Divergent Response

My book this week I picked to read is Divergent by Veronica Roth. I was recommended this book by my mentor teacher last semester and this seemed to be the perfect week to be able to read it. I was excited when she told me it was similar to The Hunger Games. This book was such a great and easy read. It was complicated at times and I had to reread particular sections to make sure I understood everything. With that being said, I do think that middle school students would enjoy it as well. The story is so different and really can have kids visualizing themselves in the story. I kept thinking the whole story about what faction I would be part of if I could choose. The story was about a girl that is part of a post-apocyliptic world and is a member of a group of people that all decided selfishness was the downfall of the world. The main character, Beatrice, needs to pick which fraction after a test that she will join or stay in at the age of sixteen. She ends up leaving her parents and the story revolves around the changes she undergoes having to adapt to a new way of life. I think students would be able to get lost in this story and would be really excited to read it. I will absolutely recommend this book to all my students and friends alike. I am so happy I was able to relax and read a novel of my choice this week. If anyone has not checked this book out I highly recommend it to all readers.

Anything But Typical Response

I fell in love with this book. Being inside Jasons's thoughts and reading the way he sees the world was so interesting to me. I don't think a lot of people have had the chance to get inside the head of an autistic child unless you are related to someone that is able to tell you about your feelings. I think this would be such a special book to use in a classroom of students that do not understand anything about autism. Middle grade students have a hard time relating to other students that are different then themselves. I think this book would be such a great opportunity for students to learn more about some of their classmates. It also helps that as a teacher I was able to see what life is like for an autistic child because chances are I might have one in my classroom. Jason was so intelligent and most likely if I were to talk to him in person I might not be able to tell that. I think this is a beautiful book because it shows the depth of his personality and feelings that someone might not be able to see in person. I also just think this book is perfect for this age because almost everyone is worried about fitting in. This was Jason's biggest fear and is also the biggest fear of almost all the students that might be in class with him. I just think learning to be confident in yourself is such a great lesson for any student this age needs to learn and experience. I feel in love with Jason and felt his emotions along with him as I read. I would definitely use this novel in my classroom. I thought it was beautiful.


 

Response to Book Leveling and Text Complexity

I have actually never thought about what makes some books harder to read over others. I thought the first article was something to think about because it is true that readers will never get better if they do not challenge themselves. Breaking a book down into different aspects that may make it challenging is important to do when trying to challenge readers. A student that might have a large vocabulary but struggles with the way different novels are organized, it may be smart to have them read books that will challenge them in this way. It also really interested me that students saw that vocabulary was one of the things that made a novel more challenging than others. This really opened my eyes to how i should choose novels and how I should challenge my students in their reading skills in the future. I loved how the second article stated that it is not just the language arts teachers job to teach literacy. I really think it is so important for all subject teachers to include literacy in their curriculum. I also really was interested to learn that the reading level of textbooks has gone down recently. I had never known this but it really had me thinking of the level of some of the textbooks for middle school I have looked at recently. Both of these articles had me really thinking about my future classroom the literacy I will include and not include.

Response to Among The Hidden

I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought the concept of the book was very interesting and really kept my focus while reading. It broke my heart to see the main character Luke having to stay inside and not able to live a normal life. It was interesting to see how the government had such control over its people and their children. I think this would be a great book for students to read for pleasure but it could also be used to further explore government and government control. I think this book could add an interesting aspect to a lesson on this. I also really loved how Luke met Jen and was able to connect to someone on a deep level outside his house. It really shows how much brighter a friend can make your life and I love that. I was devastated when I found out that Jen was shot and it made me so sad about what the government was doing to these innocent children. I think students would love this book but I would recommend it to students that are older middle grades. It has some violence that I would not feel comfortable to have all students read. If a student was mature I know they would benefit from reading this book. I really loved reading this book and actually want to read more in the series. I cannot wait to see what happens next. 

     

Reese Article Response

This was a very interesting article. I cannot help but agree with Reese in that Native Americans are misrepresented in Children's novels today. It was interesting she brought up the question of if students are actually gaining useful and accurate information from novels or pictures books depicting Native Americans. This is such a hard topic to think about as a future teacher because I do not want to add to this misrepresentation. I am luckily not teaching any history classes hopefully in the future so I do not have to worry as much but if I choose to use a novel with historic value such as ones about Native Americas I need to be careful. This article really made me think about the fact that many of those novels are inaccurate and teachers really need to be careful. The article also had me thinking about Americans in general and their knowledge of Native Americans. It was interesting to see that there were studies that told that people believe that Native Americans are an extinct group. Most Americans think that there are no longer Native Americans at all. That is something that really makes me upset. People are that unaware of groups of people that surround them everyday. This article really opened my eyes to the books that have historical content that I use in the future.

