Book Trailer (submitted through email)

Papa's Mark

Battle-Lavert, G., & Bootman, C. (2003). Papa's mark. New York: Holiday House.

Children’s Literature Book List and Wiki Checklist

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)     Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies

2)     Sea Horse: The Shyest Sea Fish in the Sea by Chris Butterworth

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

1)     Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech. (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)     What a Day It Was At School! By Jack Prelustky

3)     Toasting Marshmallows by Kristin George

4)     Lorax by Dr. Seus

        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 Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

3)     Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

       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)     Papa’s Mark by Gwendolyn Battle-Lavert 

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

1)     Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep

2)     The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake

3)     Aesop’s Fables by Tom Paxton and Robert Rayevsky

4)     JuneBug by Alice Mead

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

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

2)     Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

      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)      Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

3)      Emma’s Turtle by Eve Bunting

4)      Yoko by Rosemary Wells

5)      The Wall by Eve Bunting

6)      The Hello Goodbye Window by Norton Juster

7)     When Randolph Turned Rotten by Charise Harper

8)     The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter

Wiki Checklist

1)     1   Social Studies

2)          Science

3)          Math

4)          Music

5)          Art

6)     1   Reading/Language Arts

7)          Physical Education

8)          Other

Reflection of Field Experience

How many hours did you complete?

I completed 5 hours of field experience.

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

I spent most of my time collaborating with other professionals about reading; I had a meeting with my Vice Principal and Psychologist to discuss specific interventions and goals for the students in Reading and other subjects as well.  Since second grade is a big reading year, a lot of the discussion was on this- how to reach your struggling readers and how to push those reader’s that are excelling.  I also met with my team for 2 hours and we discuss the upcoming week’s agendas and plans.  We actually discussed a Junior Great Books to go with the class.  We discussed higher order thinking questions to go along with our discussions.  We shared various articles that we found that go along with our Social Studies and Science standards as well.  Lastly, I gave a lesson that was observed by another teacher that is at the school.  She gave me feedback on strengths and weaknesses of the lesson.

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

The standard that I worked on throughout this field experience was definitely Standard 7: The teacher reflects on and evaluates teaching and learning.  In all of the meetings, the discussion was about how to get ALL students in the class to learn and progress in Reading.  We discussed the interventions and strategies that we were using with each student and discussed if they were working or not. There were some situations where I had to go back and say, “Ok, this is working for Student A but I have to try a different approach with Student B.”  These are all great conversations to have to better you as an educator.  Also, it is important to use the ideas of others at your school that may have some creative ideas that have worked for them.

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

Mainly I learned the importance of data and differentiation.  Each student has a goal that you want to set for them personally and the ways to reach it can look so different per child.  While one child may be excelling on the intervention that you are using, another can be struggling.  You have to spend time to truly figure out what the individual students’ needs are and then find ways to get them to grow academically.

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth

Davies, N., & Layton, N. (2006). Extreme animals: The toughest creatures on Earth. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press.

Genre: Informational Text

Age Group: Grade K-4^th grade

Summary

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth is an informational text that describes the various habitats of animals all over the world. It describes climates that are unimaginable for humans to live in.  It describes these conditions and makes it easy for students to compare and contrast these conditions between animals and relate this to what humans need to survive.  There are a lot of kid-friendly illustrations to help visualize what the fact is that is being discussed. 

Reflection

This is an entertaining and engaging children’s book that will definitely get your students excited to discover more about different types of animals.  The book is extremely interesting and is good for comparing and contrasting various habitats as well as teaching questioning; I think the facts in this book will provoke a lot of questions for students.  The structure of this book is description; the author discusses the different habits such as volcanoes, wastelands, and deserts.  The facts are compared to what humans could not endure.  The layout of the pages is a double-page spread that discusses intriguing facts about the particular animal- whether it be bacteria, amphibians, reptiles, etc.  For instance, it tells you “fleas can resist gravity that would break human bones.”  The illustrations are also appealing to a student.  They are cartoon-like and allow for the informative text to be more child-friendly.  An example is the title shown below.

Because of Winn-Dixie

DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge, Mass: Candlewick Press.

Book Talk:

Have you ever heard of the saying, “A dog is a man’s best friend?” Just wait until you meet Opal, her dad, the preacher, and her spunky light-hearted dog, Winn-Dixie.  Winn-Dixie touches the family in ways that you could never imagine.  When a storm erupts in the small town of Naomi, FL and Winn-Dixie and Opal get separated; what will happen to the family dynamics? You will have to read to find out! This book will have you in tears- laughing and crying.   

What a Day It Was At School!

Prelutsky, J., & Cushman, D. (2006). What a day it was at school!: Poems. New York: Greenwillow Books

Genre: children’s poetry

Age group: k-3^rd grade

Summary:  This is a light-hearted, amusing book of various poems that are correlated with school.  For instance, there are poems on a science experiments, wearing a backpack, taking a field trip, the library, a funny classmate, etc.  The poems contained in this collection are simplistically written and entertaining for children. 

Reflection:  I thoroughly enjoyed these poems and think they are perfect to use for 2^nd grade.  They are very entertaining and have hidden humor throughout them.  I think many of them cater to the emotions and thoughts of students, which would make it easy for children to relate to them.  My favorite poem from the collection of poems was, “I Wish I’d Studied Harrder.”  The poem has a lot of strong vocabulary.  The rhyme scheme is different because it doesn’t follow a particular pattern, which is a good thing for students to see various types of rhyming in poetry.  A particular stanza reads; “I wish I’d studied harrder, for out spellink test today.  I’m sorrie that I didn’t, now I am feeling some dismay.”  I think this would also be a good poem to discuss underlying messages that the author tries to get across. This is a short, narrative poem that it telling a story about a character that did not study for their spelling test and feels frustrated when taking the test. Prelutsky adds creativity to the story by misspelling words throughout the story so the readers can really see that the character can’t spell because he didn’t study. I also liked the sentence variety throughout this poem; there are italics, hyphens, ellipses, simple sentences, and compound sentences.  This would be a good chance to show your students different forms of sentences they can use when writing- “I tried to spell Cunneddykit, But really I just gessed…”