Field Experience and Hours

1. How many hours did you complete?

Five

2. In a short paragraph or bulleted list, how did you spend your time?

*Observing
*Passing out papers
*Preping the classroom
*Preparing lessons
*Discussing literacy movements
*Discussing PD hours

3. How did the experience help you to strengthen at least one Kentucky Teacher Standard? (be sure to name the standard)

Standard 8- Collaborating with colleagues/parents/others
I spent most of my time collaborating with Mrs. McNabb and having her give me advice on how to make a good math lesson that would be good for literacy and good for students that are younger and not as advanced as other students. We also talked a lot about Standards Based Grading because she was the person who began the start of SBG

4. Talk a little about one thing you learned because of this field experience.

I learned that working in a good environment with support from your co-workers is a key component as to whether or not you succeed in the classroom and as I worked with Mrs. McNabb I found that there was an abudance of support in her building for her initiatives to move in SBG and I thought that it was great to see that within a school. I also learned a lot about SBG as well because I didn't realize that it had become so popular in elementary and middle schools.

Book List and Wiki Post

Reading Log for 30 books (to paste into your blog in at the end of the term)

• Instructions: List the titles and authors you read under each Genre, and use checklist below for Wiki posts. Then, highlight this material and paste it into a final blog post. I have already included (in the 30) the ones we read for discussion. Feel free to read more in each genre as you make time. Failure to read and list at least 30 books will results in grade being lowered one letter.

 

Genre / Titles you read (Hit enter after each one and a new number should pop up)

             I.      Non-fiction/Informational (1 chapter book or photo essay book reflection required on blog)

1)      The Boy Called “It” by Dave Pelzer

2)      The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer

3)      Achoo: The most interesting book you’ll ever read about germs-Trudee Romanek

 

 

          II.      Poetry (1 chapter or picture book reflection required on blog)

1)      Hey, Diddle, Diddle and Other best-loved Rhymes

 

       III.      Modern Fantasy (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)          

1)      I, Jack  by Patricia Finney. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      The Hunger Games- S. Collins

3)      Catching Fire-S. Collins

4)      The Mockingjay- S. Collings

5)      Ender’s Game- O.S. Card

 

 

       IV.      Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)     

1)      The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      The Color Purple by Alice Walker

3)      The Signers: The 56 Stories behind the declaration of independence- D.B. Fradin

4)      In the beginning: Creation stories from around the world- Virginia Hamilton

 

          V.      Multicultural/Traditional (2 reflections required on blog – one can be a picture book)         

1)      Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      A House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisero

3)      Monster- W. D. Myers

 

       VI.      Realistic Fiction (1 chapter book reflection required on blog)

1)      Baby by Patricia MacLachlan. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      What happened to goodbye? By Sarah Dessen

3)      Maniac Magee-J. Spinelli

4)      The Hello, Goodbye Window- N. Juster and C. Raschka

5)      Flat Broke- G. Paulsen

6)      Hatchet- G. Paulsen

 

    VII.      Picture Books (5 reflections required on blog during the first two weeks of class. There should be a total here of at least six.)

1)      The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Chicka Chicka Boom Boom–Bill Martin JR

3)      Barnyard Banter–Denise Fleming

4)      Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear–Bill Martin JR and Eric Carle

5)      The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse–Eric Carle

6)      Little Cloud –Eric Carle

7)      Alphabet Under Construction – Denise Fleming

 

Wiki Checklist

Instructions: Write the number of entries for each category you posted into on the Course Wiki (requirement is four total posts, in four different categories)

 

____ Social Studies

____ Science

__1_ Math

____ Music

____ Art

__1__ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

__1__ Other

A Child Called "It"

Pelzer, D. J. (1995). A child called "It" one child's courage to survive. Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications.

A Child Called "It" is a moving and inspirational novel by Dave Pelzer. This young boy barely survives his crazy mother's torture and torment and manages to come out with barely enough skin and bones to survive being moved from foster care to foster care. The real life connections that this book could have in a classroom are unreal. Students could easily learn how to write a personal narrative with this book, whether good or bad. Students could learn how to read into the tone of the narrator and other characters with the way his mother talks to him and his father. Students could use this book to learn different moods as well because there are many times in the book where the young boy goes from hopeful to hopeless. This book would be a great way to introduce informational and non-fiction lessons at the beginning of the unit as well.