Straw Into Gold by Gary Schmidt

This novel was a very interesting read. This book was an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin. This book would be great for a fifth or sixth grade classroom. This is the story of why Rumpelstiltskin spun straw to gold. Its the story of Tousle a young boy. I thought the story was very interesting and it was cool that the story took a turn from the original story that everyone knows. The book is very interesting and I really loved it. It was filled with imagery and dense language that might be more difficult for some students to read and understand. You would have to check the level of your readers and judge if they can handle this book or not. I think this would be a fun book to make a longer picture book with as opposed to a chapter book. This could however be a great book for students to use as one of the more challenging books they read throughout the year. I was really glad I picked this book even though I did not know much about this to begin with. 

Folk/ Traditional Literature Picture Book Responses

Jack and the Beanstalk by Scudder Smith
I seem to always mix up a fairy tale and a fable and think that all of these stories will have a lesson event though they usually do not. I thought the story was however cute and one that most people have heard before. The pictures in this book make it more interesting and are very attractive. They are very cutsey though and this book might not be as interesting to middle school students. I would choose this for my children one day but maybe not for my classroom. I really did enjoy the illustrations and that is why I chose the book to read in the first place. I am happy I was able to discover this book and it might be great for a elementary classroom one day if that is where I end up one day.



Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas
This is the cutest book. The story was so beautiful and actually did have a little moral in the end. I would absolutely use this in my own classroom. It was the story of a boy that was invited to the princesses birthday party and did not have anything to give her as a gift. He baked a cake after he finally got all the ingredients. Once he started carrying the cake each person he passed demanded he give them part of the cake. By the end he did not have anything left. The princess liked his story better than any of the other gifts. The illustrations were beautiful and so intriguing. I think this is such a great book.



The Ugly Duckling by Jerry Pinkney
This book was beautifully written. The words were written almost as if they were poetry. I thought the illustrations added so much to the story. I have seen this story written and rewritten many times but this has been my favorite version yet. I would absolutely use this in my classroom. This was such a great find and I am excited to share it with the class. I loved this picture book.

Historical Fiction or Fictionalized History?

I thought this article was something interesting to add to our study of historical fiction. Some of the points that the article brought up were things that I had never considered when reading historical fiction before. The section about the accuracy really interested me because I really have never noticed any of the things they talked about before. I thought the section where they talked about having to change out words in a novel because they did not exist in that time period. Those are struggles that writers of this genre need to overcome and think about while writing. This article really had me thinking if I would be able to write something similar to historical fiction. It also had me thinking of why students in my future classroom might be drawn to this genre. The article mentioned that young adults like these books because of the strong main characters that stand out and speak up. I think this is such a great thing that kids enjoy characters such as this because it shows that they admire that quality. This helped me understand a little more deep knowledge about historical fiction.

A Code Named Verity Response

I died over this book. I had so many different emotions while reading it that I almost felt sick when I had to put it down. One of the things I value most in my life is friendship, and specifically that of my female friends. There is nothing better than having that person you know you can trust with anything and will love you no matter what happens. It just killed me to read about such a beautiful friendship because that is something so close to my heart. I loved how the two girls were so seemingly different yet had such a strong connection. This book has so much emotion but also so much factual information. This would be a great tool to use in a classroom obviously talking about Germany or the Nazi torture happening during this time. It would also be so useful to talk about the also little know French-resistance fighters. I could see this as a more interesting and less painful alternative to some of the novels I remembered reading about the Nazis although I do think those aspects are important to learn about and experience through reading. I also feel this book might be more appealing to people my age rather than young adults. I could not imagine myself reading this in the middle grades and understanding it or appreciating it. I would just have to test it out and see how well it worked with my particular kids before I could say if I would use it or not. But again, I am obsessed with this book, I might even read it again over the break next week!


