EDRG 3321 T/R Chapter 10

Read Aloud can be enjoyed by students at all levels, even at the university level:) Professor Pickett showed us a video about Jennifer Myer doing a read aloud lesson with her students. I was amazed by the classroom management and how she would engage her students in thinking about text to text connections. The teacher also had the students talk to their elbow partner to discuss the book and reinforce the lesson.
During a read aloud we must first do a book walk, showing the cover discussing the title, make predictions, go over vocabulary, look at the illustrations and make more predictions. We also need to connect the students, referencing or building the students schemata.

EDRG 3321 T/R Presentations

The semester is near the end and the presentations have all been awesome. They were very informative and engaging. The first presentation on the 19th was "mind blowing" as far as the creativity and level of technology applied to the project. The second presentation on the 24th was also wonderful. The art work was great and the closing PowerPoint and vocalsdealing with grace was so emotional to me. The third presentation about fantasy had a beautiful PowerPoint of art work and very detailed info about the genre of fantasy. The set up of the chair was so cute and the activity was excellent (Down the Back of the Chair). I so want to have my students create a genre presentation without limiting the children to the old book report and oral report of yesterday. These have been a joy to watch.

Author Profile EDRG 3321 T/Th

I know I have my twenty five authors but there is one more I really need to include. The author is Patricia Polacco, two of my professors have read her books to the class or had us do a read aloud/ group work. Polacco's stories are based on historical event, either in her own family or the nation. Her narratives cause me to feel emotional (more so than usual:) Here is her web site with the list of books and activities, http://www.patriciapolacco.com/index.htm The two book I enjoy are Thank You, Mr. Falkner and Pink and Say.

EDRG 3321 T/R Author Profile

Author Judy Schachner writes the Skippy Jon Jones books. These books are great for students because it can be used for poetry, decoding, comprehension, concepts of cause and effect, and language lessons. The web site offers downloads like name cards, counting worksheets, and Spanish practice. The website also offers games and activities. http://www.skippyjonjones.com/

EDRG 3344 T/R Objectives

Remembering: The student will identify between living and non-living organisms or objects by labeling a worksheet at 95% accuracy.

Understanding: The student will summarize what the main idea of a story is by explanation @ 90% accuracy.

Applying: The student will be executing decoding words with common spelling patterns (e.g., -ink, -ick) by demonstration on a pocket chart @ 90% accuracy.

Analyzing: The student will be comparing monthly vehicle payments with varied down payments and interest rates on a spreadsheet @ 90% accuracy.

Evaluating: The student will be surveying what the student body feels is the most unfavorable food in the cafeteria and the data will be put into a report @ 85% accuracy.

Creating: The student will produce a media product about a weather pattern or event using a technology software (e.g., Movie maker) @ 85% accuracy.

EDRG 3321 T/R Shared Reading PDF

The article was a great reinforcement to show the importance of shared reading. I have applied a lot of what we learn in class to my children. My four year old son loves for me to read to him daily. I do a book walk, I have him predict, we discuss the story and events of the story in order. But most important he always asks, "Read it again!" I have noticed that as I reread the story he absorbs more about it. He connects more, he also interprets and evaluates the story. Even my two year old daughter listens to me read to my son, she can repeat the lines and be involved in the shared reading. My son goes to pre-k and his favorite center is the library. I could never inhibit his love of reading.

My sons favorite story is the same as the girl Sarah in the article, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
He has to read it with his little plastic toy caterpillar, I have read it so many times he now has memorized the story verbatim. I listen to him as he reads the story to his caterpillar, he points to each word has he (mock) reads, he reads with enthusiasm and fluency. Also, he can apply what he has learned about the life-cycle of a butterfly. Last month, he saw a monarch butterfly and he explained the life cycle to his grandfather (without the text in front of him).

During shared reading it is important to provide a comfortable atmosphere and be an enthusiastic reader in order to engage the child. Also, we must encourage active participation between the child and the text to foster a love for reading.

Author Profile EDRG 3321

Frank Asch is not only an author but a poet. His website not only lists

his books but also has several suggestions on how teachers can use his works with in a variety of centers, games, can be used with math, science, social studies. Lots of great ideas. His books are geared towards pre-k to first. http://www.frankasch.com/about_asch.shtml My son loves the book, Happy Birthday Moon, you can teach about echos with this book.

