Saying good bye...

As we say good bye to this class and another semester, I feel it is important to look back and recognize what we take from classes. Especially in a class like this one where we don't necessarily have to cram for tests and learn facts. Some of the discussions we have had will go along way in in forming some of our classrooms someday. Take graphic novels for example, it is important to take your class into context, but it isn't something to shy away from. We always hear of a case where a parent is upset about something, but for the most part, they recognize that teachers have a job to do. We shouldn't be afraid to introduce a book or talk about a sensitive subject in class at fear of someone being upset. It is important to introduce students to these types of ideas as they will not be protected from it in the real world. As long as you can justify what you are teaching and it fits in the curriculum, your fellow teachers and administrators should have your back. Don't let fear dictate how you will teach! Good luck to everyone in the future!

Breaking down stereotypes

Children observe and take in much more information than we give them credit for. They pick up on subtleties and underlying messages that sometimes adults don't even see.

So what can we do about this?
1. Be more critical of the books/media you have in your classroom or home.
2. Don't be afraid to talk to your students or other children in your life about the stereotypes that you come across.
3. Help your children to become more critical of what they are reading, watching or playing with.

By doing this, you are helping your student not only become better readers and writers, but you are helping them become better people.

What are we really learning?

As we sit here in finals week stressed as can be, what do finals really prove? Is it measuring how much we learned over the semester or is it what we can cram into a weeks worth of studying. More importantly, of the information we may or may not have learned, what are we going to take with us into the future? As teachers, we need to be aware of this, especially with reading. When students are reading, how are we assessing them and measuring what they are learning. While a student may read if they know there will be a test or a book report, will they learn the information just for the test and then forget it? Or will they really start to understand how to read and comprehending text? Although grades are important, it is also important to remember that getting a grade is not necessarily a reflection of knowledge learned!

Cross curriculum connections

In hopes that they will become well-informed and functional members of society, students are offered numerous facts and ideas about the world in which they live. Students are expected to take this information in and to also make it their own, expand on it, and be able to apply it to situations within their lives. How can teachers achieve the greatest understanding and interest among the greatest number of children?

Children’s literature is a powerful medium for understanding the world and is

created to entertain or educate. For young people this literature is becoming much more common as a means of instruction in the classroom.

Literature includes books that are found in a library or bookstore as well as songs and poems. Textbooks are books used specifically for learning in school, and, therefore, have different strengths and weaknesses. Students benefit vastly from the integration of literature into the math, science, and social studies curriculum.

Chains

I had the misconception that historical fiction novels were all told from a 3rd person perspective, we very boring and usually were from the perspective of the victor or someone who benefited from that event.

When I read Chains for another TE class, I was pleasantly surprised. It was unique, pure and invigorating to read. The narrator was a young girl and talked about very famous events surrounding the revolutionary war.

Okay, so this is like any other book set in that time period right? That's what I thought but I was wrong. The book by Laurie Halse Anderson does so much more. It is told from a slaves perspective and not only that, but from the Loyalists perspective too.

By showing other sides of a story you get a much more holistic view of the event and in turn learn so much more. This is something to keep in mind when you are using literature to supplement a lesson or if you are just reading for pleasure.

A Great Class

Although it was a lot of work, this class has made me more aware of Children's Literature and in turn a better teacher. It introduced me to a variety of genres and why each of those genres are important. It pushed me past my comfort zone (who would have ever thought that I would read and actually enjoy a graphic novel?!) and opened my eyes to a whole world of Children's books, topics and authors that I never knew existed.

Wrap up thoughts

I really enjoyed taking TE348. I am a special education major, and this class taught me very good skills to learn if books would be good for a classroom. When I was doing respite care with a special needs child she always wanted to read books. This class taught me how to find books that would interest her, and teach her something even if it was just colors or animals. I found a cool website that gave me a bunch of books that teach about special needs, which would be good for any general education classroom. http://www.disaboom.com/children-with-disabilities/best-books-for-special-needs-kids.

As far as for children with special needs, I have had trouble finding books that pertain to them. I stumbled across a few blogs that gave good insight of different books for children with Autism, the area I want to specialize in. It was interesting to see what everyone else recommended. I think at this point in time, since Autism is so new, you can only go off of other peoples recommendations. Some blogs are not trustworthy, but it is worth it to take a look at some different ones. http://www.beagooddad.com/237/good-books-for-children-with-autism/

Literature is a special thing, and every child will like it in different ways. I think the only way you can find good literature for your students, is to understand their needs and wants. There are so many sites that have good recommendations for children's books. I'm glad I have learned about all these resources that I can use in my future class.

