Edrg 3321 Monday Night

Author Profile- Lynee Reid Banks

The Indian In the Cupboard by Lynee Reid Banks is one of my all time favorite books. The idea to turn an action figure into real life was an excellent one. I remember reading this book and watching the movie. The way the book was written made me enjoy it so much. This was the first time that I actually enjoyed the book more than I did the movie, and this rarely happens. I really enjoyed it and the way the author made the cupboard so powerful and magical. There are several sequels and additions to the book that I was never aware of. There is The Return of the Indian, The Secret of the Indian, The Mysetery of the Cupboard, and the Key to the Indian. I plan on reading all of these. For more information on Lynne Reid Banks, visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Reid_Banks

EDRG 3321 Monday night

Literature cirlces are something that I enjoy doing. I've had the opportunity to do them in my assessment class this semester and they are very beneficial. Lit circles give every group member an opportunity to particpate in sharing something that they found in the book that is of some importance in one way or the other. One of the jobs is the discussion director. I found this job to be the most important because this person was in charge of starting off the discussion as well as making sure that everyone remained on topic. I enjoyed this position. Another one of the jobs is the illustrator. This person has to draw a picture of something that happened in the book or of something that has happened in real life that reminded them of the book. I struggled with this part because I'm not a very good artist. There are several other jobs in the literature circle and all of them are of equal importance. The good thing about literature circles is that they can be used on young and older students. All in all, I think literature circles are very helpful and should be used in all grades.

Author Profile- Stan and Jan Berenstain

The Berenstain Bears book series is a series of novels that I've always enjoyed reading. They have been around since I was a little kid and they are still being read by today's younger generation. One of the reasons I like this series of books is because the bears face everday life situations that we as humans face. The authors do such a good job of making the bears seem like noraml people and at the same time they have so many of the same characteristics as humans do. Stan and Jan Berenstain have done a really good job with these series of books. The idea to make stories about bears and make them seem so real was a brilliant one. To learn more about Stan and Jan Berenstain you can visit this site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_and_Jan_Berenstain

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-950

In my opinion, shared reading is something that benefits children of all ages. But I definitely think that doing shared reading should begin at a very early age. book choice is very important when it comes to shared reading. It is important to pick a book that you know your child or student will enjoy. It needs to be exciting and have the ability to capture the reader's attention. The aritcle used an example of a book called The Very Hungry Catepillar. We all like that book because it was probably shared to us when we were bery young. The little girl in the article loved the book. What was even better for her was that she had her own little worms that looked like caterpillars. Although she was a little toddler, she was still able to relate to the book. Shared reading allows for discussion as well as re rereading. Re-reading is good because it allows the students and teacher to emphasize on key words that students need to know or or having difficulty pronouncing. All in all, shared reading is an excellent way to share a book with your students and children.

EDRG 3321 Mon night 7:00-9:50

Author Profile- Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Quiet Cricket, and The Grouchy Lady Bug are all written by Eric Carle. I know we've all at least read of one of these books. The one that sticks out to me in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This great children's book contains wonderful inllustrations of the caterpillar and all of the food he eats. This book not only shows how the caterpillar turns into a butterfly, but it also promotes counting and the days of the week. For ex: "on monday the caterpillar ate 1 apple, on tuesday the caterpillar ate 2 pears, on wednesday the caterpillar ate 3 plums...etc. This book is a all time great and will continue to please children for many more years to come. Learn more about Eric Carle and his books at

www.eric-carle.com/home.html

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-950

Chapter 9: Non fiction

The chapter talks about teachers using non fiction as substitiutes or alternatives for teaching content to their students. I remember doing textbook work in high and middle school. and it was one of the most dull and boring ways to learn. I never was able to see a teachers textbook until a couple of years ago. I remember seeing that their copy actually had notes on what to say and what important words to introduce. It even had teaching strategies. I always wondered why the lecture was always the same in highschool. It's because the teachers always did what the book told them to do. Using non fiction books means that everyone would have the same book and the teacher would shy away from being told how to teach and hopefully would be able to come up with new and exciting ways to teach.

Author Profile- Dr. Suess

Dr Suess is an author that hopefully all of us have had the oppurtunity to know and read. He has many great books, poems and is one of the most loved children's authors in the world. Green Eggs and Ham, If I Ran The Zoo and Yertle the Turtle are all books that Dr. Suess has written and the readers have really enjoyed. All of his books can be used in early childhood classrooms. Rhyming is a great skill that students need to practice because it allows students to really use every possible word that they know as well a learn new ones. Dr Suess books a promote a fun rhyming environment.

For more on Dr. Suess please visit this site

www.seussville.com/

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-930

Chapter 9 fiction

Fiction is a genre that all of us love. Or at least i though we did. Our mini presentations in class were interesting. Most of us said that we enjoyed fiction and gave reasons adn meanings that represented fiction to us. However some of us described fiction simply as not real. The beginning of chapter 9 describes fiction as being more than not real or untrue. It described it as something that illuminates the truth and makes us think about and reconsider what is real. We think of fantasy often when we think of fiction or at least I do. The fairy tales and folk tales stick out in my mind the most because they really allow one to utilize their imagination.

