Author Profile

Testing Miss Malarkey

Judy Finchler

ISBN: 082787371

This book pokes fun at standardized testing. It reminds me about all the hype that goes around the TAKS testing. It is about the students having to take a new test for the school year call the Instructional Performance Through Understanding Test. All of the staff and teachers at the school prepare the students all year long for THE TEST. In art they are practicing filling in bubbles for THE TEST and in the cafeteria they are feeding them brain food to better prepare them. The teachers stress that THE TEST is not important but their actions and nervous attitudes say differently. Even when the author talks about THE TEST she makes sure to have it in all capital letters so the reader knows its importance.

I also found some neat author websites:

http://www.booksbyomalley.com/

http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/

www.eric-carle.com/home.html

http://www.seussville.com/

Presentations

I learned a lot of new information from todays presentation. I dislike spiders because they are scary creatures but I learned they do serve a purpose because they do eat a lot of bugs and that keeps the bug population in check so they don't get higher in numbers. Making a spider out of clay was fun and I can see myself doing that craft with a group of elementary students. It would be good for spiders or even Halloween.
The Snow White project was different because it talked about the early stories from the tale that we haven't heard before. Some of the tales were a little strange and definetaly for an older audience. I am not sure if I would read that book to even high school students. I think it is meant to be more for adults.

Author Profile

Captain Nobody

by Dean Pitchford

ISBN: 9780399250347

Newt Newman is a boy who has never felt extrordinary. Him and his friends are virtually invisible while his brother Chris is the star athlete. His brother gets hurt at a game and goes into acoma. To escape from what is going on Newt gets dressed up for Halloween as a made up superheroe called Captain Underpants. His costume gives him the confidence he never had before.

One Small Step

by P.B. Kerr

ISBN: 9781416942139
In 1968 Scott MacLeod's parents split up. He went to live with his dad in Texas who was a flight instructor and his dad passed onto Scott his love of flying. They got into a terrible plane accident and almost died until Scott saved them with his flying skills. His skills gave him attention from NASA and they hired him to take a top secret trip to the moon.

Heat

by Mike Lupica

ISBN: 0142407577

Michael Arroyo is a 13 year old Cuban American orphan growing up in the Bronx. He is a baseball star in his Little League team that has made it to the Little League World Series that is going to be at Yankee Stadium. He desperately wants to play but a coach on the other team questions whether Michael is really the appropraite age and he can't play until he gets his Cuban birth certificate without people finding out him and his older brother are without parents.

Genre Projects

The presentations today were pretty interesting. I liked how during the first presentation they had the illustratrions big on the projection screen so we could see them as the story was going on. The pot was also a neat idea to get an understanding of what the students consider to be integrity,
I also really liked the book Pink and Say. I am going to put that on my list of books to buy. It was interesting and really sad. Both of them were really good friends and loyal to each other. The book was about the Civil War but focused more on the story of the two friends and the fear they had during that time. I can definetaly see myself reading it to middle school students.

Author Profile

Because of Twilight and the popularity of vampires at the moment I decided to do my author profile on some vampire books for teens. All of these books are the first in a series and can be used to grab the attention of older readers.

Vampire Kisses

By Ellen Schreiber

ISBN: 9780061778940

When a new hansome and mysterious neighbor moves to town everyone is curious about him. He becomes friends with a vampire obsessed outsider named Raven who discovers there is some unusual things about him including him being a vampire.

Bloodline
By Kate Cary

ISNB: 1595140786

This book takes place during about WWI. It tells the story of Mary who was a nurse reading to her patient John Saw from his journal while he was in the hospital. His journal entries tell about his sister Lily meeting and falling in love with his captain Quincy Harker and they return to Harker's home in Romania to be married. It is there that strange secrets start coming out and Lily is faced with the choice to die or live forever as a vampire.

