Chapter 14

I think allowing the children to be authors is a great idea. It allows the children to have somthing to go back and read that they have created. I think the children like it when they all contribute to a story and they collaborate or they write their own stories and it gets published. I feel that children should feel like their work is important. If they write something and see it in the class library, they feel like they have contributed and their work was important enough to be read by the rest of the class. I think if the children are comfortable with their work, they can read their story to the class that they wrote and then put it in a center or the library for others to re-read. I think that if the children know their work will be published for their class to read as well as classes to come then they will want to do an extra special job to impress their fellow writers.

Chapter 13

Literature circles are something I am not to familiar with. If I am not mistaken, I think they are groups of students working on the same book and they read it at a designated part of the day. They work on projects as a group and they discuss the book as a group. I think this is where you can have a person who keeps track of the plot, a person who comes up with a new ending to the story, a person who keep the characters strait, and so on. This is a good way to have the children work together. It allows the children to have autonomy about what they discuss in the classroom and it also allows for the to children to have ownership in what they are learning and what they have to do in their groups.

Chapter 12

Wow, this chapter makes me feel broke. It said that we should have this awesome library for our class. As a teacher starting out, I feel this may be difficult to achieve. But as the years go on, I do hope to have an extensive library of books that the children would like to read. I want independent reading to just happen. I do not want to have to "force" the children to independently read. I hope that my classroom will be an exciting one and the children find lots of books they enjoy reading. I hope that I have to ask my students to put the books down so they can listen to my lecture. so often the children are not excited about reading. I want the children to have a say in what they read in the classroom. I want a variety for the children to read as well as multiple copies so they can read with a partner and they can collaborate.

Chapter 11

I never knew that guided reading was set up to make the children feel successful reading at their own level. I always thought that the children felt like they were behind and that is why they were in guided reading. I always thought that if a child was in guided reading and not on the level that the high kids were at that they would know and understand they were not as good at reading.
This chapter said the exact opposite. It said that if guided reading is done right, you can make a child feel like a successful reader. It said that that is the ultimate goal. Shared reading should do the same. It should be joyous and collaborative. It should be at the child's level. Guided reading should never be grouped in permanent groups. The children should move freely through the groups as they progress. It is the hopes of all teachers that a child does not digress.

Chapter 10

This chapter talkes about how important it is to read aloud. This is not talking about the children though. It is talking about the teacher. As a teacher, it is important to read aloud to the children. By doing this, you are modeling to the children what good readers sound like. Make sure before you read out loud to the children that you have read the book to yourself first and are familiar with the text. You do not want to pick up a book that you have never read and it is not appropriate for the children or you can not read it. By doing this, you are increasing the chance of the children being interested in reading.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 is about nonfiction. This is the real stuff. The elements consist of format, visual information, access features, accuracy, and style. These elements are different from the ones discussed in chapter 8 of fiction. Different examples are concept books, informational pictures, photographic essays, survey books, and the life cycle. This is just a hand full of them. There are many more. Some guidelines that you want to look at are accuracy of the text, the content and style, organization, illustrations, features, format, and awards. It is my opinion that you do not have to have an award to tell the truth.

Chapter 8

This chapter is about all the different forms of fiction. This chapter talks about the elements such as plot, characterization, theme, setting, style, point of view. Most of these types of writings are not real. Some of the writing contains real events but the characters are not real or it is really exaggerated. Just because it is fiction does not mean that it can not ever happen.

Chapter 7

This chapter is about Picture books. These were my favorite as a child. I think that I liked them so much because I was always a weak reader and did not like to read. This was an easy way for me to become acquainted with books without having to read. As a child, I did not feel so intimidated by these books. I think I like these books so much now because it leaves it up to the imagination to determine what the story is about. You have to use the lines, color, textures, shapes, designs, and your imagination to figure out what the story is about. Accoring to the book, you can use this with any age group. It is not only for the young who can not read. It is also for the older children.

Chapter 6

In the traditional literature, I like how it tells you to compare the different versions of a story. A good one in my opinion is The Three Little Pigs v.s. the one where the wolf tells his version. I think that a Venn diagram. I think it is good to allow the children to see similarities as well as differences about the books. I also think it is good to hear their take on it and which one they feel is better. Many times, we like the older versions because that is what we grew up with, but there is always that child who prefers the different version. They like the variety. I also thought it was funny how it was orally passed down first. How do we know it is the way it was meant to be told. We dont. Because it was passed down orally, it has been changed many times.