Librarians are Checking Out

As school districts work to accommodate budget shortfalls, teachers aren’t the only education professionals to be let go or reshuffled. Librarians along with arts teachers and music program directors, are more vulnerable. And as advances in technology and the wealth of information available online can appear to make rooms filled with books obsolete, librarians find themselves on the chopping block more and more often.

The susceptibility of librarians and other school support staff also comes as states pass laws revising the rules that govern the hiring and firing of education professionals. Where the job security of teachers has depended on seniority until now, a new focus on teacher accountability ties their evaluations to test scores.

Unlike other subjects, students are not routinely tested for their library skills. They play a very important role for the students, they’re professionals who know how to do the research, and they get to make connections with all of the students in the building instead of those assigned to them in the classroom.

But today’s school libraries are more than just places to check out books. No longer tangential to the school, libraries are classrooms and technological hubs.

Librarians do more than help with the occasional research project or hard-to-find items; they are teacher librarians who follow state and federal curricula to teach students how to find, interpret and use information.

The Greatest Gift

Every holiday season, a new craze hits the shelves and parents everywhere are in search of the newest toy or the coolest game to get their children. Instead of giving in to the mass market of over priced, low quality toys I give my family and little cousins books. Sure, when unwrapped, the books I’ve given them don’t usually draw immediate squeals of excitement. However books are still the greatest gifts we can give to children in our lives. When all of the hoopla of the holidays settles down, they are thrilled with the books I have selected for them.

Years later I still see the books on their shelves, they tell me how they wrote to the author, and they ask for another book like the last one. Books last long after the batteries die out and the sneakers are worn and frayed!

Each title selected reflects the gift givers thoughts about the recipient and shows that we view that child as an individual with particular tastes and interests. Books show that you care about that child in ways that extend far beyond the latest fads and heavily advertised big-ticket novelty items. Oh, and books also make great family gifts that encourage reading together.

One of the neat things about children’s literature is that the classics and tried-and-true titles provide a continuing source of ideas with proven appeal year after year.

From Paper to the Silver Screen

Got a hit book? Turn it into a hit film. What could be more natural? The name alone will sell tickets, and turning a hit book to the screen can't be that hard, can it?

Sadly, as many studios have found, it's not quite that simple. Print and film are very different media; what works for one will fall flat on the other. A good rule of thumb is: Great literature usually makes a bad movie, while mediocre literature often makes a great movie.

In books, special effects are easy but in film, they are expensive. Books describing a character’s thoughts are normal but in film, voiceovers are rare and tricky. In print, a story can take days to read meanwhile film audiences won't sit still for more than a few hours. Getting around these problems means changing the story, for better or for worse.

One issue is that a typical novel is simply much too long to fit all of it in a two (or even three) hour movie, so significant parts of it must be cut out. Sometimes entire characters may be changed, have their screen time lengthened/shortened (if not cut altogether), or important book-related plot points may be whizzed by. All of this tends to a trendy belief that no matter how good or bad the movie is, "The book was better."

Sometimes the film is so successful the book gets forgotten. Other times, the book is still read long after the film is forgotten. In the middle ground, the book will probably be republished with a cover based on the movie poster and "Now a major motion picture!" or something emblazoned on it.

What is your opinion on changing books into movies? Does it encourage children to read the book or does is discourage motivation to read if they can simply watch a movie for two hours?

The Bookless Age

The Kindle Fire by Amazon.com, the online retailer, is one of the latest and most popular electronic readers of the season. For the uninitiated, ‘eReaders’ are portable electronic devices that allow you to store and read thousands of books all from the palm of your hand (along with other features, depending on which eReader you choose). As eReaders like Kindle begin to break into the mainstream, people are speculating that ‘books’ as we know them today may disappear in favor of electronic versions of the stories they contain –- forever changing our concepts of reading, literature, and publishing. Will eReaders be a fortunate thing or a bust in encouraging more children to read, and to read more?

A quick scan of available titles for download on Kindle reveals nearly 1,000 children’s books (although heavily slanted toward young adult stories). If any books survive an eReader revolution, my first instinct is that children’s books will. In terms of educational value, I see little difference between bound books and eBooks. After all, we’re reminded that traditional books have only been around for a tiny slice of human history, and they have been evolving. But more than any other genre, children’s books (and especially young children’s books) rely on engaging pictures and creative layout to successfully attract readers.

Current eReaders are limited in the images and formatting they can display, especially when compared with the masterpieces you can find on paper. Kindle enthusiasts rave about the visual output (and the technology is only going to improve), but will it ever compare in the eyes of our youngest – and harshest – book critics? Whether or not children prefer electronic books, will they be easier or more difficult for children to access?

