chapter 12

Chapter 12 talks about independent reading. Independent reading is when students spend time reading and responding to books at their own pace to self-selected books. Classrooms need to have a library with a wide range of books of different topics, genres, and different levels of difficulty so that students can have enough choices to select from. Storing and displaying books is critical to helping children access books that are engaging. Teachers need to ensure that students have regular and sufficient time for independent reading. Teachers also need to have one-on-one time with each student so that they can monitor student progress and provide guidance if necessary.

chapter 11

Chapter 11 talks about shared Reading. Shared reading is a collaborative activity in which students and teachers read carefully selected texts. When doing shared reading the teacher and a group of students should sit close together to read and reread in unison. Shared reading has two important purposes: It gives children an enjoyable literacy experience so that they grow to love stories and become fascinated with the sounds of book language. Second, shared reading lessons systematically show how print works so children can become independent readers and writers. Teachers should be sitting low enough to maintain eye contact with students.

Genre Presentations

I really enjoyed the presentations on Monday. They were all well done and I got some good ideas out of their activities that they did. I can see how important it is to get the students involved in literature and make the activities interesting and interactive. Great job everybody!

Mondays presentation

I thought the presentation on La Llorona was excellent. They did a great job of telling the story. I also learned something. I had heard the story about the llorona but I really didn't know why she did what she did until now. The lesson plan that they did afterwards was also good. I would give them an A+.

Children's Authors

Nini Here and There by Anita Lobel is a cute story about a cat named Nini. Nini things her family is going on vacation without her. It’s a cute book probably for pre-k to 1st grade. It has beautiful illustrations that kids will enjoy.

Anita Lobel is a children’s author and illustrator. She has written many and illustrated many children’s books. Some of the books that she has written are: Allison’s Zinnia, Away from Home, Hello Day, Potatoes , Potatoes and So Happy. Nine Here and There is a story about her cat named Nini. Her book On Market Street won her a Caldecott Honor.


Chester by Melanie Watt is a cute and funny book. Kids will definitely enjoy this book because it’s about a silly cat who wants all the attention to himself. Melanie Watt’s website says that parents will probably enjoy the books more than the kids and that might just be true because I really enjoyed reading this book. It was so funny.
Melanie Watts has written and illustrated many other children’s books including Scaredy Squirrel, and another one about a penguin called Agustine. Melanie Watt has also written concept books about colors and shapes. I would definitely use her books in my classroom.


Squeaky Clean by Simon Puttock and illustrated by Mary McQuillan is a book about three little dirty pigs that do not want to take a bath at first but once they get in the tub they enjoy bath time. This book would make a good read aloud because of the way it is written. Simon Puttock has also written many children’s book and he currently lives in Scotland where he has won several awards for his books.

Read aloud books

Max’s Words by Kate Banks is a good read aloud book. This is a story about a little boy who has two older brothers that like to collect things so Max decide to start his own collection. Only Max decides to start a collection of words. As his collection of words grow, he starts using them to make sentences and then with the help of his brother he creates a story adventure of his own. This book is filled with bold, bright pictures. This book has also won several awards.
Kate Banks has written several books for children besides Max’s Words. Two other books that she has written are If the Moon Could Talk and the Night Worker. Both of these books also won her awards. Kate says her parents were avid readers and read a lot of bed time stories to her and they took her to the library and book store often. This is where she became an avid reader herself. She says she especially enjoyed picture books. She likes to write about her life experiences. Kate has a Bachelors Degree in history.



Poor Puppy by Nick Bruel is another good read aloud book. This is a good book to help children counting and the ABC’s. This is a story about a puppy who wants to play with a kitty but the kitty does not want to play with the puppy. So the puppy finds other things around the house to play with. The story tells you things that he wants to play with alphabetically and in numerical order like 1 airplane, 2 balls, etc. Kids will enjoy the illustrations because they are done in watercolor and in cartoon style and the print is large. Nick Bruel is an author and illustrator of children’s books. His books have also won several awards. Both of these books are good for pre-k through 3rd grade. I found these books along with other suggested read aloud books at: http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/children/readaloud.html. This is the Allen County Public Library website.

Alphabet Animals – A Slide and Peek Adventure is a book written and illustrated by Suse MacDonald. This is a fun book about animals. All the letters of the alphabet take the shape of animals from alligator to zebra. Children can pull out the pages to find the letter and animals name. This is a good book to teach children their ABC’s and expand their vocabulary at the same time. Suse MacDonald is a Caldecott Honor Book recipient. Suse started her career as a textbook illustrator followed by ten years doing architectural drafting and design. But she wasn’t happy doing that so she decided to illustrate and write children’s books instead.