Marked

By P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
ISBN: 9780312360269

This book is about a world where vampires exist and are accepted by humans. If a human is "marked" by a vampire they have to enter a special school called House of Night. During this time their body decides if it is going to accept the change or not. It it doesn't accept the change than they die. Zoey Redbird is an outsider with big dreams and is excited to have been marked. The story follows her going to a new school and seeeing it isn't much different than her previous one. It also follows her romantic life and whether she should be with Erik the popular boy or her exboyfriend Heath all while dealing with the development of her new vampire powers. Be careful recommending this book for younger readers because it does have curse words and sexual references.

Author Profile

Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar is a children's author who has previously won the newbery medal. He bases his characters on himself and the people he know's. Some of the books he has written are Holes, Small Steps, and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.

http://www.louissachar.com/

Sideways Stories from Wayside School
by Louis Sachar

ISBN: 0380731487

This book contains thirty short tales about the student's and faculty at Wayside School. Wayside school is a school that was built sideways. Instead of being a one story building with thirty classrooms the builder made it thirty stories high with one class on each story. These stories are silly and appeal to a child's sense of humor. For example, in the story of the mean teacher Mrs. Gorf she wiggles her ears and turns her students into apples. In an ironic turn of events she ends up turning herself into an apple and gets eaten by one of the other teachers.

Wayside School is Falling Down
By Louis Sachar

ISBN: 0688078680

Thirty silly stories from Wayside School. I used to read these stories as a kid and I loved them. They are goofy and imaginative. In one of th stories a student named Sherie bring a homeless person to school for show and tell. In another tale it tells about the yard man Louis carrying a computer up thirty stories to get to Mrs. Jewis' class just so she can throw it out the window to teach about gravity.

Presentations

Today my group and another group did our genre presentations. I thought our presentation on the sun and the moon went well. I was both happy and sad to have presented. I was happy to have finished the project and now I get time to concentrate on my other schoolwork however, I am sad to be done with it because my group and I spent so much time preparing for it and while I was stressed out I did have a blast doing it. I am happy with the way it come out and have recieved positive feedback from my classmates in the audience.
I also thought the other presentation went really well. I like the book on recycling they used. The format of presenting the book on dvd with music was really neat and grabbed my attention. It hooked the reader much more than if it was a simple book reading. I can also see a teacher having the students doing some of the sorting activities they showed us with the recycling products.

Author Websites

Here are some author websites to check out
Junie B. Jones books- www.randomhouse.com/kids/junieb/

Captain Underpants books- www.scholastic.com/captainunderpants/

Children's Authors- www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org

Author Profile

Word Wizard

By: Cathryn Falwell

We read this book in Dr. Ferguson's class today and I wanted to mention it because it is a really cute book for young students who are practicing manipulating words and combining letters. It is about a girl named Anna who rearranging the letters in words to make new words. This book can be easily incorporated into lessons about manipulating letters to make different words. The bright colors and illustrations keep the story entertaining for the students.




Turtle Splash! Countdown at the Pond


By: Cathryn Falwell


This book is meant for young elementary students. In the picture book the turtles and some other outdoor animals are hanging around a pond. One at a time as a new creature comes into the picture the turtle jumps into the water. On the side of the page it shows the number of turtles that are left. In the end it shows all the turtles underwater in the pond. The last few pages of the book it also has some brief information about the animals mentioned. This book can be used for a lesson in counting bakwards as well as an introductory nature lesson.

I also found a website for Cathryn Falwell who wrote and illustrated these books. She has also written some other children's book geared mostly for kids under age 8. Her kids section is neat and has fun projects for kids to print out and make.

http://www.cathrynfalwell.com/

Chapters 10 & 11

Ch. 10 Reading Aloud
Contrary to what some teachers think read alouds are appropriate for students of all ages. I know that personally even though I am a college student I still like being read a story in class. My social studies instructor reads to us occasionally and even at our age we get entertained. However read alouds aren't used just for entertainment but learning as well. Read alouds get students intrested in literature and reading as well as encouraging comprehension and expanding their vocabularies. It is important for the teacher to practice a good read aloud which entails sitting on the carpet with the students and being animated. While reading the story us different voices and accentuate words and expressions to keep the students interested. Jennifer Myers does a good example of a shared reading.