Disclaimer: I do not own or use an electronic reading device, and my personal experience is limited to helping my 80 grandmother when she something ‘goes wrong’ with hers.

Goodbyes

This was one of my most interesting classes I had this semester. I wasn't sure how I would like it, especially being a 3 hour class. However, I got a lot out of it. I learned so much more about different kind of books and how to figure out ones that would be good to use in a classroom. One of my favorite parts about the class was all the book we were able to read. When I first read the syllabus I definitely wasn't happy because of all the work I was going to have to do for my other classes. The majority of the books we had to read were really good and it was nice to finally enjoy reading a book that was required. During the school year it's always so hard to read for pleasure, but this class helped me realize that there is still plenty of time to do that as long as you manage it well. I'm going to take a lot away from this class and I hope I'm able to continue researching children's literature. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great finals week and holiday break! Here's a little something to get into the holiday spirit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txCiZFPsKR8&feature=related

and yes, I love this movie :)

The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.

Yesterday, my roommates and I decorated our house with a million lights, on the outside and inside. So that has gotten me in the holiday spirit recently, which isn't helpful when it comes to studying for finals. However, it got me thinking that I don't really know of many holiday books. I only remember reading one Halloween book when I was younger. I'm not sure if these books are available and I just never noticed, but if not I definitely think they should make more holiday books for children. I've never known one child who didn't get excited for the holidays. I think book like that will make them more excited to read.

academic vs. recreational reading

I was working with my child study student for a different class the other day, and through assessments and talking with her I've found that she loves reading recreationally, but absolutely despises it for anything academic. Coming from a personal stand point, reading in general is something that isn't my cup of tea, but I know at one point I was just like her and enjoyed reading for pleasure. I have noticed that only a few of my close friends actually still enjoy reading and I wonder how and when this shift took place? How are we suppose to make sure the students we are teaching can get enjoyment out of reading as a whole, whether it be academic or recreational? As we have discussed in class, there are definite differences in whether one is reading for content or enjoyment. Are we suppose to address reading from both of these standpoints as teachers or are we just suppose to promote reading as a whole?

life lessons in picture books

When working on my book review, I had some realizations as I was working through it. I used a picture book called the "Quiet Bunny" that was a story of the journey of the Quiet Bunny finding his own "sound" in the "night song". This undeniably addresses the ideas relating to acceptance, fitting in and finding your own, but as I was reading through this I wondered would the audience actually understand this? I know we have talked about how picture books are not for a specific age and can be geared towards all different ages, but this book relies heavily on illustrations and includes sounds of animals which would cater to a younger audience. My question is, are picture books that attempt to teach some "life lesson" actually getting through to the audience? Are these life lessons suppose to be learned by the reader, or are they just suppose to be exposed to it multiple times so when they themselves experience it they can make sense of it?

Why Bother?

In our last class we talked about a pizza hut reward program for reading. This reminded me of something I learned in a lower level TE course. In TE 150 we talked about the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivating. As you may recall students learn better and are more involved when they are pushed by intrinsic motivation. This being said does not however say that kids do not benefit from some extrinsic motivation.

I agree that reading programs that offer rewards are good for getting kids started reading but they I do not feel that they hold all children’s interest. Programs such as these often discourage slower readers. When these programs start almost all the kids are excited to work towards their first prize however this excitement fades quickly. The quick readers immediately start to show results and get prizes while the slower readers take a while longer. At first this is fine but the slow readers quickly fall further and further behind and many get to a point where they don’t see a point in trying. If they act like they don’t care to try they won’t look slow or dumb.

Another response that students take to these programs is reading shorter easier books that are way below their ability level so they can finish them quicker. The faster they finish the more prizes they can get and the program is no longer beneficial at pushing kids to read and challenge themselves.

These are just a couple of the flaws that this system causes. My question is how can we change this? How can we encourage students of all levels to push themselves past their comfort zone with reading and work towards personal goals? Is there a system that can be developed to spark and keep the interest of children to read? The system now has a lot of students asking themselves why bother if they cannot keep up with the whole class.

Unlocking Young Minds

A number of people that I know grew up in homes that were filled with books mine included. However, the significant number of books I was surrounded by as a child was not represented with my interest in reading. I was not the type of kid who would go grab a random book off the shelf in my house and start reading it. Even though there was a huge selection ranging from children’s books to adult literature I was not interested.

