I haven't been one of the "reading types," which makes me feel really far behind when y'all talk about authors and books you all have read, but it doesn't slow me down. I have read some books for college that are fictional and I must tell you, I would re-read them.
The first one is, "Famous All Over Town," by Danny Sanitago, and it is about a young Mexican-American boy who is growing up in Los Angeles, CA who is struggling in poverty and thinks there's no way out. We follow him through his path of self destruction and family struggles and see him survive in the end. It is a very good book. I would recommend it for your high school students. You can find some controversial subjects that it raises here at this website:
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6993682/Socialist-realism-and-the-success.html
I don't have the book anymore, but I loved reading, "Outcry In the Barrio," when I was young. It's by Freddie Garcia and was a hit when I was growing up. It was about a young man who was into hard drugs and couldn't see a way out, but finally he found one and became a minister. This book is based on a true story but is still considered fictional. You cannot use it in your classroom because it has religion in it, but I just had to share! This book was given to me in back in the day, but now I see that the new paperback starts at $42.50. WOW, that shows how good it is. Here at this web site you can purchase the book used or new, and most importantly, read some reviews about it, enjoy!
http://www.amazon.com/Outcry-Barrio-Freddie-Garcia/dp/0961931906
The next book is, "Lipstick Jihad," by Azadeh Moaveni, and it is about an Iranian girl growing up in America. This book I read in my Humanities class in my earlier years of college, it could however be read for a high school class to teach about the Iranian culture. We tend to turn our backs on the unknown, but after reading this book, we all opened our eyes to see that there are only small differences between all of us, as the human race. At this website you can find an interview with the author:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/03/lipstick-jihad-interview-azadeh-moaveni
Fiction is an experience in narrative and provides a window into what makes human beings human. Now these books that I mentioned, they were all based on true stories, and some say they are biographies, but I must say that I do not agree. When a story is told and altered a little bit and does not tell the whole truth, then I must say it is fiction. We did our fiction projects in class and the question was, "What is fiction to you?" The truth is fiction is just merely a fake story. It can be based on truth and things of that nature but is just not entirely true. I guess these books would fall under Contemporary Realistic Fiction, where people can actually exist along with the events that can actually happen. All of these books were also, Character vs. Society, the theme where the main character is in social conflict with traditions. I love these fictional types of books and if you have any advice on a good book that falls into this category and theme, please feel free to leave it with your comment.
"Author Study"
I found a good book for your boys, mainly, but girls will like it too. It is, "Batman," by Ralph Cosentino, and this particular story is about 32 pages long, written like a comic, almost a picture book because it is illustrated beautifully. Of course Batman is saving Gotham City from its most dangerous criminals but it also explains what made him a Hero, how he changed from a boy into a hero. You can use this book to explain the difference between the hero and the villan and focus on the hero part of it. This day and age, people pride the villan and make him look better than the hero (like the Joker) and that is not how we want to raise our society, so we need to change our children's views, and what better way to do that than through literature.
Next, I have, "Don't Say That Word," by Alan Katz, which is a funny story that your children will love to laugh with that is about a little boy who tells his mom about his crazy day at school. She stops him before he says the ending of his story with, "Don't say that word!"
