down?  Is it a storm?  Why is his mother yelling?  Is he in trouble?  As the reader proceeds throughout the novel, they discover that the reason that Luke's mother told him to come inside is because of the fact that he is a third child, and the government has forbidden families to have three children.  His family is hiding him, and takes all the necessary precautions to ensure that he is never seen, nor heard.  But now there is a new housing district moving in beside him, which means he is never allowed to go outside again because the safety of the woods is gone.  At this point in the novel, Luke has discovered another third child that just moved into the new housing district, and he gained enough courage to venture out to meet her.

After reading these few chapters, and watching the video of the teacher implementing writer's workshop into her classroom, I realized that one of the crafts that she taught her students about fits this story really well.  If I was working with upper elementary students, I could create a mini-lesson discussing ways to intrigue readers to want to continue to read their writing.  I could also incorporate a way to teach predictions by allowing students to create pieces of writing and share excerpts with their peers to allow their peers to practice making predictions about what they believe the rest of their peer's writing will be about.  I have never really thought about pairing reading and writing lessons together, but I can definitely see how this story could be used to accomplish both.

My lesson could begin by reading the first excerpt from Haddix novel, that I included in my summary of "Among the Hidden."  I would then ask students what they think is going on in the story (practicing making predictions).  I would also discuss with them that just by reading these short two sentences, I really want to read more so I can find out why Luke's mother is so adamant that Luke come in so quickly.  I would want to tell my students that just like Haddix caught our attention with her introduction, they also can capture reader's attention in their own writings.  Students could then brainstorm different ways that they could pull readers in, and then share them with the class.  They will then revise their writing to make it more intriguing, leaving their peers wanting to continue reading, and find out if their predictions are true.

I cannot wait to continue reading this book because I will be honest, I have kind of forgot how it ends!  Though this mini-lesson is very similar to the video's, I realized ways that I could incorporate reading and writing into the same lesson, and that has been very beneficial for me.

Until next week,

Ashley

"Junie B., Firt Grader: Toothless Wonder"

This week I decided to read "Junie B., First Grader:  Toothless Wonder."  As far as I can recall, this is the first Junie B. book that I have read.  If I have read one before, it was in elementary school and I just do not remember it.  I found this book to be very entertaining.  Author Barbara Park appeals to the reader with the creation of her character Junie B. and her crazy imagination.

In this book, Junie B. is the first student in her first-grade class to be close to losing a tooth.  Though she is very excited at first, a story of a man with no teeth quickly makes her want to keep her tooth as long as she can.  As the reader could probably predict, the tooth did eventually come out, and Junie B. realized that she did not look as bad as she thought she would.  However, she was still worried that her class might make fun of her new smile.  When the topic of the Tooth Fairy is brought up by her parents, Junie B. refuses to put the tooth under her pillow because she is afraid that the tooth witch will take it, not the tooth fairy.  After much deliberation and help from her peers, Junie B. decides that it is safe to put her tooth under her pillow, and she is happy to wake up to not only money but to her baby brother now having his first tooth as well!

This book is full of creativity and imagination that I believe students would find very engaging.  The relatability of losing a tooth and the excitement that it brings automatically would spark an interest in a child who is about to lose a tooth.  The book is also an excellent example of being able to make predictions and inferences, as Junie B. works to figure out why the Tooth Fairy needs the teeth, and what she does with them.  She calls on the help of peers and family and uses her background knowledge about recycling to determine that the Tooth Fairy recycles the teeth and gives them to babies to use.

I would definitely recommend this book to my future students.  I hope to be able to read more by Barbara Park because I found the excitement in this book to be very contagious and engaging.

Until next week,
Ashley

Miss Daisy Is Crazy!

This week as I searched for a book to read, I enlisted the help of my boyfriend's brother who is in the fifth grade.  He handed me a pile of books and "Miss Daisy Is Crazy," by Dan Gutman, just happened to be the first one I grabbed.  When I finished reading it in less than 20 minutes, he made sure to inform me that he had not read that book since the second grade so I would not think that it was something he was reading now.

In "Miss Daisy Is Crazy," Dan Gutman introduces us to a character named A.J. who begins the story by stating, "I love football and video games, and I hate school."  But come to find out, so does his new teacher, Miss Daisy.  That is not the only crazy thing about Miss Daisy, she does not even know how to read or do math.  What kind of teacher does not know how to do those things?  Instead of the teacher being able to teach the students, the students must teach the teacher.  Towards the end of the story, A.J. catches a glimpse of Miss Daisy looking at a piece of paper, and he is almost positive that she was reading.  Though he is not for sure, he starts to question if Miss Daisy really was as dumb as she let on, or if she actually did know how to read and do math.

Though this book is very extreme, it was a great read.  Dan Gutman takes the reader on an adventure from the point of view of a student, which in my opinion is a great way to get students engaged in a book.  He even includes a few pictures throughout the book to depict exciting parts of the story.

As a teacher, one thing that really stuck out to me was the idea of letting students have an active role in the classroom.  Though Miss Daisy may have played dumb a little too much, the concept behind her actions is very important.  Sometimes it is better for students to show their knowledge through teaching than through giving a test.  It gives them an opportunity to explain what they are doing and why and not just their ability to get the right answer.  I have always heard that sometimes students can learn better from peers, especially when they may not be able to understand the way that we are teaching.  If they look at the concept from the point of view of another student, it may just click, and in the end, I think that this was Miss Daisy's goal.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading "Miss Daisy Is Crazy" by Dan Gutman.  Though not to the degree of this book, it reminded me to let my students have an active role in the classroom, and allow them opportunities to show their knowledge in many ways, as well as use peer support.

Until next week,
Ashley