I have created a chart outlining key concepts, future applications in the library of the concepts and examples of the concepts in action through literature from 25 books in my blog. The textbook that is illustrated in this chart is Making the Match by Teri S. Lesesne.
Lesesne, T. (2003). Making the match. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
View Chart at this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-Qej3vD_6WL_7gbnaMUEbwsEVHjcdd5vJPB1Q6UWr3Q/edit?usp=sharing
Friday, July 22, 2016
When You Reach Me
About the book: Miranda receives a few mysterious notes that predicts future events. The story starts out in current time for Miranda and then she remembers events that happen around the time she received the first note. She tells about her relationship with Sal and how he stopped being her friend. She becomes friends with Annmarie and Colin. Every day at lunch for almost two months they help the sandwich guy at his shop. She meets Marcus who beat up Sal the last time she remembers Sal talking to her. Marcus is lost in thought in his head a lot. Miranda and Marcus discuss the possibility of time travel. A Wrinkle in Time is Miranda’s favorite book. Eventually the sequence of events leads up to Sal being almost hit by a vehicle. The Laughing Guy that would stand on the corner and frighten her; kicked Sal out of the way and was hit instead. Miranda comes to the conclusion time travel is possible and the laughing guy came to the future to save Sal. He practiced everyday with kicking his leg out into the street. She also concluded that Marcus and the laughing guy are the same people.
Readers Response: In When You Reach Me, Miranda’s favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time. Her favorite book involves time travel. Miranda is trying to solve a mystery of who is leaving the notes and why. Her reflections on past events help her put the pieces together. An activity that could be done with this book is reading both books and talk about similarities and differences. Then pose some of Peck’s questions for the students to answer in reflection to one of the two books.
The Author's website: http://www.rebeccasteadbooks.com/
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
About the book: Will Grayson is best friends with Tiny – a very big, person and personality. They have been friends since elementary school. Tiny happens to be gay. Will Grayson meets Jane through Tiny. A girl with a great taste in music and is not afraid to say what she thinks. Will Grayson struggles to break out of his comfort zone and participate in life. He wavers back and forth about liking Jane. Finally, when she is not available he decides he does like her. Tiny of course pushes him towards Jane. One night they all go to a bar to hear a band play. Will Grayson’s fake i.d. does not work to get him in. The others leave him behind and he runs into another person named will grayson. The new Will Grayson is gay and has just found out his supposed friend set him up with an imaginary person in order to get him to own up to being gay. Tiny takes the new will grayson and distracts him from the issue. They start dating, Tiny throwing his whole self in as he always does in relationships. will grayson struggles with being needed by Tiny and struggles with his depression. Tiny has written a musical about his life and works on organizing the production of the musical. Will Grayson the best friend does not want him to use the character that portrays him, but Tiny does not relent just changes the character’s name. They have a few falling outs during this time period. The emotional struggles that occur help them to start to understand and begin to become more comfortable with who they are. Will Grayson and Jane become boyfriend and girlfriend, Tiny and Will Grayson break up, and finally everyone let’s Tiny know how much he is appreciated by them.
Readers Response: The text is told by two different characters with the same name. The text changes as the different Will Grayson tells his story. Regular use of capital letters in the text for the original Will Grayson and no capital letters for the other will grayson. The book Will Grayson, Will Grayson would be an excellent addition to a booktalk that was about books by the authors John Green and D. Levithan. If I used as this book as the opener I would read the conversation between will grayson and Tiny when they are breaking up. I think it would make a reader want to learn more about the characters and consider reading the book. Some other books I might include in the booktalk would be Every Day by Levithan, An Abundance of Katherines by Levithan, The Realm of Possibility by Levithan, The Lover’s Dictionary by Levithan, Let it Snow by Green, and The Fault in Our Stars by Green.
Questions about the book answered by the author: http://johngreenbooks.com/wg-questions/
More Happy Than Not
About the book: More Happy Than Not is on the 2016 Best Fiction for Young Adults list by YALSA. Aaron lives in a time that people can go to a clinic and forget painful memories in order to lead a happy life. At the beginning of the story Aaron is dealing with the aftermath of his dad’s suicide and his attempted suicide. He has a girlfriend and decides to have sex with her before she goes away for 3 weeks to art camp. Aaron plays games in his neighborhood with his neighborhood crew. One day he meets Thomas and they become fast best friends. Aaron believes himself to be straight and in love with Genevieve his girlfriend. He starts to develop feelings for Thomas, struggling to understand what that means. Thomas does not return his affections. The neighborhood crew realize he is gay and beat him up really badly. His brain starts to unwind and he realizes he had Leteo wipe his memory of being gay. He picks back up with his boyfriend Collin, but soon realizes something is not right. He develops memory problems and struggles to hold onto reality. He decides to cut all friendships so he can remember the happy past parts and so he does not cause hurt to his friends. His mother and brother support him and try to help him live a happy life. He hopes that one day Leteo will develop technology to help him fix the memory problems.
