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.