The last, and final blog of 337

For my blog post I decided to talk about SSR time in the classroom. I remember as a student always loving when my teachers did something like this. We got to just pick a book and read. I feel like now in classrooms, you don't see that done as often and it's sad. I think it's so great for student's to have the chance to find and explore different books during this time without feeling the pressures of having to read for an assignment or because they "have to."

This article,
https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reading/ReadingCoach/ReadingCoach005.shtml, had a lot of great point talking about why SSR is such a great thing to have, and how to do it in your classroom. The first thing that stuck out to me was when it said to establish a time for it, and never sacrifice it. This is so important. You can't say you're going to do SSR time, and then push it off to do something else you think is more important. It also said we have to trust our students in their book selection process. During this time, we can't limit them to what book crates or levels they have to read from. We have to let them pick whatever book they want, and trust that they will do their best to read it, and if they can't, that they will go and pick a different book.

I also think that SSR time can help build a student's love for reading. I know that it grew my love, and I looked forward to this time everyday, and was sad when we didn't have it. It gave me a chance to sit with a new book, or an old favorite, and just read. It wasn't a book that my teacher picked, it was a book that I picked. I was able to explore different genres and authors and figure out what kind of books I actually enjoyed reading. It was a great experience! I also think that teachers should read during this time if they aren't answering questions. It models what a good reader looks like, and shows the students that grownups read too!

Realistic Fiction Book List

1.Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo       

Published: 2000

Awards: John Newbery Medal, Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award, Indies Choice Book Award for Children’s Literature

About: This book follows Opal and her dog Winn-Dixie. Opal meets the librarian and one of the ladies in the neighborhood. She learns what it takes to be open, yourself, and to make new friends.

2.Wonder by R.J. Palacio 

Published: 2012

Awards: Maine Student Book Award Vermont's Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Mark Twain Award Hawaii's Nene Award Junior Young Reader's Choice Award

About: This book follows Auggie, his family, and his friends as they deal with his face deformity. It talks about the struggles they go through at school and in the real world, while also dealing with a real issue. It teaches about diversity and inclusivity.

3.Frindle by Andrew Clements

Published: 1935

Awards: Phoenix Award

About: Nick is a class clown who is having a hard time in school with his English homework. Then he finds this golden pen. Which he names Frindle. Throughout this book, his teacher refuses to use this new name even though his classmates do. This book follows the path of the word Frindle.

4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Published: 1935

Awards: Dorthy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Awards and Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Book

About: This book is Greg’s diary through middle school. It talks about all of the ups and downs he experiences on a daily basis, and how his friends help him through it.

5. Holes by Louis Sachar

Published: 1998

Awards: National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the Newbery Medal

About: This book follows Stanley in present day, and Stanley’s great grandfather, Elya Yelnats. It takes place on Camp Green Lake, where digging holes is what they do all day everyday looking for treasure.

6. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Published: 1977

Awards: John Newbery Medal

About: This book tells the story of fifth graders who become good friends. They create a kingdom, Terabithia. This book follows them on their journey growing up this year, and a hardship happens towards the end of the book.

7. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Published: 2000

About: Leo revives a necktie left anonymously for him by Stargirl. Four years later, Stargirl arrives in his neighborhood. She joins him at school where she doesn’t have much luck fitting in. Leo and Stargirl become unlikely friends. Follow their journey through this book.

8. Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows

Published: 2006

About: In this book, Ivy and Bean become friends, even though they are complete opposites. They are 7-year-old girls who live in the same neighborhood. In this book, they find themselves getting into trouble and having adventures.

9. Ghost (Track #1) by Jason Reynolds

Published: 2016

About: This book follows the story of Ghost, or Castle Cranshaw. His game has always been basketball until one day he races an Olympic medalist and wins. As he joins the team, he is also battling his inner demons.

 

10. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Published: 1970

Awards: Great Stone Face Award, North Dakota Children's Choice Book Award, Young Hoosier Award, Nene Award from the Children of Hawaii, Outstanding Book of the Year from the New York Times

About: This book follows Margret and her journey through puberty. Through this book, she struggles with finding her own religion and figuring out what it mean to be a 12 year old girl growing up with an older friend who is much more knowledgeable than her.

Week 6: Books for Unit

My unit is all about researching animals, and collecting facts on those animals. My 10 books are nonfiction animal books that I found that kids can use while doing their research for their informative paper.

This book is about animal eyes. I thought this would be something different that students could look at. They could use it as apart of their characteristics paragraph. This is a good book for student's who get done early and want to add something interesting about their animal.

This is a book all about turtles. If a student is doing their paper over turtles, this book would be a great resource for them. It will tell them many facts over a turtles characteristics, diet, habitat, and predators. 

This book talks about all things tigers. It includes beautiful pictures and facts galore. It is a reading level 2 book. 

This book talks about all things polar bears. It also includes lots of facts and pictures telling the reader all there is to know about polar bears at a level 1 reading level.

This book talks about the migration of whales. This is something students can use when looking at their habitat and characteristics. It includes facts, pictures, and is at a level 3 reading level.

This book looks at many different animals and their camouflage. This can be used to talk about the animals characteristics, habitat, and predator/prey. Camouflage contributes to all of these things for some animals.

This encyclopedia of animals will be great for all student's to use for their research. It includes a variety of information on a variety of animals. This book is sure to have something that everyone can use in their research. 

This book is about animal footprints. Student's can use this book when talking about the characteristics of their animal.

This book is about land habitats for animals. This will help some student's when it comes to their research about where their animal lives if they are a land animal.

This book talks about the worlds deadliest animals. This would be a great book to use when looking at the predator and prey portion of our research. It is a level 3 reading level.

Week 5- Lesson Plan Reflection

Sorry for the late post! After not having to post last week, this one slipped my mind. Whew!

Last week, we were able to practice and show one of our lesson plans from our unit. I loved this and loved getting feedback on my lesson plan. The one main piece of feedback I got was on my objective. My objective that I wrote fit more with a later lesson plan, instead of the one I was working on.

My old objective: The student will be able to write an informative text that shows the information learned from the student’s research using the writing process that we have learned previously in class with 100% accuracy. 

My new objective: The student will be able to do research on their animal from the websites provided on our school webpage and record their findings on their research paper with 100% accuracy,

I also had a question on the activity groupings and the research based approach, but after presenting and getting feedback, I think I got it. I noticed that after a couple people presented, we all were able to point something out that we needed to work on or fix, and it was awesome!

Great Job this week guys :)