Readers Response: In Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, he states three levels; preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. In the book More Happy Than Not the moral decision of is it right or wrong for someone to wipe your memories can be contemplated while reading. After reading the class could have a debate about the pros and cons of the reality of Leteo existing on our society. After reading I pondered how many people would participate in Leteo if it was a service today. So many people who are hateful and refuse to accept others for who they are. By discussing a social issue that is not real it gives the students a safe place to work through their thinking and feelings about making choices in a safer climate.
Author's Website: http://www.adamsilvera.com/
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue!
About the book: Book #5 in the Origami Yoda Book series. The students at McQuarrie Middle School continue their rebel alliance against the Fun Time tutoring program the school district is piloting to help raise standardized test scores. The students have lost all special area classes and must sit in the tutoring sessions watching a video of a dancing calculator Gizmo and Professor Fun Time. At first they are fighting the principal, but soon come to realize the battle is much bigger than her. Ms. Rabbiski is given the Princess Labelmaker puppet and is enlisted into the fight. She helps the students fight the school board and superintendent. Origami Yoda continues to give great advice to the rebels. At the end the special areas are returned and Fun Time is suspended. Unfortunately, the battle may not be over since Ms. Rabbiski resigns as the principal and plans to be a teacher the next school year. Who will the school district get to run the school? Will the rebels still need to battle for their rights to free will?
Readers Response: Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue is another installment in a series that focuses on the powers of Star Wars characters through origami puppets. Boy readers and fans of Star Wars will enjoy this series. The age range recommended for this series of books would be 8 to 12 year olds. A teacher can give a questionnaire to her students to gather information about reading levels, preferences, habits, interests, and pop culture likes. By the teacher would know right away who the fans of this series would be. Some other elements of the book that makes it a good choice for struggling readers are it includes some illustrations, it is written in short chapters that are called case files, the plot is engaging and the vocabulary is fairly simple.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
About the book: Tana awakes after a party in a farm house. Everyone is dead. She struggles to escape and finds her ex-boyfriend Aidan. He is going cold and is chained up next to a vampire in a bedroom. She makes a plan to help them escape and get away. She is grazed by vampire teeth and may become infected herself. They go to coldtown with the help of Midnight and Winter, new friends. Tana makes several struggles to help her friends and herself. She becomes intrigued by Gavriel who is a very old vampire who is wanted by the Spider and Lucian Monroe. Tana struggles to move forward with the memory of her past. Her mother was infected and bit her when she was a child. She surprises herself with her determination and strength. She becomes infected and drinks vampire blood that accelerates the transformation. She does not want to go cold. After helping Gavriel kill Lucian, she celebrates with her friends. She is determined to wait out the infection and is locked away in a cellar. Gavreil enters the cellar to tell her he loves her and will support her in her decision. He sits with her as she begins the journey to see if she can become uncold. I really hope Holly Black does a second book about Tana.
Readers Response: Holly Black has a unique style in her writing. She writes about a very strong female character through Tana who is the heroine that won’t be kept down. Tana hopes for the best and continues to try no matter the struggles she comes upon. The quotes that Black puts at the beginning of each chapter and the relevance (symbolism) to the content of the chapter is uncanny.
Author's website with a book trailer: http://blackholly.com/books/coldtown/:
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
About the book: The book is a graphic memoir that illustrates Marjane Satrapi’s understanding of her childhood in Iran during the 70’s and 80’s. She tells about the history of the leaderships of Iran over the centuries. She is the great granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors and her parents are Marxist revolutionaries. As she grows and goes to school she learns about things that are forbidden in public and the laws that are put into place for females. She struggles to understand the radical viewpoints. Her fascination with the changing social order and governmental leaders is shared. She has family and friends’ family members that are imprisoned for standing up for their beliefs against the Shah. She talks about living during bombings and missiles from Iraq being sent into her neighborhood. She learns that if she gets captured for her rebellion against the religious government of Iraq she would be married off and would have to have sex with the man before she could be executed. Her need to speak her mind and beliefs at school prompts her parents to send her to live with a family friend in Vienna, Austria for her safety.
Readers Response: I learned a lot about the history of Iran that I did not know from reading Persepolis memoir about her life. I struggled to understand parts of the book because of my lack of knowledge about the middle east. This book would be an excellent support for a unit on the middle east in Social Studies classes. Teacher would be able to bring the history to the students in a fun and informative way. Of course other materials or websites would need to be add to help in the full understanding of that region.
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund article about Using Graphic Novels in Education featuring Persepolis: http://cbldf.org/2013/06/using-graphic-novels-in-education-persepolis/
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