The only worry I have with this type of novel is the way it would impact those students who deal with abuse at home, and whether or not it would bring in a bad feeling to the classroom. I would hate to produce more worry and concern for students than was needed or was already in their lives.

The Signers: The 56 Stories behind the Declaration of Independence

Fradin, D. B. (2002). The Signers: 56 stories behind the Declaration of Independence. New York: Walker & Co.



Who signed the Declaration of Independence? Can you name them all? 56 people from 13 different states is a lot of information to know and take in but after you read these awesome accounts from D. Fradin it is easy to figure out who played part in what! Where did the ole saying "sign your John Hancock here" come from? Find out through the story of John Hancock! Who was the financier of the Revolution? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Carter Braxton. You don't know who that is either? Think of him as the confused party. Check out the book, it is worth knowing where your freedom came from and what America's past leaders were like!

Flat Broke

Paulsen, G. (2011). Flat broke. New York: Wendy Lamb Books.

Think about this scenario:

You're 14, you want a super cute girlfriend but all the girls like boys with cash, and you have none! Not only do you have no money, your in big trouble for lying but your learning the hard way that hard work pays off. Girls like boys that can bake, girls like boys that are entrepreneur types, but are you? Flat Broke is the book for you to learn how to be all these things but to also learn how to swing the ladies. You can learn the ropes of mayhem, misunderstanding, and a good solid working foundation for your life. If you are the least bit concerned about being successful, Kev, and the characters of Flat Broke, can help you!

Hey, Diddle, Diddle and Other Best-loved Rhymes

Gerlings, R., & Weber, P. (2009). Hey diddle diddle: and other best-loved rhymes. New York: Alphabet Soup ; Windmill Books.

This children's book is very neat because it has ten well known nursery-rhymes in one book. It contains the following:

• Hey, Diddle, Diddle
• Old King Cole
• Pussy-Cat, Pussy-Cat
• It's Raining, It's Pouring
• Hush, Little Baby
• Ding, Dong, Bell
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
• Pat-A-Cake
• Jack Sprat
• Star Light, Star Bright

I am only going to discuss a couple of the nursery rhymes but I wanted to be sure that each one was listed. "Hey, Diddle, Diddle" shows an example of ASSONANCE in the nursery rhyme because it shares words with similar vowel sounds like diddle, fiddle, spoon, and moon. "Hush, Little Baby" is a lullaby that is often used to put sweet little ones to sleep but it has a good example of REPETITION in it. "Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Papa's going to buy you a mockingbird, and if that mocking bird won't sing, Papa's going to buy you a diamond ring..." The lullaby goes on with "And if that ________ won't _________, Papa's going to buy you a ________" It is soothing but easy to understand because there is that constant repetition of the basic verses. RHYMING is also a key ingredient to successful nursery rhymes and is found in just about all of the ones within this book but is very easily seen in "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe". This is also a good rhyme to help students start counting and would be very convenient because instead of buckling a shoe they could tie the shoe, and they could knock on the door after three and four, etc...or you could have small students draw what each number and then phrase after the number looks like. It would be very easy to use this in an K-2 math class.
 

Monster

Myers, W. D., & Myers, C. (1999). Monster. New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins Publishers.

 

 

I absolutely LOVE this book. It is great for students who are struggling and have had a hard time being in and out of trouble regardless of race, sex, or even age. The young boy witnesses a crime in a drugstore but you never find out if he was ever actually involved in the ordeal. It has FLASHBACKS in the novel when the boy is sitting in jail awaiting trial, it is considered a MULTI-GENRE novel because it has the boy writing a screenplay in jail, writing in a journal in jail and then it has many different types of writings from the court reporters to the newspapers. The novel is very much young adult literature because it takes things that happens in high school all the time and really expands on how they could be dealt with before now. The boy mentions over and over that if he had just stayed away from "those people" that he wouldn't be in this situation. It also deals with person vs self because the young man stays conflicted with himself when he is writing in his journal. He talks about how this will affect his mom, affect his brothers, etc. The novel is an easy read and hard to put down once you are really involved with the reading but it is one of those books that leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions.

I could see this book being used in my classroom every year, regardless if I was teaching 8th grade or 12th grade. It is a great book to show children different types of writing and that all novels aren't just times new roman on 400 pages. I would ask the students to reflect a lot with this book so possibly asking them to keep a reading journal along with each chapter wouldn't be too much to expect. They could write about experiences where they connected, or they could write to Jamal and tell him what they would have done differently in those situations. I feel like it would be a great project that students could really connect with.