Ch. 11 Shared and Guided Reading
Shared reading is a collaborative reading activity involving both the students and teacher. Shared reading has two purposes. First it provides an enjoyable literacy experience and second it show how print works. In order to participate in shared reading the class should have active student participation, a variety of books, and a comfortable learning environment. When planning a lesson for shared reading keep in mind the needs of the students, the curriculum and the kinds of text that is needed to accomplish your goals.
Guided reading is done with small groups of students reading the same books and using the same reading strategies. The goal of guided reading is to get the students to be capable of using reading strategies easily on their own without help. When using guided reading lessons it is important to strategically group the students. Groups should be based on the students' reading level but teachers need to keep in mind that these groups shouldn't be permanent. Guided reading groups should change as students are matstering and struggling with new topics. You don't want to group students by ability and then leave them in the same group permanetly because then lower students will feel they will never catch up to the higher students.

Shared Reading Article

I read the shared reading article on BlackBoard I think it was pretty interesting and I agreed with mostly all of what it said. The goal of shared reading is to allow students positive reading experiences with books as well as to introduce them to different types of literature and authors. Shared reading shouldn't be teacher centered but rather made up of contributions from both the student and teacher. It is not shared reading if the the students aren't actively involved in the reading process.
As soon as children are introduced to books they want to learn how to read independently. It is only when they have difficulties with the subject that they sometimes become less interested in learning to read.
It is also important as the article said to have a variety of books available and encourage the students to have favorite books that can be read multiple times. Personally I think the classroom library is the most important part of the classroom. Having a classroom library with a mixture of good books motivates students and encourages them not only to read but to want to read.

Author Profile

Bruce Balan

Bruce Balan is a author of mostly children's books. On his website you can contact him to make a visit to your school and sign books. He also does many conferences. His site has some information on the books he has written as well as books he is currently writing.

http://www.brucebalan.com/

Cows Going Past
By: Bruce Balan

ISBN: 0803729022

Cows Going Past is a book for preschoolers where a child in the backseat describes a family trip through what he sees in the back seat window. Once he arrives back in his bed at home his mind is still thinking about all the cows he has seen.

Buoy Home at Sea

By: Bruce Balan

This is a book made up of a collection of stories about three friends name Buoy, Gull and Seal who live at sea. This book is for older elementary students. It is about a buoy at sea that is written about as having humanistic traits along with the sea and sea animals. It makes the reader think aboout the definition of friendship and home as well as how all everyone is interconnected.

Guided Reading

I found an informative teacher resource book about guided reading by Fountas & Pinnell. It includes information on what is a guiding reading program as well as how to use it in your classroom and what books you should choose. It also has a leveled booklist with hundreds of books that are already sorted out by level.

Guided Reading by Irene C. Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell
ISBN: 0435088637





I also found some good guided reading websites:

http://www.readinga-z.com/guided/index.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/reading/bestpractices/guidedreading.htm

Jennifer Myers Read Aloud

The read aloud with Jennifer Myers was really good. You can tell she is an excellent teacher. The only part I didn't like about her read aloud was that she was sitting in a chair above the students. Besides that it was an excellent read aloud lesson. The students seemed to be comfortable and enjoyed both her reading and the book itself. She has a very nice story voice. She paused at the appropriate times to maintain the flow of the story. The students were attentative and responsive to her questions. I liked her idea of having a shoulder partner for the students to talk with. I think that was a neat way for them to share ideas. Overall I think Jennifer Myers showed an excellent example of what a read aloud should look like.

Chapter 9 Nonfiction

When I think about nonfiction I normally think of biographies and journals. I never knew that reference books such as dictoinaries and encyclopedias, were considered nonfiction I thought they were in a category by themselves.

All types of nonfiction texts can be helpful in teaching social studies and sciene. I found a website on an author named April Pulley Sayre who has written over fifty natural history books for children and adults. http://www.aprilsayre.com/ On her site there are links that offer storytime plans that help ideas of how to incorporate some of her nonfiction books into teaching social studies.