Finally, I have a book that I would read to my Pre K or Kindergarten class which is called, "Princess Baby," and it's a cute little book that brings a smile to your face at the end. It's about a little baby girl who doesn't like all the nicknames that her parents call her. It's a very easy read that I liked a lot.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
CH 7 / Original Fairytale
Instead of doing CH 7, I am going to do the assignment on researching an original version of a fairytale that interests me. Well, I must say that it is pretty difficult to find this literature on the internet, well at least it was for me. I do not take a lot of things from the internet because I do not know if it is valid information. I decided to take my chances on this one and read, "The Original Version of Jack and the Bean Stalk." I found some of my information from this website:
http://www.dbskeptic.com/2008/11/17/more-original-versions-of-classic-fairy-tales/
Here on this website, it tells the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. Now, if I were to incorporate this into my classroom, and I am going to have to use the original version, I would definantly use it with the oldest group of students, the 6th graders (because that is the highest level that I am certified for). I would use it to talk about right from wrong and the innocent people who die from the negligence from others. Just a quick rundown of the story, Jack gets the Bean Stalk and climbs up it and ends up going into the Orge's castle and stealing from him. Then after the 3rd time of theft, he gets caught and chased by the Orge, and then Jack kills the Orge by chopping down the bean stalk. I think that's pretty sad because he had no business in the Orge's castle and the Orge should not have to die and leave his family behind because some immature boy wants to go into the stranger's home and steal from him. This is a good book to read with juveniles, because they are entering into the stages of "fitting in," and let's face it, times are hard and people are robbing, stealing and begging more and more these days and this story would help bring up the topics of how the students feel when they don't have the things they need or even want. Or what led him to have the curiousity of going into the house? And many, many contreversial topics can be addressed. After the discussion of the story, we can even use a couple days on it, we can do a group project, like the one in class on big paper, but of our own interpertations of Jack and the Bean Stalk, maybe use characters that are in their everyday life and then we would be able to illustrate it and present to the class. I would encourage them to do an internet activity of the regular "Jack and the Bean Stalk," as well. We would probably do a small mini lesson about comparing and contrasting the two, but my focus would mainly be about comprehension and what they got from the literature. Then I would definantly follow through with a journal writing activity because I would want to know how the children really felt and the inside issues that had been brought up emotionally through the story.
These are the things I would do with my class in the future. This was a good assignment because now I know about the original versions and I can pass that on to them. I did not know of these before. I encourage you all to go to the website above and browse different versions of the fairytales. It's really neat and can give all of us some ideas.
"Author Study"
I did not do my author study about Fairytales or Fantasy. I want to share two more books with you that have to do with my author profile and then I will share one more that I found interesting. If you do not know, my author profile will be about Karen Katz.
"My First Ramadan," by Karen Katz, is about a little boy who observes the Muslim holy month with his family. This time the little boy wants to fast like the grown ups do, and the children will be intersted as he shares his expieriences with his family. I highly recommend Karen Katz's books because she is a culturally diverse author and I love that we can bring that into our classroom!
"Can You Say Peace," by Karen Katz, is about children all over the world who wish for peace. She takes us through a child-like journey of children all over the world and the different ways they say peace!
"That's Love," by Sam Williams, is a colorful, really cute book that teaches the children about love in a fun way. I recommend this book if you want to teach your classroom about love and respect. It is a really easy read.
http://www.dbskeptic.com/2008/11/17/more-original-versions-of-classic-fairy-tales/
Here on this website, it tells the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. Now, if I were to incorporate this into my classroom, and I am going to have to use the original version, I would definantly use it with the oldest group of students, the 6th graders (because that is the highest level that I am certified for). I would use it to talk about right from wrong and the innocent people who die from the negligence from others. Just a quick rundown of the story, Jack gets the Bean Stalk and climbs up it and ends up going into the Orge's castle and stealing from him. Then after the 3rd time of theft, he gets caught and chased by the Orge, and then Jack kills the Orge by chopping down the bean stalk. I think that's pretty sad because he had no business in the Orge's castle and the Orge should not have to die and leave his family behind because some immature boy wants to go into the stranger's home and steal from him. This is a good book to read with juveniles, because they are entering into the stages of "fitting in," and let's face it, times are hard and people are robbing, stealing and begging more and more these days and this story would help bring up the topics of how the students feel when they don't have the things they need or even want. Or what led him to have the curiousity of going into the house? And many, many contreversial topics can be addressed. After the discussion of the story, we can even use a couple days on it, we can do a group project, like the one in class on big paper, but of our own interpertations of Jack and the Bean Stalk, maybe use characters that are in their everyday life and then we would be able to illustrate it and present to the class. I would encourage them to do an internet activity of the regular "Jack and the Bean Stalk," as well. We would probably do a small mini lesson about comparing and contrasting the two, but my focus would mainly be about comprehension and what they got from the literature. Then I would definantly follow through with a journal writing activity because I would want to know how the children really felt and the inside issues that had been brought up emotionally through the story.
