Book Review 7
November 11, 2009
Title: Merry-Go-Round a Book about Nouns
Author/ Illustrator: Ruth Heller
ISBN: 0698116429
Publisher: 1990 Grosset and Donlap
Summary: This is a book with cute rhymes that also teaches important grammar rules.
Uses: This book teaches so many things! It teaches spellins for plurals (s, es, and ies). It also teaches types of nouns, and the different rules that go with them. I think that it woud be really helpful to read this book when teaching kids about these things. Students could even keep an book for grammar rules and illlustrate it like she did with hers to help them remember.
I want this book and all her other books in my classroom. I think that they would be so helpful! I would read them aloud and then have them in the room as a refrence for my students.
Book Review
November 11, 2009
Title: Swan Sister Fairy Tales Retold
Edited by: Ellen Dutlow and Terri Widling
Published: 2003 Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing
ISBN: 0689878370
Summary: This is a book that has a lot of classic fairy tales and legends retold in a new way. It has the Little Red Riding Hood, The Green Man, and many more.
Uses:
You could read the stories out of this book aloud to the class, and then have them pick thier favorte fairy tale or legend, and have them rewrite it. You could also have them write a comparison paper where they compare and contrast these stories to the origionals. Another idea is that with each story study the original story and the culture of the contry where they origionated. You could even talk about why they would have created the story in the first place.
I really like this book, and I will definately have it in my classroom! There are so many ways to use a book like this.
Book Review 6
November 7, 2009
Title: A Haunting in Williamsburg
Author: Lou Kassem
ISBN: 038075892X
Publication: First Avon Camelot Printing 1990
Summary: Jayne is staying at her family’s old home in Williamsburg Virginia. She thinks that she is dreaming when she sees a woman dressed in colonial attire is standing at the foot of her bed in the middle of the night. She is seeing the ghost of Sally Custis who is seeking Jayne’s help to right a wrong that was done to her over 200 years ago.
This is a historical fiction novel.
Uses: I could use this to teach history. I could also use it for creative writing.
Text Talk Lesson- The Funny Little Woman
October 12, 2009
The Funny Little Woman
Retold by Arlene Mosel
Illustrated by Blair Lent
ISBN: 0525302654
Published: 1972 E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. New York
Summary: Japanese story about a little old woman with a funny laugh. She loses one of her dumplings and goes on an extraordinary adventure to get it back.
Introduction:
Read the title and show the cover. Ask students what they think is the story is going to be about.
Pages 1 and 2:
What is a dumpling? If you don’t know look at the picture it might help you.
Pages 3-6:
What does tumbled mean? Look at the picture.
Pages 7 and 8:
Look at the picture where is the little old woman now?
Pages 11 and 12:
Why did the statue ask the little old woman to hide?
Pages 13-20:
What did the Oni do with the little old woman?
What does the magic paddle do?
Pages 21-24
What does it mean to be lonely?
Pages 25-32
How did the little woman escape?
Pages 33-36
What does the woman use the magic paddle for?
How does the little woman feel at the end of the story?
I know that I was supposed to do The Tale of Martha B. Rabbit, but I lent that book to a friend and she lent it to another friend. I wasn’t able to track it down over the weekend, and I had to choose a different book. I know this books seems really long, but most of the pages are pictures.
DRTA Frog and Toad Lesson
October 8, 2009
Book: Frog and Toad Together
chapter: The Garden
Read the the title. What do you think this story might be about?
Look at all the pictures. What do think is happening here? What do you think will happen next?
Part 1 pgs 18-19
What was Frog doing? pg18
(gardening)
What did Frog give Toad? pg18
(seeds)
What do you think will happen next?
Part 2 pgs 20-21
What did Toad do to try to get his seeds to grow?
(he walked back and forth and he told them to grow)a
What do you think will happen next?
Part 3 pgs 22-23
What did Frog say was keeping the seeds from growing? p 22
(they were afraid)
What did Frog say for Toad to do? p23
(let the sun shine and the rain fall)
What do you think will happen next?
Part 4 pg 24-29
What does Toad do to keep his seeds from being afraid?
(lights candles, reads to them, sings to them, played them music)
What was Toad doing when the seeds started to grow?
(sleeping)
How does Toad feel at the end? What tells you that?
(growing a garden is hard work) (he says it and he is wiping his head in the picture)
Word study Article: Ehri
October 7, 2009
1) What was the hypothesis tested by the teachers?
Do children learn better if they can see the spelling of the word.
2) Who were the subjects?
