What I have learned through having a blog

      When I heard I was suppose to have a blog over these summer course, I was little bit confused on what a blog had to do with children's literature. However, I have learned a lot through work on a blog and doing a lot of research. I found some very amazing websites for teachers. I also learned how important it is to be tech-savy when you are a teacher now and days.
 
     Through research about blogs I came across a lot of great sites for future and present teachers about the importance of literature. The blog sites also shared not only the importance of literature but how to incorporate it in the classroom so the students are not bored, but interested. Some of the websites had really great ideas for students to learn to love. One I saw that I really liked, that I would like to incorporate into my classroom someday was for individual reading. To let the students create their own space for reading, that they can turn their chairs upside down and there is a pillow on the back of the chair and they can lay against it and be comfortable and have "me" time when they read. Which will teach them that reading can be enjoyable not a waste of time.

      I learned a lot through working on this blog and I have taken a lot of pride in my blog. I love to show it to my family and ask them what they think. I have worked very hard to be confident and know I did my best with this blog.

Good Reads

   
       Being in this class this summer as introduced me to many new aspects I was never aware of. One thing I learned about in the class that I will certainly be using for the future and on is Good Reads. I have never heard of it but I have fallen in love with the website. I am an avid reader and being able to have a collection of my books (virtually) and being able to search for new books to add to my list that I want to read is a wonderful addition. I also like how the website gives recommendations from prior books I have rated on how well I liked them. Being able to connect to people who have similar interests in books is a nice point to the website. In fact, in the beginning of the semester I had on my page that I was reading Baby Proof and I was sent a message to write questions I would like to ask for the author because they were doing an interview with Emily Giffin. I thought this was a cool aspect incorporated because I would of never had this opportunity available to me if it wasn't for Good Reads.

        I would certainly recommend this site to my friends who read just as much as I do!

Lemonade War

      I read The Lemonade War for the Annotated Bibliography. I found this book to be really great! It had such a cute story line which I feel is a great story life for children to read who have siblings. The summary of the school is, Evan and Jessie are siblings, who have always been very close. However when Jessie skips two grades to the 4th grade, which is Evan's class, things start to change. The two siblings who use to be very close start to on each other. Normally every summery they have a lemonade stand and work together, however this year they decide to make it into a competition. The two have creative strategies to get more business, clever tactics, and employing their friends. However not everything goes their ways and they start to realize how they are losing everything. Finally, by the end of the summer they have wasted their whole time battling each other.

 

     This book was very cleverly written and is great for children to read. The way to two siblings use to get along but then start to have issues and go against each other, is something very common when you have a sibling. Having the students read a book like this would be a good idea because they can see that it is okay at times to fight with a sibling and they don't always have to get along. 

How Beverly Cleary Can Inspire Children

       Through the Author Study, I learned a lot about Beverly Cleary. She is an accomplished author with a great story. Her life story would be a great one to share in an elementary grade, dealing with how she over came her difficulty in school and grew to love to read and then became a famous world know author. I found some great videos of Beverly Cleary (attached below) that I think are very beneficially for students and teachers to see. Beverly Cleary has great books for all different age groups. Her stories are extremely relate able and even at this time when I read her books now, I can't help but giggle as parts.

       I wanted to link the video below for people to see because I felt this video is great to share because it's Beverly talking about how she started to write and her process of writing Ramona. This would be very interesting for children to watch and know how the process is and how easy it is for students to just write and they don't ever have to feel limited.

"Crossing Jordan" A Book About Diverse Population

Crossing Jordan was written by Adrian Fogelin in 2000. I read this book for my Annotated Bibliography, and it was one of the best books I have ever read.

A summary of the book is Cass had a new neighbor moved in next door named Jemmie. Despite the prejudice the two girls face; a tall fence Cass’s father put up and comments made towards both families. The two girls become best friends by loving to run together and the reading Jane Eyre.

This book was beyond great to read in a classroom. Even thought it is for a 5th grade reading level, it can certainly a read out-loud book for younger students. There are so many different aspects in the story that are great for students to experiences. From how the two friends overcome

people being discriminant against their friendship and do not let it affect their friendship. I believe every classroom should read this book, it was excellently written and the story is even better. I cannot rave about this book any more then I already am. It was just very good and I enjoyed every minute of reading the book.

