Teacher as Reader: Book Talk for teachers

Video link--- again too big to upload, so here's the script


I want to tell you about this Newberry Honor Book I read from a Teacher's perspective. Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm is a wonderful book to use in reading groups in fourth and fifth grade classrooms. It might be a bit difficult for students to get through on their own because there is so much historical information that would need some extra instruction. This is also the reason why it would make such a great book for guided reading. It offers a lot of opportunities for exploratory and interactive learning. It takes place in the 1950's, so there are many activities that can be incorporated to teach the students about the time period. I am imagining a lesson that involves a mystery bag full of photos, music, clothing articles, etc. from the time period that would give the students a chance to make inferences about the time period. It gives many opportunities to integrate art into the lessons.

Penny from Heaven also has many pertinent themes that students could learn from. Some major discussion ideas include: family (who is your family? how are they different from Penny's family?), Italian culture (how does Penny's Italian family differ from her mom's family? What are some things we notice about Italian culture from Penny's story? Let's talk about our own cultures.), Parents dating (What is it like for Penny's mom to have a new boyfriend? can anyone relate to how she is feeling?), Domestic abuse (What is going on with Mrs. Morelli? What should she do if her husband is hurting her? What should we do if we are being hurt by family members?), Internment camps (What was going on historically with internment camps at this time? Should we use internment camps?)

I think that this really is a great book for students. It can be used for so many different teaching points, and I think it is a good challenge for students. We can pull in so many different lessons and use many different activities and projects to really engage our students.

Teacher as Reader: Book Talk

My attempt at acting as one of the characters for a book talk. So, I don't look Italian or like I fit into the time period the book is set, but the general idea is to have the students share book talks with one another by playing characters in the books they are reading. I would hope that it would give the students a chance to put themselves in the character's shoes to really see their perspective while also helping to make the books they are reading appeal to the interest of their classmates.

I think that these could also easily be recorded by a digital camera to give the students a chance to work with technology. The problem with this blog site is that it will only allow 100 MB of video, which is just under a minute so you have to keep it really short. I would expect the students' to be a little longer than that, so they could just be displayed on the computer/smartboard.

Bridges are to Cross

I was at my placement today, and one of my students was reading a picture book called Bridges are to Cross by Philemon Sturges. I wanted to share the book because it fits in really well with science, literacy, and ELL things we have been learning. If you wanted to use the experiments from science dealing with bridges, this book would be a great read aloud because it discusses all kinds of bridges AND it talks about what different countries use these types of bridges to do. Ex: A double-cantilever steel bridge in Scotland transports people across an inlet. Other places uses bridges to transport llamas, etc. My student was enthralled by this book.