It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?!

For this week, I continued my reading challenge! I wanted my children’s books to be based on Thanksgiving since that is happening this Thursday. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Elementary:

Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell

Something I really liked about this book is how much diversity is has. The story talks about different characters that explain what Thanksgiving is and who was involved. The illustrations are cool as well because some are super realistic while others are not.

One Tough Turkey: A Thanksgiving Story by Steven Kroll

This book is a classic. Published in 1982, the illustrations and storyline is pretty general. The story is basically about the turkeys fighting against the humans on Thanksgiving. I thought it was pretty funny.

Today is Thanksgiving by P.K. Hallinan

I really enjoyed this story because it talks about about a type of Thanksgiving that is usually thought of as the norm. I think it was very sweet and I like that there was a rhyming pattern because (for me) it makes it a more enjoyable read!

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston

This book takes the classic “10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” and fits it to Thanksgiving. I think this book would be great with really little kids because then you could really dance and sing along.

A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman

This is my favorite Thanksgiving book because it was hilarious. When picking our final projects, I picked this one to be included because I like it and I think the kids and put their own personality into their crafts.

Middle Level:

This week I finished The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book is very controversial because it was banned for quite a while. Just because of the language and the tender story line, I would not use this book in a middle school classroom. While the reading level could be suitable for a middle school student….the story is just to tender in my opinion. Basically the story is about a teenager who is in a mental institution and going through treatment. While I do not think this is suitable for a middle school student, I think it is important to read and understand the history behind it. I would recommend teaching this to a high school student who can handle the language and storyline.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Until next time,

-Rachel

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The Skyping Renaissance

Image by: ebayink

After reading Kate Messner’s article, The Skyping Renaissance, I learned a lot about author skyping. I think the most surprising thing for me was that this even existed. I had no idea that author were willing to do this. I think it is a great thing because it can allow students to ask questions about the writing process and inspirations of a novel from the exact source!

I would love to set up an author visit for my classroom because I think it would be fun for the students and the author. I am a little bit of a book nerd so I can not tell you the excitement I would have if I were able to meet one of my favorite authors! Even if students are not into reading, talking to the author could change their minds.

As I said, an advantage of this is having students ask questions about the writing process that an author has to go through. Another advantage is it is generally available to a school even if they are not a highly populated school or a school that has a lot of funds. Since Skype is a free program, there is just the problem of finding a time.

Some disadvantages I see is the students not paying attention to the author and messing around. Just based on my experiences as a student, there are students that do not pay attention when a speaker comes to the classroom. I think this is rude because the speaker is giving us our time to talk about something they are passionate about, the least we could do is pay attention. To solve this, I would have each student write two questions and they have to ask the author at least one.

For my ideal author visit, I would love to have Harper Lee because she is so interesting as an author. Not only did she write To Kill a Mockingbird, this was her only books for a majority of her life. However, nearly 55 years later this changed. In 2015, she wrote the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman. Sadly, this author visit would not be possible because she passed away in 2016.

Until next time,

-Rachel