EDRG 3321 Genre Presentations

I really enjoyed seeing the genre presentations. I think every group did a fabulous job. You could see all the hard work that everyone did to complete their assignments. Our group worked really hard on our project and I was really happy with our outcome. I am very happy with the people that were in my group and I am really glad that we all worked together really well to get everything done.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 11

Shared and guided reading

During shared and guided reading students will learn a lot through observation. During shared reading the instruction is appropriate for all ages. You need to tier your instruction to meet the needs of all learners. Make sure to provide an enjoyable experience with books. Think about ways to subtly and naturally invite children to the reading. Participation is very crucial to the shared reading process. It is good to use the writings of the students. Make sure to sit in the the middle of the floor at the students level so that everyone can see. For guided reading it provides the opportunity for this practice to occur in a supportive context. Fountas and Pinnell were guided reading gurus. It should be appropriate for all ages. With guided reading students will be able to read with strategies they currently use but it also gives them an opportunity to learn something new.There are a lot of critical elements of guided reading, first you need to make sure that there are temporary and fluid groups also selecting the text is critical a good book that will support guided reading should support the use the children will use and easily know.

Author profiles:

http://www.louisamayalcott.org/louisamaytext.html

Louisa May Alcott is the author of Little Women. She began as an author of poetry and short stories that appeared in magazines. when she was 22 her first book was published.

http://www.memfox.net/welcome.html

In Dr. Harris's class she read up this book and I fell in love with it. I twas such a good book and I would love to read more books from this author. This book is written around memory loss and I have dealt with that in my own family so this book kinda hit home with me.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 10 blog

Read alouds

Read alouds are essential for all ages. Doing read alouds is a great way to get kids interested in books. In order for a read aloud to be affective, you have to do lots of planning and make sure you do certaing things to make sure ALL of your readers are listening and paying attention to the story. It has been said that doing read louds can be beneficial during down times. For instance, when the students are waiting in line, that would be a great place for a read aloud. When choosing a book for a read loud, you need to make sure you know all your books that you have picked, include different genres, andfinally involve your students. It is very crucial that the student to stay involved so that way the students don't get bored. After you do your read loud make sur to have post reading activities, and invite lots of interaction!

Author profiles:

http://www.jkrowling.com/

J.K Rowling has made a huge hit out of the Harry Potter series.They are a mix of Fantasy along with Sci-fi as well. They have a huge following of a mix of children to adults as well. She has also let them be turned into movies as well. I am not a fan of this particular series but I assume with the amount of people that love it, it must be good.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/heniemeyer.com/

Stephanie Meyer just became my new favorite author. I just finished reading Twilight and can not wait to get my hands on New moon so that I can go see the movie. She is such a talented writer. I love how descriptive she is with her writing and there is passion in the book but there is no sex. It's a great book and gives you a better understanding of forbidden true love. I was really rooting for her to fall in love with Edward from the first moment she saw him. I thought it was going to end very tragically but it did end with leaving you on the edge of your seat waiting for the next one.

http://vampirediaries.net/ The Vampire Diaries is another cult hit series that has now also become a TV show as well. I think these books are a little to out there for young teens, and I know the Twilight series has no sex but I am not entirely sure of whats going on since I have yet to read this series.

http://www.wimpykid.com/

These books are awesome, they are all the rage right now with children as your as first grade. My son loves these books and can finish them in one day each. I love also that they are part of a series as well. The author writes these books I believe in mind for older kids. So some younger kids might get the book and it may seem as though they are using bad words in the story. So these books might be better suited for older children.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 9 Nonfiction

Nonfiction is a genre that encompasses nonfiction or informal books as well as biographies. Quality nonfiction is said to spark wonder as well as the joy in learning. I myself don't necessarily dislike nonfiction, I would just rather read something that is not true. With an expository text of nonfiction you willl need to read more than just that one book in order to continue it and know what is going on throughout the rest. A nonfiction book will have a copyright page and not a veso page. You will always see a table of contents in nonfiction. There is a very important aspect to a nonfiction book. It needs to be pleasing to the eye of the reader. Certain font is chosen for that specific reason. For the book to have accuracy, the author info should always be easily found. As a reader, you should always look for the background of the author. it needs to be short and sweet but it also needs to be interesting.

Author profiles:

http://www.militarybookclub.com/pages/nm/product/productDetail.jsp?skuId=1048469485&YIXL=y_ssp&YTID=BN6_03_k6_F72_WoodrowWilson

This is a really good website for students to go if they were doing a biography for school. I know there is only so many teachers who can do biographies or book reports so this would be helpful, along with a biography of a president such as this one here.

