Blog 3

Readers response is very important. It helps both the student and the teacher. For the student it gives them that reinforcement of what they have read and learned. If they didn't understand it helps them catch up with everyone else so they can also be on the same page. Maybe by doing the readers response it would give them a better understanding of what they read. For the teacher it is great cause you can see if the students liked the reading and if they understood it. The teacher can check for comprehension and see witch students need more help.

For the readers response there are a lot of activities you could do with the students to help keep it interesting. They can do webs, journals, a mask like we did in class, or group discussion. As teachers we want to make sure the activity apples to the book.

My favorite book that we read had to be Arizona. I really liked how she had an impact on her students. She always wanted them to be dreaming of the future so they could better themselves. And she treated the students with great respect.
The book I did not like was the the bones, it was a little weired that the bone was talking. The end was pretty good though. It was an interesting ending.

Blogg #2

I learned a lot about idea development. Now that I think back to my school day I don't remember being taught idea development or maybe I just don't remember. Either way I thought the idea's that Dr. Harris presented to us were great. I find it helpful to write things down and ponder my thoughts. Normally I would sit there for a long time before I could figure out what to do. When I started writing things down, at first it was slow but then thoughts just start flying out and ideas come easier to me. Presenting this idea development to my students will help them become better writers and teach them the process of writing. I also think this helps them keep there ideas organized and not all scrambled.
To generate ideas; there are several different kind of method's you could use. You could take a walk, list your ideas, watch a movie, listen to music, even just by having group or individual discussions you could generate a lot of great ideas this way. Even just sitting in a quite room by yourself would be sufficient enough. Maybe by evaluating what type of learners you have could help you see how your students will generate ideas best.

Five word's that would describe me:
Considerate
Thoughtful
Fun
Social
Active

Considerate- I like this one because not a lot of people are considerate. I like to think I put others before me or at least I consider them in my thought process. Especially my family. I find it easier to do stuff for others first then myself. Some times it is hard but that fact that I do it that makes me very considerate. I do have my days that I think I may be selfish but once out of a hindered times isn't bad.
(I find this hard to write or weird, I feel like I'm bragging. But it's part of the assignment:)

Blog 1 EDRG 3344

CH. 1, 3, 5
It's always good to learn and know how children think, learn, and function. This will give us a better idea of how to teach them and which way is the best way they learn. The process of learning is very interesting and confusing. We know the brain has to organize information and then there put into schemata (ex. the file cabinet) This is good to know for us as teachers. We know they have the information stored in there brain it's just having to find it in there so they can remember and continue having those files grow.

The 5 general strategies that children use to learn are the same that we use as adults. You could say that are brains are the same when it comes to learning. It's just adults have a bigger file cabinet. I really like doing the Gardner's Multiple Intelligence test, I agree with Dr. Harris we should know what kind of learners our students are. So we know how to best present information.

I'm glad we are going over the reading process. It's good to know different strategies and ways to teach the students so they don't get bored. As teachers we have to always remind ourselves that if we are bored presenting then the students are bored learning.

Dinner Guest

Dinner guest:
President Obama
Barbra Walters
Homer (Dad)
Damian (Son)
Joni
Dr. Harris

Me: Hello all, that's for making it to my Dinner Party. We have drinks and appetizers, the food will be ready shortly.
Obama: I just want to say thanks for having me over for dinner and I appreciate your vote.
Damian: I voted for John McCain.
Walters: Well Little boy I'm glad you took an interest in politics.
Homer: President Obama what are you gonna do for the weekend? Do you want to go fishing?
Joni: Wow, President Obama and Barbara Walters and Dr. Harris here having dinner with us I'm speechless.
Dr. Harris: Joni I would have dinner with you anytime.

Me: I came up with a great idea to have a dinner theme. So we could have great conversation.
Homer: Miha I told you that was not a good idea we can talk about what ever President Obama wants to talk about.
Damian: I want to talk about they white house, your new dog, the new playground you bought for Mia and Sasha and...
Obama: Damian you can come over anytime you want.
Joni: Can I come too?
Dr. Harris: Me too?
Walters: The white house is just another house. All those places start looking the same after a while.

Walters: I just want to say I hope we are not having meat for dinner I'm a vegetarian.
Me: I better go check the menu.
Damian: I love meat it's the best.
Homer: Mrs. Walters if you don't like the food then you can just leave it there on the plate and we will give it to the dog.
Obama: That's a great idea...I'm glad your not just throwing the food away, there are starving people all over the world
Joni: Yeah...so don't be picky
Dr. Harris: All she said was she was a vegetarian.

