Stargirl March 24, 2008

Over my break I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and what a wonderful book it is! Stargirl is about a girl, who calls herself Stargirl, because that’s what she’s feeling at the time. Students at her school think she’s an alien and that she is totally weird except for Leo. Leo is intrigued by Stargirl and gets a chance to know her. Stargirl is an optimistic and always looks to cheer up someone around her. He learns valuable lessons about how people should treat each other and that Stargirl could care less what others think about her.

I can’t wait to use this book in my classroom. I have purchased 6 copies so that I can have Literature circles with it.

A Must Read January 25, 2008

 As you know, my classes are reading novels in literature circles. Last year through Scholastic I got the novels The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo for my students to read. This book is a great read: fast, thought provoking, and great lessons to be learned. The story is broken into 4 parts which all tie together in the end. The story is about a mouse named Despereaux, which means despair, who was born into a family who didn’t like him much. He was not the average mouse–different because he was smaller than the average mouse and he loved to read, which mice don’t like to read they like to eat the pages. Anyways, Despereaux follows music one day because he love the sounds he heard. This brought him to meet Princess Pea. He falls in love with her and eventually talks to her. This leads him to the dungeon because he broke the rules. In the dungeon he meets a rat and this is where the story unfolds…Despereaux learns the values of faith, hope, love, perseverance, forgiveness, and determination, but you as a reader learn empathy along with what Despereaux learns.

Great Finds December 31, 2007

For Christmas I recieved 3 great books to help me teach writing craft, teach the context of writing with grammar, and revision. I love books and I think these titles would be beneficial to any teacher who teaches English and writing.

Writing Whizardry: 60 Mini-lessons to Teach Elaboration and Writer’s Craft by Maity Schrecengost

This book is my favorite out of the three. It presents the lesson with examples and non-examples of elaboration or craft then gives practice. After practicing there is applying the knowlege learned. I highly recommend this book if you want help with teaching elaboration and craft.

Writing Workshop Survival Kit 2nd Edition by Gary Robert Muschla

 This book is packed with anything you need to know on creating a writing workshop to managing your writing workshop. It also includes 100 mini-lessons that focus on the types of writing, writing techniques, and the mechanics of writing.

 

 

Hot Fudge Monday:Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech… by Randy Larson

This book is an unique way to teaching the parts of speech with the context of writing. This is an easy way to start teaching grammar in the context of writing. The book includes reproducibles that are not like worksheets you get with your grammar textbook. After practicing the skill, students apply the lesson with writing.

 

I can’t wait to start the new year off with my new great finds. I hope these books help you too!