Shakespeare was a wonderful author, play right, and scholar. I find it truly fascinating. The wording always throws me off but if it is something that you are required to read in high school even it's hard to grasp. I love Macbeth it is my absolute favorite. I wasn't sure that it would be considered a non fiction but it is and I am so glad. I would encourage it as a light summer read maybe the summer before the 12Th grade rather than earlier. It gives the students more time to get to know the author.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 8 blog

Elements of Fiction

So fiction is a way to share something that is not true. Fiction is a narrative created by an author and not actual facts. Fiction is actually my favorite type of story. I love to read fictional books it's as if it is an escape for me. There are all types of fictional books. There are mysteries, romance, sci-fi, western, and even fantasy. The elements that make up fiction are the setting. You always need a good setting to make the reader actually feel like they are right there in the very same place and the characters. Characters are also an important part of fiction, without them, you could not have a story. I always like to read books with really good and well described characters, it's almost as if you can see them and they are right there with you. Plot. It's always important to have a good plot and to hook your reader. If there is a good plot, they will want to continue to read. You also need a good climax to get the readers excitement up and ready for the next event in the story. When you have all these components all together, you can have a wonderful and exciting story that your reader will want to continue to read for quite a while.

Author profiles:

http://www.beverlycleary.com/index.html

I really loved reading the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary while I was getting older right before my teen years. There were so many good books that she had written and I just had to have everyone.To me, all of the elements of fiction were depicted in her books. You always had good characters as well as a good plot, and setting. I always felt as though I could fit into her family very easily as I was reading these books. Ramona was always out getting into some kind of new adventure. I wish there were goo series books out like this today

http://www.peterrabbit.com/potters-world.asp

Beatrix Potter. I don't really have to say much else. She is a timeless classic author. She was very talented from a very early age and was a very gifted artist. She and her brother kept many pets around their home and many of them became many of her subjects for almost all of her books. Mainly writing about her most famously known animal, Peter Rabbit who became the first patented plush toy in 1903 making him the oldest licensed character. I love these books still today. There was also a film depicted about her life and was released in 2006. Not only did her life hold great sadness it also held much success.

EDRG 3321 Chapter 7 blog

This blog is about picture books. I absolutely love picture books. I think not only are they beautiful but they are fun to read as well. There was a quote in our notes about picture books, it says" when we grow up and read them to our children, they are like old friends" I find that to be so very true. I have not had enough time to read to my son since I started school, but whenever I do get the chance, I love to read him picture books. They are so beautiful, rich in deep color tones, and of course there is always a huge variety of them. I love it that a picture book does not even need words to tell a story. You can figure out exactly what is going on in the story without the use of one word. The language in picture books is sometimes not even needed. Sometimes a picture book has just a narrator. There are all sorts of picture books and some of my favorites are actually pop-up books and the wordless picture books. I am by no means any type of artsy person but I can truly appreciate a nice work of art and to me, that is what picture books are.

Author profiles:

http://www.margaretwisebrown.com/

Margaret Wise Brown wrote one of my all time favorite picture books, Goodnight Moon. I can't even begin to think about all the times that read this book to my son. He truly loved it and so did I. I think we even went and got a gift set somewhere and bought three extra copies to have more on hand a ready for in the car, one at grandma's and even one in the bathroom while we were potty training. :) I truly love this picture book and all its simplicity.

http://www.tomie.com/main.html

Another good picture book author is Tomie dePaola. My favorite book by this author is Strega Nona. While I was field basing the teacher was using this book in a literature circle and it took me back to elementary when I read this story. I love the way his illustrations really light up each page as you read the story. They are simple and yet childlike all at once. He as an author can actually make you feel as though you are a part of the story.

EDRG 3321 Red riding hood blog

Whenever I think of fairy tales, I don't think of them being any other way than the way I have always read them since I was a child. I don't think of them as having alternate endings or other perspectives from the other characters. That is the way some fairy tales are written now a days. Little Red Riding Hood was shown to us in just a brief clip. It is written in a very sexual nature from the wolf's perspective. It is also very dark and disturbing and a lot of the re written fairy tales are. I myself do not care for that sort of thing. I like the classics and feel they were written just fine. I have to admit I do find some of the newly written ones a little humorous like Cinder Edna that my group did our poster on. I guess it was cute but I also think I just am bias to the way the goody-goody always ends up happily ever after.

Author profiles: For this profile I chose one of my favorite authors, Eric Carle.

http://www.eric-carle.com/

I love all of his books and so does my son. I love the use of color that is depicted in all of his stories. Most of the books are easy to read and are easy readers for kids as well. My son's favorite story is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I used to love to read him The Very Busy Spider. Whenever i think of a good children's author, Eric Carle is always a first in my mind!

The Brothers Grimm

I love the story of Hansel and Gretel. I have heard it read by many different authors but my favorite is by the Grimm Brothers. I think they do a fantastic job most of their stories were taken orally and told orally as well, which in turn made them all become part of folklore. In my opinion I don't think good children's stories are not written as good as they were back then.