Damian: President Obama can you come visit my school?
Walters: Damian that would be a great idea. I could do a whole show on the View about that.
Obama: Let me check my schedule.
Joni: My schedule is open
Dr. Harris: Is the food ready yet? I hope there is chocolate for dessert.
Homer: I'm really serious about the Fishing trip President Obama.
Me: Dinner is served.

Historical Fiction- is linked to a short discussion of events in the time period that they reflect in the hope that this chronological framework will give you a better understanding of the sweep of history. (per text book)

I would use Historical Fiction in the class room. This is very important because it's always good to know the past. But the fun part about this is you get to put your own twist to the story. History can sometimes be boring for us as adults so you can relate to how the students must fell about it. To be able to create a story and catch there interest and they get to learn is good.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Contemporary Realistic Fiction- Everything in a realistic story including plot, characters, and setting is consistent with the lives of real people in our contemporary world. (per the book)

The contemporary realistic fiction is great in the classroom for young and middle children even young and older adults. They are able to identify with the characters their own age who have similar interests and problems. The children will understand that they are are not alone with their problems and desires and the emotions they are feeling are OK. Realistic fiction will also broaden their interests, allowing them to experience new adventures, and showing them different ways to view and deal with conflicts in their own lives.

Modern Fantasy Literature

Modern Fantasy refers to literature, written by an identifiable author, set in imaginative worlds and make-believe. These stories contain places, people and creatures that could not exist or events that could not happen such as animals talking. Science Fiction is considered Modern Fantasy since it is impossible at this time but could happen in the future.

I would defiantly use Modern Fantasy in my classroom. Learning and writing about fantasy help children expand their curiosity, become observers of life, learn to be sensitive to rules and open their minds to new possibilities.

Traditional Literature-have no identifiable author, they are child base story's that have been passed down from storyteller to storyteller.

In the classroom traditional literature can be used to help children understand the world, Identify with universal human struggles, and can be read for pleasure. They can use these books to understand other children in there classroom. Maybe you have a student who is of a different culture, you can find a book about there culture and present it to the class. This will give them a better understanding of things.

Yes I would use traditional Literature in my class. Its a way for children to escape into a different world. These kinds of books give children great understanding of how to image new things and different ways of seeing one story. I remember growing up with traditional literature and I loved it so much, and I still love it. To teach children to have the love for this is a great thing.

Per definition: Picture books "communicate information or tell stories through a series of many pictures combined with relatively slight texts or no texts at all".

You can use picture books anytime. They are fun to read to the kids during reading time or fun for them just to look through. You can use them to teach a lesson or to inform your students on a certain topic you are teaching. They would also be good for quite reading so there imagination can go wild and they would think of there own stories. I don't think there is any kind of limitation on picture books. Pretty much anything goes as long as it is appropriate.

To chose a picture book you must make sure it is age appropriate for your students. Make sure the pictures and text match. If you are teaching a certain topic you want to make sure you have the correct one. Make sure to read the book before you allow your students to read it so there is nothing in there you will have to be alarmed about later.

I personally like picture books. Of course they are always fun to look at no matter what your age is. Kids like looking and books and making up there own story. The best part about that is hearing the stories they come up with. I would defiantly use them because there is limitless activities to do with picture books.

Multicultural and International Literature

What is International Literature?
By definition: it is the body of books originally published in a country other than the United States in a language of that country and later published in this country.

How is it different from multicultural Literature?
Multicultural is writing about different cultures that we have. Writes go into the different ethnicity's and share this in literature for others to read. International literature on the other hand is actually the author being from or living in a different country and writing their book in that language and later getting it translated into English language and share it with people in the United States.

Why is it important to have in the classroom?
Multicultural and International literature is very important to have in the class room. For some students this is the closes thing they will get to either one. Its good that the students are aware of the different kins of cultural we have so they can understand that not everyone is the same because we all have different upbringings and that some people come from different parts of the country.

Activity in Multicultural:

• Food is always popular to do when learning about multicultural. This grabs the students attention and it is always fun.
• You could have the students mail a paper person to family member that live in different city's or even states and have them dress up the paper person with something related to that town and they can see how different each place is.

Activity in International:

• You could again do the mail out of a paper person (maybe a student has a family member living out of the country or if you know somebody) you can ask that person to dress it in something related to the International area.
• Doing a compare and contrast with the students would be good and then having the students share with the class or in groups.

Describe how to effectively evaluate books for children. Is this value-bases?



When you are evaluating books for children you should always ask your self:

What point is the book trying to make

Would the students enjoy reading the book

Is there any profanity

Is it age appropriate

I would say yes that it is value-based. If any of the books went against my values I probably would not allow them to read it. Remember values are very important to to keep and stand by a lot of times the values make you.