I also found a website for John Malam http://www.johnmalam.co.uk/ where it has a link to help explain to children how a nonfiction book is made and all the jobs and responsibilities people have to create the book.
Through the site you can also arrange school visits and John Malam offers workshops where older kids in grades 5-9 can make nonfiction books themselves.

Author Site

I found a neat website on the author Judy Blume that I think young students would be interested in.
http://www.judyblume.com/kids.php

Fiction Books

How Oliver Olson Changed The World

by Claudia Mills
ISBN: 0374334870

In this chapter book Oliver Olson is a third grader who has overprotective parents who do his homework for him and won't let him go to sleepovers or ride his bike down the street. For their science project he gets paired with Crystal to make a diorama of the solar system. Crystal helps Oliver stand up for himself and even though he might not have made a significant change to the world, he made a big change in his life.

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Being Teddy Roosevelt

By Claudia Mills

ISBN: 0374306575

Riley O' Rourke is a third grader who wants to learn to play the saxophone in the school band. His mother is hesitant because he is already struggling with his school work and with her being a single mom she doesn't have the extra money for the instrument rental. For a school assignment he is required to read a biography on Teddy Roosevelt and he grows to admire Teddy's attitude. He says to himself "If Teddy Roosevelt had wanted a saxophone, he would have gotten himself a saxophone. Somehow." So Riley went to the band director and explained his situation. The band director understood his dilemma and provides him with a free used instrument to use so he can join the band.

Picture Books

Math Curse

by Jon Sciezka

ISBN 06070861944

Math curse is a good book to incorporate during math lessons. It is about a girl waking up one day with a "curse" that every decision she makes is a math problem. Some of the math problems are common questions but others are silly for example, "does tuna fish + tuna fish = fourna fish?" The book shows the need for math in a fun way.

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Mailing May

by Ted Rand

ISBN 0064437248

Mailing May is about a five year old girl named Charlotte May who lives in 1914 and wants to go visit her grandma very badly however he parents can't afford all the money it costs for her to travel on the train to her grandma's house. Instead they decide to send her as a package because it is much cheaper and her cousin works in the mail car so he can ensure she gets there safely. Her father takes her to the post office and sticks stamps onto the back of May's coat and sends her on her way. Students will enjoy this story because while it is somewhat silly it is a true story that really happened.

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Firehorse Max

By Sara London

Firehorse Max is about Grandpa Lev who has a horse who is to old to pull his wagon. Since he is a peddler he needs his wagon and buys a horse from the firehouse auction. Since this horse previously pulled the firewagon he rushes to the fire as soon as he hears the fire bell go off. This becomes a problem for Grandpa Lev because he is unable to sell his items when Max runs after fires. After discovering Max's love for music he plays the violin to calm Max down when the fire bells go off.

Ch 7- Picture Books

The definition of picture books is pretty self explanitory, they are books composed of mostly pictures. Most picture books are relatively short (about 32 pages) and contain limited text. Much of the emotion and story is told through the illustrations. They are available for all ageas and content areas. Picture books also help with reading comprehension and visual learners.

Illustrated stories started out in ancient times with drawings on the walls of caves. Over a great deal of time it has developed into the picture books we now have today.

Illustrators today use a variety of materials to make the intricate images in a picture book. Some of the media is made using collages, charcoal, scratchboard or woodcuts. Each medium provides the illustrator with a different final product that can best represent the author's story.

Picture books should be a part of every teachers classroom library because they are an easy form of literature to make a connection with.

I also found this neat website about picture books that could be helpful for choosing books for students: http://childrenspicturebooks.info/

Traditional Literature Books

Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About A Giant Woman With A Great Big Heart

by Pat Mora

ISBN: 0375823379

Grades K-3rd

This is a tall tale about a giant girl named Dona who is able to talk to animals. She is a kind girl who does favors for the children of the town. When the town is being haunted by an animals howling Dona questions the animals around town to find what is making the noise. To everyone's suprise it turns out to be an upset Puma and Dona soothes the puma by speaking with him and returns peace to her village.