You could see my lack of interest in my reading ability. I was a very slow reader and did not practice to get better because it was not my idea of fun. My parents did everything including hiring a tutor to help me improve my reading ability but it just seemed like more work.

A few times however I would go with my mom to the bookstore and be fascinated by the children’s literature section. There were so many stories that I had never seen before and the bright colorful displays caught my interest. I would constantly lose my mom by turning down an intriguing aisle. I found my self actually looking forward to reading after going to the bookstore and having the power to pick from what seemed like any book in the world.

I read an article on TheRecord.com that discusses this exact issue and how it is the case for many children. The piece is called “Bookstores hold the key to unlocking young minds” A quote from it says “There is a point at which it is important to let a child choose their own books” which is very true to my case along with many other kids. Even when you are given access to a wide variety of books from early on in childhood many kids want to have the power to pick a book for themselves from what they see as any book in the world.

http://www.therecord.com/opinion/columns/article/636919--bookstores-hold-the-key-to-unlocking-young-minds

Rewarding Reading

After discussing in class about reward systems for reading, I began to think back about how students in my school were rewarded for reading. I know that we had one system where we would read 15 books and would then be rewarded with an individual pizza from Pizza Hut. Another was for every 5 books read you would receive a ticket. At the end of the term you were then eligible for prizes.

I personally think that these systems are great. As a student that did not enjoy reading, I think it's important that you provide an incentive. However, I do think they could make the students work harder then just reading the books. The point is to really get the kids to really read not just speed through and miss the message of the book.

I think that reading response papers could be really good for students. By getting the student to question and reflect on what there reading seems much more beneficial then just assuming they understand and handing them a reward. Kids should be challenged with more then just a number.

Read a book. Eat a Pizza

After discussing in class about the motivation for children to read, I began to wonder how to really get children motivated to read. When I was in elementary school, we had the program called 'Book-It' which was very similar to the reading program we read about in one of our articles for our class discussion. Throughout the article, it described the intentions of these programs and what is really the motivation factor behind children wanting to read. Do children want to read because they want to get a pizza? Or do children want to read because they really enjoy reading?
After discussing this within our groups, I thought back to when I was in elementary school. As I stated earlier, we had the program called 'Book-It.' 'Book-It' was a program that allowed students to earn a pizza coupon at pizza hut for a free pizza if they read a specific amount of books. I remembering loving this. I enjoyed reading and I was getting a reward for doing something that I loved. However, I now know that all students were/are not like how I was. Even though I enjoyed readinig, I know there are some students that hate reading and will do anything not to read. Their motivation behind reading is earning the pizza coupon for pizza hut and not enjoying the book. I believe that as future educators, we need to realize that all students may not love to read. I don't think programs like 'Book-it' are a horrible idea. I think that these programs can actually be beneifical if they are portrayed in the correct way. If a teacher tells the students that the most important part of reading is to enjoy it and students should want to read because there are a variety of books that can fit their personality then students may get a reward, like a 'Book-it' pizza coupon for doing something that they really do enjoy doing, proving and giving a reward to the student because they are doing something good.

Thoughts on TE 348 from an Urban Educator

Overall, I really enjoyed all of the material covered in this class. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the books we covered for role responses and would love to try to include some of them in my future classroom. As a member of the Urban Ed Cohort, a majority of my education has been geared towards teaching diverse student populations, or teaching in under resourced communities, and while Bud, not Buddy was an excellent book containing a diverse range of characters, a majority of the other books did not include minority characters, and none of the books contained characters who had disabilities. I personally wish that there had been more books focusing on diverse characters rather than all white, non-disability characters, simply because of my major and specialized degree program, but I also think it would be valuable for future teachers who aren't going to be teaching in a diverse area to be introduced to books that will ensure their students have access to literature about different cultures or lifestyles. This might be something instructors might consider in the coming years. Many students going through the education program have a global or urban focus, and many others are devoting their teaching careers to students with special needs. It might be valuable to include more children's literature that focuses on these aspects to ensure students have been introduced to topics of diversity and social justice.

Global Education

I am involved in a Global Cohort for the college of education. In this cohort we learn about global education, and how to teach a global classroom. There are many factors that go into having a successful globally diverse classroom. I never realize this before I started taking classes that taught me about this. Recently we did a project on finding appropriate curriculum for children who are English Language Learners, and for a global classroom. While I was researching these lesson plans, I noticed a lot of the reading used was books that I never used in school. The books are more culturally diverse than those I read in school, and brush up on issues that we were never allowed to talk about. I think its important to teach children to respect other cultures as early as possible. At a certain age children will learn about stereotypes, but if you can educate them before that age it could lessen their chances of believing stereotypes. Teachers could start by using books that are more culturally diverse to teach lessons. Most picture books display a white family. Introducing other types of families to the students will open their eyes to a new world. From this class I have gained a whole new perspective on children's literature. I think that if teachers are provided with the right materials, they will be able to teach students to be aware of other cultures. Something as small as a diverse book could begin the process.

