Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

When I was a little girl my mother use to read Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder at night before me and my sisters would go to bed. I loved those stories as a young girl, so they are ones that I hope some of my students will enjoy also. When I was looking up information on the books I found a really great website that list all of the books, talks about the different characters, has a fun games section and a site for teachers. This website would be great to use in the classroom with older students who are interested in these stories. Look at the website if you get a chance!

http://www.littlehousebooks.com/

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/characters/book-thesnowyday.html

This website goes along with the story Snow Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This is a story about a little boy who gets to experience his first snow day. I really like this website because you also get to see the other work done by Keats. Keats stories are known for their vivid illustration and colors. This website also has a great educators section with different discussion questions, web links and his own biography.

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey was written in 1941 is a story about a Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their 8 little duckling who are in search of a new safe home in Boston. Along the way the get help crossing the from a nice police man. When they stop to rest they discover that they have found the perfect place to call home.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/fiction/activity/1733.html This is a great website that has several different activities that could go along with this story. Check it out!

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

In Jane Yolen's Owl Moon, we are introduced to a little girl who is going on her first Owl hunting trip with her grandfather. This is a very special time for this young girl because you must be at a certain age before grandfather will let you come. The story starts with the pair leaving home and heading into the forest to find the great Owl. The illustrators use of color throughout the story helps to move you along from page to page. This is a wonderfully moving story.

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

"Who could blame me for eating the pigs that died when their houses fell as a result of his sneezing?" This is a line from Jon Scieszka, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. This story is the wolf's side of the three little pigs. The wolf gives us all of the details and reasoning's for why he ate the pigs. Being that it is from Scieszka the read can expect to laugh the whole time. This would be a great to share with your students when you are teaching them about perspective.

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

Many students, typically boys, really enjoy reading the Goosebumps series by RL Stine. Some of the books in the series are Night of the Living Dummy, The Hunted Mask and It Came from beneath the Sink. When I was searching the web I found to good sites that would go along with the Goosebumps book. The first one is from Scholastic books, this site has good games from kids to play and good information for them to explore. The other site is RL Stine's personal website, this has a whole section for teachers with different activities and so on. These are great, check them out if you can.
http://www.scholastic.com/goosebumps/books_audio/index.htm
www.rlstine.com

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is a story about an orphan book who lives in the walls of the busy Paris train station. Everyday he goes and takes care of the Paris clock tower, when you meets a girls his whole life is throw for a loop. This story is not necessarily and picture books or a novel, but it's also not a graphic book, it a book of its own kind. It is told with words and many many pictures. Students may be turned away by the thickness of this book, but it is a story that many will find interesting.

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

When I was taking my Children's literature class at Palo Alto College last semester my professor talked a lot about Jon Scieszka. He is a hilarious write that most students around the 4Th grade age love. One of his stories that she would read parts of to us was The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. In this story you are laughing from the start. The narrator is Jack from the story Jack and the Beanstalk. Scieszka takes some of the more well known fairy tales and turns and twist them all up and down. This is a book that every elementary teacher should have in their library!

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW 11-12:30

Verdi By Janell Cannon is a story about a snake who does not want to turn green and mean like the other snakes he know. He is determined to stay young, yellow and carefree for as long as he can. This is a really cute story and would be great when you are doing a science lesson on snakes with you students. Even though Verdi is a snake he is a very cuddly character. This story by Janell Cannon is a bluebonnet Award winner for 1999. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3512 This is a link for a full lesson plan that I found to go along with this story. There are many great websites for this book. If you can check them out!!

Genre Presentation 12/2 M&W 11:00-12:20

Since my group was one of the groups to present today I will just be blogging about the 2ND group that presented. I was really interested in the girls topic. I was very intrigued from the start of the presentation when we were seeing all of the different ways that Snow White has been portrayed. I never knew that there were some different stories written about this one character. The diagram for the story of Snow white was very interesting as well. I love how knowledgeable the group was on their topic. This would be a great lesson to do with high school seniors!! Good job girls!

Groups Presentation 2 11/30 EDRG 3321 MW 11:00

The second group that went today did their presentation on the story book Pink and Say. This story was a very mature and emotional story. It is great to do with 7th or 8th grade American history when they are studying the Civil War. I loved the way that the whole group took turns reading the story. For me this helped me to keep my attention because each person was able to add their own different tone to their section of the story. The activity that went along with their story was creative and would be great for student's at the Jr. high level. Our group had to write about Pink, we talked about how he was compassionate and caring person. This presentation was wonderful and very moving!

