EDRG 3321: Chapter 13, Literature Circles

All students of all ages are experiencing reading and enjoying books together in literature circles. They are literature based teaching approaches, and can be an important part of the comprehensive literacy program in k-8. These groups will read a novel, picture book, or nonfiction title in common. One way to organize literature circles is to have student-led groups engage in four processes together. They will read the book on their own, in pairs or aloud together. Then they will respond to their reading by writing in their journals, then the circle will meet to discuss the reading, and at the end the book each circle designs a creative presentation. I think this is a great way to get the students involved in reading, but also to help them get comfortable working with groups. I'd defiantly do this with middle or high school grade levels.

EDRG 3321: CH 12 Independant Reading, Author Profile

I thought books by Julie Markes would be great to start off for an independant reader. Her books start from easy read with more text for elementry grade levels. Any of her books would be great for any student to start off reading alone.

Does the farmer sleep on a mattress of hay? Is the baker's bed made of soft, doughy bread? And is the grocer most comfortable resting on a bed of lettuce? No matter what the bed or walls look like, when the day's activities are done, it's time for everyone, big or small, to go to sleep.

With whimsy and humor, Julie Markes and David Parkins show that -- although everybody has a unique idea of quiet and order -- happy dreams and slumber await all when evening falls.

If you were an octopus, you would have eight legs to put into your pants!
Follow one little boy through his day as he playfully considers how mealtime, bath time, nap time, and many other activities would be different if he were a bird, a tiger, or any number of baby animals. At the end of the day he realizes that the best thing of all is to be himself!
Julie Markes's first picture book is charmingly illustrated by Maggie Smith.

Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks—the question is, where to begin? From the turkey on the table to warm, cozy cuddles, life is full of small things and bigger pleasures. But what is most important is being able to share them with family!
Julie Markes reminds kids and adults alike about the little details that make each day enjoyable, while Doris Barrette's beautiful and striking illustrations bring her thoughtful words to life.

EDRG 3321: Chapter 11, Shared Reading

Shared reading is an enjoyable way for children to experience literacy. It offers many opportunities to focus on print and discover how it works to create a meaningful text. Once students become familiar with the print then they can begin to study various features of print such as sight words, letter-sound relationships, directionality, and punctuation. Especially when you do repeated readings of a text it helps the child become more confident in their knowledge of how text works building fluency. We have to remember that in shared instruction the students and teacher work together to study and learn from texts. If I was going to do shared reading with a class, probably elementary class. I'd choose to read books by Eric Carle.

Author Profile: Eric Carle, is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovative designed picture books for very young children. Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 88 million copies of his books have sold around the world.

Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, Eric Carle moved with his parents to Germany when he was six years old; he was educated there, and graduated from the prestigious art school, the Akademie der bildenden Künste, in Stuttgart. But his dream was always to return to America, the land of his happiest childhood memories. So, in 1952, with a fine portfolio in hand and forty dollars in his pocket, he arrived in New York. Soon he found a job as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times. Later, he was the art director of an advertising agency for many years.

Eric Carle’s art is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His art work is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and cheerful images. Many of his books have an added dimension—die-cut pages, twinkling lights as in The Very Lonely Firefly, even the lifelike sound of a cricket’s song as in The Very Quiet Cricket - giving them a playful quality: a toy that can be read, a book that can be touched. Children also enjoy working in collage and many send him pictures they have made themselves, inspired by his illustrations. He receives hundreds of letters each week from his young admirers.

The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature—an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. It is his concern for children, for their feelings and their inquisitiveness, for their creativity and their intellectual growth that, in addition to his beautiful artwork, makes the reading of his books such a stimulating and lasting experience.

The website www.eric-carle.com/home.html has some good information on all of his books and other resources about the author himself.

EDRG 3321: Genre Project on Dec. 2nd

The first presentation on spiders was very interesting. I thought the group did an excellent job explaining the purpose and meaning of the information in the book. You kind of get a sense of how spiders can be useful, and they're not just scary creatures. I thought the making the spider out of clay was a fun and creative activity. I think it would be best to do that activity with grades 1st-5th.


The second group did their project on Snow White. Now it was different then the common fairy tale Snow White story. It was interesting and I would definitely look into reading other stories like it, but I feel its for the high school level or older for sure. I thought it was interesting, and could probably think of a few activities to do with a high school level class.

EDRG 3321- Genre Presentation's on Nov 30

The first group did their genre presentation on a Chinese folktale. The subject of this folktale was about integrity. I thought the projection about the different scenes, characters, objects, and colors you were going to see in the book itself was a great overview to begin with. I thought it was a great way to grab the readers attention. The way they proceeded to read the story and have the picture book still projected on the screen was a great idea. Even the group conversation afterwards about the subject integrity was a great overview and it all tied in nicely with this presentation. They did a great job!





The second group did their presentation on the book "Pink and Say". It was more for the junior high grade levels because of the Civil War aspect. The read out loud from each member of the group was a great idea. I thought it was appropriate for the grade level and that it not only gave a history lesson, but also an emotional overview the friendship between the characters. The activity you can tell was thought over, and was appropriate for the junior high level. I thought this group did a great presentation and it was very creative. Great job to both groups!!!