I Love You A Rebus Poem is written by Jean Marzollo and illustrated by Suse MacDonald. A rebus poem is a poem in which pictures take the place of words.. A rebus poem or book is designed for children that are learning how to read. This type of book would be a good book for a pre-k or kinder student to read. Jean Marzollo is probably best known for her award winning I Spy book series. Her website: www.jeanmarzollo.com is excellent for kids and teachers. Her website has other rebus poems and games for children. And she has a like to other author/illustrator sites approved by the American Library Association.

Children's Authors

What is a Mammal introduces kids to mammals by showing and describing the main groups and discussing their anatomy, habitats, reproduction and diet. It is a book that can be incorporated into a science lesson plan. This book is written by Bobbie Kalman. Bobbie Kalman is recognized by educators as the author of hundreds of children’s curriculum based books. She is considered one of the leading non-fiction writers for children in North America. Bobbie holds degrees in English, Psychology and education.

Chapter 10

I definitely agree the comments the teachers made about reading aloud to children. I believe it is very important to read to children often and many different types of books. I always read many books to my children when they were little and I can see the difference that it made. Both my kids are excellent readers and they love to read. I always got them books for their birthdays and for Christmas and I still do. My daughter is always reading books and my son is good at spelling and reading. He was reading at 11th grade level when he was in the fourth grade and I believe the fact that I always read to them had something to do with this.
So there is definitely a benefit of reading aloud to children. You can get them hooked on books for a lifetime plus it helps with their language and vocabulary. So I plan on doing a lot of reading to my students because like Oralia Garza de Cortes said not every child may have had an opportunity to have a parent read aloud to them. This makes it even more crucial to have a teacher read aloud to them because there are so many benefits to being read to.

Chapter 9

I agree with the authors of this book. I believe non-fiction books are an excellent supplement to textbooks in science and social studies or even in other subjects because kids can learn a lot from these type of books. I also found it interesting to know that boys especially like these type of books. I suppose it's probably because they can find books on topics that interest them like cars, trucks or dinosaurs. So I can see how they like this genera. Girls on the other hand, probably like fiction books better because they like the stories that they can relate too.

Pumpkin Heads is of course a book for Halloween or maybe fall because it’s about pumpkins. It’s another good read aloud book for little kids. This book was written and illustrated by Wendell Minor. Wendell Minor has not written many books, however, he is more known for being an illustrator and an artist. He has done the illustrations to many children’s author books and has won many awards.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake is a kids book by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond. It is a cute book about a cat and all the things he wants to do during a day. This book is also a good read aloud book that kids will enjoy. The book is well illustrated with colorful pictures.
Laura Numeroff is an author of many children’s books. She is the author of the If You Give….. book series. Her books are read by children all over the world because they are written in different languages. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York surrounded by books, art, and music. You can find out more about Laura at www.lauranumeroff.com.

Monster Manners is a book about manners. It is written by Bethany Roberts and illustrated by Andrew Glass. It talks about the bad habits that monsters have (children) but then it tells you how they are good. It’s a cute book with cute pictures. It would be a good read aloud books for little kids.
Bethany Roberts is children’s author who started out as a teacher and librarian but she says she knew she always wanted to write books since she was a little girl. She has two little girls and she says she loves reading books to them. She says she likes to write about things that she likes; things that are important to her. She writes about families, friendships, seasons, holidays and fury little animals. Her website is http://www.bethanyroberts.com/ and it is full of helpful information. She has a section for teachers where she tells you how to integrate her books into the curriculum. Her books are geared towards pre-k through 3rd grade. Her website also has a section for kids. Other books that she has written are Cat Skidoo, Gramps and the Fire Dragon, The Winds Garden and Rosie to the Rescue.

My favorite science fiction book is The Giver by Lois Lowry. I loved the story line. When I first started reading the book, I couldn't put it down. I think I read it in two days. It's a story about a boy named Jonas that lives in a world without any conflict, poverty or injustice. He lives in a world of sameness. Where everybody is the same and everything is in black and white. When kids are twelve years old, kids are assigned the job that they will do for the rest of their lives. This is when Jones starts finding out that his world is not so perfect after all. This book makes you think about what it would be to live in a world like this. It's an excellent book.