Ezra Jack Keats is an author who has established the Ezra Jack Keats Award to recognize and encourage authors and illustrators to the field of children's books. He has several books, but one book I would like is Keats Neighborhood, it is a collection of ten of his stories. On his web page there is a tab for kids that has animated stories to watch.

www.ezra-jack-keats.org

EDRG 3344 T/Th Star Trek

Language Barriers is something I encounter daily. Because I am half Anglo and half Filipino, people mistake me for being Hispanic. I had never lived in the southern states before so I never had to learn the language. When I moved to San Antonio, I worked in retail (optics) for 13 years, and I could earn commission for my sales. You better believe I tried my hardest to communicate. I could communicate enough to confidently make the sale. I am still not fluent in Spanish but I can get the gist of it.

I believe Captain Dathon's sacrifice was worth it because rather than beginning a war due to miscommunication, only Captain Dathon dies. Maybe it could have been done without him dying, but for entertainment purposes it had a greater impact. As he lay wounded, Captain Picard took the time to understand the language of metaphors. In turn Picard was able to complete the alliance with the alien culture, the Tamarians.

The experience caused Captain Picard to gain an understanding of how important communication is. He knows now that he can not insinuate that another culture, that they can't communicate with, is going to be defensive and want to harm them. Where we might think a gesture or tone of voice is threatening, to the other it is an act of connection or reaching out for friendship. (This is a common thing between my husband and myself, I should have him watch this episode of Star Trek:)

EDRG 3344 T/ Th MGP Expository

My expository piece is about how to set up my aquatic turtles habitat within the classroom. I could set it up as a power point. The second grade students could follow the directions to create a home for thier new class pet. I, of course, would have all the supplies assembled and pre-measured (eg., filter, chemicals).

Step 1
Place the filter along the back inside corner wall of the aquarium.
Make sure you have pressed the suction cups securely.

Step 2
Get the dock and center it along the back, inside wall of the aquarium.
Make sure the suction cups are attached securely.

Step 3
Fill the aquarium tank half way with cold tap water. Do not put warm or hot water. This could hurt or kill the turtle.

Step 4
Add the pre-measure solution of water conditioner and Turtle Clean to the water. This will help keep turtle healthy. Please do not dip your fingers in liquid and do not taste the liquid.

Step 5
Plug the filter in. This will mix solution evenly throughout the water.

Step 6
Attach the heat lamp to the top of aquarium making sure to point the light on the dock. Plug in the lamp. This helps to warm the turtle because he is a cold blooded animal who depends on the warm sun.

Step 7
Carefully place the red eared slider turtle on to the dock. Then place the screen over the top of the tank to make sure nothing falls in by accident.

Final Step
Feed turtle two times a day. Your classroom turtle will be happy, healthy, and will grow from the size of a silver dollar to be as large as a saucer. Students, you will enjoy watching the turtle chase your finger through the glass, feeding him, and seeing him bask in his lamp.

EDRG 3321 T/Th Author profile

The author Laura Numeroff is famous for her circle stories, like If You Give A mouse A Cookie. These books are great for predicting. All children seem to love her books. Check out her web site

http://www.lauranumeroff.com/ She has two new books I am looking forward to reading. Also, Oprah has added to of her books to her book club ( ages 3-5).

Leo Lionni is a four time Caldecott Honor Winner. Here is his website http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/lionni/ His books are great for lesson plans. You can take two of his books and students can compare details by creating a Venn diagram. More lessons can be found on http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=263

EDRG 3321 T/ Th Chapter 9 Non Fiction

I was surprised how this category of genre has changed. Like informational picture books and Photographic essays, diaries, and activity/ craft books. It is not just a biography or a resource book. Now I come across a book and I can determine if it is a "faction" like the example Diary of a Worm or Diary of a fly.
Like Prof. Pickett mentioned, something we all need to remember is about how boys learn and take to reading. Boys usually hate to read because they are disengaged. We as teachers need to introduce literature, whether it be non-fiction or not, so they can see themselves in the text. When you interest them with something they like, you will have an engaged reader.

EDRG 3344 T/ TH MGP Descriptive

This is my poem.

I have a pet turtle,
who a year ago was tiny.
I named her Myrtle,
and her shell was so shiny.

She loves to bask on her dock,
warming her body with a heat lamp.
She sits as still as a rock,
until she is warm and no longer damp.

Larger, Myrtle began to grow.
She would startle and dart.
My turtle is not slow.
She is very, very smart.

I've had her a year,
she's as big as a block.
She looks at me as gentle as a dear,
I look at her and wish she still fit on her dock.