These are the things I would do with my class in the future. This was a good assignment because now I know about the original versions and I can pass that on to them. I did not know of these before. I encourage you all to go to the website above and browse different versions of the fairytales. It's really neat and can give all of us some ideas.
"Author Study"
I did not do my author study about Fairytales or Fantasy. I want to share two more books with you that have to do with my author profile and then I will share one more that I found interesting. If you do not know, my author profile will be about Karen Katz.
"My First Ramadan," by Karen Katz, is about a little boy who observes the Muslim holy month with his family. This time the little boy wants to fast like the grown ups do, and the children will be intersted as he shares his expieriences with his family. I highly recommend Karen Katz's books because she is a culturally diverse author and I love that we can bring that into our classroom!
"Can You Say Peace," by Karen Katz, is about children all over the world who wish for peace. She takes us through a child-like journey of children all over the world and the different ways they say peace!
"That's Love," by Sam Williams, is a colorful, really cute book that teaches the children about love in a fun way. I recommend this book if you want to teach your classroom about love and respect. It is a really easy read.
CH 6
Chapter 6 is about the genre, Traditional Literature. Traditional Literature is what is sounds like, old stories that have been past on and on, and have mostly been used to educate our youngsters about morality. What I didn't know is that traditional lit is based on values, beliefs, and different social groups. We always just heard the same stories, over and over. In my house hold and during my younger days, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, all of these were the original stories and Disney wrote the books and sold the movies. There were no "spin offs" as we would call it, to these stories. I remember going to Disney Land and Disney World with my parents and the themes were the original stories and characters, just as in the books.
The elements of traditional lit are: plot, setting, characterization, style, theme, motifs, and variants. Plots are usually simple and events happen one after another and the characters and setting are described quickly and then it goes straight into action, think as you will Snow White. As for the setting, I always think of, "Once Upon A Time, Far Far Away...." but I always remember the castles and thought of it as a fairy land that was unknown, but as I grew older and studied European culture, I realized these stories were based on the European culture. There are castles and kings and princes, and the village people are people of poverty. I also need to point out, the names of the characters in traditional literature are not common American names. And I must agree that all the characters are vague, they are all good or all evil, but come on, Snow White had to have a menstrual period at a time in her life, she couldn't be a sweetheart at all times! :) As for style, I remember one movie where there were no words and only music played, I didn't realize that was the movie's actual style. It's pretty cool, to learn about all the different elements that go into making all the different genres. The theme's vary by the cultural and the motifs, but most of the one's I remember were, "Happily Ever After." (I know I keep saying, "The one's I remember..." but trust me, I am slowly but surely trying to keep up with the literature books. I have a couple of children's traditional literature books here with me now, but I am going to save them for my "Author Study" portion of my blog, so please bare with me.) I never knew about motifs of a story. There can be various ones like, magic, journeys and quests, trickery (would that refer to Hansel & Gretel?) and things of that nature. Variants of traditional literature are the spin offs of the particular book, such as CinderEdna vs CinderRella or Lil Red Riding Hood vs Red Riding in the Hood. As it was mentioned in class, all ethnic groups have their own versions of traditional literature and I am excited and ready to read different versions of the lit. A good thing for us to do is to have the children write in response to these different forms of literature. I think a good thing to do would be to read a traditional story versus a variant and have the children write or illustrate (depending on the grade) what they learned from the story, liked, related to or a simple compare/contrast. They can really learn a lot and I think this would spark their curiosity and make them want to read two books versus just the one.
