Field Experience

I completed 5 hours at the school I work at, Wellington Elementary.  I spent my field experience in two places:  my classroom and a kindergarten classroom.  In my classroom, I have a monthly family story time, where the parents/caregivers are invited to the classroom to hear a story that either I read or I find a guest to read.   I create a family friendly activity for the students to do with their family and each child also gets a copy of the book that was read.  In the Kindergarten classroom, I observed the classroom teacher during story time and noticed how she used not only books in the classroom, but also books on an online program called Tumble Books that our library has membership to.  It enables the teacher to be connected to more book titles than what the library holds.  I also observed a 4th grade classroom coming into the Kindergarten room to be book buddies with the Kindergarteners.  Each 4th grader is paired up with 1 or 2 K students and then the 4th grader reads to the K students or at this time of the year, the K students are reading to them.  It is encouraging for the 4th graders to be such good role models for younger students. 

This experience I think helped me strengthen some of the teaching standards.  One such standard is implementing technology.  Technology is an ever present force in classrooms of today.  In allowing books to available school-wide at the click of a button is wonderful.  It allows teachers to encourage literacy in a new and exciting way, to even the youngest of students.  Another standard that I feel I strengthened was collaborating with colleagues/parents/others.  I feel that encouraging families to be involved in their children's education on a hands-on level is important.  I also know how crucial it is at such a young age.  Reading is important, even if the child isn't old enough to read himself.  Having parents see that reading is important and even allowing the child to make up a story based on the books pictures, is laying a foundation for a love of literacy all throughout their school career and hopefully into their adult life. 

I learned that many opportunities are around the school to engage children in literacy and it doesn't always have to come in the form of a teacher reading to a child.  I think encouraging parents/family members, as well as older students within the school to become good role models for our youngest learners, we will hopefully create a life long love of reading!

Reol 536 Reading Log and Wiki List

              * If a book is posted in red, it is listed twice, as it falls under two genres
    

              I.      Non-fiction/Informational (1 reflection required on blog)           

1)   Orangutans Are Ticklish (Steve Grubman)

2)   Mysterious Encounters:  ESP (Kevin Hile)

3)   Owen and Mzee:  The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (Isabella Hatkoff, et al.)

4)   Owen and Mzee:   The Language of Friendship

 

            II.      Poetry (1 reflection required on blog)

1)   What My Mother Doesn’t Know (required for discussion)

2)   Mammalabilia (Douglas Florian)

3)   Scranimals (Jack Prelutsky)

4)   Technically, It’s Not My Fault (John Grandits)*

 
          III.      Modern Fantasy (1 reflection required on blog)     

1)   Babe the Gallant Pig (required for discussion)

2)   Poppy (Avi)*

3)   Poppy’s Return (Avi)

4)   Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

 

        IV.      Historical Fiction (1 reflection required on blog –can be a picture book)       

1)   Al Capone Does My Shirts (required for discussion)

2)   Sarah Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)*

3)   More Perfect than the Moon (Patricia MacLachlan)

4)   Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

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

1)   Amazing Grace (Mary Hoffman)

2)   Hush! (Minfong Ho)*

3)   Island of the Blue Dophins (Scott O’Dell)*

4)   The Girl Who Spun Gold (Virginia Hamilton)*

5)   Whistle for Willie (Ezra Jack Keats)

        VI.      Realistic Fiction (1 reflection required on blog)

1)   Laugh Until you Cry  (required for discussion)

2)   Smile (Raina *

3)   Each little bird that sings (Deborah Wiles)

4)   Rules (Cynthia Lord)

      VII.      Picture Books (6 reflections required on blog)

1)   Knots on a Counting Rope (required for discussion)

2)   Mouse Paint (Ellen Stoll Walsh)

3)   Blueberries for Sal (Robert McCloskey)

4)   In the Small, Small Pond (Denise Fleming)

5)   The Happy Day (Ruth Krauss)