 

"Choosing Not to Read" by Beers Reflection

I thought this article was very interesting and something that we really need to consider as teachers of this age students. My favorite part of this article was the conversations that were had with students. It is interesting to actually hear what they have to say. It made me so upset to hear that students did not feel that reading could be fun. When the interviewer asked the students if reading magazines was considered reading and the girl said no. It just reminds me of how I am sure that I felt at that age. That the only reading that counted was boring reading. I also loved the comparison they made while talking to that girl asking her if she would feel as emotional about a book in the same way as a movie. It really interested me to hear a student say that they are to completely different things. I thought it was so interesting to hear that she said they only way she could get emotional over a book would be to look at pictures with it. I also really loved the chart about the different types of readers. It really helps a teacher to be able to categorize her students and try to fix some of the problems that the type of reader they are faces. It is hard for me to understand people's view of reading when it is negative. I am such an avid reader and find time to fit it into my life no matter what is going on. This article really helped me gain a perspective of other types of readers as well. Getting my students to find joy in reading will be one of my main goals if I end up teaching language arts, or any subject for that matter. I feel as though finding the reasons why students don't like to read will help you get them to start enjoying it. This article was great and really got me thinking about students reading lives. 

Graphic Novel Response: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

When we first began studying and looking at graphic novels I was a bit skeptical. I really was able to see the value in almost every genre we have studied right when they were introduced. This genre was a bit more of just pictures in my mind. After reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret I really was able to see how powerful these books can be. I thought the story was magical and had me interested the entire time. I think this book would be great for all students but would be very appropriate for any students that just had a parent or more specifically a father die. I just think the love that Hugo has for his father and the lengths he goes to to work on the automaton his father was working on when he died. This book is also great for middle school students because it is a book about a boy their age. I say this a lot but students find books more interesting when the main character is someone they can identify with. I think Hugo is an adventurous boy that many student's can relate to. Of course I also have to comment about the pictures throughout the novel. I thought the haunting black and white pictures were beautiful. They really helped set up the mood of the book and were so interesting to look at. They really added to the story and really kept me interested in the book. I really enjoyed reading this book and cannot wait to watch the movie now. I would absolutely use this book in my classroom. I feel as though students would love it and would really find it different from many of the books they are reading right in school. 

   

Angela's Ashes

When thinking about a memoir or bibliography to read for this week I immediately thought about how I had been wanting to reread a the book Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. I read this book in the eight grade and remembered some about it but not enough to know if I wanted to use it in my classroom or not. Rereading it made me remember so many things that I thought I did not remember about the book. This book describes the childhood of McCourt in Ireland and the beginning in New York. It describes graphic scenes of the poverty his family faced and chronicled the life of his father who was an alcoholic. The scenes might be a little to much for younger middle grade students but for eight grade I think it would be wonderful and eye opening. The fathers problem causes him to spend money on the pubs in town and not his family. That is difficult to read about but really helps you see the lives of so many people in other countries and even in America. This book would be great to use because it has so much students can learn and see from it. It kept my attention throughout the entire book and was really interesting when the Irish songs were included. I would absolutely use this memoir in my classroom. I am so happy I was able to read it over a second time.


   

Biography Picture Books Response

Maym Salomon American Patriot
by: Susan Goldman Rubin

I liked some things about this book and I didn't like others. I really enjoyed the pictures in this book. They were a little childish but the information in this book made up for it. All the information was accurate and very informative. With that being said, I know this book was supposed to be about Haym Salomon but it was basically a list of information and was a bit overwhelming. I think this book would be great for middle schoolers. This is a person that they might not have even heard of before and it would be really great for them to learn about a new figure in history. It is a very informative picture book but could be presented in a more exciting format. I do not think I would use this in my classroom but some teachers might want to.




Ben Franklin His Wit and Wisdom from A-Z
by: Alan Schroeder

This was an interesting format for a book. The book was organized by letter and each letter listed facts about Ben Franklin and his life all starting with that letter. Each letter had a different number of words associated with it. This would be very useful in the classroom because you could go through it with the class letter by letter. The teacher could share one letter each day. The pictures are really beautiful as well. I think this book has so much information but is also appealing and interesting. This would be a great book to use when learning about Franklin or even in a science or physics class learning about electricity. I am happy I picked this book up and would absolutely use it in my classroom.