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All The Way to Lhasa: A Tale From Tibet

by Barbara Helen Berger

ISBN: 0399233873

An elderly lady sitting on the side of the rode is approached by a man on a horse who asks how far is Lhasa and she tells him that he won't make it there before dark. Soon another person comes up but this time it is a boy walking with his yak. He asks the same question and she answers that he will get there before dark. The boy is determined to get to Lhasa so he paces himself and passes up the horse rider who has used all his energy trying to hurry up and get there quickly. This is a really good book for young readers about determination and being able to pace yourself instead of rushing through every task.

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Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella Tale

by Robert D. San Souci

ISBN: 0688147801

Grades 1-4

This Cinderella Tale is about a girl named Teresa who lives alone with her father in New Mexico. Her father marries a widow in town and Teresa inherits two stepsisters. Teresa's father gives her a lamb as a gift but her jelous stepmother kills it and sends Teresa to the river to clean its fleece. Teresa goes to the river crying and a fish steals the fleece. While she is crying a beautiful woman pops up and promises to get her back the fleece if she helps an old man and child in a home on the hill. She helps them and as her reward the beautiful woman gives her a gold star on her forhead. When she gets home her stepmothers once again gets jealous and send Teresa's stepsisters to get a gold star as well but because they mistreat the mand and the baby they are given donkey ears and horns instead. Teresa goes to a ball given by Don Miguel and they fall in love at the ball and he asker for her hand in marriage. She refuses to marry him without the permission of her stepmother. When she asks for her stepmother's permission the stepmother gives her a series of impossible tasks but Teresa is able to complete them and her and Don Miguel are married. After they are wed the stepsisters lose their horns and donkey ears and them and the stepmother change to become nicer people.

This story is a good variation to the classic Cinderella story that most children know and could be read with other versions of Cinderella as a comparisson assignment to see the differences.

Maya Angelou

I appreciated watching the Maya Angelou video in class. She is an amazing individual and there is so much we can learn from her. You can tell she is very passionate about literature because her face lights up when she talks about her favorite works and how they have affected her.
Watching video of Maya Angelou could help students develop a better appreciation of poetry and literature in general because she is such an inspiring person.

Poetry Books

Dinothesaurus

by Douglas Florian
ISBN: 1416979786
Ages 4-8

This is a fun book of poems about dinosaurs. It talks about different time periods dinosaurs lived in. It also described the different types of dinosaurs and gave some good information. In the end of the book it also contains a poem about the extinction of dinosaurs that speculates why they might have become extinct. This book would be good not just for reading but it can be incorportated into a science lesson as well.

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I Am of Two Places

ISBN: 0-7635-3161-8

Ages 4-8

16 pages

This book is a collection of poems written by five different elementary students (3rd-5th grade) from Santa Ana, California. They have relatives in both the United States and Latin America and the poems are based on the feeling of sometimes being divided emotionally between the two places.

It is a culturally rich book that is great for students here in Texas because many of them come from or have family who live in other countries.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

By Laura Numeroff

In this classic cause and effect story a bossy mouse has many requests for a young boy. After each request is granted the mouse feels the need for something else. This is a funny book for beginning readers.

Laura Numeroff also has a neat website www.lauranumeroff.com with information about her as well as other books she has written. It also has audio from an interview with her and a kids link with writing tips, coloring pages, and a game.

When Sheep Sleep

When Sheep Sleep

by Laura Numeroff

ISBN: 0810954699

A little girl and her teddy bear can't sleep so late in the night when she wants to count sheep but they are sleeping she decides to count other animals instead. She pretends to visit different animals in their habits including pigs, cows, and bears only to find that they are sleeping too. By the end of the story she is so tired that she falls asleep herself.

This book is good for teaching rhyming to younger children. It could also be used to help with teaching descriptive words. For example in the story the cats were purring softly on the sofa.

The Jellybeans and the Big Dance

The Jellybeans and the Big Dance

By Laura Joffe Numeroff

ISBN: 9780810993525

I read this book for the first time this weekend and it is one of my new favorites. It is about a girl named Emily who is upset because the other girls in her dance class are so different from her that she doesn't think they will become friends. After a trip to the candy store she discovers the group of girls are similar to jellybeans in that they are all different but they mix together well. They soon become friends and work together to have a great dance recital.