"Author Study"
"Town Mouse, Country Mouse," by Jan Brett, is about two mice and their families that are bored with living where they are living. The city mouse wants to live in the country and the country mouse wants to live in the city, so the families switch houses and it leads us into a great story. This particular version is for your older children, 3rd grade and up.
The website below has some neat fables but are not by the same author, but it does have the fable, "Town Mouse, Country Mouse." I chose to paste the website here because it looks like it would be helpful to us in the future. I am more of the hands on San Antonio Library type of girl. :) But check the website out!
http://www.happychild.org.uk/nvs/cont/stories/aesopsfables/page0119.htm
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears," retold by James Marshall, is about a little girl who is naughty and doesn't follow directions and goes into the forest after being told not to. The story teaches the moral to listen to adults when you are told to do something. We all hope to instill that moral in our children's minds. Recommend this story for sure!
I also have here with me, two Disney books, "Cinderella," and "Snow White." These are variants of the story, because the title on the top states that it is, "My Side of the Story," and rather the characters tell the story based on their version of what actually happened, it's really cute. You can also flip the book over for another version, for example, Snow White's version is printed on one side, and the Queen's version is printed on the other. They are great reads, even for us adults! Disney books are illustrated to purposely keep the children's attention. I recommend these for your older grades as well, probably 4th and up.
The elements of traditional lit are: plot, setting, characterization, style, theme, motifs, and variants. Plots are usually simple and events happen one after another and the characters and setting are described quickly and then it goes straight into action, think as you will Snow White. As for the setting, I always think of, "Once Upon A Time, Far Far Away...." but I always remember the castles and thought of it as a fairy land that was unknown, but as I grew older and studied European culture, I realized these stories were based on the European culture. There are castles and kings and princes, and the village people are people of poverty. I also need to point out, the names of the characters in traditional literature are not common American names. And I must agree that all the characters are vague, they are all good or all evil, but come on, Snow White had to have a menstrual period at a time in her life, she couldn't be a sweetheart at all times! :) As for style, I remember one movie where there were no words and only music played, I didn't realize that was the movie's actual style. It's pretty cool, to learn about all the different elements that go into making all the different genres. The theme's vary by the cultural and the motifs, but most of the one's I remember were, "Happily Ever After." (I know I keep saying, "The one's I remember..." but trust me, I am slowly but surely trying to keep up with the literature books. I have a couple of children's traditional literature books here with me now, but I am going to save them for my "Author Study" portion of my blog, so please bare with me.) I never knew about motifs of a story. There can be various ones like, magic, journeys and quests, trickery (would that refer to Hansel & Gretel?) and things of that nature. Variants of traditional literature are the spin offs of the particular book, such as CinderEdna vs CinderRella or Lil Red Riding Hood vs Red Riding in the Hood. As it was mentioned in class, all ethnic groups have their own versions of traditional literature and I am excited and ready to read different versions of the lit. A good thing for us to do is to have the children write in response to these different forms of literature. I think a good thing to do would be to read a traditional story versus a variant and have the children write or illustrate (depending on the grade) what they learned from the story, liked, related to or a simple compare/contrast. They can really learn a lot and I think this would spark their curiosity and make them want to read two books versus just the one.
"Author Study"
"Town Mouse, Country Mouse," by Jan Brett, is about two mice and their families that are bored with living where they are living. The city mouse wants to live in the country and the country mouse wants to live in the city, so the families switch houses and it leads us into a great story. This particular version is for your older children, 3rd grade and up.
The website below has some neat fables but are not by the same author, but it does have the fable, "Town Mouse, Country Mouse." I chose to paste the website here because it looks like it would be helpful to us in the future. I am more of the hands on San Antonio Library type of girl. :) But check the website out!
http://www.happychild.org.uk/nvs/cont/stories/aesopsfables/page0119.htm
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears," retold by James Marshall, is about a little girl who is naughty and doesn't follow directions and goes into the forest after being told not to. The story teaches the moral to listen to adults when you are told to do something. We all hope to instill that moral in our children's minds. Recommend this story for sure!