A Diverse Perspective in Children's Literature

"Culture is a range of perspectives that have traditionally been marginalized due to race, gender, ethnicity, language, exceptionally, age, social class, religion, or sexual orientation."

      This was a quote that stood out to me on the first page of this chapter. I thought it was a great quote to describe culture because at times, that can seem like a hard thing to try to describe. Diversity is the able to have many different cultures come together and experience life and important moments. The book discuses how it is important that children need to be able to see their own culture and values just like the books they read.

      In making sure to educate all children a teacher must include the five major points that seem to to be lacking in the school system about a diverse background are discrimination, inferior education, linguistic differences, cultural differences, and higher-level thinking. Public schools in the U.S.  have shown only a small part in successfully showing children diverse  cultures and social backgrounds that are at risk of failure.

      When reading through the text a quote stood out to me, "Programs and practices that discriminate against at-risk children must be eliminated, and ineffective traditional teaching and learning approaches must be redesigned and restructured." This quote impacted me when I read it. I was not even aware of programs or practices that discriminated against at-risk children, but I think certainly agree that they must be redesigned because children who are at risk, cannot be discriminated against they have to be helped even more then the average student in the classroom.

      A part of the text talks about the benefits of multicultural literature, which is very important to me. Proper literature can provide a mirror and/or window  for the reader. Letting them see either themselves or others, the struggles they are facing and how to they feel, live, and see things. Which if very important for students and even adults to take part in.

      Diversity is a very important to thing to study up on and constantly educate yourself more about as a teacher. As our job we must make sure every students is equal and if we are able to educate our students about diversity as well as ourselves through literary, then that would be a great thing.

Making Connections Across the Curriculum

     Making a connection between math, science, and history with picture books can help students make connection whether it's a fiction or nonfiction book. Picture books allow students to connect prior knowledge and are able to elaborate on the story they are reading.

"Math is a complex concept just like network theory and probability through fun cartoons in an alphabet book format." This was a quote from our text book. The text discuses how when a teacher makes a comment about how how math is incorporated into all subject matters. This one comment can freak a child out who is afraid of math, who isn't good at math. Some students can have math anxiety and are overwhelmed when they are told to do math.
   

    Science is incorporated into many picture books now and days. In the text it discuses how many picture books will have poetry and science together to have the students be able to connect to two subjects. The students are able to enjoy the poetry while learning about science but will not fully of the thought of learning a science lesson.

    History and picture books are a very common thing, picture books have the ability to connect the past and present in history. Having history in the picture books allows the students to create a person response to what they are reading about. The books allow the students to make their own perspective on the people and places they are reading about in history. They are also able to remember the information better, then being lecture to about.

     These are all great aspects of picture books that I have never thought about before. I never thought about well math and science can in combined with picture books. This is a great aspect to know and read more about as a future elementary school teacher.

Online Children's Literature

    I thought this section would be interesting to read about because it discusses the important role that the internet has now. Even with young children, everyone seems to have a computer in their reach.
     The book defines new literacies "skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influences all areas of our personal and professional lives." I thought this definition was very accurate because it seems to always be changing and we must adapt to it or we will be left behind, and now and days we have to be able to do so much just for jobs.
      The book talks about some great benefits in the classroom from technology in the 21st century though. This benefits are online books, where the students can now read books for free online. Online read alouds, where children can listen to their books being read instead of having to wait for their parents or a teacher. Interactive storybooks, this is when the students can play games and answer questions that go along with the book they are reading to help them understand their material better. They can even watch videos of the author they are reading. This can allow the students to understand their author better and where they got the idea to write the stories.
      Using activities can also help the students enhance their critical thinking as well. The internet can teach the student how to search for material and have a large outcome of what they need. There are many projects students can do as well that will involve using the internet.
      It was extremely interesting to read about all the all the options open to students using the internet and being able to master technology at such a young age now.