The House on Mango Street

Cisneros, S. (1991). The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books.

 

The House on Mango Street is a book of VIGNETTES that tell about a young Hispanic girls life from her childhood. The short chapter book is very easy to read and has many different sections so if you only wanted to teach one part of the small book you could because the chapters are not tied together they're more like poetry in that they are very independent of the other sections. Cisneros uses many SIMILES to show her time growing up on Mango Street especially in the section called "Hair", she talks about how every one's hair smells differently and compares the texture of her hair to a broom. She also uses this book to talk about becoming a woman and learning about things that happen when your older. She begins to talk about girls who would do anything for boys and etc. I would call this book a FORESHADOWING book for COMING OF AGE novels for young Hispanic students but I would also say that it is very good for literature circles because it shows how different cultures value different things as well as how different cultures speak to one another differently.

 

This small chapter book would be great to introduce students to VIGNETTES and allow them to use a piece of their life to write their own. I used this example in my own undergraduate experience because I wrote about different parts of my life that I considered key experiences in getting me to my undergraduate program and it actually became one of my favorite things that I completed because I got to reflect on my life as well as things that had happened around me to others.

 

Ender's Game

Card, O. S. (1991). Ender's game (Rev. ed.). New York: Tor.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is a great modern fantasy chapter book. It would actually be an awesome book for 6th to 12th graders, and to be honest, as a 23 year old I LOVED IT!


Ender's Game has incredible themes built within the book, and yes I mean themes, because depending on the age level and the maturity of an individual there are many different ways to view this novel. It could easily be person vs. self, person vs. others, person vs. age.

Ender Wiggin is the third child in a world when it is only acceptable to have two children but his parents decided to have a third when the government persuaded them to do so when the other two were not fit for battle school. He faces tough decisions to leave his family when Graff, a commander, comes to speak with him about coming to battle school. He realizes though because he is a third of a family, he will always be looked at as different. Unfortunately, the battle school is not located on earth and Ender must get on a ship and blast off to an outer space element.

Ender becomes an acceptable child in battle school and moves quickly to higher ranks. Ender is prepared to be the next in line if the buggers (aliens that are trying to take over the world) come again. The school is preparing him to be lead in command if something should happen but then there is a twist and we find out that Peter (Ender's older brother who was not sufficient for battle school) has decided he will take over the world...What happens? You must READ it to find out!

The book is very engaging, very hard to put down, but very easy to read.

Alphabet Under Construction

Fleming, D. (2006). Alphabet under construction. New York: Henry Holt.

 

Denise Fleming's "Barnyard Banter" was great. It was very colorful and very exciting for children and "Alphabet Under Construction" doesn't stop her great work! It too involves animals and wonderful colors and it would be easy to tie the books together in a lesson about noises with the alphabet and animals. This book involves a mouse editing the alphabet and he does everything from "folds the f" to "kinks the k". I love that involves words that start with that letter on each page and that the book is colorful and easy to read. The lettering on each page that you are actually reading is a completely different color than the page all together whether it be black or white which make the small statement stand out and look like the most important words on the page.

 

I love Fleming. She is really a great children's book author because she knows what will hold the attention of small children and she continues to make books that stand out and are still educational! A great activity with this would be to let the kids do the activity. Allow them to construct the alphabet with construction paper, pom poms, stickers, glue, pencils, markers, whatever is creative and can stand out.

 

 

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

 

Martin, B., & Carle, E. (1991). Polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear?. New York: H. Holt.

"Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" is a children's picture book that is very popular because it is good for small children as well as school age children. It has pictures and sounds that associate with the animal being talked about but is almost like a cute game of telephone where each of them say what they hear but at the end someone repeats it. It would be a great book for small children in preschool, kindergarten, or even first or second grade when talking about animals or zoos and maybe even a great book to read before a field trip. Bill Martin and Eric Carle team up here to show us there creativity like in "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" there are many colors and the pictures are very bold and abstract but very real looking. They are also very good at asking questions so it could be used for students to repeat noises or predict what the next animal could be. The best questions for this type of book would be questions about sounds or about the words in the book like "hissing" and "whistling" and use it for a time to show a literary element like onomatopoeia.

The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse

 

Carle, E. (2011). The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. New York: Philomel Books.