11/30 Group Presentation 1 EDRG 3321 M/W 11:00

The first group that went today spoke about integrity and Chinese folktale. They started off by having The Empty Pot projected on the screen and talking about different scenes, colors, characters and objects throughout the books. This was a great way to spark students interest in the story. Next they read the story, which helped to tie in the overview very nicely. While they were reading the story the pictures were still on the screen which was great because we could all see the pictures this way. After the story we talked about integrity. This is a great story to explain this topic. The activity was fun and would also be great to do with 2nd grade students.

Genre Presentation M&W 11:00-12:20

Monday's presentation were wonderful. The groups that presented were very creative!!! I just loved how the first group had all of the decorations and the script. The customs and masks very wonderful! The fish that they passed out to us would be a great way to keep the students engaged and get them involved with the story! The second group that went used technology to present their story. They took the story and made it into a mini movie for the kids to watch. Also the activity that they had was a cute idea to show the students the everyday importance of recycling. Over I think that the first sets of presentation went very well and I am looking forward to seeing the rest! Good luck everyone and great job to those of you who are done!!

EDRG 3321 Author Profile MW

The Napping House is a cute story by Audrey and Don Wood. This is a story about a granny who goes to bed and is joined by a cat, dog, mouse and many other creatures. This story would be great for a read aloud because of how you can create enthusiasm when you are reading different parts of this story. The illustrations are wonderfully represent the different parts of the story and what is taking place. This is a story that I will have in my classroom library!
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=34DAKJ9NMH&isbn=0152567089&itm=1
This is the link to see the cover of the book and how to buy it!

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW

One of my favorite books to use with younger or first time readers is We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. My 3 and 4 year old kids LOVED this book, it is very interactive so it keeps their short attention span in check so you can get though the whole book. Another great part about this book is they have this story avaible in CD formate or also on sites like youtube.com. So you could read the story with the kids and then listen to it on CD or watch it on the internet! This will always be a classic with the kids!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzIcu6tbEko&feature=related
Check it out!! It's so cute!

EDRG 3321 Guided Reading Books and Websites

http://roythezebra.com/ This is one of the best websites that I found for guided reading. When you getting to the website you have several different options as far as where you can go and what you can do. This site offers everything from games to software. I played one of the capital letters game, it was a lot of fun and would be a great game to play with like kindergartners. In this game you had to identify which letter should be capitalized, if you got it right then you would win a puzzle piece, after winning and putting together all of the pieces you would be able to see what Zora was dreaming about.

http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/ This page has different ideas for games, worksheets, handouts and much more. It is designed for a kindergarten class and the information that she gives would be just right right for working with this age group. I also like that the web page was fairly user friendly!

EDRG 3321 Example of a Good Read Aloud

After watching the video on the Carnegie foundation I am so thankful that I was able to view this video. This is a great example of what a read aloud should look like. The whole time the students are engaged. The teacher does this by reading with enthusiasm and by stopping a asking students to make text to text connections. I think that it is also great that the students are able to understand what a text to text connection is. I also like how the teacher has positioned herself. She is sitting in the chair and all of the students can see her. She is also using facial expressions that show the students that she is excited to be reading the story to the students. She has chosen a text that the students can related to because they have read stories by the author before, during the read aloud the students make the connection be twin the different stories. After watching this video I understand know how I should conduct a read aloud!

EDRG 3321 Courtney Holley Ch. 6

Chapter 6 is all about traditional literature. What is traditional literature? From page 123 in our book you will see that traditional literature is " the written form of stories that are part of the oral tradition of a culture". An example of this would be stories that have a moral, they were told to children so that they would do the right thing and stay out of trouble. Now days we have taken those stories that over time would have been told orally and put them into a format. This format usually includes: Plot, setting, characterization, style, theme, motifs, and variants. These are the key parts to having what we would consider a good form of traditional literature. Traditional literature is a great type of literature to have in in your classroom library and you should have a wide selection of traditional literature for the students to choose from. By doing this you will keep your students interested reading!!

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW

As I was researching non fictions books when I came across Doreen Rapaport. She is a author who has written several history non fictions books. When I was reading her website I the reason why she feels so passionately about writing these books. "In 1965, I went to Mc Comb, Mississippi, to teach at a freedom school. The experience changed my life. I met "extraordinary ordinary"people — black Americans who had been deprived of rights that I took for granted, and who were threatened with death every day. Their courage inspired me. They were heroic. I knew there had to be many more "unknown heroes," people who helped change history. I set out to recover and write about this "lost" history. That was more than seventeen years ago."