Independent Reading

          I read the section about independent reading, it talks about the importance of self-selected reading time. This is because it allows the student to have time to pick their own book that they are interested in. The section goes over the best way to prepare for independent reading which for the teacher that is to be able to understand your students' literacy personalities. This requires the teacher to look around and see what their students are reading during read/write aloud, shared reading, etc. The teacher must also have a great classroom library. It's the teachers role to see what their students are reading and then carefully take time to develop a classroom a great classroom library. It is helpful too to have the students offer other books to each other to help them expand their material. In the book it has a survey the students fill out in the beginning of the year about how they feel about themselves as a reader.  I thought this was clever to do in the classroom to be able to see how the students judge their own reading ability.
        The section also discusses how to have the students respond to independent reading, this would involve having the student use sticky note and take notes as they read along, it can be questions, predictions, or talking about to the text. Keep a reading journal where the students can write about what they read and what they thought of the book. A one-on-one reading conference can help the student as well, this will be between the teacher and the student,  the two will talk about the book while the teacher judges how the student understood the material and listen to the student read orally.
        All of these aspects are great for a teacher to use to help the students grow on their reading ability and let the student read what they choose to and enjoy it greatly.

Picture Books

I read the section about Picture books, in the other class I'm taking we are discussing the importance of picture books for teaching early literature. I think is very interesting because it teaches the students to be able to comprehend the material they are reading about using the pictures to help.

I thought it was interesting in the book when it talks about the cover of the book. It says "the cover of a book serves as a window into the content of the book. It gives us clues as to mood and subject matter of the book and is used to a great extent by children and adults when looking for a book to read." I thought this was interesting because I never really thought of the book cover that much, but once I read this, I realized how true it really is. I also found interesting reading the chart of crafting techniques such as leads, figurative language, making a long story short, repetition of a sentence or phrase, and understatement. This elements are important for stories to have, especially short stories. The section about picking short stories is also important because as a teacher making sure that you are picking the proper story book is important and this section is very helpful to be able to look over and study.

This section was very interesting and I liked being able to read it and relate it to another class I am taking. I never knew there was so much detail into picture books, but I certainly learned a lot about it now.

How Children Can Become Good Readers

        From reading the section, Literacy: How Children Can Become Good Readers, I was able to learn that there is new research that was completed on new effective reading instruction. New research is constantly moving on and making advances on improving and educating teachers on how to improve children's literacy. The section talks about how teachers are the most important contributors to helping children's achievements. The book advises teachers to ask students when they come in on the first day, how much they know so that the teacher is able to help get an idea of what the student knows before-hand. The section points out characteristics of a good reader, which I personally liked a lot. I feel like the table that was in the book, I would like to include somewhere in my classroom one day.

       I thought the section had a lot of interesting aspects of how to improve a child to become a good reader. I learned a lot of information about the characteristics of a good reader. I think all of the aspects they discussed in the section such as; being able to read different text and are able to revise the summary easily. Then later they explain characteristics of effective reading teachers. This was nice to read to be able to compare and contrast the differences and how to help their children. I was able to learn a lot of important information I can take into my future classroom.

How Children Respond to Literature

   The section, How Child Respond to Literature, was very insightful. I learned a lot about children and how they are able to respond back to the stories they hear based on the different type of child. Children all respond to literature differently based on their interest, age, background, and even culture. Because child all respond to books differently, most books are written for children appealing to adults. However, sometimes authors write books about children which will not be age appropriate for them. It is the teachers role to make sure the children are having a essential relationship with the stories they are reading. It's important to take into consideration the children's culture, beliefs, and values.

       After reading this section, it made me think a lot about as a future teacher, how will I be able to help my children the best way. Making sure I take the time like the book recommends and take into thought about the child's individual culture. How a child is able to react to a book is all different. No child will be able to respond the same.  As a teacher, I need to make sure I know how to help my children. Encouraging a meaningful relationship with books and literacy will be an important aspect in my classroom. I will make sure to use the zone of proximal development when having a child choose a book that will challenge them and make them better.

Welcome

Hi there, welcome to my blog page!

Here you can learn a little bit about me, books I like, and about my author study. I will be updating my blog weekly going along with the class book.

Hope you enjoy my blog!