This book does a good job teaching about friendship and acceptance the only bad part is there are no boys in the story so this is most likely a story girls could relate to better.

It only gets the reader thinking about comparisson because Emily compares the girls to jellybeans.

Ch3

Understanding What We Read: Comprehension, Vocabulary and Discussion

This chapter is important because reading doesn't serve a purpose if you can't understand what you've read. While learning to read is important, even more important is being able to comprehend what has been read. All students won't get the same meaning from the same text however that is okay. What is important is that they recieve some meaning from it. Personal meaning from liteature is based on individual beliefs and experiencs however educators also want to be sure students gain the basic meaning behind the text as well as comprehension.

The textbook talks about the steps to building better reading comprehension which are:
1. Activating or supplying prior knowledge
2. Guiding reading
3. Reinforcing concepts
4. Encouraging critical thinking and inquiry

In order to guide the student's understanding teachers should choose books that are at the student's appropriate reading levels. It is important to have different literature so that each reading level has materials available.

Another way to work on reading comprehension is to have discussions before and after the reading to get a better undestanding of the story and vocabulary. The teacher should ask literal as well as other types of questions, such as asking them to compare, predict, and infter parts of the story. For example in the story of the three little pigs the teacher could ask:

• How did the pigs feel after their house was knocked down?
• What do you think would happen next in the story?
• Why did the wolf blow their houses down?

I like the idea the text had about doing a "picture walk" for younger students to look at photos and predict what they think will happen. It causes them to think and makes the story more exciting to them.

Acting out stories or using puppets is also a good idea to encourage comprehension and understanding. Both are activities students of all learning levels even special ed can participate in.

The Last Leaf To Fall

The Last Leaf to Fall

By Amy Tippit-Young

ISBN: 1606961306

This book is written my a Marion High School teacher. It is about change being inevitable and how it is nothing to be afraid of. It follows a leaf named Analee and tells about how she is scared to fall off the tree because it is the only home she has ever known. It is a good book for students because children like Anallee are very hesitant and afraid of change.

Chapter 2- Culturally Responsive Classrooms

Chapter two talks about how our classrooms today are more diverse than ever. It is our jobs as teachers to get to know all the different cultures in our classroom and base our instruction on the student's needs. The most important comment I got out of the chapter was where they stated that many students can't and don't make cultural shifts to adjust to schools. I thought this was important because often when students aren't being successful in a new classroom the adults say it is because they are still adjusting and transitioning into a new environment. Instruction will become more effective if the teacher is knowledgable about different cultures most importantly those cultures that make up their classroom. If a student's culture doesn't fit in with that of the rest of classroom he/she could feel isolated. The classroom is a community and if a student feels unwelcome it is likely their grades will be low.
It is important for the classroom library as well as the curriculum to be multicultural so that all students can have a sense of familiarity in the literature provided for them. This includes not just the heritages that are in the classroom but different cultures as well. Doing this lets students learn about different cultures and enables them to be more accepting.

Who Will Go To School Today?

Who Will Go To School Today

by Karl Ruhmann

ISBN: 9780735819078

This book is good for students in early elementary grades. It talks about a boy named Sam who wants to send his stuffed monkey to school in his place. After describing all of his daily activities Sam decides he would doesn't want to miss the fun at school.

It is a good story for children on the first day of school because it decribes what their day will be like and would help calm the nerves of aprehensive students.

3321

I haven't recieved my book yet so I can't comment about Chapter 1 but I did find some helpful websites for the Author Profiles.

My favorite is kidsread.com/authors/authors.asp
The site lists a ton of authors and by clicking on the author name it gives you a short biography and the book they've written.
Some even contain transcript interviews with the author and book excerpts.

Another interesting site is http://www.childrensauthorsnetwork.com/author/BB.htm
They also have a list of authors with their biographies as well as fun facts about them. You can also click on freebies and there are free teacher ideas for the classroom.

EDRG 3321

So proud of my first blog.