6)   Hush! (Minfong Ho)*

7)   When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry (Molly Bang)*

8)   Wemberly Worried (Kevin Henkes)

9)   Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse (Kevin Henkes)

10)Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)

11)Stellaluna (Janell Cannon)

12)Not a Box (Antoinette Portis)

13)Knuffle Bunny (Mo Willems)*

14)Officer Buckle and Gloria (Peggy Rathmann)

15)Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (Mo Willems)*

16)There’s a Bird on your Head! (Mo Willems)*

17)The Girl Who Spun Gold (Virginia Hamilton)*

18)Whistle for Willie (Ezra Jack Keats)

Wiki Checklist

  1       Social Studies

  1       Science

___     Math

____   Music

  1      Art

  1      Reading/Language Arts

____   Physical Education

____   Other

Mysterious Encounters: ESP

Hile, K. (2009).  Mysterious encounters:  ESP.  New York:  Kidhaven Press.

This is an informational non-fiction book that looks at the mysterious wonder of ESP and all that it entails.  The structure of this book divides ESP into varous parts, which I didn't realize there were so many.  I thought ESP was all encompassing.  One such "type" of ESP is clairolfaction.  This type is where a psychic uses extrasensory smell to interpret auras from people.  People with clairolfaction are able to sense if a person is healthy or unwell (even to the point of knowing they are dying).  I like how the author is able to represent facts and information from those that are believers in this phenomenum and those that are skeptics.  I chose this book because everyone wonders about the powers of ESP and whether they truly exist.  We have all had those feelings of deja vu and how it can be somewhat spooky when you sense you have experienced something before, but just can't place it.  This book was very informative and opened up other questions leading me to want to read more on the subject.  I think that students would find this book interesting just because it can be controversial and sometimes things that aren't "seen" make wanting to learn about it all the more appealing.
Big Questions:  What are your beliefs on the subject of ESP?  Do you think there is a possible explanation for some of the occurrences documented in the book?  If you do not believe, why?  Have you ever experienced a deja vu type of situation? 

Fever 1793

Anderson, L. (2002).  Fever 1793.  New York:  Aladdin Paperbacks.

http://animoto.com/play/d2C0K3C3SB3D4l9lUjWUaQ

Mattie Cook lives a good life.  She has her mother and grandfather and their coffeehouse.  That summer of 1793, devastation takes hold of the city of Philadelphia.  Sickness, death, and unforseen peril are running rampant through the city.  Will Mattie survive?  Will her family?  Yellow fever has a grip on Philadelphia...and it's not letting go. Have you ever had to perservere through hard times or learn to be self-reliant?  This book is about a young girl who has to learn to do just that when forced to cope with the horror of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. 

Smile

Telgemeier, R. (2000).  Smile.  New York:  Graphix.

This book is of the realistic fiction genre, but with a twist!  It is written as a graphic novel or a "comic style" novel.  It was chosen for the Eisner Award (aka the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards) which is also referred as the Oscar Awards of the Comic Industry.  The award was given in 2011 for "Best Publication for Teens".  I chose this novel for a variety of reasons:  1.  It is written in a different style that has become more popular, but presented in typical book fashion and 2.  both my daughters have read this book and both have different tastes in what they like to read (my 14 year old loves historical genre and my 9 year old loves contemporary genre).  They both LOVED this book and thought it was a fun, quick read (at least for them!).  This book takes place over the period of a few years.  It is written in first person and starts in the 6th grade with Raina at the orthodontist.  She leaves knowing she is going to be getting braces and, naturally, she is not happy about it.  She vents to her friends, who try to tell her it won't be all that bad, but then she has a horrible accident on her way home that results in busting out her two front teeth!  She is horrified, naturally, and this sets off all sorts of events that shape her life in the next few years, including surviving an earthquake, boys, and her first year of high school!  Could you imagine these chains of events happening to you? In this book, Raina is a very round character with both good and bad traits who learns who her true friends are and most importantly, finding out who she is.  The organization of the book also lends itself to flow easily and the length of the chapters is perfect for grades 5-8.  This book also holds your attention, making you want to read the whole thing in one sitting!!

