Final Reflection

I created this blog for my Reading and Literature class. Each week we were asked to write about our experiences in the class.   In my posts, I reflected on what we did that day and projects that I had made., along with links to other articles or websites that pertain to the topic so that the reader of my blog could learn more. Our final project was our livebinder. I have made one of these before but that one had more to do with the EDTPA. This time it was everything that we have done in the class. I wish we would have got the template earlier in the semester so that we could do it as we went along and not all at once. However I was really proud of what I created, and yes the sub-tabs look much better Dr.S!!  I also did a text set of 50 books, however I made it as a word document so when I  put it into Googledocs the pictures of the books didn't transfer. If your iinterestedin the document send me a message and I can send it to you! This semester was full of lots of amazing presenters and lessons. My personal favorite was Chuck Stead. He seemed as if he were telling the story as if he was still in that moment it took place. His enthusiasm and wisdom was amazing. I have even listened to other stories on YouTube 

 I have made comments on many of my fellow authors blogs, here are some of them. 

Devon O'Brien 

Lindsay Bordenaro

Desiree Pampolina

Poetry Gem

We were asked to do a poetry gem fro this class. I had no idea where to begin. First I wanted to do an animoto, but i didn't  want to pay for it. Then I wanted to do a plotagon but it wouldn't work on my computer, then I made a weebly and hated it, and I finally decided to make a prezi. I have never used prezi before even though my teacher always suggests we use one. It was a little confusing but with the help of my friend Lindsay it came out beautiful. I decided that my students would write acrostic poems with their names. I did a lesson on acrostic poems and showed them a website that had lots of them. I told them to brainstorm some words they could use for their names that described them. Some letters like N,A, and Y got a little tricky but they were able to find some. Take a look at how it came out here. I think it came out great for my first one. The students all typed in each of their poems as well. I tried to get permission to take a picture of them but it was not allowed. 
Here are some other great poem websites for more learning.

https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/types-acrostic

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term/acrostic

www.acrosticpoem.org/

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.” - Abraham Lincoln

Why is reading important? I was sitting here thinking I am taking all these literacy classes and why? I also work with kindergartners who are just starting to read. They are mostly reading sight words at this point but a few can read fluently. One child asked me why should I read? Well my teacher hat automatically went on although I did not say these things I was thinking them. You need to read for school, directions, tests, to help you write and the list went on and on in my head. I told this  kindergartner all the fun things of reading like how the characters come alive in the books, and how they can learn all new things about all different topics and how fun reading is. I came home and came across this fun list on the internet. 
Here are 10 Reasons Why You Should Read More Books:

1. To Develop Your Verbal Abilities
Although it doesn't always make you a better communicator, those who read tend to have a more varied range of words to express how they feel and to get their point across. This increases exponentially with the more volumes you consume, giving you a higher level of vocabulary to use in everyday life. Why read

2. Improves Your Focus and Concentration
Unlike blog posts and news articles, sitting down with a book takes long periods of focus and concentration, which at first is hard to do. Being fully engaged in a book involves closing off the outside world and immersing yourself into the text, which over time will strengthen your attention span. Why to

3. Readers Enjoy The Arts and Improve The World
A study done by the NEA explains that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who do not to visit museums and attend concerts, and almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work. Readers are active participants in the world around them, and that engagement is critical to individual and social well-being.

4. It Improves Your Imagination
You are only limited by what you can imagine, and the worlds described in books, as well as other peoples views and opinions, will help you expand your understanding of what is possible. By reading a written description of an event or a place, your mind is responsible for creating that image in your head, instead of having the image placed in front of you when you watch television. Why read

5. Reading Makes You Smarter
Books offer an outstanding wealth of learning and at a much cheaper price than taking a course. Reading gives you a chance to consume huge amount of research in a relatively short amount of time. Anne E. Cunningham and Keith E. Stanovich’s “What Reading Does for the Mind” also noted that heavy readers tend to display greater knowledge of how things work and who or what people were. Books at home have been strongly linked to academic acheivement. If you are looking for a list of great books to read, check out 10 Easy To Read Books That Make You Smarter.