2nd and 5th graders
3) What were the Experimental conditions?
While the students were learning the meanings and the pronunciations of words one group of children got to see the spellings of the words and some children didn’t.
4) What did the treatment involve?
While the students were learning the meanings and the pronunciations of words one group of children got to see the spellings of the words and some children didn’t.
5) Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning? How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?
Spelling-present students learned everything better.
6. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?
They had a higher base knowledge to apply the spellings to. They had dealt with more words than their peers, and were more comfortable and knowledgable when approaching this task.
7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?
Spelling-prestent is a much better way to teach. It reaches more students with little or no additional effort from the teacher. If the teacher writes vocabulary words on the board as she goes over them, and then adds them to a “word wall” the students will learn the words better. Every classroom should have a word wall with the vocabulary words that the teacher is trying to get them to learn posted and clearly visible from all the student desks.
Book Review 5
September 23, 2009
Title: Squids Will Be Squids
Author Illustrator: Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Publication: Viking 1998
ISBN: 067088135x
About: This is an updated version of Aesop’s Fables. It also gives a very good brief history of Aesop and a description of what a fable is.
Uses: I guess you could use this if you wanted students to write their own fables. You could deffinately use it in a lesson of fables. A good thing about it is that even though the book is a little long you could just read a few individual fabels from it and then put it on the shelf for students to read when they had a chance. This is a really cool book!
Goldilocks Text Talk Lesson
September 21, 2009
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
written and illustrated by James Marshall
ISBN: 0140563660
Published: Penguin Group 1988
Summary: This story is a slight twist on the classic tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In this story Goldilocks is a naughty girl who disobeys her mother by taking a shortcut through the woods. While she is in the woods she finds a house and makes a mess and falls asleep. While she is sleeping the owners return and scare her away.
Cover Page/ Introduction:
Pull out the Book and finger point read the title. Ask the students what they know about this story. Then ask them if they think that this story is going to be the same story or a different one.
Page 1:
What did the neighbor mean when she said “That’s what you think”?
Page 2:
What does the word Naughty mean?
What can you tell me about the picture on this page (page 3) that shows that she is naughty?
Page 6 and 7:
What do you think that this word Scalding means? If you have trouble look at Papa Bear’s face in this picture (pg6).
What do you think is going to happen while the bears are out?
Page 11:
Look at this picture what is Goldilocks doing that is naughty?
Page 18:
What is going to happen next?
Conclusion:
How did Goldilocks feel when the bears woke her up?
How did the bears feel when they came home to the mess?
“Daddy Where Did the Words Go?”
September 21, 2009
1) Finger pointing shows that the child understands the syllables that make up a word instead of memorizing the word. If done correctly the child should tap the word once for each syllable.
2) Beginning Consonant Knowledge
Concept of Word in Text
Phoneme Segmentation Ability
Word Recognition
Beginning Consonant Knowledge is the first stage. In this stage students recognize the sounds of the consonants, and that is how they both read and write the words. For example if the word was bat they would recognize the B.
Concept of word in text comes next. In this stage the student begins to recognize all the sounds in the word not just the beginning.
Phoneme Segmentation Ability is the hardest stage. In this stage the students begin to understand how vowels work and where they go within the words.
Word Recognition is the final stage. In this stage the students process all the sounds in the words they read.
3) Reading is one thing that you cannot learn without experiencing it. Someone can tell you all day that certain letters make certain sounds, but until you try to read them you won’t understand. Reading takes practice. It is not something that can be learned overnight! That is why so many students struggle so hard with learning to read.
4) There are a lot of exercises designed to help students learn to read for example, finger pointing, echo reading, partner reading, Choral reading, cut up a sentence, be the sentence, and many more. I think that finger point reading used with choral reading are the two that I would use most often.
Morris ch2
September 16, 2009
I thought that this chapter was very interesting. The main purpose of Kindergarten is to level the playing field. Some kids are read to often and some even know how to read before school starts, but others have never been read to. Understanding spoken language and written language are two totally different things. There are two different structures and the only way to understand them is to do them. The children who have been read to are already starting to understand, but the other children haven’t even been exposed to it.
Children in kindergarten should participate in two different types of reading activities contextual reading and dictated experience stories. Contextual reading is when the teacher pulls out a book and reads it to the class. This should be one of the big books and she should point to the words as she reads them. She should read this book several times and have the students read it with her. This will help students develop sight words and begin to learn how to sound them out. Dictated experience stories are stories made up of three sentences that students make up and the teacher writes down. These stories will be read together and used to help students learn to read on their own.
