Reading Log/Wiki Checklist

Reading Log

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)      Chameleon, Chameleon by Joy Cowley

          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)      The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright

       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)      Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

3)      The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

4)      Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

5)      Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

       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)      Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

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

1)      Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep (required for discussion – do NOT use on blog)

2)      Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema

3)      Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

4)      The Lion & The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

5)      Stone Soup by Marcia Brown

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

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

2)      Dear Mr. Henshaw 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)      When I was Young In The Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

3)      Moja Means One - Swahili Counting Book by Muriel Feelings

4)      The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward

5)      Many Moons by James Thurber

6)      Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

7)      The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster

8)      The Polar Express by Charles Van Allsburg

9)      Flotsam by David Wiesner

10)  Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews

Wiki Checklist

____ Social Studies

__x_ Science

__x_ Math

____ Music

__x_ Art

__x_ Reading/Language Arts

____ Physical Education

____ Other

Chameleon, Chameleon

Cowley, J. (2005). Chameleon, chameleon. Scholastic.

What child doesn't like creepy, crawly critters?  This is a wonderful informational read aloud for children ages 4-7.  The story takes on a present tense narration and tells the story of a chameleon who leaves the comfort of his own tree to search for food and a new home.  He meets many other creepy, crawly critters on his journey, some of which are actually really pretty creepy. This awesome story informs readers of the "many colors" of chameleons while offering some of the most beautiful photographs I have seen in a book.

This story is considered an informational picture book (genre) because it informs readers.

Observation Questions

1. How many hours did you complete?

I completed 5 hours of observations for the purposes of this course; although, throughout the duration of the course, I had a practicum student from EKU.  Therefore, I have completed many more hours during the past 8 weeks.

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

-I observed a music teacher incorporating the story “Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea” to teach rhythm to her students.

-I implemented a reading/language arts lesson in a kindergarten classroom.

-I observed a 2^nd grade teacher working in a small group reading workshop.  She implemented several different short activities in an hour long re-teaching session.

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

KTS 8: The teacher collaborates with colleagues, parents and others.

This experience really helped strengthen my collaboration skills.  Through all the observations, I worked hand in hand with colleagues and teachers from other schools.  By working with the music teacher, I was able to visualize ways to integrate different subjects, such as music, into daily read-alouds with my students.

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

The most beneficial thing that I gain from any field experience is different teaching methods.  I think it is so beneficial to walk into someone else’s classroom and see how they handle daily tasks; my favorite being classroom management.  Some may say that classroom management has nothing to do with reading, but that is not true.  If you don’t have good classroom management, students cannot be actively engaged in their learning.  Therefore, I love to see the various ways teachers work with students to keep them engaged.

Number the Stars

Lowry, L. (1989). Number the stars. New York: Yearling.

Imagine a time when people were faced with losing family and friends based on their ethniticity, or better yet, because of their religion.  Dear Annemarie Johansen and her family lived during this time period; one of the most horrific time periods in history, the Holocaust.

The Johansen's lived a "normal" life in Copenhagen, Denmark when the Nazi's invaded their community and the normality that they knew began crashing around them.  The fathers still worked, the children still attended school, but things that we now consider essentials in our daily life, such as sugar and electricity were rationed. 

This story depicts the true friendship of two little girls and their families and the faith, hope, and strength that they had.  On the eve of the Jewish new year, the Rosen's attend the synagogue to discover that their lives are in grave danger simply because they are Jews.  It is at this point that Annemarie and her mother take on the dangerous task of getting the Rosen's past the Nazi's, and on a boat to Sweden to their safety. 

Book Talk - Dear Mr. Henshaw

Cleary , B. (1983). Dear mr. henshaw. New York, NY: Dell Publishing.

As a child, reading is exciting...reading is fun; an outlet from the rigorous day-to-day responsibilities we may encounter.  It is even better when we have a favorite author in which we can read a variety of works from...Dr. Suess, for example.  There are countless books with endless activities that we can pull from his works.

So, imagine this...you have a favorite author who writes amazing books.  As an assignment for your second grade class, you write to this author, expecting to get nothing in return; then, wah-lah, you get a response.  This is exactly what happens with Leigh Botts Beverly Cleary's realistic fiction, "Dear Mr. Henshaw."