How They Croaked Response

I could not put How They Croaked down. I am so interested in historic things about famous people and this book was an aspect I have never thought about. I loved how the book was split into different sections for each famous person and their story. This book was so intriguing because find strange things like this really interesting. I think reading this book really helped explain what we talked about last week with the gender stereotypes. A book about death is something you would consider to be a book boys would like over girls but I loved it. I think all students would find this book as interesting as I did. This book would be such a great tool to use in a history classroom to use when you were talking about each of these people in the novel and about how they died. All the stories not only told about the people  and their death but showed some of the history of the time as well. When the book told the story about King Tut it went into detail about mummification which was not just specific to him. I just think this book has so much great information and kids would find it extremely interesting.

Informational Picture Books

Forest Explorer: A Life-Size Field Guide
by Nic Bishop

This book is so much fun. I feel as though a teacher could use it for either an elementary classroom or a middle school classroom. While it seems as though it is more for younger kids the information on the different levels of the forest is very accurate and detailed. It has pages that look as if you are examining the level or season yourself. I think it would really be such a great learning tool for a science or environmental class. I was attracted to this book because of the cover but really found so much value in it that I choose it to share with the class. The pictures are actual pictures and it is just full of useful information and facts on the forest.



How Nearly Everything Was Invented
by the Brainwaves

This book is so much fun to read and to look at. This could be extremely useful in a history class. It has literally any invention you can think of in the book. Each page folds out on both side and has information about who, where, why, and how hundreds of things were invented. The book is broken into different categories and then each category is broken into different years. This book would be interesting for a student to read on their own but would be very helpful in the classroom as well. The book is colorful and exciting to learn from and might help get kids excited about a unit on inventions and the history of them.



 

Shakespeare Bats Cleanup

I LOVED this book. I think this would be such a great book to use in a language arts classroom to not only teach students about the different types of poetry but also encourage them to write. I think it is so important for students to look at other students or character's their age that love writing. I think Kevin is such a great character for students to see because he goes from not enjoying writing to not being able to stop. I also loved how his dad encouraged him to write but never pressured him. I think this is such a great relationship to show students that they should have with writing. It is something to be enjoyed and not something that should feel painful. I feel as though the theme of baseball might help get boys interested in this book but then teach them about writing while they enjoy the story. Using something like this novel to teach the types of poems to students would really help them keep their interest in the topic rather than riding it off if the teacher was just talking about it. I just think everything about this book is great and I cannot wait to use it in my classroom if I end up teaching language arts.

Reactions to Middle School poetry novels

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf
by Jennifer L. Holm

This book is hilarious. I loved reading it and know that middle school students would love reading it as well. This novel is a series of pictures, poems, notes, bills, and everything else a seventh grade students names Ginny accumulates throughout her seventh grade year. The book begins with her back to school list and a poem about going back to school. The way the author involves poetry in a book that chronicles a middle school student's day to day life makes it interesting for those students. I love how relatable this book is to anyone that was ever a child of that age, especially a girl. The poetry is also interesting because it is written by a middle school student. She writes about her life and her problems and shows students they can do the same. I would absolutely use this novel in my classroom.



The Upside Down Boy: El nino de cabeza 
by Juan Felipe Herrera

I thought this book was very interesting. It was written in both English and Spanish writing which made it so fun for me to read because I took some spanish. This book would be great for students in eight grade that are learning spanish. It is the story of a boy that is going to school for the first time. In one section of the book the boy writes a poem of his own. I loved this part because he was still learning English but was able to write such a fun poem. I think this book could be encouraging to students that do not think they can write poetry. I thought the pictures in this novel were also great. They were very colorful and rich and really caught my attention. I think this is a fun poetry book to use in the classroom.

Reactions to Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I fell in love with August and his story. This book helped me understand, to a whole new level, what any person that may look different might feel like on a daily basis. My hands down favorite feature of the novel was the way it was split up into sections for different characters. I loved hearing the same parts of the story from different points of view. This really shaped and enhanced the novel for me because you feel like you know the entire story and how all characters saw it. I loved hearing their thoughts and knowing more about what really happened in situations. I really loved hearing all the nice things that Jack says about Auggie during his section of the book. August assumes the worst about Jack when he sees him trying to be cool in front of the other boys in his class and the reader is then able to see the true meaning behind the way Jack was acting.

I also really loved the quotes at the start of each character's section. They fit perfectly with either that character's personality or the situation they were currently in. They are such beautiful quotes and I really loved the way the author did that. 