Author Profile- Peter Harris

In this book Harris does a great job informing readers that female pirate did indeed exist. He shows the use of imagination by the characters in the book who pretend to be pirates which lets the young audience know that using imagination is very rewarding and powerful. In this book a boy named Tom is awakened by what sounds like pirates. He steps outside his house and sees his neighbors sailing up the street and onto his drive way. He hops on the ship while his parents are sleeping and spends his whole night on a pirate adventure with his friends. Then they encounter grown up pirates that capture them and end their journey. the grown up pirates end up being the parents and the pirated journey ends that night. This is a great story by Harris.

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-930

Picture books! Picture books are every adults favorite for many reasons, mainly because if you're reading to your children you usually have less to read. And for children, well every child loves to look at pictures. There are very important elements in picture books like line which defines what they draw or paint. Color which is very important because color sets the tone and mood for the story. Shape and texture are also very important because they allow the reader to reach out and touch an illustration. A good thing about picture books is that they allow beginning readers to use context clues to determine a new or difficult word. For example, a reader may not know how to read the word elephant but seeing a picture of an elephant can help him figure out that it says elephant.

Author Profile- Brie Spangler

Peg Leg Peke by Brie Spangler is a wonderful children's book. It is target for 3-6 year olds and would be a great idea if used as a read aloud. In this book, a little Pekingnese puppy breaks his leg and fantasizes that he is a pirate. Like all pirate, the dog doesn't stop until he find and captures what he is looking for. Now the dog with a peg for a leg is on the hunt for a treasure and will not stop until he finds it. Brie Spangler does a great job with this book. She is a talented author but has excelled for many year as an illustrator as well. This site http://www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp?member=bspangler is a great site to visit to know a little bit about B. Spangler. It contains background knowledge as well as other works of Spnagler.

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-930

EDRG 3321 Mon Night 7-930

Traditional literature is the type of readings that have always caught my attention. As a kid, I typically enjoyed reading folktales and fairytales. Those were the stories that allowed me to expand and use my imagination. Chapter six discusses the importance for having traditional literature set up in the classroom. The best way to do this is to compose a library of all types of genres but make sure that traditional literature is included. I liked how the book discusses the importance of making sure that the literature you select contains all different types of cultures and not just focus on one culture. Making sure that the book has beautifully illustrated pictures is

another important component. This is important because it allows those students who have trouble visualizing to actually see for themselves.

Author Profile- Melinda Long

Melinda Long does a really good job in this book. This children's book is very creative and allows children to really get to know a little bit about pirates. But it also shows a whole other side to what pirates aren't known for which is changing diapers. In this book the legendary pirate Braid Beard come back from the dead and sail into Jeremy Jacob's backyard looking for a buried treasure that he searched for long ago. They pirates begin their treasure hunt until Jeremy's sister wakes up and the pirates are stuck to change diapers. This site http://www.melindalongbooks.com/books.html is a really great site to visit. It contains personal information about Melinda along with several other books that she has written. As a former teacher she knows how to catch the younger readers attention.

Edrg 3321 Monday Night 730-900

Edrg 3321 Monday Night 730-900

Sorry Mrs. Pickett, but I've kind of always had a thing for poetry. But only for poetry that is easy and fun. I've always hated the poems that seem like they're talking about one thing but in actuallity they're talking about another. Poetry can be very complicated and other times it can be extremely pleasurable and fun. When I think of poems I think of rhythm and rhyming. Chapter 5 talks about how these two aspects are two of the salient ones in poetry. These two aspects are what attract young readers to poetry and have made common attractions to Mother Goose, jump rope songs, and other rhyming games like patty cake. We learned these at such a young age and it is important in my opinion that we continue to teach our students poetry.












Author Profile: Bill Harley
Dirty Joe the pirate is a great children's book and Bill Harley does an excellent job retelling this unbelievable true story. This book is about a pirate named Joe who was known for capturing ships like all pirates do. Only this pirate left his trade mark by also capturing the socks of all of the other shipmates . He would hang the socks on his ship and on his body, hence the name Dirty Joe. One day he sets his eyes on another ship that is also controlled by a female pirate. This female pirate ends up taking Dirty Joe's ship and does the unthinkable. She robs his crew of their underpants and hangs them
from her ship. This pirates name was Stinky Annie and she ends up being his sister. Harley tells the whole story in a rhyme and takes the true story and turns it into a funny one. Bill Harley has a great website that is really easy to navigate through. It contains biographical information on him as well as information about his work. http://www.billharley.com/

blog 4 edrg 3321 lit for public schools mon night 7-950

edrg 3321 monday night

an important thing that stuck out to me in chapter 4 was the section on interests. we all know that the curriculum that is taught has certain requirements that calls for certain pieces of literature to be read in class. many of these pieces of lit are just plain out boring. we all remember how it was in highschool. we were all forced to read stuff that we didn't care about or had no interest in. this is where many teachers make the mistake of assuming that their students don't have good comprehension skills and unecessry labels get placed on them. this is sad because their comprehension level isn't the problem, it's the literature that is the problem. the students are choosing to not comprehend because they have no interest in what is going on. teachers need to really know what their students enjoy and what exciting things that everyone is talking about so that they are able to integrate that into the literature. ms. pickett uses the example of twilight all the time, she must really have a thing for that vampire. lmao :) but it's a great example because if students are in to that at the time, then you may as well integrate it into your lesson. anything can be made instructional so we need to just need to use our imagination and make literature fun in all grades.