One of the websites that I found on graphic organizers is: http://themes.pppst.com/graphic-organizers.html
This website has all kinds of graphic organizers. It shows you how to create your own graphic organizers and how to use them. It also has templates and free clip art that you can use.
Another website that I found is:
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/graphic-organizers.html
This website has all sorts of graphic organizers plus it also has worksheets on all subjects that you can print out. In addition, it also has games and puzzles. This is an excellent website. I would definitely recommend it and use it myself.

Chapter 8 was also full of helpful information. I agree with the authors when they say that the reading teacher has two jobs and that is to teach children to read and to teach children to want to read. I believe this is the teacher’s most important job because reading opens up the world to you. When you can read, you can travel the world thru books. You can learn a lot thru books. You can explore a hobby; you can read about whatever you find interesting or whatever you want to learn more about.
Fiction is also my favorite type of book. I like the contemporary realistic fiction. They say this genre is most popular among intermediate and middle school students because students can relate to the characters in these books. I agree with this statement because I remember when I was in school I read a book that made a big impression on me. I remember thinking how the character in the book was so much like me and so I was able to relate to the character in the book. To this day I still remember this book and the character.
One thing I found interesting about historical fiction is all the research that goes into writing one of these books. Gloria Houston says that the research involved sometimes surpasses the research needed for a graduate degree. The authors of this book say that these historical fiction books can complement content areas studies such as social studies or history because students can learn so much more than what they can by just reading the text book. They say “historical fiction supplies the humanity in history.”

Tomie DePaola has been publishing books for over 40 years but he is best known as a children’s author. He has also been recognized with several awards including the Caldecott Honor Award and the Newberry Honor Reward. Tomie loved reading books since he was a child because his mother used to read books to him every day. He says he knew he wanted to write stories and draw pictures for books since he was four years old and that’s exactly what he did. The first book that Tomie illustrated was for a science book called Sound. That was over 40 years ago. Since then Tomie has done the illustrations for over 200 books and wrote the stories to over 100 books. He has sold over 6 million books and his books have been published in 15 countries. One of the books that I came across from Tomie is called Pancakes for Breakfast. It is Tomie’s first wordless picture books. It’s actually a cute book that you could use in a writing lesson plan. Student’s can write words to it.

Judy Schachner was born in 1951 in Massachusetts. She’s been drawing pictures since she was a child. She said her teachers complained that she was too shy and that she needed to improve her mat but that they never complained about her art work. She went to college and graduated with a BFA. Then she went to work for Hallmark designing greeting cards for them but she wasn’t happy. When she got married and had two kids, that’s when she started drawing again and writing stories. Her first book that was published was called Willy and May. Since then she has written many children’s books including books about Skippyjon Jones and the Grannyman. This book is for pre-k or kinder students and it teaches kids about opposites. It is called Skippyjon Jones Up and Down.

The Three Little Cajun Pigs is a fractured fairy tale by Mike Artell and Illustrated by Jim Harris. Of course this story is a different version of the Three Little Pigs. In this version, the three little pigs are Cajun and they even talk a little French and instead of a wolf there is an alligator. It’s basically the same story except the three little pigs and the alligator have a Cajun accent. Mike Artell is an award winning author, illustrator, and TV cartoonist. He has written many types of books including picture books, how to book and non-fiction books. He has won several awards. You can read more about Mike Artell at http://www.mikeartell.com/. His website has a section for kids, parents, and teachers.

While doing my research on children's authors, I came across the picture of this book on the library's website. I thought the picture was so cute and I clicked on the book and it took me to the website for Skippyjon Jones. I had never seen or heard of Skippyjon Jones but I found out that Judy Schachner has written several books on this character. This book is geared towards pre-k or kinder students. This book teaches kids about shapes.

This is another book that Judy Schachner wrote about Skippyjon Jones.

This book teaches kids colors. It is also geared toward pre-k and kindergarten kids. The pictures are cute. Little kids will enjoy this book especially those that like cats.

This is another book by Judy Schachner about SkippyJon. This book is geared towards older kids like maybe 2nd graders. I thought this book was so cute. This book can be used not only for a reading lesson but for a poetry or Spanish lesson. It is written in Spanish and English. It would be a great book for an English learner. It also has poetry in it because it has a lot of rhyming in it. The website for Skippyjon Jones is www.skippyjonjones.com. I would definetly recommend this website. It is excellent for kids and teachers. It's got a section for kids where they can play games and watch videos. It also has a section for teachers where you can print out worksheets, coloring pages and name tags.