Here is her website http://www.doreenrappaport.com/index.html Check it out if you can.

Non-Fiction MW 11 - 12:30

When I think about non-fiction literature the first thing that used to come to my mind what boring, picture less, textbooks or encyclopedias. After today's lecture I have done a 180 in my way of thinking. After seeing all of the different types of non-fictions books that are available for use in the daily classroom setting. I think that most students have a negative view when it comes to textbooks so anytime that I have the opportunity to use other books I will definitely be using these books in my classroom.

MW 11:00 a.m. Authors Profile

America Votes: How is Our President Elected by Linda Granfield is a non-fiction book that could be used in a 3rd grade social studies/history class. This is picture book that was originally an essay. Granfield took the essay and broke it into sections that make the election process easy for students to understand. Through out this book the students will learn about ballots, voting machines, referendums, the electoral college, presidential responsibilities, debates, and more. The pictures and information in this book are great. It would be a great way to keep students engaged in the government system.



http://www.lindagranfield.com/home.html This is Linda Granfields website. As I was looking up some more information about her I came across her page. This site is full of historical picture books and chapter books that would be great for students to work with. The picture books will help them stay engaged but will also teach them tons about history. She also has a section of activities that would be a great tool as well. Check it out if you can!

MW 3321 11:00a.m. My favorite books

I really love anything that is by Nicholas Sparks. He is a romance writer, most people know him from the movie The Notebook. This movie was based from his book. And I must say the book is much better!!! He also wrote Nights in Rodanthe, which is a fairly new movie that just came out. And yet again the book is so much better, he gives so much detail that you don't get to experience when you watch the movie. Most of his books make me cry and there are few that I have come across that I don't like. The Wedding, was a hard one to get into because it is slow to start but once it took off I couldn't put it down.

I have recently discovered Emily Giffin, I am currently reading her newest book, Love the One Your With. It's yet again another love story. It's about a lady who is just married and runs into her old lover, which of course stirs up old feeling. In the end she must choose between her husband and old flame. I have only read to chapter 4 but so far it has been great!

And last but not least you can't forget Twilight. I always said that I would NEVER pick up that book, but once I did I was not able to put it down. How could you with a main character like Edward Cullen!!!!!

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW

Dr. Seuss is one of the most well known childrens author of all time. The way that he uses his ryhming words, crazy situation and pictures seems to draw all different types of students to his work. When I was growing up my favorite story by him was The Foot Book, in this story it's all about feet, black feet, white feet, fury brown feet. Feet, feet, feet how many feet can you meet. My sisters and I use to run around the house repeating this over and over.

As I was looking around for information on Dr. Seuss I found his website. http://www.seussville.com/ As soon as you enter the URL you are greeted by the cat in the hat, just one of many of Seuss crazy characters. On this website you will find information about him, different games, color pages, events that are being held and much more. This would be a good website to get different fun activities for students off of. If you have a chance, check it out!

Chapter 7 Picture Books

"Picture books are the marriage of literature and fine arts into a unique form." I just love this quote that Mrs. Pickett start our class off with today! It is a great way to describe picture books. Picture books in my opinion are the best and at times the most important to use with our students. They help to keep students of all ages engaged in the story and provide a visual imagine that can provoke more discuss. I love that we can get pictures books in any subject area now.

One of the most interesting parts of picture books is the visual elements and the different types of media that is used. Everything thing from lines, color, shape, texture and design can and do represent something different. Color has always been the best part of picture books for me. By just looking at the color on the page it sets the tone for the story. You can infer quite a bit of information just by observing what colors are used.

There was a lot of information given throughout this chapter about picture books that we can use to help us as teachers chose the best ones for our students!

EDRG 3321 Authors profile

I was looking around google when I came across Ken Nesbitt. I was not able to read his whole collection of poetry but what I did get to read had me laughing. The collection is called "When the Teacher isn't Looking". Here is one poem from it:

Falling Asleep in Class

I fell asleep in class today,
as I was awfully bored.
I laid my head upon my desk
and closed my eyes and snored.
I woke to find a piece of paper
sticking to my face.
I'd slobbered on my textbooks
and my hair was a disgrace.
My clothes were badly rumpled
and my eyes were glazed and red.
My binder left a three-ring
indentation in my head.
I slept through class, and probably
I would have slept some more,
except my students woke me
as they headed out the door.

Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2005 Kenn Nesbitt. All Rights Reserved.