Throughout this story, we see Leigh's different daily battles through his letters to Mr. Henshaw.  We hear about his parents divorce, the mysterious lunch thief, and even his dog who went off to travel with his dad to keep him company on his long hauls.  Then we see a type of friendship formed between a young, 10 year old boy and his favorite author.

"Hate That Cat"

Creech, S. (2008). Hate the cat. New York: Harper Collins.
"Hate That Cat" is a short verse novel about a boy named Jack.  Jack is studying poetry at school and he has composed a journal of his personal poems that discuss some popular poets and their poetry, and how it relates to his life...more specifically, that pesky black cat.

Personally, I didn't really see any true plot in this book, and there wasn't any true character development.  He mainly referred to poets, the black cat, and his dog that he loved.  Therefore, I felt like this book was rather hard to follow.

One thing that I really liked in this book was his use of the different elements of poetry.  On pg. 14, he mentions alliteration (pattern in which initial consonant sounds are heard frequently within a few lines of poetry), and models it through his writing (Purple pickle, polished, pencil, chocolate, chalk).  Then, on pg. 19, he demonstrates an onomatopoeia, a device in which the sound of a words imitates its real world sound (buzz, drip, pop, tinkle, trickle).    

On pg. 76 of Creech's book, she allows the main character/narrator to depict a Concrete Poem.  The poem is called "The Yellow Chair," and Jack writes the poem in the shape that signifies the subject of the poem, the yellow chair.

Honestly, this wasn't one of my favorite books to read, although it was full of different elements of poetry that could truly enhance students learning.

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples Ears

Aardema, V. (1975). Why mosquitoes buzz in people\'s ears, a west african tale. Puffin.

Mosquitoes, in my opinion are one of the world's most pesky creatures.  Their peskiness is what inspired me to read this tale...I wanted to see why it is that they are so inclined to buzzing in our ears.

Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears?  This story is one account of why this happens.  Aardema takes us through a series of events to provide an explanation of why mosquitoes ultimately chose humans to tell their secrets to.
   
The rising action in the story is when the mosquito tells an absurd story to the iguana about a farmer digging a yam, bigger than the mosquito.  This makes the iguana place sticks in his ears so he can no longer hear the irrational stories of the mosquito.  The sticks in the iguana's ears then cause an unfortunate series of events that spiral out of control, ultimately leading to the death of an owlet.


The death of the owlet brings us to the climax of the story.  The mother owl is so heartbroken by the death of her baby that she is unable to wake the sun in the morning.

All of the creatures of the animal kingdom become worried following the climax of the story; therefore, the king lion calls for a meeting to find out who is the cause of the sun no longer rising.  The animals discover who is at fault, and then all is good with the owl once the punishment is handed down.  The only problem is...the mosquito was never caught to receive the punishment so now he goes around telling humans of his guilt.

This story would be great to use in almost any classroom to discuss cause and effect relationships!

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Rapunzel

Zelinsky, P. O. (1997). Rapunzel. New York: Dutton Childrens Books.

As a young girl, one of my favorite "princess" stories was Rapunzel.  I longed for those long, flowing, beautiful locks of blonde hair to cast down and catch my prince charming.  I have heard and seen the story in many different ways, which is why I chose to read Zelinsky's version to see how it differed from the traditional tale.

The story begins long ago, in a beautiful, rural Italian setting.  A man and wife longed for a child, and after many years of hoping, their wish finally came true.  They lived beside an old, lonely sorceress' garden where she grew herbs and plants of all kinds.  The pregnant woman longed for a taste of the luxurious Rapunzel she viewed in the garden.  She craved it so badly that she promised her death if she did not get a taste. The sorceress had the garden guarded on all sides by high walls, but because the husband feared his wife's death, he found a way to retrieve her a taste of the Rapunzel.  He was successful on the first attempt, but when he entered the garden on the second attempt to further satisfy his wife's desire, the lonely sorceress caught him.  It is from this point that the traditional story of Rapunzel unfolds.