One thing I learned about chapter seven is that picture books are no longer just for little kids and that picture books cut across all genres. I also learned that you have to look at picture books on the outside and the inside or else you might miss out on some of the meaning of the book. I can see how picture books are a marriage of art and writing. The art in the book can help clarify the meaning of the story or even help readers to read between the lines by looking at the pictures. I felt like I was reading a book about art when I read about all the visual elements used in a picture book. I also had no idea that the author does not know how the book is going to look until the end when the illustrator does his part. I also learned about the different forms of picture books. When I saw the chapter title, I was thinking about picture books without words, because that’s what I thought they were talking about but now I know that wordless picture books are just one form of picture books.
I agree with what the book says about how picture books help developing readers do what readers must eventually do for themselves – and that is to create relevant images of the text or to form mental images of the text. And the pictures do help the reader with comprehension because if maybe they didn’t understand the text, the pictures will help them get an idea of what’s going on in the story. I
It seems like there’s a lot of ways to incorporate picture books into a lesson plan. You can use the wordless picture books and have students write what they think is happening in the story. This is a good way to practice their writing skills. You can also act out a picture book like a play or even do a puppet show out of the book. You can even incorporate art into a lesson plan by having students draw what the book meant to them. This way you can see if the student comprehended what he read.

In chapter 6 I learned about traditional literature. Something I didn’t know was that traditional literature is the written form of stories that are part of the oral tradition of a culture. I also learned that traditional literature can be classified into two categories which are prose and non-prose. I didn’t know that non-prose narratives included jokes, riddles, play rhymes, short proverbs, ballads and nursery rhymes. I also learned that prose includes folktales, fairy tales, fables and legends.
I also learned that you have to be careful when choosing books from these categories because these books are based on cultures. You have to be careful not to offend your students. Plus you have to take into consideration when these stories were written because what was appropriate back then may not be appropriate now. These stories may have instances of racism or stereotypes and you have to consider that some of these stories may contain violence or monsters that may frighten some young children. The book suggests that you do your research before selecting from these genera. It suggests that you look at websites, book reviews, and professional societies.
I like the fact that the book gives you so many ideas on how to incorporate these stories into your lesson plans and it does some of the research for you because it gives you list of some of the various forms of traditional literature. These will definitely come in handy.

Chapter 5 and authors

Chapter five also had a lot of helpful information about poetry. I’m with you Mrs. Pickett. I’m not a big fan of poetry. However, I think today’s poetry is much better than the poetry that I remember when I was going to school. I remember trying to analyze it and figure out what the poet was trying to say. I found that so hard to do so I didn’t like it. The book does say one way to turn kids off to poetry is by doing just that and drilling the kids on the various rhyme schemes. I can also see how picking the right kind of poetry books can also make a big difference in getting students to either love poetry or hate it. The book says you have to make sure you pick poetry books that the kids will enjoy and that they can relate to. It also says that we should read different kinds of poetry to the kids to give them a taste of something different from the poetry buffet.
I like the fact that they have various books on poetry on different topics that you can incorporate into a lesson plan. I don’t remember there being poetry books that you could use with a math lesson or geography lesson back when I went to school. Kids these days have so many poetry books that they can choose from.

A good poetry book that I read was Shel Silverstein's Falling up book and it was funny. It's a good poetry book to get kids started with poetry I think. The poetry rhymes and it is funny. I really enjoyed reading it even though it's for kids. Shel Silverstein also has a cool website for kids. His website is http://www.shelsilverstein.com/. It has games, puzzles, coloring books and other activities for kids. It also has lesson plan activities for teachers. Shel Silverstein was the first author to have a children's book go the the New York Times best seller list.

Fold Me A Poem is obviously another book about poems. Except this book is about origami. The author is Kristine O'Connell George. Her book is full of pictures of various animals made out of origami. Little kids might enjoy this book. It has very colorful pictures and at the end it gives you the name of books that you can get to learn how to do origami. Her website: http://www.kristinegeorge.com/ also has a link where it shows you how to do an origami dog and it also has gives you some sample lesson plans to use in your classroom. You can also listen to some of her poetry at her website.

Chick Chicka 1 2 3 is another book I found. This book is written by Bill Martin Jr, Michael Sampson and Lois Ehlert. It is a book about numbers. This book can probably be used for pre-k or kinder. Kids can learn how to count to 20 and how to count to 100 by tens and they also learn how to count by 10 backwards from 100. This book can obviously be incorporated into a math lesson.