EDRG 3321 T/ Th Chapter 8

I know we have the option of blogging about a fiction book we like, but until recently I had no interest in picking up a book for enjoyment. Now that I have found that reading can be aesthetic, I don't have the time to read because of homework and having a family. Some books I would like to read are the Twilight series. My daughter says there is so much that the movie did not cover or that the film changed. The books are so much better.

Stephanie Meyer is a Christian who has many morals, for example she believes in no sex before marriage and has incorporated this in her writing. Which is a good moral to have for children today with high pregnancy rates and diseases. It is a great role model for children to read and know that it is OK not to.
The Characters in her book are almost real. But not the typical vampire. These vampires sparkle in the sunlight rather than dissolve, they have a reflection and they can be "vegetarian" vampires, meaning they feast on animal blood instead of human blood. I can't wait to find time to read the series.

EDRG 3321 Author Profile

Author Margaret Wise Brown is a famous children's author who wrote Good Night Moon and The Run away Bunny. She did not write like the typical fairy tales, she focused on quite times and was gentle in her voice. She never spoke down to her readers.
http://www.margaretwisebrown.com/Her_storynew.html

Robert Munsch is a very interesting character. His website is interactive. He was a strange child, he went to school to be a priest, then ended up working at a daycare making up stories. This is were he began writing childrens books, he had so may stories that his wife urged him to publish. http://www.robertmunsch.com/

EDRG 3344 T/R MGP Persuasive

My Persuasive piece is a letter to my students about not littering around lakes, ponds, or beaches because it can harm not only turtles but other animals who inhabit that watery home. So here goes:

Dear Second Grade Students,

This month we have been learning about turtle habitats. We have also created an aquarium habitat for our own classroom turtle, Sheldon. As we have cared and feed our class turtle, we realize that our turtle is a living organism that needs caring and we have grown to love Sheldon. Yet, Sheldon is not the only turtle who needs our help.

Zoologists are scientists who study animals. Zoologists tell us that turtles are being hurt because of human pollution. The ponds, lakes, streams and oceans are not being kept clean. People are throwing trash in the water and the turtles are eating the trash. Some of the trash that scientists have found inside of turtles is foil, Styrofoam, paper, hooks, fishing line and plastic bags. Turtles in the ocean usually eat jellyfish, but when they see a plastic bag in the water they think it is a real jellyfish and eat it. When turtles eat trash they can get very sick and die.

We don’t want to hurt any more turtles. So we need to tell our friends and help to keep the lakes, rivers, and ocean clean to keep turtles healthy. Please throw away all trash into a garbage can. Don’t leave it in or near the water. We will not only help Sheldon’s family but all the other living animals like fish and frogs.

With love,
Ms. Bernal and Sheldon

EDRG 3321 T/R Author Profile

Steven Kellogg is both an author and illustrator. He has several books to look at on his site. http://www.stevenkellogg.com/ He also has American tall tales such as Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry and Pecos Bill. They locate the settings of these tales on U.S. maps which is great to teach geography beginning second grade. This a website that takes his books and gives you lesson plans http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?

Audrey Wood has several books and she also writes with her husband Don Woods. Their website has an interactive page for children to copy coloring pages, play games, and cut and paste activities. This author also has picture books.

http://www.audreywood.com/mac_site/clubhouse/clubhouse_page/clubhouse.htm

EDRG 3321 T/R Chapter 7 Blog

The chapter was very interesting. I learned so much about picture books and now I view them differently. I never realized how much is inferred when reading a picture book. I went to the library to pick out a book for class I ended up checking out six picture books so I could read them with my four year old. He loves it and thinks they are so funny. When using picture books for students it can be used as a writing exercise and will help promote higher order thinking along with learning about the genre of art. I now look at the inside cover for what type of medium was used to illustrate and I look at the techniques used in the art work. like hatches used to texture.
I admire the authors of these genre because so much is said with little to no words, just expressions and motion on the pages. Wow!

EDRG 3321 T/R Author Profile

Melanie Watt is both an author and illustrator. She has several book for younger children, like a book about Scaredy Squirrel who never leaves his nut tree because it's way too dangerous. He could encounter tarantulas, green Martians or killer bees. But he's well-prepared. Scaredy Squirrel's emergency kit includes antibacterial soap and a parachute.very cute and funny book http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/author/1263/Melanie-Watt.html

Author David Shannon has three books that I like. The first is Duck on a Bike and the second is A Bad Case of Stripes, about a girl who is worried about what others think. Last is The Bunyans
a spin on the Paul Bunyan story and how his family helped create the wonders of our landscape today. http://www.scholastic.com/titles/nodavid/davidshannon.htm

Kevin Henkes has several books and his web page is cute. He is an author of a book that my daughter loved to read, Chrysanthemum, about a mouse who is embarrassed of her name and kids make fun of it. Most of his stories have a mouse as the main character. Check out the website, http://www.kevinhenkes.com/

EDRG 3321 T/R Chapter 6 blog

I am horrified by the original stories of children's fairy tales that we read to our own kids. I wonder how someone could see the original tales of a bloody murder and think, I could change this for kids, like in the story Little Red Riding hood. Freaky!