author profile: Phillip Yates

A Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Phillip Yates is an extraordinary entertaining book that reinvents The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. Rather than children waiting at home for santa, Yates comes up with a brilliant idea by having a group of grown pirates wait up for a legendary pirate to bring them christmas gifts. The robbing and killing is out the window for this group of pirates as they celebrate the arrival of their gifts. This santa claus impersonator comes out of the water being pulled on a sled by sea horses. the pirates rejoice, sing, and feast as they celebrate christmas. this is a great story filled with rhymes and laughter. Yates does a really good job. Phillip Yates has a great website with a lot of surprising information about him. You will find that he was a class clown in elementary school and often got into a lot of trouble. You will also find that his father directed "American Bandstand" and Phillip had the oppurtunity to meet the beach boys. Check out the url. http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2008/11/author-interview-philip-yates-on.html

3321 Lit For Public Schools Monday Night

Chapter focuses on reading comprhension, vocabulary. Both of these words coexists. If a student can't read the vocabulary then they will definitely not be able to comprehend what they are reading. Many teachers make the mistake of just having their students answer comprehension questions. Many times the students suffer because they struggle so much with reading vocabulary and their comprehension is even worse. Chapter 3 gives solid methods and strategies that can help build a student's comprehenision. There is retelling which the student retails the story the way they interpreted it or understood it. There is also story maps in which the students are able to draw out segments of the story. There is also comic strips which also allows students to draw out segments of the story. They do this by folding the paper into segments and making it look like a real comic strip. All of these strategies are helpful to students. I remember struggling when I was younger with reading comprehension. But one of my issues was not having any reinforcement after I read. Hopefully teachers are implementing these methods and strategies during reading time.

James Ibarra
Monday Night

blog 2 Mon 700-950 edrg 3321

Mon 700-950
Edrg 3321

Whats up class. I hope everyone's week was great. Well unfortunately I still haven't had my book delivered yet so I'm not able to blog about the chapter. The book should be here by Sept 15th. I hope I'm not the only one with this problem. However I was able to find a few helpful websites for my author profile. The author I'm doing the profile on is Margret Rey. Her and her husband are co-authors in the series of children's books called Curious George. On this site http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/html/research/findaids/DG0812f.html, there was a lot of biographical information and other helpful background information. Another one of the websites also contained some baxkground information as well as how Curious George came about. Really interesting stuff. That site is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margret_Rey. The last site I looked up was a very user friendly site. It had links to other games, activities, books, and other cool features. It also had a little passage on the home page that talked about how they were able to write such a good book. The reason thatMargret Rey gives is that she looked to the child within herself. She also says that she just thought about what kind of books she would have liked as a child. The link to this site is http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/cgsite/history.shtml. Well that's it for me. See everyone in class.
I know I said my book hadn't came in yet but i just checked the mail and there it was in a package. One thing I found interesting about this chapter is that it talks about how one teacher told another teacher that not all students could learn. If a teacher thinks like that then she needs to retire or get another job. All students can learn but it is up to the teacher on how to differentiate the instruction so that it meets every students needs. Chapter 2 was interesting too. It talks about how teachers need to realize that we are going to have all different kinds of cultures in their classroom and it is up to us to be familiar with them all. This will allow us as teachers to better serve our students and not place inappropriate labels on them due to their cultural background.

blog 1 here ya go 3321 edrg Monday night

3321 EDRG
Monday night

So we were asked to google 3 chidren's literature authors and I chuckled when I came across names that I've heard before, but couldn't quite remember who they were. The first name that caught my eye was Pamela Lyndon Travers. She was born August 9, 1899. She was a very talented woman. She was and actress, journalist, and a writer. In case you don't recognize the name, she was the author who wrote the popular series of novels called Mary Poppins. I remember watching that when I was younger. That magical nanny was very entertaining.
The next person I came across was J.M. Barrie. This author was born on May 9 1860. He was a scotish author and dramatist. In case you didn't know he was the famous man who wrote Peter Pan, which is one of everyone's favorite. COOL FACT- We all know that Peter Pan was about a boy who never wanted to grow up. Barrie actually got the inspiration from his friends who didn't want to grow up either so he based it on them. He is also said to have popularized the name Wendy who was another character in Peter Pan. Wendy was supposedly an uncommon name back then.
The last one is my favorite. Gary Paulsen who is the author of many books but to me is most famous for the Hatchet and The River. The Hatchet is about a boy named Brian who goes on a plane to visit his father. The plane ends up going down in the forest killing the pilot and Brian is forced to survive alone with nothing but a hatchet. This was the one book that I remember being able to picture so vividly while I was reading it. The River is a sequel to the Hatchet and it is great too. I think there are even a couple of more parts as well. Thanks Gary. lol