Chapter 4 and authors

In chapter four I learned how important it is to pick the right books for your classroom because you can make or break a young reader. I learned that “the teacher’s priority should be to encourage an aesthetic stance, particularly while reading fiction and poetry. Also we should be letting kids have a choice on what they want to read or research because they are more likely to become engaged in what they are reading and maybe even become lifelong readers. This is why it is important that teachers know their students and that they know what they like or what is in so that they can relate to them and find books that they think the kids will enjoy.

I found two interesting books by Tish Rabe and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz. One of the books is called There's a Map on My Lap! This book is similar to The Cat in the Hat book. It has the same characters from the Cat in the Hat except this book teaches young children about maps. This book is for beginner readers. This book can be used to teach a lesson on how to read a map or to teach children directions like north, south, east and west. It also talks about scale and how to read a map legend.

The other book that I found is called Inside Your Outside! All about the Human Body and it is also by Tish Rabe. This is a good book to use for a science lesson because it talks about the human body in terms little kids will understand. It doesn't use any big words that kids won't understand. This book also contains the same characters from the Cat in the Hat book. This book gives a brief description of the different body parts and systems without showing any thing gory. it's actually a very interesting book. I actually learned something my self from the book. I think kids will enjoy the book and learn at the same time.

Tish Rabe is a children's book author who has written over 80 children's books. She has written books for Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Bear in the Big Blue House and Curious George. She also writes for the Cat in the Hat Learning Library. She also writes scripts for children's television series for PBS, Nickelodeon and HBO family. You can find more information on her at her web site: www.tishrabe.com

EDRG 3321 Monday Night - Ch. 3 & 14

I found these chapters full of helpful information. I found the encouraging critical thinking and inquiry very interesting. I found out that simply asking literal questions is not a good measure of a students reading comprehension. Instead we have to learn to ask good questions. Questions that make the students think or even try to read between the lines. Maybe asking the easy literal questions is a good way to begin the lesson but then we should build up on that and ask higher level thinking questions.

I also think that doing the retellings is also a good way in helping students that maybe have a harder time with the reading comprehension.

In chapter 14, I think the author's chair is a good idea. It is definetlly something I would consider doing in my classroom. I also liked the idea about having spelling and punctuation committees. I can see how that would be helpful to students and the teacher. The self-assessment is also a good idea because it can help you see what the student thinks about his or her own work. However, one thing I am not to clear on is the Rubrics.

While researching children's authors, I found another web site that is full
of information. It is called Children's Book Central: http://www.eleanorsbooks.com/
It is definetly worth checking out. It even has links to other children's resources. You'll find a lot of helpful information there.

Chapter1

So far I find this book very interesting. It’s full of very helpful information. I do agree when it says that your beliefs influence your students or how we teach. So education students really do need to know themselves and know why they want to be a teacher. I know that we have some teachers out there right now that probably shouldn’t be teachers because they do not have the right attitude. And we probably have teachers like the one teacher who asked the other teacher why she came in early and did the extra work when she doesn’t get paid for it. It’s a bad attitude like that that makes for a bad teacher because it shows she isn’t committed to being the best teacher she can be.
I also was excited when I found out about the companion CD that came with the book. I was just thinking in class last Monday about how are we supposed to know which books are age appropriate or good books for kids and I read in the book about how you can search the database on the CD and find age appropriate books or do a search by author or genre. It’s good to know. I’m sure it will come in handy.

EDRG 3321 Monday Night - Children's Authors

While doing research on children's authors, I found some very interesting web sites. One of them is www. kidsreads.com/authors/authors.asp. This web site is full of interesting information. It has an alphabetical list of authors and their biographies. When you select an author, it'll give you a list of their books and some activities related to that book like a word scramble and a maze. These activities could be used in a classroom. Besides activities, it also gives you an address where you can write to your favorite author. This would also be something that a teacher could use in her classroom.

In this website I found out about Eric Carle who is the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the illustrator for Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See. My daughter used to love this two books when she was younger. I had no idea that he had written so many books. I would definetlly want to add some of his books to my classroom library some day.

Another helpful web site that I found was: www.kidinfo.com/language_Arts/Books_authors.html. This web site has information for students, teachers and parents. It has a lot of helpful resources and references. For instance it gives you web site where you can find children's books for all ages. In this web site I found out the name of the author of a book series that I used to like reading when I was in elementary.

Over all, there is a lot of helpful web sites out there where you can find a lot of ideas and information.

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