I did enjoy the fractured fairy tales, it was a fun twist of other stories that we traditionally tell and hear. Like variations of The Three Little Pigs and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! Also, the story of Cinderella and Cinder Edna. I love how Cinder Edna was so down to earth, she put a dress on layaway then took the bus to and from the ball.

Lastly, I like how chapter 6 has given so many ideas that we can use traditional literature in our classrooms. Also, how we can make it fun and meaningful to our future students, like having puppetry, drama, and ways students can transform a traditional story into a new variation of the original.

Hope y'all have a great weekend. I hope I have a great weekend too, my week has been sleepless with sick little ones.

EDRG 3344 T/R MGP Narrative (revision)

A Place for Sheldon

Once upon a time in a pond far, far, away, there lived a turtle named Sheldon. The animals of the pond called him Shel for short. Shel was awkwardly larger than other turtles his same age. Shel never quite fit in and he was wanting more than anything to be good at some thing, anything. His best friend is a dragonfly, named Drake. Drake had lots of ideas to help Shel find a talent he
was good at.

Drake suggested that Shel could try to be a chef, but Shel's arms were to short. Shel would hold a bowl in one claw and a spoon in the other but the mixture could not be stirred because his arms could not reach across his shell. Drake then said, “Well maybe you could be a singer." So Shel and Drake went to go see the best singer of the pond, Froggy the frog. Froggy had a great singing voice. He performed karaoke every night on a lily pad stage. Shel asked Froggy, "Can you teach me how to sing?" Froggy gave Shel some pointers on how to croak karaoke. Then, Shel decided he was ready to try his singing voice out. When he opened his mouth, a horrible sound came out, Screech!!!! So, Drake said, "Maybe if you climb on the lily pad stage, your voice would sound wonderful." Shel struggled to climbed on the lily pad. But before he was even up on the pad, it sank.

Sheldon was so embarrassed and sad because he still could not find his niche in the pond. He could not find what he was great at. Shel just swam away with his head down. Drake the dragonfly found Shel on his log. He told Shel, " Just be yourself and in time you will find who you are suppose to be."

Just then they heard a "Splash!", it was a fish doing her acrobatic routine. The fish was part of a circus show in the pond. Sheldon had an idea. "I could be an acrobat!!!! Excited, he rushed into the water and dove straight to the bottom. He just knew if he got enough speed he could fly into the air and flip just like the fish. He pushed off the bottom of the pond and swam as fast as he could. Which was not very fast. When Shel reached the surface, only his neck came out of the water. "No flying, no flipping! Aahhh!" growled Sheldon. " I can't do anything."

Drake felt so bad for his friend. "There is something you can be good at. Just be yourself and you will be happy," Drake said. Sheldon agreed and said "Maybe your right. Like they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. The two friends called it a day and went home for the night.

The next morning, Shel woke to the sound of birds chipping. He left the log to find breakfast. After breakfast, Shel basted himself out on top of his log to warm up in the sunlight. Hours went by before Drake came over. Drake was so exited he found something for Shel to do. Earlier, Drake came across the pond's water polo team. They told the dragonfly that if he knew any turtles who were big and strong, to send him to the cattails of the pond. Shel heard Drake but he did not feel confident enough to go.

Shel took three days before he finally was convinced by his friend to go try out for the water polo team. Once Shel arrived at the cattails, he noticed that the other turtles were his same large size. They were missing one team mate and needed a new player. Sheldon tried out for the team and they asked Shel, "Will you help our team go to the championship finals?", Shel didn't hesitate, he
accepted. After two months of being on the water polo team, Shel was a strong player. He was a very good player and was voted the most valuable player. Drake was so proud of his friend.

The pond was all a buzz. All the pond animals were preparing for a parade. Their home water polo team won the championship game. Shel was who everyone was waiting to see in the parade. Shel felt like he finally belonged and he had a purpose in the pond. When Shel was on the float he waved to everyone while Drake rode on top of Shel's shell. Shel turned to see Drake and
told him, "Thank you for always believing in me and standing by my side. Your a great friend."