Chapter 5

Poetry, wow, this was not one of my strong points in school. In fact, I hate poetry for the simple fact that I was not exposed to it like I wish I would have been. The only poetry I read was the few readings we did in high school. They were always boring and meaningless to me. I hope as a teacher, I will take my experiences and turn it around for someone else. My goal is to allow the children to make decisions about what we read as a class and what we can do to make fun. I hope that we can find ways to bring meaning to the readings as well as life experiences. I think that my poetry days were not relevant to me and that is why I did not care to take the time out and read it. I feel that if I allow the children to have a say in what is read then they will take to a liking. I also want to allow my children to write poetry and read it to the class or to me.

Chapter 4

I like how chapter four brings the point that there is not just one right answer and that we as readers have a sort of "contract" between each other. I feel this is important to remember when we are teaching a class full of students. Too often we as teachers want a child to read a story that we have read and look at it in the same way that we did. We want them to answer the questions we provide for them exactly the way we interpreted the reading. Reading is just that, an interpretation. There will be many different interpretations by the students that differ from your own. I do feel it is important to sit down with the children and discuss what they thought about the reading because this will open a whole different approach to what you thought. It is amazing how once you hear someone else take on a story how you look at it. I also feel it is good to read the same book more them once because every time you read it, you will learn something else that you had no idea was in the reading.

Chapter 3

In this chapter, it brings in the point that vocabulary is a goal and outcome of reading. Too often children are given the vocabulary words in a reading that are meaningless and many times the words on the side of the teachers book. This is not necessarily the words that you should be using. Most of the time, they pick the words that are not the target words for the children to learn. It is not relevant for them to know the words in order for them to be successful in the reading. It is my opinion that we as teachers pick out the words in an authentic way. I feel that we should find the words that are going to make it difficult for the child to understand the reading. I also think we should pull the words that are relevant to what the children are learning in the curriculum in order for them to make a connection to what they are learning and put it in real life contexts. The children should be shown that the more we read, the better we are with our vocabulary. Reading opens doors to new vocabulary every day.

Chapter 2

When we as teachers think of making our classroom culturally appropriate, it is important to think about all cultures and not just our own or what is predominate in the area. There will be many children in the classroom who do not fit in the majority. It is important to accommodate the minority as well. When talking about culture we want to also make it a point to be sensitive to other cultures and not stereotype different cultures.

Chapter 1

Something that popped out at me as I was reading was that it is very important to surround the child's classroom with actual books they can read as opposed to just surrounding the classroom with textbooks. It is important to allow the children to have many opportunities to also pick up the books that are around the classroom and read without you telling them to do it and what they should read. Give the children autonomy by allowing them to choose what they want to read and what they like. Give them different genre to read so they can see what they like and what they do not like. Don't just expect them to read what you like, every child is different.

Ashley

Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak wrote books for children for the past fifty plus years. He works hard to bring to life fantasy and imagination. He is best known for his books WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. He has won many awards for his work he has done as both a writer and illustrator. He has not only made books but has also produced operas and ballets for television and on the stage. He was born in Brooklyn, NY and was always sick as a child. This could be in my opinion what sparked his career. Since he spent most of his childhood indoors, he read a lot of books. During this time, he began to draw and followed his imagination. When he was twelve years old, his family took him to go see Walt Disney's FANTASIA. It was the animation that influenced him to do the work he does now.
Some of his books are:
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN
LITTLE BEAR (AN I CAN READ BOOK)
THE WHEEL ON THE SCHOOL
CHICKEN SOUP WITH RICE (A BOOK OF MONTHS)
OUTSIDE OVER THERE
MOMMY?
ALLIGATORS ALL AROUND and IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN

Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein was a unique artist. he was a renowned poet. He also did many other forms of art. He did playwrights, illustrated his own books, a screen writer, and a songwriter. He was best known for his children's books that were known around the world. He is known as one of the worlds most popular and best-loved children's authors of all time.
Some of his books are:
THE GIVING TREE
FALLING UP
A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS

Karen Katz
She has been an illustrator for many years as well as a graphic designer. She first began writing books when she was inspired by the adoption of her daughter from Guatemala. Her daughter Lena is the character in her book OVER THE MOON. Most of her books are written to teach some lesson to children such as diversity among humans, manors, kindness, life skills, and so on. She works hard to teach children as well as adults that it is okay to be different and diversity is a way of nature.
Some of her books are:
WHERE IS MY BELLY BUTTON
A POTTY FOR ME
A GIFT BOX SET
COUNTING KISSES
TEN TINY TICKLES

This is my first blog for 3321 Monday nights. Wow I am lost