 The theme of greed and lust is very evident throughout this rendition of "Rapunzel."  The man and wife lust for a child.  The pregnant wife lusts for a taste of Rapunzel.  The wife demonstrates greed when she sends her husband out for more of the Rapunzel.  The sorceress lusts for companionship when she trades the Rapunzel for a child, and then later shows greed when she locks her in the tower where only she can see her.      Finally, we see that the prince lusts to see Rapunzel after hearing her beautiful voice singing from the top of the tower.  

Zenlinsky's version of Rapunzel had possibly the greatest illustrations of the tale that I have encountered.  The immaculate oil paintings were very in depth and the warm hues were a great addition to the text.

            

           Question before reading:

           What are the outcomes that result from the greed and lust throughout the story?

       

The Hunger Games

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

 “The Hunger Games” is a fantasy selection told from first person point of view.  16 year old Katniss Everdeen tells her story beginning the day of the country’s reaping.  The reaping began many years ago.  The country once had thirteen districts.  The districts rebelled, thirteen was destroyed, and the rest were handed the reaping ceremony as a reminder that the districts would never be able to prevail against the capitol.  The reaping ceremony consists of a male and female under the age of 18 being chosen from each district.  From this selection, 24 total from all around the country will meet up in an arena to fight to the death.

The first conflict arises when Katniss' sister, Prim is chosen to represent district 12.  Katniss is totally against this happening, therefore, she takes the place of her sister.  Ultimately, Katniss and Peeta Mellark go to the capitol to represent their country.  There are many, many more conflicts throughout the course of the book, which keeps the audience on a whim at all times.

There are several activities that you could do with this book, although, it would only be suitable for young adults.  You could allow students to compare and contrast many things in the book; my favorite thing to do is, of course, the countries.  This allows cross-curricular integration of social studies.

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Harper Collins.
Kevin Henke's book, "Kitten's First Full Moon" depicts the story of a kitten whom is very hungry, but even more brave.  She looks up to the big, bright full moon that she is seeing for the first time and thinks that it is a big bowl of milk.  She stretches for it, licks at it, jumps up for the milk, climbs trees for it, and even jumps in a pond for it.  She had several unlucky happenings trying to get to her big bowl of milk, when all she had to do was go home.

The illustrations in this picture book are realistic and black and white throughout, helping us to better understand the setting of the story.
.The main character in the story, the kitten, is a very memorable character.  We get to watch her as she perseveres to try to get her bowl of milk, with many unlucky attempts.  Then, finally, she turns to go back home, and there it is...just waiting on her.

This is a story that I would love to use with my students.  We would begin by sequencing the story, and discussing how the kitten felt each time she tried and failed when trying to reach the big bowl of milk.  Then, we would brainstorm ideas of times when we showed perseverance; a time when we tried and tried to get to something, or do something.  Then we would illustrate the story by showing how we felt on each page.

Thurber, J. (1943). Many moons. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company.
"Many Moons" is a picture storybook that tells the tale of a princess whose kingdom is by the sea.  The little girl falls ill, and when her dad, the king asks what would make her better, she replies "the moon."  Immediately, the king sets out to get his wise men to fetch the moon  for his daughter.  When told it is impossible for countless reasons, he turns to the court jester for help.  Needless to say, the little girl receives the moon in the end; to the king's surprise, she has it all figured out.  He was so concerned about her finding out that it wasn't the real thing, when in reality, she had the pure, innocent mind of a child and had reasoning that was unbeknownst to him and his other wise men.

The illustrations in this picture book were composed of cool, tranquil colors, complimenting the mood of the story when needed (the little princess sick, playing in the garden, etc.), and brighter fiery colors to depict the kings rage when he thought something was going to be out of his reach.

The plot of the story was very enjoyable.  In the beginning, it kept me on my toes to see what all the wise men would say about the king's request.  As the story progressed, I was more interested to see the kings reactions to the events in the story.

I would love to do a science extension with this book and study the different phases of the moon with students.

Ward, L. (1952). The biggest bear. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
"The Biggest Bear" is a picture storybook that tells the story of a little boy and his "pet bear."  This book received The Caldecott Medal in 1953.

Little Johnny Orchard lived on a farm, close to the woods.  Almost every barn in his valley had a bearskin, except for his.  His grandfather passed on a bear at one point and Little Johnny felt humiliated.  He was so humiliated that he vowed to shoot his own bear so that he could place a bearskin on the barn.

