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.