Big Questions:  What kinds of events in your life that have changed you in some way?  How would you continue Raina's story?  Do you think Raina made the right decision with her friends from middle school?  Why or why not? What would you do if this happened to you?  How would you feel?

technically, IT"S NOT MY FAULT

Grandits, J. (2004).  Technically, it's not my fault.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin Company.

This book of concrete poems is a great read for grades 5-8!  John Grandits' ability to write figurative language as an 11 year old boy named Robert is so wonderful, you would not realize he was not eleven!  Robert speculates on things from his crazy sister to things of mundane nature such as pizza and baseball.  He also has an active imagination as one of his poems shows the evolution of a new word:  snarpy and he wonders why no one has invented scratch and sniff fart stickers.  Each poem is written in a shape that has something to do with the poem, therefore making it  concrete poetry.  For instance, my favorite is called "The Thank-You Letter".  It is written like it is on a piece of paper and has added footnotes at the bottom of the page, which will have you cracking up, because it lets you know what he truly thinks as he writes this note to his aunt.  Some of the other poems are in the shape of a street, a clock, a pizza, and a house.  This book of poetry would be a great way to get boys involved and excited about reading poetry just because it is not what everyone thinks of when they hear the word "poetry".  I chose this book because it was written from the aspect of a middle school aged boy and I wanted to see how boys might relate.  I think it is a wonderful book and lots of fun to read, whether boy or girl!
Big Questions:  Why do you think Robert didn't write about his teachers?  Parents?  What other things would you write about? 

Island of the Blue Dolphins

O'Dell, S. (1960).  Island of the blue dolphins.  New York:  Dell Yearling.

This book is a classic novel that is based on a true story of an Indian girl who was found on an island off the coast of California in the early 1800's.  The book begins with Karana, the main character, having a flashback to where she feels her whole story began.  She, with her brother Ramo, see a ship in the distance that has brought Aleut hunters.  The hunters strike a deal with the chief of her tribe, who is also her father, but fail to follow through with their end of the bargain.  A battle ensues and most of the men in the tribe are killed and the Aleuts flee.  The tribe has many decisions to make and ultimately decide to leave their island.  Karana is on the ship, when she realizes her younger brother is not aboard.  She jumps off the ship and swims to shore, while the ship sails away without them.  They tell her they will send for her when they can.  Karana's brother is killed by wild dogs the next day and she must learn to fend for herself.  The setting is very integral to the story.  The author's style of writing paints a very clear picture of the island and how Karana is surviving.  He uses first person so you feel as if you are Karana and experiencing her trials and joys.  The sentences flow easily and hold you to the story so that you do not want to put it down!  Her fears in the story, such as how to survive without weapons, as "the laws of Ghalas-at forbade the making of weapons by women of the tribe..." (p. 51).  I could feel her struggle to uphold the laws of her people, but yet know that she had to do whatever she could to survive.  I chose this book because I remember reading it in the 5th grade and how emotional I felt while reading this book.  I hadn't read it in a really long time and I am so glad that I had an opportunity to do so!  If you haven't read this book before, I highly recommend it!  Many of us have faced struggles or trials in our lives that all you can do is find a way to survive, through any means necessary.  This book gives hope that even through the toughest of times, you can overcome from seeking within yourself and realizing the strength you have.

Big Questions:  How do you think Karana struggled to follow the law of her people, but yet knowing that she had to do something in order to survive?  What was her personality/attitude like throughout the story (beginning, middle, end)?  How do you picture the island?  Do you feel you could have survived for as long as she did?  Why or why not?

This book can be incorporated in the classroom in many areas, especially with science and social studies.  Geography, gender roles, animal studies are many of the areas that you could focus on, as well as the literature aspect.