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!