6. It Makes You Interesting And Attractive
This goes hand in hand with reading to become smarter. Having a library of information that you have picked up from non-fiction reading will come in handy in any academic or scholarly conversation. You will be able to hold your own and add to the conversation instead of having to make your excuses and leave.  You will be able to engage a wider variety of people in conversation and in turn improve your knowledge and conversation skills. Why to read

7. It Reduces Stress
A study by consultancy firm Mindlab International at the University of Sussex showed that reading reduces stress. Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles. In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started. For more information, check out the Telegraph article here. Why read

why read8. It Improves Your Memory
In their book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, Maryanne Wolf explains that “Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language—when you watch a film or listen to a tape—you don’t press pause.” The benefits of this increased activity keeps your memory sharp and your learning capacity nimble. Why read

why read9. To Discover and Create Yourself
In his book How to Read and Why, Harold Bloom says that we should read slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. He explains we should read to increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy–in short, our entire consciousness–and also to heal our pain. “Until you become yourself, what benefit can you be to others.” With the endless amount of perspectives and lives we can read about, books can give us an opportunity to have experiences that we haven’t had the opportunity to, and still allow us to learn the life skills they entail. Books are a fast rack to creating yourself. Why read

10. For Entertainment

All the benefits of reading mentioned so far are a bonus result of the most important benefit of reading; Its entertainment value. If it were not for the entertainment value, reading would be a chore but it needn’t be. Reading is not only fun, but it has all the added benefits that we have discussed so far.   http://whytoread.com/why-to-read-10-reasons-why-reading-books-will-save-your-life/

Literature genres and multicultural books

This whole class has been about learning about different genres and exploring all the books that we could. A literary genre is a style of writing. There are many different genres and sub-genres to go along with them. Each one is unique and some have been discussed earlier on in my blog.

I really like this picture I found on the teacher store house website. It really explains all the genres with a quick explanation and a cute picture. I would buy this and hang it in my classroom. 

Helpful sources  this link provides a variety of reading resources for kids. Another great resource many schools use is called RazKids. This website allows students to work at their own pace, and read and play games at their level.

• Review Journals have current and useful information to aid in selecting quality literature. 
• Books that win awards such as the Newbery, Caldecott or Coretta Scott King Awards are declared to be outstanding by experts
• Internet : . Some authors have their own websites and the Children’s Literature Network has many links to other helpful sites

Here are some of my favorites

            Eric Carle. Patricia Polacco, Dr.Seuss, Lesa Cline Ransome, Chuck Stead, K.L.Going

Some book that fall into many genres are mutli-cultural books. These book are important for all children to see but especially those children that are of a different race. Children need to be able to read and see themselves in books, its called mirror books. Race and ethnicity are important aspects of diversity that should be shown through books. However, there is a small selection of books that include accurate multicultural themes. 

It helps children love reading when they see their culture reflected in books. There has been research done on this topic, follow the above links and read about it. One of the teachers at MSMC has been actively involved in trying to get these books into the Common Core Curriculum, her name is Jane Gangi.

African American literature- 

It is also important to read books by authors of color. One author is Andrea Davis Pinkney. She focuses on writing about African Americans accurately but also in a way that is child friendly. Lesa Cline Ransome also does the same. She writes a lot about slaves as well.

Andrea Davis Pinkney comes to MSMC

Everyone in my class had to pick an author to research and be them for a class. People were Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary and many others. I chose to be Andrea Davis Pinkney. She is an incredible writer who had one many awards.She was born September 25, 1963 in Washington D.C.
Her parents were involved in the civil rights movement, and she became very interested in this topic.
However she aspired to write for magazines because of the Mary Tyler Moore Show;
Mary Richards was a big-city journalist and she wanted to be that too. She majored in journalism
at the University of Syracuse 1985 and became the Senior editor for Essence Magazine. She 

switched to childrens books with encouragement from her husband Brian (children's book editor). His mom was a writer and his father was an illustrator. She noticed the lack of African-American literature geared toward and available to children so she decided to create something that would operate around their cultural norms and morals, something that would reflect their lives, their cultural heritage, and the achievements of African-American figures.  She did just that and became an award winning author. This video is amazing take a look!!! She also wrote a book because she was inspired by her son.