This book was touching and would be such a great novel to use in the classroom. It really teaches kids about friendship and being kind to all people no matter how different they might be. It also shows kids that although someone may look different on the outside they are a person on the inside that might be just like you. I would most deficiently use this novel in my classroom. I was also trying to think of a reason this book might be banned and I can not think of a single reason. This beautiful story does have sections that might be difficult to read because kids can be so mean but other than that there are not any moments in the book that I feel students would not benefit from being exposed to. I am so happy we were assigned this book for class because it touched my heart.

Reaction to Banned Book: TTFN

I choose to read the banned book TTFN by Lauren Myracle. This book is about young teen girls that are 16 years old. It chronicles the stories of three best friends in their sophomore year in high school. It was a really interesting book because it is written in instant messaging style and I had originally read the prequel to this novel so I was really interested to read the second one. I love the stories that they tell because some of them had me thinking back to my own high school years.

 I think it is hilarious that people ban books because I feel as though that would spark a readers interest rather than steer them away from a novel. It really made me curious and more interested to read other novels on the list and I feel as though it would do the same for middle school students. With that being said, I do feel TTFN did contain material I feel would be inappropriate for middle school students.

The book contained: 

- explicit sexuality 

- foul language 

- adult situations 

- teacher student relations

I also believe that this book was banned because it discourages correct grammar and spelling. When  high school girls instant message throughout this book they do not write correctly. I am sure that some teachers and parents do not like that because it encourages their children that they can do the same. I think the content of this novel is really relatable for students in middle school at some points and at others is not appropriate for them. I do believe that readers should have a right to read what they want but I think there is a point where adults should step in when content is targeted for an older age. I believe this novel has very great and relatable stories but would be more appropriate for high school girls rather than middle school. This book would be entertaining for high school girls because they are going through the same situations in their lives. I would not have this book available in my lower grade middle school classroom but would not forbid students from reading it if they had it in my class. I plan to make as many books as I can available to my students but I do plan on making sure they are age appropriate.      

Articles on Picture Books

"A Middle School Teacher's Guide for Selecting Picture Books"
This article stated a lot of obvious benefits to using picture books in middle school classrooms and a lot of new ideas I hadn't thought about. I admit that I had thought that picture books were mostly made to target elementary students and did not even really know they made picture books for older students. I was shocked to hear in the article that the majority of picture books today are written for middle school studnets. That fact really opened my eyes to such a growing trend in education. I also had not thought about the topics of the picture books coming out these days until I read this article. The article stated that more and more controversial but educational topics are now becoming the main topics for picture books. I thought that was great because they are short enough where students will read them and they will get a lot of lessons and information from them. 

"Aren't these books for little kids? "
To begin with my impressions of this article, I loved the title. I really think that is my first question I asked when we began learning about middle grades picture books. I loved how the article started out with a life example of a skeptical teacher. I also loved how this article stated what exactly qualifies as a picture book because before this I was a little confused on what exactly qualified. It was great that it compared picture books and textbook because I know that students find picture books way more interesting. Although I am not specialized in social studies I did find it interesting that this article included aspects of picking social studies books for your classroom. I really enjoyed learning more about picture books and how to implement them in my future classroom.   

Picture Books

I really enjoyed picking out three picture books to share with the class. I had no idea how many picture books there are out there for middle grades students. The librarian in Aderhold helped me pick out my books and I got books that related to science, weather, and poems.

Hurricanes! by Gail Gibbons:
This picture book is very informative. It really surprised me that it needed such a high level of comprehension to understand. The book begins by tell the reader exactly what Hurricanes are and then tells the history of some of the most famous Hurricanes. It explains all the categories of the Hurricanes and explains what happens at each of them. I love the way the book ends with how to keep yourself safe if you are in a Hurricane. The book was beautifully illustrated and really seemed like it would keep students attention.

A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long:
This picture book tells students anything they can possibly wonder or need to learn about butterflies. I was really shocked at how much information was in this book and how useful all the facts were. If students in a science class were studying butterflies this picture book would be great. I really think this shows me how useful these books are in the classroom and they are not just pretty to look at.

Color me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen:
I really enjoyed reading and looking at this picture book. It was a compilation of poems categorized by colors about nature. I really think this would interest students because it shows all different styles of poetry. This seemed like what I thought of when I pictured what a picture book was comprised of. I think this would be a great book for students to read that were interested in nature or to learn poetry in language arts. I love books that teach a lesson but also would be an interesting read on their own.