Chapter 10 - Read Alouds

According to researchers, Meyer & Rice, reading aloud helps with developing:

- interest in reading

- building vocabulary

- understanding different kinds of sentence structures

The above are just a few great things that children learn during read alouds.

Children no matter what their age, enjoy being read to. In one of my college courses at Northwest Vista, my instructor read aloud to us on the first day of class. The books that I write about in my author's profile are the books she read aloud to us.

I had to do a read aloud last week for a presentation, and I was so nervous. I know that I have to work on my reading with a louder and more enthusiastic voice! I know that I'll have plenty of opportunities for practice.

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Author Profile

Author: Patricia Polacco

Book: Thank you, Mr. Falker

This book is about the struggles of dyslexia. Polacco tells her story of struggling in school and being teased about her learning disabilities.

I loved this book and it was very emotional. When the teacher read this book to us at Northwest Vista, I struggled to hold back the tears. I hope to be as helpful as Mr. Falker when I become a teacher.

If you plan to teach reading and plan to help ALL students read, this is a great book to read!

Author: Kevin Henkes

Book title:

Chrysanthemum

This a great book about how you might be teased in school, even for silly things like your name.

This is a great read aloud book for Kinder-3rd grade. I love the book and the characters are easy to fall in love with.

Great activities to use after the read aloud of the book is found at: www.first-school.ws

Shared Reading

Author: Barbara M. Joosse

Title: Mama, Do You Love Me?

This book is about a parent's unconditional love. In the book the child tests the limits, and questions whether or not mom still loves her even after all that she's done.

I've read this book to my children many, many, times. They love this book and I think it teaches how a parent's love should always be unconditional.

The following website, lists this book and many others.

http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/087701759X.asp

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Shared Reading - (covered 11/9/09)

If shared reading is done correctly, it can provide children with wonderful experience with books. Shared reading can allow teachers to introduce children to books, and make them want to read books. Most students read because they have to, not because they want to.

I thought it was interesting that most students don't have parents who read to them, so shared reading might be the only time they get to hear stories.

Children also become aware of the mechanics of a book when introduced to it during shared reading, and they are able to learn many reading strategies.

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Chp 9 - NON-Fiction

Okay, so I had a "dislike" for non-fiction back in my day. I used to check out non-fiction books only when I truly had to. For instance when I had to do my science project, or when I was writing a report about a famous historic figure. Otherwise, you wouldn't see me near the non-fiction part of the library.

However, the face of non-fiction has changed tremendously. I loved the "Diary of a..." series of non-fiction books. It seems that these books could make learning fun, and the pictures are so kid friendly. I also important to have your students try to become non-fiction writers.

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Regarding non-fiction I found a cute book called Germs Make Me Sick!, and the book has great illustrations.

The authors are Melvin Berger, and the illustrator is Marylin Hafner.

These books are great teaching tools for teaching your students the effects of germs on your body. I think that these books make learning about health and wellness more easy to take in.

This Week's Author

Visit this website, http://janeyolen.com/, and see Jane Yolen who has been labeled the "Hans Christian Andersen of America" in the twentieth century. A few of her books are shown above, and the Baby Bear books are a series of picture books, and include poems in some of them.

If you visit Jane Yolen's website she listed the hundreds of books she's written and lists them by genre. It's a great website and very well detailed. The website also has teacher resources and a gives a story about how each book came about.

Chp8 - Fiction

When reading chapter 8 I looked at the "Point of View" section and remember how difficult it was for me to remember as an elementary student what the various points of views were. When speaking of point of view you must teach first-person and third person. However, point of view can be more descriptive than that.

The fiction family chapter was a huge chapter but think about how dominant fiction is, and how widely used it is in the classroom. It's important to realize that all your students won't agree on their favorite type of fiction. So it's also important to make sure that they have access to all forms of fiction.

Books, books, and picture books!

Book: Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom
Authors: Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault
I love, love, love this book. My four year old loves this book too. While I learned this week that my 4 yr old doesn't enjoy reading, and doesn't want me to read to her (I was crushed), she does love this book. She loves that she knows the words to the book already and can read it along with me! Yah!

This book is a must read. I Googled the book and found it listed on the following website. The website list 100 "must read" books. Check out the website, and see the books that are listed.
http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61


--- Now, about Monday's topic on picture books. Surprisingly, I never knew that "picture" books had such a following and that they hold their own criteria. When I hear "picture books" I immediately think a book with pictures only, and no words. Gosh, I was wrong! It's cool to learn something new, and I think picture books have really cute characters that you can easily fall in love with.

Traditional Literature & Author Spotlight

First, let's talk traditional literature! I love this type of literature and love the fact this these types of stories often have a "moral" to teach children. I loved Aesop's fables as a child, and there are all types of new spins on these old "traditional" tales.

Traditional literature should be shown by reading older versions, and then afterward introducing the "newer" version of the book to the class afterward. Discussions are key, and it's important to make sure that our students are able to see how this traditional literature can help them evaluate life. I think finding creative ways for children to show the rest of the class what they were able to take away from the book is essential.

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Author Profile: Laurie Miller Hornik

Check out her website! http://lauriemillerhornik.com/

Two of the books that I liked are shown below.

Both of these books seem to be really great, but School Zoo sounds like a truly silly book. Desks filled with fish! This is why this book looks very enjoyable. Hornik says she wrote this book because of her son's love of animals. I really think Hornik's books look engaging and I would like for you to take some time to look at these books. Thanks!