This book one the Corretta Scott King Award in 2013! She has many other books take a look at the link above. 

I enjoyed being her for a little while and teaching everyone about her, and all of her accomplishments!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abN2aP_Dzd0




I think that these author presentations were a great idea. We really got the chance to learn about how people became writers/illustrators, and their struggles along the way.
Here is what my classmates had to say about my presentation:

3 Pluses

1. I liked how you did not read off of the slide presentation.

2. I liked how you gave us an age range for your books. 

3. I like how you wanted to do a multicultural author and just because it was difficult to research her you did not switch who you did. 

1 Wish

1. I wish the technology would work in our room! 

Denise,

1. Improve was done very well! You weren't even frustrated when the technology didn't work. 

2.  Good resources for more information! Excited about the "Red Pencil"

3. You did a nice job with the information you had. It's tough when there isn't a lot of resources out there.

Wish: A sneak peek from the"Red Pencil!"

Three Pluses

1. I liked how you chose a multi-cultural author.
2. It was great that you had so many books to show us.
3.  I am looking forward to reading your new book, The Red Pencil.

One wish

      - To hear more about the The Red Pencil - sounds like a wonderful book!

Pinkney, A., & Pinkney, J. (n.d.). Hand in hand: Ten Black men who changed America.

Pinkney, A., & Pinkney, J. (2010). Sit-in: How four friends stood up by sitting down. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

Who Was ....

I love learning about people. I like to read biographies. I stumbled upon the series called Who was.. while I was student teaching. All the students had a different person and the books were really student friendly. It explained difficult things these people went through in such great ways. One of my favorites was Amelia Earhart. The student took such interest in her that she went to the library and took out other books and also researched her online. As I went to my other placement they were using these books as well. I have even started my own collection.

 Memoirs are other books I enjoy. A memoir is facts and events from a persons life are arranged to construct a theme or personality.One of my favorites is The diary of a young girl.   It is by Anne Frank, who wrote the diary while she was in hiding with her family. 

With the Common Core standards students in grades 3 and 4 are leaning about biographies, 

Frank, A. (1992). Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Globe Book.
Stewart, W., & Harrison, N. (2009). Who was Walt Disney? New York: Grosset & Dunlap.

Kelly Going visit

Kelly Going came to our college today to discuss her books. She was fantastic. She read some of her material that she has written along with telling us her story. She started off not wanting to be a writer but she started working for a publishing company and things fell into place after a few years. She was very nice and personable. She seemed very interested in the teaching aspect of books, and what and how to use books in the classroom. I liked how she was down to earth and thanked us for letting her come. I enjoyed hearing her story about how she fell into this career.

She is also from this area which I thought was cool. . Her first novel was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book by the American Library Association in 2004. Her books have won many honors and awards. 

• Booksense picks, 
• Scholastic Book Club choices, 
• Junior Library Guild selections, .

 They have been featured by Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Children's Book Council as Best Books of the Year. Her first novel, Fat Kid Rules the World was chosen as one of the Best Books of the Past Decade in 2005 by the Young Adult Library Services Association. Adapted into an independent film, it was named Audience Award winner at the SXSW Film Festival in 2012. This book however was very controversial among many people and was even banned in some libraries. You can follow her on her blog !!


She began writing novels in college and has since published novels for young adults and middle grade readers, a picture book, and a reference book titled Writing and Selling the YA Novel published by Writer's Digest. She has also written short stories for several anthologies and currently has multiple books under contract. Her work has been published in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.

She brought some of her books for us to buy at a discounted rate and signed them for us. She is truly an inspiration. 

 These are the ones I bought !








All of these pictures and videos can be found on her website
I just finished reading the book Saint Iggy. I think it would be really good for a middle school / high school student to read. It talks a lot about drugs and how his friend does them and is into trouble with a drug dealer which students might be able to relate toI also related to it since my parents did drugs while I was in high school, and Iggy's parents were also both drug addicts. Its a hard life but if you want to get out of it then you have to take steps in the right direction which he tries to do. I really enjoyed reading this!!

Going, K. (2003). Fat kid rules the world. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Going, K. (2005). The liberation of Gabriel King. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
Going, K. (2006). Saint Iggy. Orlando: Harcourt.