"The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse" is a children's picture book with bold imaginative colors. It has a purple fox, a pink rabbit, and of course a blue horse. It is great about allowing students to think OUTSIDE of their normal lines. Students can have abstract thinking and be able to connect it to things that they would like to draw different colors from people to pets to foods. Eric Carle is a very popular children's author and he is very good at what he does. He is listed on many well known list and is often used in art classes for small children because he has such a creative mind.

While it isn't "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" it is still a book that draws children to think for themselves but I wonder if it is too low of a level to be read in classes at schools. It is very basic but yet just challenges to kids to think outside the lines. Do I think it could be used in other classrooms? Absolutely. I think you could take it to an art class at an high school level and have them analyze why would the author choose the colors that he did. Have them analyze how it would be less challenging for smaller children if the animals were the colors they actually are, or have them identify when they felt like a horse out of color. The best thing about Eric Carle is he makes people think.
 

Barnyard Banter

Fleming, D. (19971994). Barnyard banter. New York: Holt.

Barnyard Banter is a book about the sounds that children would find at a farm or in a barnyard. It is a Children's Literature book and it is by Denise Fleming who write many children's tales. This book is made for little ones who are learning a couple things: first, children who are learning the sounds and names of animals, and second, children who are also used to playing games like hide and seek. The common theme in the book is "Where's the goose?" It has a rhyming structure to it as well and is very much in tune with the way little children think. It also has a repetitive technique within the book because it repeats each sound three times by each animal, for example, "Cow's in the pasture, moo, moo, moo..."

The book is also very colorful and the illustrations in the book are fabulous. They are shaped and colored like the animal they are describing with the noises but are not exact pictures so it has a little abstract feel to it to let children make their own pictures in their minds. The colors are bold so they are used as an attention getting technique.

 

Fleming is an author that is listed in often in our text book and I found she was on a popular list at my public library. I like that a lot of her books like the same and have the same bold colors and techniques within them.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Martin, B., Archambault, J., & Ehlert, L. (20001989). Chicka chicka boom boom. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

I picked Chicka Chicka Boom Boom because it is a very popular Children's book and came up on many list including the list in our book. It is used a lot in classroom's at the younger levels and is used during library readings often as well (according to my librarian at the Mt. Sterling Public Library). The format for the book is very cool  because it has a picture of a coconut tree on every page and the alphabet climbing up it one at a time but because the picture is a repetitive source in the book it would stand out in a child's mind. It also uses formatting to make certain parts of the book stand out, for example, it makes the alphabet in the writing BOLD while the other words are very plain and small.
It has a small rhyming technique within the book as well. "A told B, and B told C, "I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree." It is very great for students who are learning the alphabet and trying to remember the letters in order.
The book is VERY colorful which draws attentions to younger students because it has so much color within it and the layout is not overwhelming. It just has a couple sentences per page so students could read it to other students during story time or share time.

Students who are at a lower level you could use this book to ask what letters do they think would come next before you turn the page just to give students time to respond and think about the alphabet, but for H.O.T. (Higher Order Thinking) questions you could ask students to predict what happens at the end? Or you could have students draw the tree and predict the ending or have students respond by allowing them to come up with words that start with letters like A, B, C, and draw a picture as well as sounding out the words once you have completed the book and break them up in Jigsaw groups and have them share after each letter has been answered.

Who am I?

Good Morning All!

I am Lindsey Marcum Snedegar, aka Mrs. Snedegar to some. I worked at Bath County High School for half the year this past year but I am now unemployed and working under some for hours for my masters. I hope to get a job at Montgomery County High School this coming year because I literally live about 10 minutes from the school and I love that they are a tight knit community and a great school system. I am very interested in reading anything and everything...if there was a job where I could sit and read, I would be a front runner for the position:). I also very much love my wonderful husband who is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me, Michael is my best friend and my backbone, he always pushes me to do my best. I have one dog named Pheonix (yes, we misspelled her name on purpose), she is a Walker breed which literally means she is a coon hunter all on her own. I love to be outside, I love to be on a beach and I love to travel. I am looking forward to finishing my masters by December of 2013.

I went into education because I love watching teenagers learn new things and having to admit that they don't know it all because believe it or not, I was that teenager. I had teachers that challenged me and I wanted to be as wonderful to students as those teachers were to me. I really miss having my own classroom but I miss those students much more but somethings are just out of our control and I have learned to accept that. I hope to change a life one day by teaching and if I manage to just affect one student enough to make them want to do better for themselves then in my mind I have been a successful educator.