Holiday Literature

For our application assignment we critiqued books from different holidays around the world. Everyone loves the holidays, and there are so many books on them, or so we thought. When we went to Barnes and Noble to start looking at book we learned very quickly that their "Holiday" section consisted of Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter books. There weren't any books about Ramadan or Rosh Hashanah. I found this interesting because I assumed that the book store would at least try to have some literature on most of the holidays. It was ironic how all of the books we needed were shown online, but not in the store. This made me wonder why there were only Christian holidays featured at the store. Holiday celebrations from other cultures or religions are equally as important, and children should be exposed to literature about these holidays.

When I went to my library at home I found a similar display. The featured books were all Christmas with a few Hanukkah books on the bottom shelf. I searched in the "Holiday" section of the library and found exactly what I was looking for. There were books from every culture and holiday on the shelf. As I started reading the books about different holidays, I found myself very interested in these books. I think libraries should display books from all religions and cultures because it could really enrich a child's knowledge.

Commercializing Literature

After discussing Daniel Hade's article "Storyselling: Are Publishers Changing the Way Children Read?", during discussion section this past week, I was reminded of my Communications class on Mass Communication. The class, which focuses on mass media's effects on society, touched breifly on a similar topic a few weeks ago. While reading Hade's article, I was reminded of lecture material that stated, media created for the mass consumption is low quality, because it is intended for sale rather than how aids in the self actualization of the individual. I feel that according to Hade's article, the same is true for a majority of children's literature being published. Publishers should be concerned about the content of the book, but instead are publishing books that they know will be marketable, and while this strategy is a good money-maker, it benefits youth very little.
The market's effect on what books make it to the shelve was rather noticeable when I was searching for books for the application assignment. It became obvious that I was not going to be able to find the books I needed at any large bookstore, and instead had to search through private bookshops, websites, and libraries to find the books I needed. I think the marketability of books has much to do with content. Books which do not represent dominant culture may not be published because they are considered "unmarketable" to general audiences.

As a future teacher, I understand that corporate marketing will effect the types of books available to me and my students, but I am determined that this will not effect my selection of intellectual classroom material

According to Hade, when

Final Thoughts

I found this class to be extremely informative and enjoyable. I truly believe that I will take all this information that I learned in this course and use it as a future teacher. I feel like I've really learned a lot about different types of genres and the importance of introducing a range of genres to students.

In addition, I found the books we read extremely enjoyable. Hunger Games was my favorite, followed by The Book Thief. I literally couldn't put down Hunger Games until I had finished it in about 3 days. I can't really place what exactly it was that I enjoyed so much; it was just really well written and exciting and I really connected with the main characters. I actually felt like I was there in the story and knew the characters. The Book Thief was really good to me too. I found it very interesting to see the life of a little girl in Nazi Germany. Typically in books about this time, it's about the Holocaust or about the war itself. But this book was more about how the war affected people not really involved in the war, a.k.a. citizens. In this book I also felt connected with the characters, almost as if I knew them and was in the story.

All in all, I am very pleased with this course and everything I learned from it. I am a very avid reader, and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to be shown these books that we read. I can say for sure that I am going to finish reading the Hunger Games series in the VERY near future, and I hope that I'll have the opportunity to present it to my future students in the classroom.

Overview

TE 348 is over and this is one of the only classes that I am actually going to miss. I have learned and enjoyed almost every lesson and discussion. I really like the books that we read and found that I gained a lot from each book. It reminded me how much I loved to read. Overall, I think that the best book in the class was Hunger Games. It was just an awesome book but besides that I really liked The Book Thief. That was the most surprising for me because I don't usually like books like that.

I thought that Maus was pretty good but because I did my application project on Graphic Novels, I found that there were other graphic novels that I liked more. I really found that The 9/11 Report by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon was really interesting. It was extremely descriptive and really gave a lot of information that I had no idea even existed. I found out a lot about the terrorists that was not really common knowledge and the events that led up to 9/11 were intense and the illustrations really showed that. I think that if it were a normal book, it would be so boring. The illustrations were what really interested me.

If you wanna check out The 9/11 Report here's a link to Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/11-Report-Graphic-Adaptation/dp/0809057395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323205586&sr=8-1