I also have here with me, two Disney books, "Cinderella," and "Snow White." These are variants of the story, because the title on the top states that it is, "My Side of the Story," and rather the characters tell the story based on their version of what actually happened, it's really cute. You can also flip the book over for another version, for example, Snow White's version is printed on one side, and the Queen's version is printed on the other. They are great reads, even for us adults! Disney books are illustrated to purposely keep the children's attention. I recommend these for your older grades as well, probably 4th and up.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Chapter 5 & 14
Chapter 5 was about Poetry and the different elements that make it up. Now I don't know about the rest of you girls, but when I was a teenager and I was upset about some little boy, I always vented by writing a poem. Poetry was the "in" thing to do, and now without the children knowing it, so is Rap. Speaking of rap, the book says that poetry is a musical language. Poetry is suppose to skip, sing, and tug at you. Now Prof. Pickett, if you ever read this, or if anyone knows the answer, please advise me, but is Phonemic Awareness all about rhyming? Is it all song and poetry?
Next, I want to take the time to list the elements of poetry, because I found it interesting how we can read a poem, write a poem or sing a song (which is a poem), without even knowing all the parts that go into it. So the elements of poetry are: sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, figurative language, shape, emotional force, and insight. When I was younger, I thought it was all about rhyme and rhythm, and I am sure that is what all the kids think it is also. It will be nice to break it down and teach the different attributes of poetry. When I was reading the chapter, I had no idea what alliteration was, and if you don't either, it is the reception of similar consonant sounds. Also, assonance, which means to repeat internal vowel sounds, which provide partial rhymes. I agree that poets use repetition when it comes to rhythm.
I want to share some other things I learned with you all starting with figurative language. Did you know that figurative language means to create meaning through imagination? And the shape of the poem is how you write it, or where you put the words? I didn't know about emotional force and how it provides an emotional response for the reader. I also did not know that insight meant, "initial experiences," or how the author wants the poem to linger in our minds. The insight should give us a new perspective and make us see things in a new light, like, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." I thought it was cool to see how poetry was broken down. I also agree with performing and writing poetry. I remember when I was in 7th grade and we had to write a poem and how I took pride in that poem, even though I had been slacking in my work that year, the poetry assignment meant a lot to me. As a matter of fact, I think I still have that poem somewhere around here. And defiantly, encourage revision! I have binders of poems from when I was young that could have been so great had they been revised, so I am going to encourage my students to bring their poems and stories to me for help revising, no matter if they are assignments or not.
In Chapter 14, it discusses how we learn to write by reading and I never knew that. It's because we fall in love with books and listen to oral stories, and we come adapted to knowing what makes a good story and how good language sounds. Writing is a lifelong learning process, but once your children master the basics, they can learn to love it. We as teachers need to monitor what our students think about and do as they write.
I learned about the 5 aspects of writing, which are: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I remember how I use to hate rewriting over and over again and I still do. If only I learned to love it, then maybe it wouldn't be such a hassle for me these days. But don't get me wrong, I love to write papers, just not the same thing over and over again. :) How do we make that interesting? You can have all the traits of good writing, ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and presentation, and still there are some teachers that make you revise. I think I am going to just look for these traits and help them build the aspects and foundations, versus being so demanding on the little things. I want them to feel free in expression, especially the ones who will struggle with writing. I do not want them to feel trapped but better to feel like they can do
it and love it.
"Author Study"
I am going to discuss 3 books from different authors but from the same genre, which is poetry.
First book is, "Down the Back of the Chair," by Margaret Mahy, which is a rhyming (poetry) book. It's about a little girl, who's Dad is struggling to make money for the family and she goes exploring what is down the back of the chair and what she finds, saves the day! It has a lot of repititon, but it makes it fun to read. I shared this book in class and my group loved it!