EDRG 3321- Genre Presentation on Monday Nov. 23

Today was the day that my group did our presentation, and I must say we did a great job on our presentation on Folktales. It seemed like that class enjoyed our version of the play we revised from the folktale story of "Why the sun and the moon live in the sky". I can honestly say this was a fun group to work with, and they put a great deal of thought and hard work into this presentation. The short play, and the costumes, decorations, and even music all incorporated into the children's play was a great hit. So was the short sentence strip activity we came up with afterwards was a brilliant activity it seemed to go over well with the class.

As for the second group, who did there genre presentation based on the book "10 Things I can do too help my world" did a good job. I really enjoyed the story video that they came up with to talk a little about recycling. I thought that was a brilliant idea, and would definitely come up with something like that for a future presentation. It seemed like they like they put a lot of thought into their presentation, but to me it didn't seem like a group presentation. I understood what they were trying to teach, but the group could of been more cohesive. They could of explained a little more about their genre of choice, and it just seemed scattered to me. I did like their activity though, the matching the item to the correct recycle group was a great idea.

EDRG 3321: M&W...Chapter 10 Reading Aloud

Since I missed the video on reading aloud I thought I would share my response to the chapter. I believe reading aloud to any students at any grade level is essential in helping them to become great readers. Its difficult for all students to get into reading, but I believe reading to them aloud first helps them get comfortable with wanting to learn to read. If they're interested in the book you're reading aloud to them. then maybe that same day at home with family they will want to read it again to themselves or maybe if they're older they might want to read it to a younger sibling. Like the book says its an effective way to introduce a wide array of genres to children. I love how it informs you on what you might be doing wrong when reading aloud, and what better choices you can make. I think that's wise every future teacher needs that instruction. Its wise to choose a book you think you students will enjoy, and also make sure to write notes, and make a mini-lesson around the book also. that way it will tell your students that you know what you're reading about, and it will help them to understand the book more. Overall its a great chapter with some key information, and advice.

Beverly Cleary published Henry Huggins, her first book, in 1950. The adventures of Henry and his neighborhood pals continued in a series of books featuring a spunky little girl named Ramona Quimby. Cleary has written over 30 books for children, including The Mouse and The Motorcycle and the Newbery-winning Dear Mr. Henshaw. Cleary has also published two memoirs, A Girl From Yamhill and My Own Two Feet. She is one of America's most popular authors and has won many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. I've choosen to include her works in my author profile, and I would also choose to read her books aloud.

This is the first title in the hugely popular series about Ramona Quimby. Ramona's sister, Beezus, tries very hard to be patient, but how many nine-year-old girls have to put up with their embarrassing, annoying little four-year-old sisters? Sisters are supposed to love each other, but pesky little Ramona just doesn't seem very lovable to Beezus.

Ramona returns (Ramona Forever, 1988, etc.), and she's as feisty as ever, now nine-going-on-ten (or ""zeroteen,"" as she calls it). Her older sister Beezus is in high school, babysitting, getting her ears pierced, and going to her first dance, and now they have a younger baby sister, Roberta. Cleary picks up on all the details of fourth grade, from comparing hand calluses to the distribution of ... More little plastic combs by the school photographer. This year Ramona is trying to improve her spelling, and Cleary is especially deft at limning the emotional nuances as Ramona fails and succeeds, goes from sad to happy, and from hurt to proud.

Summary: The Mouse and the Motorcycle is about a mouse named Ralph who lives in a hotel in California with his family. They enjoy messy people because they leave crumbs and food for him and his family to eat. Ralph is an adventurous mouse who wants to go out and see his world, the hotel, but he can’t because he is kept in check by the housekeepers who want to keep the place clean and mice free. Then Keith and his family arrive. Keith has many fun toys but most importantly he has a motorcycle, beautiful shiny and red. When Keith and his family step out of the room Ralph goes to see this motorcycle and take a look to see if Keith left any food behind. When he comes up to the motorcycle he notices that it is the perfect size for him and while trying to ride it he falls off the table where it was and lands in a garbage can. He was afraid because he didn’t want to get thrown out with the trash and he didn’t want someone who didn’t like mice to find him there. Luckily Keith comes back and finds him there and likes mice. He even teaches him how to ride his motorcycle and lets Ralph ride around in it at night. Then the crisis comes, Keith and his family are out for the day and Ralph wants to ride the motorcycle, he almost gets sucked into the vacuum and ends up riding into a bunch of sheets that he later has to chew his way out of and leave the motorcycle behind. The hotel finds they have mice and the maids are to keep an extra close watch and try to get rid of any mice they see. Thus Ralph and his family are forced into hiding but lucky for them Keith brings them food. One night Keith gets sick and needs an aspirin and his parents can’t find one. So Ralph goes on a mission to find the aspirin and almost gets caught several times. In the end he uses Keith’s toy Ambulance to get him to the elevator and down to the first floor to pick up the aspirin he found there and to bring it back. Ralph saves the day and in the end he gets to keep Keith’s motorcycle forever.