I found this poem at http://www.poetry4kids.com/modules.php?name=Poetry_Books&op=ShowBook&bookid=2 at this website you can find other books by him and other authors that write children's poetry. As I googled more information about Nesbitt I found a website that had information about having him come to your school and read his poetry and speak with the students! How great that would be! I am so glad that author are willing to go to schools and show students that they are real people just like them. If the students and others were interested the kids could have fundraisers throughout the year to pay for Nesbitt or someone like him to come and speak. I am looking forward to purchasing a few of his books to place in my collection for my classroom!

Shel Silverstein

One of the books that picked for my poetry genre was "This Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein. I used to read books by Silverstein when I was in the 6th grade. My friend had "Where the Side Walk Ends" we loved to read the poems out of that books. His poems are fun and creative for children, which is why they love them so much. As I was looking up information about him I came across his website. It is sooo much fun, it would be great to use in the classroom when you are studying poetry. As soon as you hit the enter button you are taken into the world of Siverstein, where shoes can walk without legs and a head can have a wheel for a body! I loved exploring his website. I also found so you tube videos that would be a great way to incorporate technology into your lesson. Silverstein is a beloved children's author and is one that I will have in my own classroom! I hope you enjoy the web links!

http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO5JHUj4aiI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWFR8pcm8x4&feature=related

Authors Profile EDRG 3321 MW

When I think of children's book one of the first authors that comes to mind is Maurice Sendak. I love his book Where the Wild Things Are. This is the story about a little boy named Max who is sent to his room by his mom, when he gets there his imagination runs wild and takes him to a far away land where the wild things are. He becomes the King of the wild things and they go on a wild rumpus. Sendak is both the author and the illustrator for this book. His use of pictures and colors are phenomenal! Where the Wild Things Are will soon be in the theater which will make this a great story for me to use in my classroom. By the time I start teaching it should be on video! Sendak is also known for other books like, In the Night Kitchen and Kenny's Window. Where the Wild Things Are is the book that he is best know for. It became so popular that it has been translated into 15 different languages. This story will be great in the classroom because it is fun for children to read and it helps teach them about the importance of using their imagination! This is a you tube video I found to go along with Where the Wild Things Are. Check it out if you can! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSkHA6IjrlY&feature=related This video would be good to show to students and have them read along with you. I think it's cute, enjoy! :)

EDRG 3321 Courtney Holley Ch. 3

Chapter 3 is all about comprehension. It wasn't until I read this chapter that I understood what comprehension truly is. Comprehension is the process of understanding or making meaning from what we read. There is different ways to comprehend material: reading story/text, looking at a map, environmental comprehension and many more. The idea of comprehening more than just text was a new concept for me. As teachers it is important to have our classroom environment set up in a way that is challenging for our students and will help then expand on their prior schema. This chapter also talks about how the teachers role is to enable and support comprehension by matching students interests and reading ability to "ensure successful reading."(Kasten, Kristo and McClure Pg. 38) The "Questions for Levels of Comprehending" are also going to be very helpful in the classroom. This is just one way that a teacher will be able to assess her students comprehension of the story. Mapping, comic strips, drawing and writing to learn are other ways of assessing comprehension. This chapter opened my eyes to the importance of reading comprehension and how I can help my students achieve this very important goal!

EDRG 3321 Courtney Holley Ch. 2

Chapter 2 is all about how important it is to make your classroom culturally responsive. The chapter opens up by explaining what culture is. Culture is ways of knowing, believing, valuing, and thinking among a group people. (Living Literature pg. 22) A big area from this chapter that stuck out to me was under the titled section "The Need for Culturally Responsive Schooling" where it says that there are two challenges that each teacher has to face, 1 is being aware of your classroom mismatch culture and 2 that as a teacher you need the opportunity to know in death your students background, families, home experiences, and values. This is very important information for us as teachers to gather about our students. I really like this chapter it is one that will help you understand how to reach all of our children!

EDRG 3321 MW 11 a.m. Children lit websites

The first site that I found was Judy Blume's site. I loved all of her books when i was growing up! I was not a big reader but these books helped me to find enjoyment in reading. I would use her books to help my students enjoy reading. http://www.judyblume.com/about.php Her website has a section talking about her and her accomplishments and a section for kids which includes writing tips. http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html This is the other site that I really like. I am a big fan of Eric Carle. When I was working at The First Baptist Day Care the children loved these books. The colors, pictures and white backgrounds are great for little eyes to be able to focus. This website has a list of all of Carle's books and other resources. I hope you enjoy these. I have not recieved my textbook yet so I am not able to write about chapter 1. It's in the mail and should be here soon though!!

Courtney Holley

EDRG 3321/ M&W

This is my first blog.