The second book is, "The Baby Uggs Are Hatching," by Jack Prelutsky, and it is about some unusual characters like The Uggs, The Quossible, The Sneepies, ect. There are 12 poems about unusual characters that will make your children's imaginations run wild. I would have them go back to their desks and make there own character and small poem to go with it! It's really cute and funny. And it also introduces a lot of vocabulary, some I even looked up!
The third is Shel Silverstein's first poetry collection, "Don't Bump the Glump," and what is a classroom library without Shel Silverstein in it! It is a collection of many small fantasy poems, with many different creatures of all kinds.
Next, I want to take the time to list the elements of poetry, because I found it interesting how we can read a poem, write a poem or sing a song (which is a poem), without even knowing all the parts that go into it. So the elements of poetry are: sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, rhythm, figurative language, shape, emotional force, and insight. When I was younger, I thought it was all about rhyme and rhythm, and I am sure that is what all the kids think it is also. It will be nice to break it down and teach the different attributes of poetry. When I was reading the chapter, I had no idea what alliteration was, and if you don't either, it is the reception of similar consonant sounds. Also, assonance, which means to repeat internal vowel sounds, which provide partial rhymes. I agree that poets use repetition when it comes to rhythm.
I want to share some other things I learned with you all starting with figurative language. Did you know that figurative language means to create meaning through imagination? And the shape of the poem is how you write it, or where you put the words? I didn't know about emotional force and how it provides an emotional response for the reader. I also did not know that insight meant, "initial experiences," or how the author wants the poem to linger in our minds. The insight should give us a new perspective and make us see things in a new light, like, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." I thought it was cool to see how poetry was broken down. I also agree with performing and writing poetry. I remember when I was in 7th grade and we had to write a poem and how I took pride in that poem, even though I had been slacking in my work that year, the poetry assignment meant a lot to me. As a matter of fact, I think I still have that poem somewhere around here. And defiantly, encourage revision! I have binders of poems from when I was young that could have been so great had they been revised, so I am going to encourage my students to bring their poems and stories to me for help revising, no matter if they are assignments or not.
In Chapter 14, it discusses how we learn to write by reading and I never knew that. It's because we fall in love with books and listen to oral stories, and we come adapted to knowing what makes a good story and how good language sounds. Writing is a lifelong learning process, but once your children master the basics, they can learn to love it. We as teachers need to monitor what our students think about and do as they write.
I learned about the 5 aspects of writing, which are: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I remember how I use to hate rewriting over and over again and I still do. If only I learned to love it, then maybe it wouldn't be such a hassle for me these days. But don't get me wrong, I love to write papers, just not the same thing over and over again. :) How do we make that interesting? You can have all the traits of good writing, ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and presentation, and still there are some teachers that make you revise. I think I am going to just look for these traits and help them build the aspects and foundations, versus being so demanding on the little things. I want them to feel free in expression, especially the ones who will struggle with writing. I do not want them to feel trapped but better to feel like they can do
it and love it.
"Author Study"
I am going to discuss 3 books from different authors but from the same genre, which is poetry.
First book is, "Down the Back of the Chair," by Margaret Mahy, which is a rhyming (poetry) book. It's about a little girl, who's Dad is struggling to make money for the family and she goes exploring what is down the back of the chair and what she finds, saves the day! It has a lot of repititon, but it makes it fun to read. I shared this book in class and my group loved it!
The second book is, "The Baby Uggs Are Hatching," by Jack Prelutsky, and it is about some unusual characters like The Uggs, The Quossible, The Sneepies, ect. There are 12 poems about unusual characters that will make your children's imaginations run wild. I would have them go back to their desks and make there own character and small poem to go with it! It's really cute and funny. And it also introduces a lot of vocabulary, some I even looked up!