Why do character/setting analysis on children's books? Purpose? What did it accomplish.



Its good to do analysis on children's books to make sure it is appropriate material for the students in the class. It comes back to the values. If it doesn't meet your standards then the children should not be reading that material. This gives us the opportunity to pick and choose what our students should and should not be reading.

Ch 2 Summary

This chapter is mainly about how literature came about. It goes into detail how children's literature was developed. When children's books did come about it was mainly how children should behave and present themselves. For the most part children were not to touch the books.

Milestones in The History of Children's Literature
The oral tradition was long before books came around. People told there story's around campfires to tell about there experiences, developing mythologies, storytellers, folktales, which were Incorporated into the complex mythologies and philosophical tenets. These tails then became widely influential in the Roman Empire.
Early Printed Books came around in the mid-1400's. This books were very costly and prized possessions of nobles and priests. These books were teach children literature but children were rarley trusted with these books.
In the 1740s Newbery's books for children were developed and the idea of children's books began. Many family's centered there attention to the children and they should not have to grow up so fast. It was then children got to be children.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau came with an idea of letting children should learn naturally with very little assent's from adults.
The Fairy Tales of Andersen and the Brothers Grimm was the development of folktales. They are the fairytale story still read today.
Early Illustrators of Children's Books is unsure of who did the first one but there are many who geared it to children. Johann Amos Comenius is created for writing the first non alphabet picture book.
In the Victorian Influence it talks of Plight of Children. The focused mainly on life of poor children.

Standard for Evaluating Young Adult Literature
I like the chart for Evaluation Criteria. It focuses on young adults being able to put themselves in the story and relating to it so they could resolve the problem if it happened to them in real life.

The History of Censorship
Censorship has been in existence since 411 B.C. in some form. In the late 1960s and early 1970s it gears mainly to censoring racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. In the 1980s it was material alleged to be anti-American, anti-family.

Children and The Family in Children's Literature
Literature has changed drastically for children from the centuries past. Before the middle ages children not learning anything and not valued. During the Middle Ages children shared the burden of there parents and worked threw poverty. Not till recently did children and story's become close family interaction.

Personal Connection
I think literature connects with people no matter what. To me it is good to know the history of literature so you can get a better understanding of what it was and what it has become. The knowledge literature can give you is great and to think not so long ago it was not valued at all.

Applies to the classroom
The History of literature applies to the classroom on many different levels. Its gives us as teachers the power to enrich younger generations and how learning today was very different for them and everyone else. It gives us great insight that may be useful in teaching styles and bring it to a different level.

My Favorite Teacher

I think I had many favorite teachers growing up. It's hard to just have to pick one. But since I have to choose one I would have to say my 1st grade teacher. Her name was Mrs. Mancia, I remember her being very nice and respectful to everyone. I choose her because she made teaching seem like fun. She seemed to enjoy her time with us. I would have to say I probably made up my mind that I wanted to be a teacher in the first grade because she was the first to inspire me and of course I had many great teachers through out my life

Chapter 1 Summary and Values

Chapter one talks about how important literature is and how it should be introduced to children at a very young age. Literature is the foundation of our lives, to become somebody or just to manage everyday task we must be able to read and write. Literature should be introduced to children as soon as possible, the earlier they began the more imaginative they are and they can better relate to different situations they may encounter in everyday life. (They would be able to relate to characters in the story books). Thus, this will help them to be able to communicate better with people. The value of literature should be kept as a priority to help enrich the minds of our children. This chapter also talks about children learning in stages. These stages are: Language, Cognitive, Personality, and Social Development. Which literature can play a very important part in the development of all these stages. Again story books help the children understand a certain role or concepts that maybe they would not understand from an adult that is trying to teach them. They could probably identify better with the characters in the story book. Last it talks about how children respond to literature. We must remember everyone responds differently to the same text. People take into consideration there life experiences with what’s going on in the text. Same goes for children. Overall the chapter talks about how we must encourage and make literature a big part of children’s lives.

Value is something you believe in, something you live your life by. It characterizes what kind of person you are or strive to be. A value that is most important to me would have to be respect. Respect can cover all aspects in my life. I respect my self, others and everything around me. I think if you can learn to respect it will cover other values I believe in. It can teach you to be humble, loyal, honest, etc…, to yourself and everyone else. It can bring great qualities out of a person. This value was taught to me by many people in my life. I would say it started at home but I continued to learn about respect from friends, teachers, and coaches. Values can be learned from many different aspects, it can be viewed different ways by different people. Respect can be taught, but I think we learn best by example. I think I do set a great example for others in aspects of respect. A great way to respect someone is to not judge them on appearance; everyone should get a chance to shine.