On the day that he goes out to get his bear, he finds one, but it is a cub, a cub that really likes his maple sugar.  He takes the bear cub home and keeps it as a pet.  The bear grows and grows until finally, it is the biggest bear around, and also the biggest nuisance around.  The father and Little Johnny decide there is only one thing to do.

At this point, my first grade son was reading the story to me and I literally had to close the book because I was so afraid of what was going to happen.  He insisted that he go on because he already had his own idea of what was going to take place.  His foreshadowing was correct, the bear was his pet and he would find a way to keep him.


The pictures in this book were realistic art and they were all in black and white.  The illustrations really complimented the text (they had my 7 year old son cracking up).  The plot had points that were conveyed through illustrations even when they weren't present in the text.

Honestly, after reading this book with my son, I don't think that it would be something I would use in my classroom, simply because I teach kindergarten.  I am a pet lover myself, and being the owner of two (indoor) Great Danes, I was in tears at the thought of what Little Johnny was going to do to this bear.  Although, you could do an activity with foreshadowing because that is exactly what my son did when I said he couldn't read the rest :).

An Introduction to Myself

Hey all!!!  I am Ashley Morgan...a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, kindergarten teacher, and student.  Wow, that is a lot :) I am currently in my second year of teaching.  This is my first year as a kindergarten teacher; last year I taught PE.  I can honestly, without a doubt say that my kindergartners have my heart.  It is such an awesome, rewarding feeling to watch them grow academically each day.
This is actually my last class in the MAED program here at the Cumberland's.  I cannot wait to put this chapter of my life behind me.  I have enjoyed furthering my adventure as a lifelong learner, although I will say I am ready to put my focus solely on my family and career.  I do intend on pursuing my Rank I, and possibly even my doctorate in a few years, but right now I have the urge to breathe for a little while. :)
I am really looking forward to this class.  I love books...there is so much I can do with them to help enhance my students learning

Feelings, M. (1971). Moja means one. New York, NY: Dial books for young readers.
  Learning is an adventure for all students.  They get so much satisfaction from learning something new.  As a kindergarten teacher, the first several weeks of math with my students is spent on number recognition and the comparing of numbers (1-10).  I always like to make connections to real life, and one of my favorite books to use is "Ten Black Dots."  The students love this because they can make connections and they get to read a fun book.  With that said, something that I have been striving to do is use more books and to make multicultural connections during instruction time.  Upon much research, I found this fabulous book to add to next years collection.

"Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book" teaches the numbers 1-10 in the Swahili language.  The illustrations in the story depict the life of Africans.  It is a great story because it gives an introduction to the author and the Swahili language and gives some background of the African culture.

The folk art in the story is amazing; it truly gives readers a glance of the characters lifestyles.  The gray, black and white colors are used to compliment the stories setting.

This will be a book that I tie into my math instruction to make a multicultural connection.

"Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book" is a recipient of the Caldecott Honor.

Rylant, C. (1982). When i was young in the mountains. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton.
"When I was Young In The Mountains" is one of the most memorable picture books that I can recall from my adolescent years.  I remember the first time that I heard the story, in fourth grade; we were getting ready to write our personal narratives.  My teacher, Mrs. Ryan, read the story to us, and began telling us her own personal story that related so much to this amazing picture book.

The setting of this story is none other than my home, the Appalachian Mountains.  Through Rylant's story, she portrays the lives of a young boy and girl who spent lots of time with their grandparents.  The story is more of a reminiscence  from either the boy or girl, who are recalling their childhood.  They appeared to have a very loving, "country" childhood, that I, too, personally love to recall quite often.

The illustrations in this book were miraculous.  The color was soft/pale, which helped to set the cool mood for the story.  The realistic art greatly compliments the characters, setting, and plot of the story.

There are endless activities that you could do with any age-group using this story.  Personally, I would first allow my kindergarten students to sequence the story.  Following the sequencing activity, we would make our own classroom book about something that we recall doing "in the mountains."

"When I Was Young In The Mountains" was a recipient of the Caldecott Honor.