The third is Shel Silverstein's first poetry collection, "Don't Bump the Glump," and what is a classroom library without Shel Silverstein in it! It is a collection of many small fantasy poems, with many different creatures of all kinds.
CH 4 "Responding to Literature"
The thing I liked most about this chapter was the topic in general, "Responding to Literature." I think it is very important for us to understand that we are all different and we are not going to see things in the same light. You can be sitting with your friends on one side of the room, and strangers on the other, and a spicy topic can be brought out in debate, and suprisingly, you and your friends disagree and you find yourself on the stranger's side, because we are all different in many ways. We cannot base our cultural differences on race alone, because I may be from the same ethnic background as another person, but I may have been brought up differently, and it is our job as teachers to learn about our children and their interests outside of school. The things they learn about outside of school creates the interest foundations that we can build on with the literature we choose for our class.
We need to motivate our readers through not only meaningful literature, but literature that is meaningful to them. We cannot just give them a book that we enjoyed as a child and expect them to find the same enjoyment. We need to study and research the TEKS of the year before and build on their schemata. I find that I like to tour the Kinder halls before I go to my First Grade field class, because I want to grab an idea of what the children might have learned the year before. Also I want to know the interesting projects that they have done, because again we must keep up and entertain while we teach, we must "hook" them into learning.
They build their responses to the text through interactions with others (everyone and anyone around them). Friends impact your way of thinking the most, especially during the young years of one's life. We have to support the role's of our readers, so we must learn about our students and make reading enjoyable for all of them, not just the majority, but all.
"Author Study"
I am going to change my selection for my author profile and I am chosing Karen Katz who is a children's author, who writes cultural diverse books. I will name 3 of her books that I find interesting. Don't go stealing my author now, ya'll heard! :)
The first book is, "Over the Moon, An Adoption Tale," and it is a picture book. It's very colorful and will grab your student's eyes and at the same time, it will teach them a valuable story about how two parents come to adopt a child from another country. It's very cute.
The second book is, "The Color of Us," and it is about a little girl named Lena who is going to paint herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, she learns that there are many shades of brown. She begins to see the world in a new way. This book teaches about the differences and similarities of all people.
The third book is, "My First Chinese New Year," which is about a little chinese girl who takes different cultural steps in getting ready for the Chinese New Year. It tells us the different ways that one can prepare for their new year, but also shows us that it is very similar in the way that we, as Americans, prepare too.
We need to motivate our readers through not only meaningful literature, but literature that is meaningful to them. We cannot just give them a book that we enjoyed as a child and expect them to find the same enjoyment. We need to study and research the TEKS of the year before and build on their schemata. I find that I like to tour the Kinder halls before I go to my First Grade field class, because I want to grab an idea of what the children might have learned the year before. Also I want to know the interesting projects that they have done, because again we must keep up and entertain while we teach, we must "hook" them into learning.
They build their responses to the text through interactions with others (everyone and anyone around them). Friends impact your way of thinking the most, especially during the young years of one's life. We have to support the role's of our readers, so we must learn about our students and make reading enjoyable for all of them, not just the majority, but all.
"Author Study"
I am going to change my selection for my author profile and I am chosing Karen Katz who is a children's author, who writes cultural diverse books. I will name 3 of her books that I find interesting. Don't go stealing my author now, ya'll heard! :)
The first book is, "Over the Moon, An Adoption Tale," and it is a picture book. It's very colorful and will grab your student's eyes and at the same time, it will teach them a valuable story about how two parents come to adopt a child from another country. It's very cute.
The second book is, "The Color of Us," and it is about a little girl named Lena who is going to paint herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, she learns that there are many shades of brown. She begins to see the world in a new way. This book teaches about the differences and similarities of all people.
The third book is, "My First Chinese New Year," which is about a little chinese girl who takes different cultural steps in getting ready for the Chinese New Year. It tells us the different ways that one can prepare for their new year, but also shows us that it is very similar in the way that we, as Americans, prepare too.
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